ECS K7S5A mobo

[Brian48]

The K7S5A is a little picky with what PSU you use, but so are a lot of other pricier motherboards. I've had no problems with mine, nor has my brother. For me, it's been very fast, very stable, and the on-board LAN is superb. If there's any complaint I have about it, it's the fact that's almost devoid of any tweaking features (I use SetFSB to overclock). Then again, this board was never meant for the hardcore PC enthusiasts to begin with.

 

[Athlon4all]

I used to doubt the K7S5A, but then I decided to pick one up for my main rig and give it a shot, and it's great!!! Just as stable as my old K7VMA board. Definately recommend it. Is it better than the A7V333? Well, it comes down to if you want the features of the A7V333 (ie Firewire, RAID, Overclocking, etc). If you don't want those features, its tough to beat the K7S5A

EDIT: Just make sure you get a PS that is "High-Quality". I've got an Antec 300W that is solid

 

[Athlex]

Quick question for those of you who use the K7S5A's onboard LAN function- is it a Realtek LAN chip or just a realtek chip that works with an integrated NIC on the southbridge?

edit- (oh yeah, no southbridge )

 

[Peter]

It's an SiS 900 LAN engine (aka MAC) integrated into the SiS 735 single chip. The Realtek 8201 chip you see on the board is just a physical interface chip (aka PHY). The advantages are that the SiS 900 is on the fast chipset internal bus, not on the PCI bus, while the PHY can be placed near the LAN connector so routing the delicate 100TX signals over long distances on the mainboard is avoided. The interconnect between MAC and PHY is a standard digital MII or RMII bus.

This is the same kind of arrangement as with the sound - the engine (an SiS 7012) is in the chipset, while the physical interface chip (aka codec) is a separate chip in a convenient place on the mainboard. On K7S5A there is either a Realtek ALC100 stereo codec or a C-Media 9738 4-channel one. Again, the interconnect is a standard bus, AC97 digital audio bus.

regards, Peter

 

[Hendrik]

It's an SiS 900 LAN engine (aka MAC) integrated into the SiS 735 single chip. The Realtek 8201 chip you see on the board is just a physical interface chip (aka PHY). The advantages are that the SiS 900 is on the fast chipset internal bus, not on the PCI bus, while the PHY can be placed near the LAN connector so routing the delicate 100TX signals over long distances on the mainboard is avoided. The interconnect between MAC and PHY is a standard digital MII or RMII bus.

Sounds like someone knows what they're talking about!

Anyway, I'm pleased to report that it works very, very well!

 

[trikster2]

Here's another vote for the K7S5A.

Mine's been puring along with a 1Ghz Duron for 4 or 5 months rock stable with all the games I throw at it.

Course I can't leave well enough alone. Just ordered a second 256MB stick of ddr ram, and I'm sorely tempted to try out the OC bios to see what the lil Duron can do.....

 

[RandyHarris]

I have no doubt that people are having valid problems and I don't know why.

But I can tell you that I run an ECS K7S5A, I build a system for my dad with that motherboard, and I have about 4 other friends who use it as their mobo, and none of us has ever had any problems with it at all.

Great solid, albiet not a great overclocker, and extremely well priced especially with a built in NIC.

 

[Salvador]

I hear a lot of crap about all brands and models of mobo's. I was going to get the Asus KT333 board, until I read a couple of horror stories with not 1, but 3 bad mobo's for the same person. I also saw a few other posts about people having troubles with the Asus boards.

As a matter of fact, every single mobo I was looking at recently had something negative written about it somewhere.

I just said scr#w it and grabbed the ECS board because it was dirt cheap with the Outpost combo. The only problem that I've had so far is something not related to the board, but a thing with my hard drive.

I definitely think that you see a disproportionate about of problems with the ECS because so many people have it. I bet this board has sold a ratio of 10 to 1 for any other one model in the last 6 months.

If you are on the fence about what to get, you can't go wrong with the ECS board. It is so inexpensive. If it gets any cheaper, they'll be giving them away. Literally.

Sal

 

[Kingofcomputer]

you 2 both are right.

"you get what you pay for" still holds true for computer hardware but not so significant as in the past.

because of the success of ECS using SIS735, you can see now ASUS, MSI, etc all come out SIS745 mb, their price are so close, less than $5-10 difference. ASUS and MSI are also targeted to low-end market now, everybody is cutting corner to reduce cost, do you think you still get much more quality, stability, performance, features from ASUS or MSI than ECS today?

Asus A7S333 $72.75+sh from www.starlightelectronicsonline.com
MSI 745Ultra $72 shipped from www.newegg.com
ECS K7S5A $63 shipped from www.newegg.com

 

[UnseenRocker]

i have the ECS board and it works great. no problems.

 

[lsman]

don't worry too much on ECS's board because soon enough you are going to see ASUS selling board in the range of $60. (approx brandname :Hua Ching) Asus just launch a division to focus on the low price market. It has turn more effort to attack the OEM for PC maker (i will guess Dell or Compaq will be happy to hear).
Now Foxconn Electronics will join in for action. Text

i can see price will just go down.

 

[mcveigh]

Originally posted by: lsman
don't worry too much on ECS's board because soon enough you are going to see ASUS selling board in the range of $60. (approx brandname :Hua Ching) Asus just launch a division to focus on the low price market. It has turn more effort to attack the OEM for PC maker (i will guess Dell or Compaq will be happy to hear).
Now Foxconn Electronics will join in for action. Text

i can see price will just go down.

cool news!

maybe they should call it "cha-ching"

 

[Rottie]

I am happy with ECS mobo and I had few problems with Windows 2000 Pro until March it was most stable mobo I ever bought.

AMD Duron 700 (Spitfire)
ATI Radeon
ATI TV Wonder VE
Que! CDRW
Intel HAM 56K modem
Seagate 40GB hard drive
Matrox(?) 4GB HD
two 128 PC133 memory

I think you should buy ECS mobo.