ECS K7S5A PRO Mobo = $47 w/ free S/H plus free hat!

[tse200]

good deal, for a budget rig and a free newegg hat to boot!

click me

Skeet

 

[V00DOO]

Why pay $47 for this Mobo when fry's (if you have a Fry's near you) has this mobo and 2000 XP Processor for $60.00. Althought, I have built 3 systems using this motherboard (Fry's combo) with out any hassle who in their right mind would buy this motherboard for $50. My 2 cents.

 

[tse200]

well like u said unfortunately as right coasters don't have da fry's

 

[s0ssos]

why would anyone ever pay for an ecs motherboard in the first place?

 

[CapnCrunch]

Don't be an idiot and threadcrap. Good deal if you don't have a Fry's nearby.

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Originally posted by: s0ssos
why would anyone ever pay for an ecs motherboard in the first place?

see sig.

 

[Dran]

Originally posted by: s0ssos
why would anyone ever pay for an ecs motherboard in the first place?

The K7S5A is a solid board. It's as stable as any nForce/nForce2 or Intel board out there, the performance is above that of the KT266a chipset-based boards, and they're inexpensive. Excellent boards for run-of-the-mill systems, and even acceptable for the occasional overclocker if a hacked BIOS is used. At $47 shipped, it's a steal. If you can find a better board for less, post it. If not, you're in the wrong thread.

 

[s0ssos]

ecs is not a good board. just look at the support forums on ecs' website. i got one for my brother, and the usb 2.0 ports in the back don't work (k7s5a pro). so, how is that a good board?
and what hacker would want to use an ecs board for overclocking?

for that same price you can find yourself another motherboard, like a msi kt3 ultra, or some motherboards using the via kt333 chipset

 

[weepul]

fry's is having another sale right now.

this motherboard (ecs k7s5a pro) + xp2200+ for $79.
unfortunately, i'm still waiting for the another $59 to upgrade my brother's computer

//krunk (^_^x)

 

[ivan2]

Here's my ECS K7S5A story, I had brought 3 over the times, RMA'ed the third one (with USB 2) immidiately when i got it cuz no booting. Had both USB 1 and 2 version, Neither of USB 2 version (pro, the one in this deal) would regconize my USB Wingman Rumble pad. Other than that, they are all up running without problem now. Just dont expect much for so little ur paying.

 

[swifty]

I have had my board for a while now with a duron chip - it its great - it outperforms my machine at work which is a PIII in the tasks that matter to me
if you had a bad experience, that maybe is you, do not fry the board or the company because of that. YOU had a bad experience say that - don't say the board is bad. Support could be better, but frankly, I had to use it only once and I found what I needed.

The boards is low cost, it has what you need and it works great. I believe many share my experience and that is what I am transmitting. Maybe not the best board in the world, but sure its not the worst

I like ECS and look forward to buying anotherone

 

[aldamon]

Originally posted by: Dran

Originally posted by: s0ssos
why would anyone ever pay for an ecs motherboard in the first place?

The K7S5A is a solid board....the performance is above that of the KT266a chipset-based boards

I don't believe this is true. The KT266A was smoking fast.

EDIT: I'm not knocking this board. I used the original K7S5A in my mother-in-law's rig. No problems whatsoever.

 

[Cleaner]

I don't mean to thread crap but I have to agree with Sossos. I've built 7 machines using this board and have had nothing but nightmares with it. Of the 7 only one posted right the first time. The typical problem was for them to not post/boot at all. After scouring the web for an answer, I had already gotten the boards rma'ed and still had the same problems, I found out there was a bad batch of boards. Also that Tom'sHardware had changed their opinion of the board from Great to poor as ECS has a major quality control problem. It turns out that ECS had sent a 'special' board to Tom'sHardware to test which was not indicative of the typical K7S5A board. Thus Tom's gave it a 'rave' review and ECS sold a ton of boards. Unfortunately Tom's found out that at least 40% of the boards sold had a major power/memory flaw in them. They only worked with very specific memory chips and you had to have a 300W or greater power supply to run the board, neither of which ECS told the customers. After this experience I will never buy anything made by ECS. Its buyer beware.

 

[IgoByte]

I don't think that this board is worth the $50, but I don't have a Fry's nearby.

 

[Quixfire]

Originally posted by: V00DOO
Why pay $47 for this Mobo when fry's (if you have a Fry's near you) has this mobo and 2000 XP Processor for $60.00. Althought, I have built 3 systems using this motherboard (Fry's combo) with out any hassle who in their right mind would buy this motherboard for $50. My 2 cents.

Because I don't have a Fry's near me and Newegg is a very good online retailer.

 

[pecosdude]

Just helped a friend build a system yesterday with a K7S5A Pro and an Athlon 2000+. No problems at all. A steal from Fry's for $59.99. The motherboard was version 5.0. Did those of you who had so many problems perhaps have an earlier version?

 

[Mephistokur]

Originally posted by: Cleaner
Unfortunately Tom's found out that at least 40% of the boards sold had a major power/memory flaw in them. They only worked with very specific memory chips and you had to have a 300W or greater power supply to run the board, neither of which ECS told the customers. After this experience I will never buy anything made by ECS. Its buyer beware.

I trust Tom's Hardware about as far as I can throw their server. From my experience (I've bought a dozen of the K7S5A) I have yet to have any that didn't work flawlessly out of the box. This is a great mom's machine board. As for the 300w or above PSU, HELLLO! Its a board for an Athlon or Duron. AMD themselves say flat out that there are very few PSUs below 300w that work well with the these power hungry chips! How many times do you have to be told by different manufacturers to use 300w or above?

A dozen and counting - NO RMA's.

This is a steal at 47 bucks. Pair it with one of those 40 dollar 1700+ and you are good to go.

 

[tse200]

Yeah I've had the ol' K7S5A for over 1 and 1/2 years and a friend of mine has 5 and they all work great. My friend has had less trouble with the ECS's than his new Epox board.....

Skeet

 

[wasssup]

"upgraded" from a POS soyo k7ada v1.0 to an ECS K7S5A pro and couldn't be happier

...although, with the stock bios, i kept getting BSOD's when trying to install WinXP...out of desperation I tried a hacked bios, and after that its been rock solid

 

[rasputinj]

Originally posted by: Mephistokur

Originally posted by: Cleaner
Unfortunately Tom's found out that at least 40% of the boards sold had a major power/memory flaw in them. They only worked with very specific memory chips and you had to have a 300W or greater power supply to run the board, neither of which ECS told the customers. After this experience I will never buy anything made by ECS. Its buyer beware.

I trust Tom's Hardware about as far as I can throw their server. From my experience (I've bought a dozen of the K7S5A) I have yet to have any that didn't work flawlessly out of the box. This is a great mom's machine board. As for the 300w or above PSU, HELLLO! Its a board for an Athlon or Duron. AMD themselves say flat out that there are very few PSUs below 300w that work well with the these power hungry chips! How many times do you have to be told by different manufacturers to use 300w or above?

A dozen and counting - NO RMA's.

This is a steal at 47 bucks. Pair it with one of those 40 dollar 1700+ and you are good to go.

I also agree I have built 10 systems with the board, they have worked well for me. The first one had a bad battery, replaced it never had any other problems. I have read all the threads at overclockers and toms about problems, maybe I have been lucky. Good Deal

 

[Wiser007]

luck of the draw.... Some good, some bad. Seems to be lots of bad though.

 

[Soybomb]

Pretty good buy, I've probably built 10 machines with them and love them. Cheap and solid. One computer at my house is even running one on like a 250 watt power supply from 97 or so I have mushkin ram in it, but then again I don't ever buy crappy ram.

 

[Cleaner]

Yes some good some bad. I had revision 1.X ones and had nothing but problems. If you guys are getting them to work with revision 5 boards fantastic. I wish all the best to fellow Anandtechers I just got screwed. In regards to Toms yes they are fanboys but so is EVERYONE. Everyone has a bias even Anand.

Concerning power supplies I've got a 230W powersupply running my K7S5A board right now. It was rma's 3 times before I got one that worked with my rig. You don't need a 300W power supply to run a machine unless you've got more than 2 cdroms or the same number of hard drives. Dell Poweredge 2650 servers with TWO Xeon CPU's and 5 15K SCSI harddrives only have a 500W powersupply in them. So logically if you cut that in half and only have ONE cpu, and 2 7200RPM drives you're only at around 200W. Actually using a top of the line rig as an example the 3.06GHz Northwood has a power spec of 81.8 watts (http://www.cpuplanet.com/features/article.php/30231_1690721_2), an average hard drive uses 10W, an average cdrom 20W, and a big video card uses 40W. So using these figures we're at 160W. Thus all you people with 300W or greater powersupplies in your computers are just wasting electricity. These numbers are easily verifiable you just have to look.

Please don't counter argue unless you have verifiable facts to backup your 'perceived' ideas about how a computer works.

 

[Soybomb]

Thus all you people with 300W or greater powersupplies in your computers are just wasting electricity. Please don't counter argue unless you have verifiable facts to backup your 'perceived' ideas about how a computer works.

Actually the power supply only "uses" the power it needs to make, it will not draw the wattage its rated at unless under full load.

 

[attention]

Originally posted by: Cleaner
Yes some good some bad. I had revision 1.X ones and had nothing but problems. If you guys are getting them to work with revision 5 boards fantastic. I wish all the best to fellow Anandtechers I just got screwed. In regards to Toms yes they are fanboys but so is EVERYONE. Everyone has a bias even Anand.

Concerning power supplies I've got a 230W powersupply running my K7S5A board right now. It was rma's 3 times before I got one that worked with my rig. You don't need a 300W power supply to run a machine unless you've got more than 2 cdroms or the same number of hard drives. Dell Poweredge 2650 servers with TWO Xeon CPU's and 5 15K SCSI harddrives only have a 500W powersupply in them. So logically if you cut that in half and only have ONE cpu, and 2 7200RPM drives you're only at around 200W. Actually using a top of the line rig as an example the 3.06GHz Northwood has a power spec of 81.8 watts (http://www.cpuplanet.com/features/article.php/30231_1690721_2), an average hard drive uses 10W, an average cdrom 20W, and a big video card uses 40W. So using these figures we're at 160W. Thus all you people with 300W or greater powersupplies in your computers are just wasting electricity. These numbers are easily verifiable you just have to look.

Please don't counter argue unless you have verifiable facts to backup your 'perceived' ideas about how a computer works.

This is why analtech is what it is now. Morons like this guy.
Thank God there is Fatwallet!