The Intel 82845G Northbridge is covered by a cosmetically re-designed EPoX-branded heat-sink, or heat-spreader rather. During tests, the heat-sink did get warm, but it was never too hot to touch. Moreover, there was an absence of thermal compound beneath the heat-sink, which reinforces claims that this Northbridge does not require an active cooling implementation. However, from an enthusiast's view, it is reassuring to see a fan cooling an overclocked Northbridge. Beneath the heat-sink is an Intel Northbridge that resembles a smaller-died FCPGA processor. The chip markings are like that of an Intel CPU too:

The Intel 82845G Northbridge is a revision of the proven i845 chipset. also houses three important chipset components:
The Graphic Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) provides the interconnect between the DDR SDRAM and the system logic.
The I/O Controller Hub (ICH4) provides the I/O subsystem with access to the rest of the system. Additionally, it integrates many I/O functions, such as USB, Ultra ATA, LAN, etc.
The Firmware Hub (FWH) component is a key element to enabling a new security and manageability infrastructure for the PC platform. The device operates under the FWH interface and protocol. The hardware features of this device include a unique Random Number Generator (RNG), register-based locking, and hardware-based locking.

Latest Model of Intel Motherboard

The most distinguishing aspect of the 4G4A+ is the black PCB. Seems like EPoX is jumping on the colored PCB bandwagon. One day, green will be a new color.
The EPoX 4G4A+ is a well designed motherboard. It has 11 Sanyo 3300 uF (micro-Farad) capacitors and three inductors around the CPU socket to ensure a clean electric signal. Similarly, two giant Teapo 4700 uF and smaller capacitors straddle the three 184-pin DDR memory slots.
The 4G4A+ has three visible yellow jumpers. One next to the Northbridge is for FSB selection. This jumper has the three following options: Default, 100 MHz, or 133 MHz. Another to the right of the USB1 and PS2 connectors allows the user to enable or disable a keyboard power on feature. The last clear-CMOS jumper is situated above the floppy connector. That's keeping it nice and simple!
In comparison to an Intel 845E-based motherboard our website tested recently, this EPoX motherboard has one additional memory slot. Unfortunately, that does not allow for more RAM support, as the Intel 845 series of chipsets will only allow up to 2-GB of DDR RAM or four memory banks. A double-sided stick of RAM takes up two banks. A single-sided one uses one bank. The use of two double-sided modules in two DIMM slots fills all four available banks. The EPoX manual included with the motherboard package clearly delineates on page 3-6 which memory configurations work.

LATEST MOTHERBOARD INTEL.

The latest motherboard from Intel based on the 845 chipset has some neat value-added features including a rich software bundle, and new BIOS enhancements for speedier booting and updates. The board has a socket 478 for the smaller P4 processors and supports conventional SDRAM. It has three DIMM slots with a combined capacity of 1.5 GB, which is enough for any use. Plus, it has a 4x AGP slot, six PCI and a CNR for adding more cards. It also has four USB ports. The board is well laid out and all the ports are onboard and color-coded, which makes installation a breeze. One drawback is that it takes only 133 MHz SDRAM. So you won’t be able use your older RAM on this board.
This great performer comes with a rich software bundle
INTEL 845WNPrice: Rs 8,000 (Three year warranty)Meant for: High-end PCs Features: Socket 478, supports up to 1.5 GB of SDRAM, 6 PCI, CNR, and 4 USB ports, Intel Rapid BIOS Boot, Intel Express BIOS Update.Pros: Great software bundle, good performance, works with conventional SDRAM, well priced Cons: Works only with 133 MHz SDRAM Contact: Comnet Vision. Delhi. Tel: 011-6285262.
To check out its performance we used a P4 2 GHz with 256 MB SDRAM, a 20 GB Seagate Barracuda ATA III hard drive and an ASUS V8200 Ti500 Deluxe, which is based on the Geforce3 Ti 500 chip from Nvidia. As far as performance goes, there are no issues with the board whether in running high-end graphics apps, gaming, or productivity applications. It performed very well in all our benchmarks. We compared it to the DFI board, which supports DDR memory, and found it not much behind. In the gaming and 3Dgraphics tests, it was only 7% behind the DFI. The next two tests we ran were BW (Business Winstone) 2001 and CCW (Content Creation Winstone) 2001 for productivity and high-end apps respectively. It matched the DFI in BW, and remained only 7% behind in CCW.
Its impressive software bundle includes Norton Internet Security 2000, Encryption Plus Secure Export, Intel Active Monitor, and NTI CD Maker 2000 software for creating CDs. It also has the Intel Express BIOS update, which simplifies updating the motherboard’s BIOS. A utility, downloadable from Intel’s site can update the BIOS through Windows itself. So, no more tampering with messy jumper settings. Also interesting is the Intel Rapid BIOS Boot, which reduces system boot-up time. With this, when you turn on your system, you will see a blank screen for sometime, after which it will simply start your Windows desktop. While this can be useful for end users, the blank screen can also mislead them to think that the system is not functioning. Plus, if you do have to go inside the BIOS configuration, you have to change the jumper setting.