ECS K7S5A. Any good?

[hwstock]

<< Ok, to answer your original question "overclock well", I'd say no to the average user. The bios used to overclock is too large to fit on a floppy, and it's not from ECS. >>



One can overclock the FSB, under windows, via CPUCool or similar software. My K7S5A FSB runs stably at 142.7 MHz -- I did CPU-intensive calculations at that setting for about a week, without a hiccup. Admittedly, a 7.3% increase is not that big a deal, but I'm not sure what motivates most people to overclock in the first place.

 

[CompKing]

I have built systems with IWILL, ASUS, ABIT, FIC....... The ECS K7S5A has been great. 6 systems, with different video cards and processors, all running great. I have absloutely no complaints with this board. There isn't a better buy out there! The exception is the oc geek. This isn't a board for serious ocs.

 

[L00PY]

<< Ok, to answer your original question "overclock well", I'd say no to the average user. The bios used to overclock is too large to fit on a floppy, and it's not from ECS. >>



I'd disagree on all counts here. I think it overclocks well for the average user, but is a poor choice for a serious overclocker. The BIOS used to overclock is exactly the same size as the normal BIOS (both 262,144 bytes / 256 KB in the 010911 BIOS). Finally the o/c BIOS has been the test BIOS on which ECS engineers have based the "release" BIOSes -- they do come direct from ECS. The standard disclaimer of "use at your own risk" is just a "standard disclaimer".

 

[Thump553]

About the Radeon comments, the info about problems with Radeon 7500 is news to me, but I have three ESC K7S5A systems with earlier ati cards (Radeon 32mb retail, Radeon LE tweaked & a truly antique 3D Rage Pro) that all work fine, with no issues at all.

Probably building another system or two for relatives in near future, will go with this motherboard again. As earlier posters stated, a good quality power supply AMD certified for your CPU level is ESSENTIAL. Spend a few of the bucks you save on the mb here. BTW, the Antec 300 is only certified to a Tbid 900 level so using it is risky (that said, I'm using one without issues in a 1.1 Athlon setup).

 

[CraigRT]

I actually had the misfortune of setting up a system based on this terriblly picky motherboard...

The system consisted of an XP1700+, 256DDR, a GF2 MX, and was in a new case with a good 300W PSU.. after 4 hours of troubleshooting (damn near!) the board finally posted.. and a few hours later, which should have been 30 mins.. XP was installed. It won't boot with the secondary Quantum hard drive in it (Master is a Fujitsu) and it won't boot when there is a CD in the CD-ROM.. and it's not even set to boot from there! It's working now.. but that was the most difficult painful install of a system i have ever done.. XP wouldn't install quite a few times for some reason, and after screwing around in the BIOS, finally enabled or disabled something that allowed it to install properly.. god! what a pain in the ass! I would NOT get this board because of the savings.. it's worth it to get a good brand name, I now realize this FROM EXPERIENCE.. spend more and get MSI, EpoX, Soyo, Asus, Soltek.. anything other than ECS.. as i said before, that was the most painful system setup I have experienced to date. I'm just happy after all that, that piece of trash seems to be working right! Thank God!

 

[0beron]

beaver- Which Frys and when did you get the motherboard for $40? I went to Frys today and say it for $79. Thanks.

 

[Lord Gwynz]

So far built 2 systems around the ECS K7S5A mb, one with an early 104 BIOS sticker and a later one with 108. Earlier one started out as a super cheapie combo - an Athlon 1 Ghz/266 CPU, a $28 Sparkle 300W PS from Newegg, a Leadtek Geforce2MX, a Hauppauge WinTV Theater tv-card and 2 256 MB sticks of PNY PC133 RAM. Since then it's been through several upgrades already including an Athlon XP 1800+, an ATI AIW Radeon and a 256 MB stick of Crucial DDR RAM. It dual boots to Win98SE/W2K and has always run fast and stable. The second system was built ground up as a gaming machine which consisted of an Athlon XP 1500+, an Antec 300W PS, a Leadtek Geforce3 Ti200 and 256 MB Crucial DDR RAM. Both systems used all sorts of USB peripherals incl. printers, hubs, gamepads, FF wheels, & CF card readers with no difficulties. Onboard sound is fine and static free in all games (emulated and otherwise ) I've tried, and the onboard NIC usually does 5-6 MB/s on files several GBs in size that I routinely transfer over the lan.

I'm baffled as to why so many folks are having problems with this board, but for me, overall its been a damn kickass board

 

[Duvie]

<2. the AMD fan is too noisy. My P800EB (same Antec case) is not so fast as AMD1.4GHz but much silent.
3. In standby mode, my P800EB totally idle (you feel it 'standby') but the AMD1.4GHz looks keep running (so I don't know if it's in 'standby').
In general, for what you paid, it's a very very good motherboard. no problem to run AMD 1.4GHz. >

Beaver, WTF does this have to do with the ECS??? enough said...


Azgamer, didn't the debate with me last week shut you up yet??? I have a 1.4tbird and have no issues many do. I have run bios that came with board and still no issues.

He is a via zealot, hates anything no via for some f^cked up reason. Mostly takes via and there many well-documented and 100 percent attributed to their chipset problems to heart. Don't know why....

I deabted him for along time on sis issues and ecs issues. I claimed documented ecs quality control issues are ecs's fault (ie faulty cmos batteries causing cmos memory loss, wrong ohm resistor on board leading to some speculated 1.4tbird issues) and no problems to date are attributed to the sis chipset. He never responded to my last replies but continues to spread his misinformation...

 

[SilverBack]

My daughters MSI K7t Pro 2a went belly up this week.
I just installed my second K7S5A.
She's using WinXP, the previous was a 98SE install.

This install was easier than the first as no drivers were needed at all to get this motherboard working.
XP has all the boards drivers.
Install was flawless.
She has a 1.2 200MHz cpu
Memory scores went from a dismal 450/580 to 861/783 in Sandra. Of course this is DDR ram, but none the less an excellent result from a 200MHz FSB part.

 

[Workin']

The ECS K7S5A sucks donkey d..ks. I wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot pole.

 

[AZGamer]

<< The ECS K7S5A sucks donkey d..ks. I wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot pole. >>



Not too eloquently put, but I think that basically sums up the opinions of the majority of forum members.

 

[SilverBack]

<< Not too eloquently put, but I think that basically sums up the opinions of the majority of forum members. >>



May I add to that?
Not too eloquently put, but I think that basically sums up the opinions of the majority of forum members who know absolutely nothing about putting together any kind of pc what so ever.

 

[Pabster]

AZGamer wrote:

"Defender against misinformation as pertaining to VIA chipsets(No, I don't work for them)"

ROFLMAO. Nice tag there

 

[indianduddawg47]

ecs k7s5a + t-bird = decent.
ecs k7s5a + axp = awesome.
i've owned both.

i've had stablity problems with t-birds.
i've had no problems with axps.

 

[AZGamer]

<< ROFLMAO. Nice tag there >>



I've had the first part in my sig for a long time. The other part was (No, I don't work for them) was put in there during the first round of accusations against my sig, which was a week or two after I started arguing here.



<< May I add to that? >>



No, you may not. If you want to insult the forums and any of the members of the forum, at least have the class to come up with your own statement

Roughly 50% of people on this forum do not favor the ECS K75SA over an equivalent KT266A chipset. Are you calling half the forum mentally deficient in the construction of computers? Or are you simply out of logical arguements and feel like resorting to childish name calling?

 

[Workin']

<< forum members who know absolutely nothing about putting together any kind of pc what so ever >>

You're a dumbass. How many chromosomes are you missing? I (and MANY others here) have built hundreds of computers, probably started before you were even born. That doesn't change the fact that the K7S5A is the worst piece of crap, bar none, that I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with.

 

[SilverBack]

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.

 

[SilverBack]

Actually Workin
I built my 1st system in 1987 a 386/16.

I build an average of 80 pc's a year and have been doing so since 1992.
The local area credit Unions ( we are a big Union town ) will finance my PC's to thier customers, because my systems last and run well.

 

[Workin']

<< Workin simply gives no information about whatever issues he may have. He probably doesn't have a clue. >>

Better back down, loser. I hate getting into a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent. I'm not getting into a continuing flame war over this, it's been done so many times before. BTW, I refuse to post the litany of problems that have occured with this board - I am so sick of typing them out I will not do it again. Just do a search (if you can figure that out, "expert"), and see the horror stories from experienced builders.

Say what you will, I could give a crap. If somebody wants to buy the most nightmarishly unreliable piece of hardware I have ever seen (since, coincidentally, 1987, when I started too), let's just say don't come crying when it goes to hell.

And anyone who buys a "budget" board that requires all the other components to be "premium" (i.e., primo PSU, etc.) is a complete moron. Ever hear the saying "penny-wise and pound-foolish"?

<< You on the other hand are a VIA zealot. >>

WTF do you mean by that? I NEVER ONCE said the SiS735 chipset sucked - only the current implementations of it by the el-cheapo manufacturers. ALL the problems stem from ECS' poor design and quality. Twist some more words, jerk off?

That's all I'm gonna say about it. Buyer beware, and you generally get what you pay for,

 

[SilverBack]

LOL I'm surprised Anandtech would have anything to do with you Workin.
Your vocabulary doesn't really have that nice Anandtech flavor to it.

 

[FrostyFlakes]

<< Hey, was wondering what kind of experiences have ppl had with this motherboard? In terms of stability? >>


I had great experiences with them. For me it was stable, but i've heard other ppl have problems with it. but i've built five using all different ps and all seem to like the board just fine.



<< Features? >>


There is onboard lan and sound. u get sdram and ddr on one board.



<< Are there any oc'ing features? (e.g. FSB adjustment, multiplier, core voltage, i/o adjustment, etc). >>


not much in this department. its a cheap no hassle mb. it will support the many different cpus that are out. u can just do the l7 bridge for voltage, fsb adjustment through the many different software that are out. no i/o adjustment or multiplier in bios. if you want a board that has all the oc items, i would suggest u look elsewhere. if money is the issue go with this board, it won't do u wrong.

azgamer, just one question have u used this board personally or are u just listing items others have posted in forums?

 

[AZGamer]

<< azgamer, just one question have u used this board personally or are u just listing items others have posted in forums? >>



I have worked with this board for one (1) system I sold locally. It resulted in more grief, returns, and compatibility issues then any other board I have ever used.

BTW - Silverback: Congrats on the case of the month! It looks pretty sweet.

 

[SilverBack]

Thanks AZGamer

 

[Pabster]

Workin' wrote:

"That's all I'm gonna say about it. Buyer beware, and you generally get what you pay for,"

True most of the time, but most definitely not in the technology sector. I can think of quite a few examples, but I don't want to start a wide-ranging flame shoot. I think you know a few of them

I've got to totally disagree, as usual, with the ridiculous insinuations by several forum members' that ECS is "junk". I don't know what motivation they get from proclaiming such BS. Perhaps jealousy that a $55 wonder outperforms their $150 VIA-based POS?

People get bad boards, and it doesn't matter the manufacturer or platform. Take a good look around the various forums -- there's no shortage of people having problems with each and every board out there today.

 

[dAv]

I wrote this in another thread, it bears repeating here:

Count me as one of those whose ECS MB was defective. Not only that, it screwed up in
unusual ways. (Blue screens, corrupted file copies, CMOS memory loss, etc). Before when I had a bad MB, it just wouldn't boot. This POS corrupts data,
as confirmed by Memtest86. I screwed around with it for 2 months before I saw the link to Mr. Athlons article at
OCworkbench
I wonder how many people that are praising the K7S5A have tried Memtest86 on their own machines? :frown:
It would make an interesting poll.