ECS- a growing company

[MrCodeDude]

I built my computer on a K7S5A v 2.3 (black PCB), rock solid, never a problem. Tried building uncle's machine off a K7S5A v 3.0, had boot problems, took back to Fry's, got another 3.0, had problems reading the DDR ram, took back to Fry's, got a 2.X version, worked perfectly

The 3.0's had a bad batch, I'd stay away from the K7S5A 3.0's and just get the Pro version.
-- mrcodedude

 

[ssanches]

Put the lightning rod up and see how the Asus handles it....

lol Alternatively, he could put the motherboard in the microwave ...... . Although I've worked on the K7S5A, I've avoided it in my system because it's picky as far as the RAM and SMPS are concerned. Otherwise it's a value board built on a good integrated chipset. Mobo manufacturers can make very compact mATX boards with the SiS735

 

[RichieZ]

K7S5A was a pain in the ass for me, I built my friend a cheap system out of it. WOuldn't take more than 1 stick of SDRAM, the NIC he had was incompatible with the MB, so I reverted to the onboard one. MB would keep resetting to 100FSB.

 

[jacktesterson]

Originally posted by: RichieZ
K7S5A was a pain in the ass for me, I built my friend a cheap system out of it. WOuldn't take more than 1 stick of SDRAM, the NIC he had was incompatible with the MB, so I reverted to the onboard one. MB would keep resetting to 100FSB.

Ive got 4 computers, 3 of them running of ECS...My main system uses a Soltek Mobo, Nforce2, but the others, a K7S5A, A Pro Version, and a K7VZA...I have had one issue with memory, but besides that, all have worked flawlessly.

I bought 512 MB ram for the K7VZA/T-Bird 1.2 computer, PC-133...and it would not work in it...Made by Samsung. Blue error screens on boot. Put the 512 MB in the K7S5A 3.0, took the (2) 256MB PC-133 Infineon ram pieces out and put in the K7VZA, worked like a charm...The Samsung ram worked in the K7S5A 3.0 but not the K7VZA...and Infineon worked in both....kinda weird

but its not like I dwell on that small issue...I have had a great experience with these boads....I remember in the day, the K7VZA was on of the higher performing boards on the market...running the kt133a VIA chipset. The K7S5A was considered ahead of the pack in performance for a while as well.

That said, I was in University...now that Im working full time, I did buy a Soltek (i know its still cheaper but its got really good reviews and does have the dual channel nforce 2 and overclocks well with a barton 2500) but I will purchase better names myself, but will still recomend for budget PC's.

 

[Sunner]

While ECS boards are cheap, and great for the money as long as they work, their quality is too much hit or miss for my taste.

I've had first hand experience with 2 ECS mobos.
One K7S5A, working fine so far.
One old SS7 mobo, can't remember the model, but the L2 on it crapped out after a few months, kept running with the L2 disabled for a few months more, then crapped out alltogether.

The fact that the place where I picked up the first mobo stopped selling ECS cause the RMA rate was too high was enough to make me avoid them, I'd rather shell out an extra $30-50 and get a good quality namebrand mobo than go cheap and risk having to spend hours troubleshooting.

 

[robcy]

I have 3 K7S5A's (2 v1.0 & 1 v3.0) running right now without any problems. They all work fine with crappy DDR ram, and do not like the good ram that I have bought (Crusial, and Kingston Hyper-X). I have one with a XP1600+ clocked at 150fsb (1575mhz) that is on 24/7 and works like a charm, it does HT duties like hold my DVD&CD collection, and runs SETI. My wife's puter is a 2200+, and my 2600+ that runs games and runs SETI is clocked at 150fsb (2400mhz). I was going to replace mine with a NF2 but why mess with a good thing. Plus the hassle might not be worth it for a couple of extra fps since I have no problems with any current game running good AA/AF.

As you can tell I like ECS's, and will most likely go with a 748 or 746FX in the near future.

 

[jacktesterson]

yep well I posted this just to see if anyone else has had good luck with them

I personally one use when its only necessary for somebodies budget, but for everyday use, I've found them stable and good for a newbie.