Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Originally posted by: Matthias99
Personally, I would go for something a little higher quality than ECS/ASRock/Foxconn.
Isn't that a little strange to be lumping Foxconn in with ECS? I thought that Foxconn used to be one of Intel's primary OEM suppliers for mobos before Asus got that gig (often used in name-brand OEM PCs, like those SE440BX boards used in Gateways back in the day)?
Is there anything bad or sub-standard that I should know about Foxconn boards?
They *do* make a lot of parts for other OEMs (including Intel, AFAIK). However, the "Foxconn" brand boards seem to be really cheaply made, from what little I've seen of them. I haven't heard nearly as many negative things about them, but I would still be hesitant to use one myself.
That said, cheap motherboards obviously *work*, at least most of the time, or else nobody would buy them and the companies would quickly go out of business. But they may be more likely to fail (worse quality control), are unlikely to be able to overclock much (if they even have overclocking capabilities), could have bad power regulation (leading to weird instability problems later)... they're clearly cutting corners *somewhere*, given the prices.
For the (relatively) small difference between something like ECS and, say, Shuttle or a low-end Gigabyte or DFI or MSI board, I'd rather go with a more proven brand. If you're really cost-conscious, though, it's impossible to beat the ECS combo deals you can get at Fry's, and I'm sure most cheap boards work fine if you're not pushing the envelope.