Upcoming FIC and EPoX nForce2 on't share same design.

[CougTek]

Although the current FIC AU11 and EPoX EP-8RDA are basicly the same board, it won't be the case for their soon-to-come nForce2 boards with the C1 stepping (written A1 on the SPP) that will officially supports 400MHz FSB for the new AMD Barton.

FIC AU13 picture :

EPoX EP-8RDA3+ picture :

The SPP heatsink on the FIC looks too small, but I prefer its layout though. And both have tri-phase VRM and the additional 12V rail :mrgrn:

 

[CougTek]

The title should have been "EPoX and FIC won't..." instead of "on't"

 

[CougTek]

And I shouldn't have written "upcoming" for the FIC AU13 since it's already available at a few stores, like Newegg for instance (and at a tempting price too).

 

[NRG = mc²]

Interesting that they use a heatsink on the SPP... the one on my A7N8X gets hot enough to burn, yet has no heatsink on it. I've been meaning to Arctic Silver epoxy a little ramsink onto it as I have one that perfectly matches its size but haven't got round to it (and probably never will...)

 

[Newtun]

. . . The SPP heatsink on the FIC looks too small, but I prefer its layout though. And both have tri-phase VRM and the additional 12V rail :mrgrn:

Mmmm, AU13. I kiss you in my dreams. $85, in stock, at Newegg (very truly sorry they only ship in the U.S.).

The manual verifies the 12 V rail. What is your source for 3-phase power and "official" 200 MHz FSB? OCWorkbench? 3rdGayMan?

 

[CougTek]

What is your source for 3-phase power...

Just look at the PCB, can't miss the 6 transistors and three coils.

...and "official" 200 MHz FSB?

VR-Zone :

There is no upcoming nForce2 chipset from NVIDIA to officially support 400Mhz FSB Barton since nForce2 was already designed to support 400Mhz FSB in the first place. Instead NVIDIA has been constantly revising their nForce2 chipsets with newer steppings. Right now, there are two nForce2 chipset revisions in the market with A2 and A3 steppings and apparently NVIDIA has quietly added one more revision A1 which is in fact C1 Stepping. It seems like NVIDIA is getting ready for 400Mhz FSB too and indeed the newer revision has significantly improve stability under higher FSB. The latest 8RDA+ board is using this new C1 Step nForce2 and the overclockability is simply amazing. Using a VDD of just 1.65V with CPU/RAM at DDR460 Sync, the board is able to run at 230Mhz FSB very stable!

If some of the most recent EPoX EP-8RDA+ feature the new SPP C1 stepping, I strongly presume that the newer FIC AU13 does also. I'm pretty sure FIC launched this model partly because it features the official support for 400MHz FSB, as shown here. Otherwise, the AU13 would make little sense since it is pretty similar to the older AU11.