AZGamer
Very interesting statement 50%?
I amazed you found the time to count everyone one of the many posts throughout the entire forum database.
If however you read this thread you'll see that it's overwhelmingly in favor of this board.
I build pc's.
I own a Soyo Dragon board, it's what is in my rig. I'm very familier with the VIA chipsets and all the problems associated with them.
By and far the VIA chipsets for Athlon CPU's have had the most compatibilty issues than any other. Just look at the total amount of threads on problems with Live cards just to make a very SMALL example.
The question in this thread was is the ECS K7S5A, Any good? The answer to that is a resounding yes. The board is an excellent example of a LOW cost effective platform for an existing inexpensive CPU. Things to know about this board is that is does REQUIRE a solid power supply unit. If you have a 300W off brand the board may be flacky as hell. With this in mind the board is a clear winner.
The board is easy to set up and works out of the box. I can't say that for many VIA boards.
Does this board offer the same performance of a similar equiped KT266a? No way. But that isn't the issue here.
<< Are you calling half the forum mentally deficient in the construction of computers? >>
Now that's silly to even think that half of Anandtechs forums even cares about motherboards, they don't .
The statement was actually directed at both you and Workin'.
Workin simply gives no information about whatever issues he may have. He probably doesn't have a clue.
You on the other hand are a VIA zealot. If you could possibly give a good reason for your opinion, maybe you could give some credibility to yourself.
But you didn't , so you don't have any.
For anyone else reading this thread,
Pro's
The ECS K7S5A is a very solid board. It's inexpensive, has very good performance, uses any Athlon , XP, Duron straight out of the box, can use either SDR or DDR memory. It has a built in 10/100 NIC that works well. It has room for the larger HSF's.
If you want a good board and don't have a lot of money, this board is the one for you.
The issues involved with this board are negligible as compared to similarly configured VIA systems.
The SiS 735 chipset isn't as good a performer as the KT266a VIA chipset, but it is very close and it beats all the other VIA chipsets for Athlons hands down.
Works well with all common DDR Dimms, I have tried Crucial, Nanya and Kingston.
Con
The thing one has to remember here is to have a good power supply. Enermax, Antec and Sparkle all work fine I have tried them.