How to get/import Epox motherboard in India

[Geforce]

I am want to buy an Epox motherboard - Epox 8NPA-SLI for Socket 754.

*www.epox.com.tw/assets/2005/09/12/product9274373497.jpg

Complete information can be found here *www.epox.com.tw/eng/products_content.php?ps=375

Since nobody in India deals in Epox motherboard, how is it possible to obtain it on-line. Newegg and many online stores do not deliver to India.

Raabo if you are listening .... please suggest !!

Also what would be cost, if i get it from online stores. It is retailing for around $90-95 online. What will be the import duty on such products.

Please .....Please suggest.......

 

[drvarunmehta]

It's not worth importing it to India because after duties, the price won't seem cheap anymore. Plus if the product turns out to be defective you have no one to turn to as Epox dosen't have a service centre in India.
It would be best if you buy a Asus/MSI/Gigabyte motherboard based on the same chipset from India itself.
Even if you can get the motherboard in India, I highly doubt the utility of SLI on a socket 754 mobo. SLI only makes sense when you pair 2 high end graphics cards with a high end processor. Socket 754 processors are just going to botleneck the high end graphics.

 

[Geforce]

I have A64 2800+ which can be easily overclocked to 3200+ speeds and dual channel memory only make 5-8% of difference.

With future prospect in view it makes sense to buy 7600GT now and add 7600GT later (maybe 1 yr down the line) to get a value for money SLI setup.

Another thing ... if you notice day by day .... games are becoming GPU limited rather than CPU limited and future won't be too different. Also all newer mid and high end motherboards be it intel or AMD are coming with SLI or crossfire. So market trend is shifting towards it dual graphics and more and more games will be optimized for it.

Also there is no reason for me to upgrade to anything else except the motheboard and graphics card right now.

 

[drvarunmehta]

Games are neither GPU limited nor CPU limited....they are limited by whatever is the slowest component.
If you are buying a motherboard and graphics card, might as well get a new processor that will give you upgrade options later. If you invest in a socket 754 mobo, you can't upgrade to a better CPU later. Whereas if you get a socket 939 mobo with a cheap Athlon64 3000+ S939, you have the option of upgrading to dual core proccy's when their price falls later.
Another thing worth noting is that the Epox mobo you want has only 2 slots for RAM. I assume from your siggy that you have 2 sticks of 512 MB RAM already. So you can't get more RAM if Vista needs it later without wasting your current RAM sticks.
I feel you would be better served with a Asus A8N-E mobo, Athlon 64 3000+ proccy and a nVidia 7600GT, keeping in mind performance and future upgrades. This would cost only a little more since you would get something for selling your current processor.

 

[Geforce]

You are right about all this .... but i don't want to go in for a whole system upgrade. It'll be a total loss for me to upgrade at this point as I won't get enough money by selling A642800+ + nforce3(AGP) mobo .... i mean who will buy it ?


Basically i want to upgrade my graphics system to 7600GT as i don't think 2800+ is a serious bottleneck (when overclocked), so for that i need a mobo (prefer: nforce4), but i thought why not try SLI mobos 'cause there r a few options including (ASRock w/ ULi chipset, Albatron w/ nforce4-4x).


7600GT is rumoured to come in AGP in mid July. If it does, then it will be the cheapest option to upgrade. This throws an interesting analogy - lets say 7600GT (PCIe) performance ~ 7600GT (AGP) performance, it will only make sense to upgrade to PCI express if it is SLI (on S754).

 

[drvarunmehta]

Then you should wait for the 7600GT AGP to release. As it is you won't get a 754 SLI mobo in India easily and if you import it there are other problems like duties and servicing. Or you could just upgrade to a 754 mobo with a single PCI-E x16 slot and forget about SLI. Atleast such mobo's are widely available in India.

 

[Geforce]

Now I am seriously thinking of leaving the SLI thingy with S754, thought i could pull something out.


1) Epox not in India
2) Albatron not in India
3) ASRock K8NSLi-eStata has ULi chipset which will face driver problems, as nVidia has disabled SLi for ULi chips in new forceware drivers after it bought ULI, not to mention the problems when vista comes.


I am seriously thinking of a cheap nforce4 board (any brand) with 1 PCI exp x16 slot, w/ atleast 3 PCI slots.

 

[drvarunmehta]

Don't go for mobo's with 3 PCI slots. Most new products will use the PCI-E x1 interface. Make sure you have atleast one slot for it.

 

[Geforce]

I havn't seen any card on PCI 1x yet, but good to have feature. how about this :-

foxconn NF4K8AB-8EKRS
*www.foxconnchannel.com/Upload/Mainboard/200605301027230156_NF4K8AB-8EKRS.jpg

*www.foxconnchannel.com/Product/motherboard_detail.aspx?ID=en-us0000047

Cheap too.

 

[janitha]

I feel you should seriously consider the advices given by "drvarunmehta". You will get A8N-E for >Rs.5000/-. And as suggested by him, the cost of AMD dual core prices are rumoured to be going to be cut by half next month

 

[drvarunmehta]

Hehe...the Foxconn mobo that you are considering does have PCI x1 slots. In fact it has 3 of them (it's the tiny yellow slots above the PCI x16 slot).
Mobo looks good to me and Foxconn is a decent company. If the mobo is well priced, go for it.

 

[Geforce]

I feel you should seriously consider the advices given by "drvarunmehta". You will get A8N-E for >Rs.5000/-. And as suggested by him, the cost of AMD dual core prices are rumoured to be going to be cut by half next month

If i upgrade i would rather go with A8N-SLI (considering that i'll have to dump my S754 CPU as well), and true AMD is going to make even more cuts in prices soon.

it's the tiny yellow slots above the PCI x16 slot

Ofcourse i know how 1x slots look , but realy i don't think there are any cards available for PCI 1x slot at least for now.

 

[janitha]

If i upgrade i would rather go with A8N-SLI (considering that i'll have to dump my S754 CPU as well), and true AMD is going to make even more cuts in prices soon.


Ofcourse i know how 1x slots look , but realy i don't think there are any cards available for PCI 1x slot at least for now.

I think you quoted wrong but I also have not heard of any PCIe 1x card available at least in our country.

 

[drvarunmehta]

I meant that new products like sound cards and TV tuner cards will use this interface and PCI will be slowly phased out. So it makes sense going for a mobo that has both PCI and PCI x1 slots.

 

[thunderbird.117]

PCI wont be phased out in near future. It will take time.

 

[Geforce]

Thats exactly what i thought about AGP , but it has phased too quickly.