EPoX’s feature rich foray into the mini barebones world was based around the Intel 865G chipset and had both multimedia features like those seen on MSI’s Mega PC and a focus on performance like the offerings from ABIT and Shuttle.
EPoX’s feature rich foray into the mini barebones world was based around the Intel 865G chipset and had both multimedia features like those seen on MSI’s Mega PC and a focus on performance like the offerings from ABIT and Shuttle. These features came together on the front VFD panel, which could display temperature and system information, or pump out information about the media that was playing.
Internally the eX5 was designed for cooling, with an actively cooled copper heatsink that straddled both the Northbridge and CPU and vented directly out the back of the eX5 through a plastic duct. When mounted this assembly became a single heat pumping tube, perfect for keeping the insides of this beast cool.
Like most other new units, the eX5’s layout of the AGP and PCI slots was such that VGA cards with dual height heatsinks would fit. While the video card did not touch the drive bay, even a medium sized card like a RADEON 9800 PRO blocked the parallel ATA connector if you mounted a drive in the internal removable 3.5in drive bay. EPoX was making slight modifications to the design so that SATA drives could still be plugged in, but the expanse of socket that a Parallel ATA connector sported meant that it needed to be mounted in the floppy drive bay.
With a unit this powerful you would want to mount a kickarse video card, so this should be taken into account if you also needed to add any external facing 3.5in devices like a floppy drive or card reader to the eX5. We are currently talking to EPoX about ways to fix this issue.
Without this annoyance the eX5 would be an outstanding product, performing well and full of features. Unfortunately it limited the already restricted expandability options, and held the eX5 back from greatness. For now we will be carefully watching to see where EPoX can take the concept, for the eX5 is a good foundation.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012