EPoX really went all out on the packaging of the 9NDA3 motherboard. It's interesting to note that they went the extra step in including Rounded ATA cables and other hardware components. Too often I see hardware manufacturers give half assed bundles (1 SATA cable, 1 floppy cable, 1 IDE cable) in this industry. While 2 SATA connectors is not special by any means having the required cables for both included in the package is. The care shown by EPoX in their packaging is evident through their Power Pack pouch.
Performance to be honest was nothing to write home about. In most of the benchmarks, the 9NDA3J was near the middle of the pack. With performance differences between the motherboard and the NVIDIA reference nForce3 250Gb being less than 2%, this isn't a big thing. The fact remains that the 9NDA3J is not the highest performing motherboard.
Of course with the release of the nForce4, nForce4 Ultra and nForce4 SLI boards, the market place for the 9NDA3J is markedly different than when NVIDIA first launched the nForce3 Ultra series of boards. Buying an nForce3 Ultra board today gives you the choice as to whether you want to keep your old AGP card. With the nForce4 series you likely will be forced to purchase a new PCI Express video card. If you have a newer AGP card like the X800 Pro or X800XT AGP, there is no current need to upgrade to PCI Express. Doing so would likely force you to either eat the cost of a new card and motherboard or Ebay it or take your chances that you'll get a good bid on the card.
