Anyone ever heard of a Syntax motherboard? $32.98

[Macro2]

KT266a, 2 SDRAM, 2 DDR etc.
Anyone ever heard about this company or used one of their motherboards?
Link

 

[Peter]

Syntax is yet another brand name under the hood of the Elitegroup ECS.

They have been positioned to counter ASRock, essentially doing the same thing, using slightly outdated chipsets on no-nonsense boards that then go for rock bottom prices.

This particular board (as does its ASRock counterpart) is noticeably slow on the RAM. You'd be better off spending $3 more and getting an ECS K7S5A pro.

 

[Insane3D]

I agree with Peter. Also, as an alternative, you can get a Shuttle NF2 Ultra400 board with LAN for ~$50.

 

[freeflyer]

I just installed one, bought with free shipping for $42 from accupc.com. Check out the difference at resellerratings.com for accupc.com vs. partspc.com.

Featurewise, this board is the best at its price point (low $40's or less). In particular, 4 rear USB 2.0 ports (with a header for 2 more front ports), ATA133 support and 2 COM ports.

These memory benchmarks (courtesy Freshdiagnose) back up what Peter said about memory performance:
XP 2000+, Syntax SV266A, PC2100 DDR: 7019 *
XP 1600+, Epox 8K7A, PC2100 DDR: 8162 *
Intel 850 w/PC800 RDR: 15344 **

*my systems
**according to Freshdiagnose

 

[freeflyer]

Is there anyone else here with one installed? Getting some weird readings for Vagp and Vcore from MBM 5 and wondering if that is typical of this board. Also undocumented 3rd temperature sensor gives equally strange readings.

(and Syntax tech support is fairly ignorant of this model - as they said when I asked about the location of the temp sensors:
"I am unable to answer the question of where the sensors are located since Syntax did not build this system.")

So it seems they are a customer of ECS on this model, perhaps not quite owned by ECS.

 

[bambam]

Arent the VIA KT266a chipset boards less picky about memory and PS than the K7S5A ? The Shuttle AK31 series ( VIA 266a) were great .

 

[Peter]

*rolls eyes* The K7S5A isn't picky about memory and PS, no matter how often this is parrotted here and elsewhere.
You need an ADEQUATE power supply and WORKING memory that lives up to its own specs. No more no less. This is true for every single mainboard out there. The symptoms may differ, but the fact's the fact.

 

[Peter]

freeflyer, since I can get the K7S5Apro actually for $2 LESS than the Syntax board, and the former is considerably faster, I don't.

 

[Macro2]

so where is the K7s5a (pro?) 2 dollars less than the syntax board?

 

[Peter]

Here in Augsburg, Germany ... the Syntax board is 41.99, the K7S5Apro w/ LAN is 36.90. Whoops, that's 5 euros not 2.

 

[freeflyer]

The only K7S5A board around here (USA) which competes on price with this Syntax has one COM port and I wanted two. Also I believe K7S5A is ATA100 and Syntax is ATA133.

Would be interested to know the memory benchmark from Freshdiagnose on the cheap ECS boards, however. You can D/L Freshdiagnose from Freshdevices.

 

[Peter]

UDMA100 or 133 doesn't make a difference - au contraire, the SiS chipset has the IDE ports on a MUCH faster connection, real life performance from SiS UDMA100 IDE is a lot faster than from VIA UDMA133.

The one and only reliable memory benchmark is CACHEMEM.EXE, a DOS program. Measuring in Windows isn't precise enough. It is good enough for identifying improvements by comparing results on the same system, but useless for comparing two systems. You need absolute numbers for the latter task, and that's where CACHEMEM.EXE is really good.

K7S5A comes in pro and non-pro revisions, with and without LAN. They ALL have two COM ports. You must have been looking at something else, freeflyer.

 

[freeflyer]

Originally posted by: Peter
The one and only reliable memory benchmark is CACHEMEM.EXE, a DOS program. Measuring in Windows isn't precise enough. It is good enough for identifying improvements by comparing results on the same system, but useless for comparing two systems. You need absolute numbers for the latter task, and that's where CACHEMEM.EXE is really good.

Freshdiagnose disables Windows while it runs benchmarks. Network connections are dropped, you can't do anything else in the GUI, etc. It's probably more repeatable and comparable across platforms than you'd expect.

Originally posted by: Peter
K7S5A comes in pro and non-pro revisions, with and without LAN. They ALL have two COM ports. You must have been looking at something else, freeflyer.

I guess some of the vendors aren't too careful when copying specs. I found single-COM port on K7S5A claimed here and here and here. Well then, ECS would not make that kind of error right? Oops - what's this here? Dang, even ECS can't get their own specs right.

You might be right on the ATA100 on SIS vs. ATA133 on VIA, but given your accuracy when you were so certain of the COM ports, I'll look for corroboration or run my own benchmark.:frown:

 

[Peter]

Indeed, they dropped COM2 on the "pro". Strange that mine here still has it ... must have been an early production run.

Anyhow, being a BIOS engineer, I tell you again that I've yet to see another RAM benchmark output as useful and reproducable a result as CACHEMEM. Particularly in the separation of cache and main memory throughput, as in the latency department. Try it.

 

[freeflyer]

Originally posted by: freeflyer
(and Syntax tech support is fairly ignorant of this model - as they said when I asked about the location of the temp sensors:
"I am unable to answer the question of where the sensors are located since Syntax did not build this system.")

FYI, to their credit Syntax tech support has since replied to me saying they are investigating my question about the temp sensors. It may not lead to anything useful but the fact that somebody there is making an effort to address my question, is meaningful.

I've also eliminated my confusion on the voltage values reported by MBM. There is no Vagp sensor on this board, instead there's a +2.5V sensor.

 

[candacomputers]

Sounds like a good deal for a mobo! $32...

 

[Macro2]

Thanks for everyones input...

 

[FMann]

Hate to drag up an older topic... but to those that bought the board, does it come with an I/O backplate?

I was looking at the pictures and I realized that the ports won't match my current ATX backplate.

Thanks.