- 400MHz Bus Athlon XP Support
- Twin VGA Integrated Graphics
- Dual Memory Channel Support
- IGP Requires 333MHz Memory Bus
- Lacks FireWire and Digital Audio Ports
- Poor Overclocking Ability
- NVIDIA nForce2-128 IGP+MCT Chipset
- Supports All Current AMD Socket A Processors
- Dual Channel PC3200 DDR Memory Support
- Ultra ATA/133 Drive Controller
- Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX Graphics Dual Monitor Core with up to 128MB Shared Memory
- AGP 8x Slot
- Two PCI 2.2 Slots
- Six USB 2.0 Ports (Four External, Two Internal)
- C-Media CMI9739A AC'97 Audio Processor
- MicroATX Form Factor
6/8/04 - Small form factor system have become very popular with consumers lately. As a result, MicroATX or mATX boards have become more common. The EP-8RGM3I is the latest nForce2 based mATX board from EPoX.
The 8RGM3I is a mix of technologies from the nForce2 chipset. This version now officially supports the 400MHz bus speed Athlon XP processors. It also is capable of supporting dual channel memory configurations. The big drawback here is that the integrated graphics will only operate at the 333MHz memory bus speed. This can decrease system performance on the latest Athlon XP CPUs.
One very unique feature to the 8RGM3I is the twin VGA ports. The NVIDIA IGP graphics that are integrated into the system can run two monitors simultaneously. This is very helpful for those who multitask heavily or do digital video work. Unfortunately, the IGP controller is equivalent to the old GeForce 4 MX controller. This only supports DirectX 7.0 graphics, so it isn't very capable of games. Those needing additional graphics features can upgrade the system with an AGP card.
Many systems that use mATX boards are being used for home theatre PCs where audio is important. The 8RGM3I has a C-Media processor that supports 6-channel audio, but it lacks any digital outputs used by most stereo systems.
If you are looking to overclock a CPU, the 8RGM3I lacks any voltage settings. This prevents it from being effective at all for overclocking any CPU.
