ECS a good company?

V

Viperlover

Gawd
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Jun 7, 2006
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I'm looking to get this motherboard Clicky and i'd like to know if it is a good board for overclocking the CPU. Have any of you guys had any problems with ECS boards like DOA and such?
 
ecs has bad rep, but are ok. they also build abit and i think dfi boards. i have done around 5 of them, mostly matx and all still working, as far as i know.


very truly yours,
politenessman
 
Well, previously the company had a bad reputation for quality for their retail products. ECS is huge OEM manufaturer. Abit used to get their Printed Circuit Boards made by ECS.
As for overclocking, while i havne not tired that particular board but I suggest you select another vendor.

People used to joke.
ECS= Extremely Crappy Silicon
PC-Chips= PC-Shits
 
I hate ECS boards, but maybe theyve gotten better. I still wouldnt use one though.

If you want to overclock, I would stay away and get something a little higher up.
 
As Triumph the insult talking dog would say...

ECS makes a great board...














for me to POOP ON!
 
ECS makes cheap boards, not top quality but reliable enough for non critical dependancy

I have a couple of K7S5A running strong after 5 years, just make sure you clean powersuplies and heatsinks often :D

oldmx
 
I've gotten a couple in Fry's CPU combo deals. They all still work fine. I'm using one right now before I transition over to Conroe and the Abit AB9 Pro. It OC's alright, but it won't allow for memory timing adjustment or overvolting your CPU at all.
 
I have set up a few boxes with ecs boards, and personally have used them myself over the years, I have never had one fail. I have had more probs with MSI and Asus then ecs. In fact, I built a box for my mother I'd say 4 years ago, she leaves it on all the time, and never has complained about her computer, other then it because she is still running an ata 33 drive:eek:
 
OldMX said:
ECS makes cheap boards, not top quality but reliable enough for non critical dependancy

I have a couple of K7S5A running strong after 5 years, just make sure you clean powersuplies and heatsinks often :D

oldmx
Click to expand...

*THAT* was a great ECS board... if they were all that good I'd still be using ECS to this day... I loved my K7S5A... stable, dependable, good entry level features...

Note the operative word "entry level". I havn't used an ECS board since the K7S5A but I think I'd use it to build a machine for my non-geek brother, not to build an O/C rig.

Try googling the board's name with "overclock" in the search string and see what you get.

Edit: Physically it looks like a nice board... I don't like that the mosfets don't appear to have sinks, I prefer the wider spaced PCIe slots (more room for airflow to the coolers on the GPUs), and I wish more manufacturers would move the SB chip (actually the second NB chip - whatever it's called) so that it wasn't sitting under one of the GPU cards so that I could get an active sink in there. For $80.00 though... it's a good looking board. Just not sure about it's overclock-ability.
 
My most recent ECS (in sig) has only had two issues that I didn't / don't like. I had another ECS (one with both PCIe and PCiexpress slot) and never had a problem with that one.

1. OC'ing has it's limits on this board, compared to others
2. Even with latest drivers I get random reboots with my Intel 940 presler

Aside from that the board runs well if you are not an avid oc'er.

When the new Xfire conroe boards come out that supports 940's I'm going to upgrade, but probably not ecs cause I want to do a little oc'ing full time on my cpu.
 
i own this board, my computer is screwed up at the momment so i cant say too much, but for the money it seems like a great deal, comes with a north fan. BUT the clips for the DDR2 are horrible, i feel worried about the DIMMs all the time and rightfully so. its a really nice board(to look at) havent gotten much(any) use past activating windows
 
Well I guess I'm just gonna wait and try and get a good deal sometime in september/october then. The prices on non conroe compatible boards should go down and then maybe I'll get a deal on a *good* company. I only wanna overclock my CPU and video card.
 
Viperlover said:
Well I guess I'm just gonna wait and try and get a good deal sometime in september/october then. The prices on non conroe compatible boards should go down and then maybe I'll get a deal on a *good* company. I only wanna overclock my CPU and video card.
Click to expand...

If you can wait I'd say that's probably going to be a good idea - especially if you're looking to do mad overclocking. While I wouldn't recommend them for extreme duty like I think you might be hoping to accomplish, take a look at Gigabyte boards.

I know some people here will trash them but I've built on two Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro and a Gigabyte Sigma and have been VERY impressed with the quality for the money. They're by no means an entry level company (like ECS tends to be*) and might be marginally overpriced (not as expensive as Abit, Asus, and DFI though) but from my experiece you get a very good, very stable board with a lot of room to play.

It's worth a look anyway.

*regarding ECS as "entry level". I'm not implying that ECS boards are bad, I actually loved my K7S5A and was the first board I built around. While I would never call them an enthusaist company, calling them "entry level" might be a little harsh. Let's call them a "trasition" board... not quite entry level but certainly below the low-end enthusiast boards. Take for example that the K7S5A was one of the only boards I knew of at that time that supported SDRAM *and* DDR - not ready to buy DDR? Get a K7S5A and use your current SDRAM until you save up enough to go DDR.
 
OldMX said:
ECS makes cheap boards, not top quality but reliable enough for non critical dependancy

I have a couple of K7S5A running strong after 5 years, just make sure you clean powersuplies and heatsinks often :D

oldmx
Click to expand...
5 years, you need to buy a PowerBall ticket, you're the luckiest SOB in the world... most including mine die from the piss poor capacitors they used on them in there cheap ass VRM circuit...
 
MD_Willington said:
5 years, you need to buy a PowerBall ticket, you're the luckiest SOB in the world... most including mine die from the piss poor capacitors they used on them in there cheap ass VRM circuit...
Click to expand...

My MP3 jukebox/file server in my basement has been on 24/7 for about that long also... never had a problem. Still running the same 2200+ CPU, the same 256 meg SDRAM, the same 350 Watt Enermax PSU, the same budget basement case. Never had a single problem with the K7S5A... loved that board for what it was.
 
A friend of mine has one (not sure which model) that has been going for almost 4 years. It works fine for him.
 
ECS seem very hit or miss.... my buddy had one years ago with a tbird 850. the socket actually fell off the board, causing the heatsink to smash into the (best at the time) radeon 8500

he was almost happy afterwards because of the trouble it had given him before hand, it gave him an excuse to buy something better :D

but as was previously stated they might be better now but i wouldnt ever trust them after that incident
 
I have more than my share of ECS boards with no problems. My current board, an ECS Nforce board has decent overclocking features and there are plenty more OC software on the net. I think at one point they were crap. But today, they're making good boards at fair prices.

I would not hesitate to buy another ECS board if it met all my needs.
 
Pkirk618 said:
I would not hesitate to buy another ECS board if it met all my needs.
Click to expand...

Personally, I WOULD hesitate, but I'd probably end up buying one if I were in a pinch :D.
 
For an entry-level mobo they're not bad at all. Something you buy for your sister, bro-in-law, mom..... :D
 
ECS is not bad vendor especially if you are a "just as it is" kind, mean that you just run all hardware DEFAULT. And their warranty is quite long too. They do create some legendaries mobo like the K75SA like I owned before :p, they runs good, but lack of overclocking options.

If you planned overclocking, you should definetely not too choose this vendor as they never give so much room for overclocking option, like overvolting, multi divider etc.

If you're an overclocker with budget minded, I think you should try like Infinity series from DFI since they give quite feature like their LANPARTY series.
 
ECS is owned by Fry's Electronics, in turn, I use to work for Fry's and the return rate on they're "mainstream" or "value" models was outrageous. I personally wouldn't even touch an ECS motherboard.
 
3xch4ng3 said:
ECS is owned by Fry's Electronics, in turn, I use to work for Fry's and the return rate on they're "mainstream" or "value" models was outrageous. I personally wouldn't even touch an ECS motherboard.
Click to expand...

Returns don't always mean "bad boards", it may also mean "stupid consumer"

 
PouChen aka "Global Brands" etc etc group must own Fry's then...

I know the K7S5A well enough, I'm a moderator a two K7S5A forums...

I'm wondering if you guys have the Version 5.x board, the K7S5A-Pro... also there is a M830 version of that board, it's tan/gold PCB gives it away... it's the PCChips clone of the ECS board...

There are a few newer 3rd party bios's available, one that will properly identify the XP-M2800+....
 
MD_Willington said:
PouChen aka "Global Brands" etc etc group must own Fry's then...

I know the K7S5A well enough, I'm a moderator a two K7S5A forums...

I'm wondering if you guys have the Version 5.x board, the K7S5A-Pro... also there is a M830 version of that board, it's tan/gold PCB gives it away... it's the PCChips clone of the ECS board...

There are a few newer 3rd party bios's available, one that will properly identify the XP-M2800+....
Click to expand...

I'll have to check which version of the board I have next time I'm in the basement tearing crap apart.

Didn't realize there was a forum of people with K7S5As still around... glad to hear theres still some of them floating around... it's still my second favorite board to date.
 
isn't the kn1 getting a pretty good rep? I have an old nforce-3a/3100 sempron combo that's been alive and kicking for a while!
 
bought a ECS board once K8v i think wouldnt even let me load XP. changed to Asus A8v never a problem since. thakyou newegg for the nice RMA policy
 
BellaCroix said:
I'll have to check which version of the board I have next time I'm in the basement tearing crap apart.

Didn't realize there was a forum of people with K7S5As still around... glad to hear theres still some of them floating around... it's still my second favorite board to date.
Click to expand...
http://pub140.ezboard.com/bk7s5amotherboardforum

http://www.rhcf.com/sis-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/forum/1.html?

You could also go to OC Workbench, but most of the time you'll get some beligerent answer from Bluetooth or davidgl...
 
I have the ECS 915p-A rev 1.1 and its not a bad board at all. Its not a very good OC'er I can only take it up to a 311mhz OC (3.31ghz total with an intel 530 proc) with its limited OC abillites but its been stable for 2 years. I just bought an ASUS today to go with my new E6600 and im really hoping its as stabe and the ECS was. It was the best $98 I spent at the launch of the lga775.
 
MD_Willington said:
I'm wondering if you guys have the Version 5.x board, the K7S5A-Pro...
Click to expand...


Bright purple right ?
I've used the Pro, 3-4 K7S5A regular, and a new ECS NF-4 board.
None have ever given me problems. Got them all in combo deals from Fry's.
I wouldn't use one in my own personal system but for casual users they are very adequate.

But for the OP: If your intention is to overclock I'd get something else.
They are basic no frills motherboards.
 
Compared to the bad press Asus is getting in the forums lately, I'm almost about to say screw the overclocking... the money you save buying a high-quality OC board would be better served just getting the next step up processor and an ECS board.

Sucky, maybe... few options, sure. But the ECS board I used was rock solid, stable, and required little additional set-up. Compare that to the others out there with 1000 BIOS options (any of which can make your system unstable) and it's almost better to go cheap with a better processor, skip talking with Johny Pakistan or RMA'ing something 3 times, and just get a good build out of the box(es).

Think about it... you're gonna drop an extra $100 into an "overclocking board" when that $100 will get you the next level processor (in many instances) anyway. What do you get for overclocking? Let's see... you need to adjust your clock in the summer months if you're pushing the bleeding edge, you've shortened the life expectancy of the processor, you've probably invested in watercooling/phase change, you've spent a week working out the sweet spot where everying is "stable"... screw it... get a good processor and an ECS board... at least it'll work. Is all that worth the bragging rights of running an FX-55 at FX-57 speeds?
 
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