ECS- a growing company

[jacktesterson]

http://www.ecsusa.com/aboutUs/pr_062403.html


Most people don't know ECS has been around for yrs...yeah they are really good friends with SiS...who have their up and downs on the markets...but I still beleive SiS will have another bang/price chipset to come once again like their 735 on the K7S5A boards

but anyways, yeah..ECS is strictly a entry level board..what I've always wondered is why don't they come out with a NForce2 Mobo like Soltek with a lot of features and sell it for less? I have built many University computers using ECS boards and they have been nothing but rock solid in stability...I think as them as the best OEM motherboard makers in the world myself...thats how much I like.

I still have a ECS K7VZA running a 1.2 T-Bird at home, 512MB Ram, 120GB Drive, Radeon 8500, and that system is still surprisingly fast for everyday use, and can still play most games at medium (at least) settings

 

[AmdInside]

ECS is a good value but they are really not a good motherboard company.

 

[thorin]

like their 745 on the K7S5A boards

The K7S5A is a SiS735 (unless I misunderstood your post, or you mean the II or Pro version or something else)

I have built many University computers using ECS boards and they have been nothing but rock solid in stability

Same here. Some people seem to have problems with memory on some ECS boards but I've never run in to any problems with them.

ECS is a good value but they are really not a good motherboard company.

That's kinda contradictory, please be more specific.

Thorin

 

[jacktesterson]

Originally posted by: AmdInside
ECS is a good value but they are really not a good motherboard company.

I just ment for somebody on a tight budget who needs a half descent machine I would go ECS

 

[AmdInside]

ECS is a good value but they are really not a good motherboard company.

That's kinda contradictory, please be more specific.

Thorin

Well, as support, I've noticed alot of people have stability issues with products from ECS (same company as PCChips). Don't have the same type of issues from Abit, Asus, MSI, or other better motherboard companies as I do with ECS. ECS boards are a good value if you need a computer to do work, occasional gaming and multimedia on a budget. For more heavy duty stuff, stay away from ECS.

 

[Malladine]

I have a significant amount of respect for ECS. My wife's rig is an ECS K7S5A mobo with a t'bird cpu and a radeon 9700np w/ 1gb pc2700 ram. A nice system and flawlessly stable. Owned it for over two years now and it's had two different cpus, 3 gpu changes and 3 ram changes.

What i'm trying to say is I agree with you AHF

 

[sandorski]

ECS is the second largest manufacturer of motherboards in the world, Asus is the largest.

 

[magomago]

I too have a lot of respect. Every time I have built a rig there was always some kind of issue.

But I recently got in on that frys 2200+/k7s5apro combo(though i took that 2200+ when i noticed it was a tbred b and gave my parents the 1700+ ) for 60 bones and let me tell you its one hell of a motherboard. Connected it all and turned the thing on. Install went without a hitch and its been sitting there with 512megs of pc2700 (obviously running at 133mhz ) ram and its going to be a great replacement for my parents 233mhz pentium as the years pass by.



And yeah - I too wonder why so many people have all sorts of problems. The ram I used was generic "Patriot" ram from frys too which i got for 50 bucks and there is no problem.



But considering how perfect the install was I wouldn't hesitate to buy another ECS mobo in the future.

 

[DeeK]

I used to think ECS was decent... My K7S5A ran fine for a year and a half, until a recent lightning storm caused a power surge.

My screen froze, then went blank as though no signal was coming from the video card. I powered off the computer, took off the side case panel to ahve a look inside, and found nothing. Cautiously, I powered up the machine. After seeing the POST screen appear, I looked at the motherboard to find that two of the voltage regulators were glowing red hot and emitting dark grey smoke.

Yes, I've got a surge protector, but those aren't prefect. Expecting a surge protector to fully absorb a surge is like expecting a silencer on a gun to make the sound completely inaudible. It doesn't work that way. Basically, what they do is absorb enough of the surge so that the voltage going what's plugged into it isn't ridiculously out of spec. Even then, the components on the K7S5A couldn't handle it. Nothing else was affected at all. Every part I had in there before is now working fine in an Asus board.

 

[sniperruff]

i've never used ECS but i wouldn't really buy their products for my own use even tho i try to pinch every penny... i mean i consider ECS as sort of generic stuff...

mother board is the heart of the computer, i can get a slower CPU, i can get a BENQ CDRW, i can get a cheaper speaker, but anything that has quite a few people complaining about it just stirs me

same as tiger direct. my friend bought his computer from them, and he LOVES that company (he doesn't know about anand, FW and various bargains sites...) but since a couple of people crap so much about TD, i would probably never buy from them

there's a chinese saying that goes " a piece of rat crap in an urn of honey " i guess that applies to ECS in some ways

 

[tokamak]

my sister's k7s5a crapped out. i think ECS is kinda hit or miss.

 

[ethebubbeth]

My experience has been fairly negative with the k7s5a... my dad got one of those fry's combos a couple years ago which included the non pro k7s5a and a duron 1.3ghz. The board had all sorts of problems. He returned it for another and it had different problems. The power supply is an antec 300w so I know it's not the PS. It was very cheap though...

 

[Schadenfroh]

i used to be all Abit upuntill they stoped making their own boards, now i am a asus guy

 

[sniperruff]

Originally posted by: tokamak
my sister's k7s5a crapped out. i think ECS is kinda hit or miss.

Originally posted by: ethebubbeth
My experience has been fairly negative with the k7s5a...

and here is what i was talking about...

 

[DSE]

Originally posted by: DeeK
I used to think ECS was decent... My K7S5A ran fine for a year and a half, until a recent lightning storm caused a power surge.

My screen froze, then went blank as though no signal was coming from the video card. I powered off the computer, took off the side case panel to ahve a look inside, and found nothing. Cautiously, I powered up the machine. After seeing the POST screen appear, I looked at the motherboard to find that two of the voltage regulators were glowing red hot and emitting dark grey smoke.

Yes, I've got a surge protector, but those aren't prefect. Expecting a surge protector to fully absorb a surge is like expecting a silencer on a gun to make the sound completely inaudible. It doesn't work that way. Basically, what they do is absorb enough of the surge so that the voltage going what's plugged into it isn't ridiculously out of spec. Even then, the components on the K7S5A couldn't handle it. Nothing else was affected at all. Every part I had in there before is now working fine in an Asus board.

So basically, your beef with ECS is that it didn't not handle the surge that came through your surge protector? High expectations of a $60 MB, isn't it? In fact, that's a pretty high expectation of a $200 MB. You're lucky that your other components did not get blown out at the same time. I wouldn't depend on that Asus board to last under the exact same circumstances.

 

[tcsenter]

So basically, your beef with ECS is that it didn't not handle the surge that came through your surge protector? High expectations of a $60 MB, isn't it? In fact, that's a pretty high expectation of a $200 MB.

Particularly since all device-adjacent surge suppressors are only as good as their path to earth ground.

Homes are still built as though the transistor had never been invented. The National Electric Code, on which the vast majority of state and local electrical codes are based, is woefully inferior for protecting today's home appliances and electronics. The NEC is designed around extremely fault tolerant devices found in homes 30+ years ago such as washing machines, refridgerators, air conditioners, televisions, toasters, and electric stoves. These non-semiconductor devices could take a relatively enormous surge without experiencing so much as a hiccup.

Device-adjacent surge suppressors would not be needed if homes were built to reflect the fault tolerance of 1990s appliances instead of 1950s appliances.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: sandorski
ECS is the second largest manufacturer of motherboards in the world, Asus is the largest.

yeah but asus is good

 

[ted4412wilt]

My ECS P4VMM2 locks up every time the processor has to do much work, such as saving a Word document longer than one page. I think Windows XP agrevates the problem as it is a real resource hog. It is not surprising since it is the only P4 board that does not have the ATX 12V power connector. I replaced a generic DDR with 1GB of Mushkin 2 2 2 DDR 3200 RAM because I thought the memory was the problem and figured the extra capacity would make XP run better. No help for lockups. Then I replaced an underpowered "300" watt power supply with a Fortron 300 with the 120 mm fan. Great power supply but still didn't stop the lockups. I suppose the crap P4 1.7 Willamette I bought with the board could be the problem, but I doubt it. I am replacing this with a new ASUS P4C800-E and P4 2.4C. If this does not stop the problem, I will just give up and take up golf for a hobby.

 

[Viperoni]

In general I'd say they're decent, but I likely wouldn't run one in my computer.
Seen some weird stuff with K7VEM's after 0.5-2.5 years of use, P4VMM2's were really good, K7VMM/L7VMM's were decent. I use a K7VMM+ in my test system and it's pretty decent with it's DDR and SD memory capability, but I wouldn't buy it for performance

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: AMDHardcoreFan
http://www.ecsusa.com/aboutUs/pr_062403.html


Most people don't know ECS has been around for yrs...yeah they are really good friends with SiS...who have their up and downs on the markets...but I still beleive SiS will have another bang/price chipset to come once again like their 735 on the K7S5A boards

They already have. L7S7A2, just that it's at the end of the line for Athlon XPs, so isn't taking away NVidia nor VIA's thunder.

but anyways, yeah..ECS is strictly a entry level board..what I've always wondered is why don't they come out with a NForce2 Mobo like Soltek with a lot of features and sell it for less? I have built many University computers using ECS boards and they have been nothing but rock solid in stability...I think as them as the best OEM motherboard makers in the world myself...thats how much I like.

...or a SiS 746(FX) based board like that? L7S7A2 + SATA, RAID, Firewire and a tad better sound = WINNER.

I still have a ECS K7VZA running a 1.2 T-Bird at home, 512MB Ram, 120GB Drive, Radeon 8500, and that system is still surprisingly fast for everyday use, and can still play most games at medium (at least) settings

L7S7A2 has the same issues with stability that the K7S5A did. That is, sh!tty RAM is a no-no (but most people have gotten that message by now), and the NB HS is on using tape instead of goop (which hinders OCing). With the NB HS replaced, the L7S7A2 has shown to be a great budget overclocker...no Nforce2, but for $53...

 

[Swanny]

I've had nothing but good experiences with ECS. On the other hand, I wouldn't put one of their boards in my main computer.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: DeeK
I used to think ECS was decent... My K7S5A ran fine for a year and a half, until a recent lightning storm caused a power surge.

My screen froze, then went blank as though no signal was coming from the video card. I powered off the computer, took off the side case panel to ahve a look inside, and found nothing. Cautiously, I powered up the machine. After seeing the POST screen appear, I looked at the motherboard to find that two of the voltage regulators were glowing red hot and emitting dark grey smoke.

Yes, I've got a surge protector, but those aren't prefect. Expecting a surge protector to fully absorb a surge is like expecting a silencer on a gun to make the sound completely inaudible. It doesn't work that way. Basically, what they do is absorb enough of the surge so that the voltage going what's plugged into it isn't ridiculously out of spec. Even then, the components on the K7S5A couldn't handle it. Nothing else was affected at all. Every part I had in there before is now working fine in an Asus board.

...and this is ECS' fault? This happens to all makes and brands, unfortunately. You're lucky it only got the mobo.

 

[McMadman]

I'm still using my k7s5a (older revision, 3.x i believe)

I originally got it becuase I didn't want to upgrade to ddr (money concerns) and my old board died
I used a tbird 800 and crucial pc133 (2x256) at 100/133 for the longest time stable.
I then upgraded to my xp 1900+ and tried it at 133/133 and it was unstable (exact same ram)
at 100/100 it was stable
at 100/133 it was unstable
now.. pulling ram
1 stick it was stable no matter what.
At this point I could afford a stick of pc2100, I bought a 512mb stick and it worked fine at 133/133

And my final problem which may or may not be mb related, in win98 it was detecting 511 mb instead of 512, and the gap widens as more memory is added. I can't make 98se use the full gig that I have installed, but it will use about 800mb.

ECS boards really are a gamble, if you're that tight on money, they can be a good value if they work correctly. However if you can afford it, you'd be better off buying a known name brand board.

 

[Macro2]

RE:"Even then, the components on the K7S5A couldn't handle it. Nothing else was affected at all. Every part I had in there before is now working fine in an Asus board."

I usually don't rail on a post but this one is ridiculous. Just because an ECS motherboard couldn't take a lightning strike it's no good...?

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

 

[apac]

When I built my computer last August I started out with an ECS K7S5A board for my XP 2100+. It wouldn't post right off the bat, and a friend of mine told me about its stability issues, so I RMAed it and bought an Abit KX7 board for 15 bucks more. Couldn't be happier now, this Abit board has been rock solid.