ecs mobos

[esc]

will ecs mobos (k7s5a and/or the kt266a board) utilize the full power of athlon xps? i want to go cheap and upgrade later.

 

[ronin100]

imo steer clear of ecs, they are not particularly stable or worth the money..

if you want a nice cheap XP/DDR mobo look for soltek

 

[CromNogger]

two ECS mobos (both K7S5A's) working fine here with no probs, both have been online without a reboot or crash for weeks/months (months for mine, weeks for the second, it's newer).

Some people have bad luck with them. Want to avoid problems just buy a more reputable brand, plain and simple. Good luck. Oh yeah... I recommend the Epox mobos.

 

[esc]

thnx 4 the advice. i'm thinking of getting an abit even though they are more expensive.

 

[spaceman]

im 2 for 2 with ecs boards:the K7s5a,and i forgot the name,but it was an i815 ecs board,both were rock stable and gave me zero headaches.
IMHO they are as reliable as any other mobo manufacturer.I was(am) very satiafied with both.
the question you have to ask yourself is do you feel like spending $120ish on a motherboard or $60.

 

[TSDible]

I've done two system builds now with the ECS. I don't think you can beat them for the price...

 

[glenn1]

if your ECS board doesn't arrive DOA, i've found them to be nice, solid, budget solutions. Their K7VZA was one of the best boards made with the KT133A chipset, even if it was relatively unknown. If you want to go cheap for now, ECS is not a bad choice, although i would get one lightly used from another trader, save a few bucks, and get the board checked for DOA essentially thrown in for free

I agree that the Soltek is a fine board, and while not expensive at $99 + shipping at newegg, it sounds like Esc simply wants something to tide him over until he makes a decision on what board to spend real money on. If that's the case, i'd recommend picking up either a lightly used K7S5A or even a KT266 (non KT266A) or AMD-761 chipset board to tide you over. Of course, if you see a great deal on a KT266A you should snap it up, but they're still (arguably) the top performing XP-capable boards, you pay a bit of a price premium. That premium will likely disappear in a month or so when the KT333 and KT333A boards come out.

 

[BA]

My K7VZA is perfectly stable. The only time my comp has ever crashed was because of video drivers. Not bad for $65..

 

[CraigRT]

if you want to get relativly inexpensive while still staying with a good name, buy either MSI, EpoX, or Soltek.

ECS is dung, and ABIT isn't much better.

 

[spaceman]

Why does everyone hate on ECS?
cuz they overpaid for their "brand name" supposedly more reliable boards.



:/ lame,reminds me of when i was in Grade School...OMFG u got wrangler jeans!!BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!

Yield ill agree with you about one thing,my experience with Abit boards has been less than pleasant.

 

[Pabster]

ncircle wrote:

"Why does everyone hate on ECS?
cuz they overpaid for their "brand name" supposedly more reliable boards."

BINGO! We have a winner

It is rather hilarious to see the usual ECS hounds throwing around figures, such as a "higher than normal" RMA rate, or the "issues" with SiS 735. 99% of these people have never, and do not, own a single ECS mainboard.

K7S5A is the best bang for the buck, period, bar none. And the sales numbers reflect that

 

[CTho9305]

<< ncircle wrote:

"Why does everyone hate on ECS?
cuz they overpaid for their "brand name" supposedly more reliable boards."

BINGO! We have a winner

It is rather hilarious to see the usual ECS hounds throwing around figures, such as a "higher than normal" RMA rate, or the "issues" with SiS 735. 99% of these people have never, and do not, own a single ECS mainboard.

K7S5A is the best bang for the buck, period, bar none. And the sales numbers reflect that >>



too true, unfortunately
3 ECS boards here. one took a while to get it to boot the first time... probably didn't seat the ram right. anyway, all three are 100% stable

 

[Jgtdragon]

My cousin has one and loves it. Only bad thing about it, its not for overclockers.

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

Use and have built several systems around the k7s5a and have yet to have a complaint.

 

[SleepyGuy]

hmmm... not for overclockers? my duron 700 @ 966 and my duron 750 @ 1000 ... those are pretty decent overclock i must say... yeah you have to do some hacking around but it works... i used rear window defogger to up my voltage to 1.85v. wicked motherboards... my fav board is still my old classic BH6 1.01 is still runing my celery at 464... running win2000 at 192 ram... stable as ever!

 

[Pabster]

Yep, the myth that K7S5A is "not for overclockers" is just that -- a myth. Sure, it doesn't offer direct multiplier, core voltage, or DDR voltage adjustment. But it is possible with a few simple mods (I've done them all, with the exception of the multiplier adjustment) and even without ... overclocking is not "impossible" or even "difficult".

 

[GreenLantern]

Go ECS!!!

 

[IFICUDIWUD]

im running 2 ecs boards..a k7s5a w/1600xp and 256 mb crucial ddr and also a k7sem w/950 duron and 256 mb sdram.. using sound on both the k7sem has vidio and both have nic.. both are perfectly stable an booted 1st ime right out of the box.. trick is to seat and reseat all cards 5 or 6 times to ensure proper seating and have a suitable power supply..

 

[esc]

the ecs k7vta3 here costs like about $70 so i think imma go with it for now. the k7s5a is also an alternative to my new rig.

i'm waiting for something like SiS795 with nice @$s features.

 

[Mitzi]

I've built two ECS-based machines.

My main machine uses an ECS K7AMA board. I didn't have much cash after buying my CPU so I got that board with the intention of replacing it afew weeks later with a better board, I've never bothered because the machine runs like a dream, sure I might get a bit better performance with a different board/chipset but IMO, if it any broke...

The other machine was built using a K75SA, again zero problems.

From my experience, I'd recommend ECS 110%

 

[Athlon4all]

They will take full potential of the Athlon XP if you can get them working. I have no experience with the K7S5A or the KT266A board, but I am on right now a ECS K7VMA (uses KM133) board with a Duron 800. And I have had a couple weird things happening (like instabillity when running at PC133, and weird things like that), but overall it runs great. Especially considering it was my first DIY PC.