First off as always we look at the package that the board is shipped in. EPoX usually are known for the plainer package options for their boards and the Optimus is no different. The front of the box is simply black with the Optimus logo and the model number of the board, nothing else apart from the EPoX logo.
The back of the box is a little different. There is a bit more info on the back about the board as well as a full colour picture. This is what we really enjoy to see, as there is really no questions over what the board inside looks like and what you get when you are at your local PC shop.
EPoX does provide a good user manual with their boards. Inside you get a full detailed description of the board, its technical specs, info on connecting headers and cables as well as BIOS and included software settings.
Cable bundles are also very important - if you’re going to buy a board with lots of expansion headers, you want to have all of the required cables included, rather than having to go buy extras which can slowly add up in the price department. EPoX does provide a few cables in its box but not the full 100%. Out of the total 8 SATA ports onboard only 6 SATA cables are included, same with the IDE situation, 2 IDE ports, 1 IDE cable. Since there is only 1 FDD port, only 1 FDD cable is needed and it’s provided. It’s not a bad effort in this department but the situation could have been improved by including ALL cables.
Again out of the 3 extra USB headers, only a single two port USB header bracket is included. Since the EPoX board isn’t a standard ATX port layout board EPoX has included an I/O shield.
Lastly we come to the SLI Bridge. Since the boards SLI graphics ports are further apart than pervious boards, a new SLI bridge is supplied. The bridge is a PCB based one (not flexible) with SLI connectors at each end. While a flexible bridge is more preferable, this setup isn’t really that bad.
