STOCK ECS SiS745 Chipset K7S6A at newegg $70

[dajo]

<< I'm a little confused - the link lists *both* mobos >>

I guess I'm the one who is confused! Didn't see it.

Eager to see reviews on the new one!

 

[VRoOMdesigns]

oooh sheet nevermind. thought this about the KT266A mobo by ecs

 

[Princeman]

Maybe I'm too trusting, but how could this board be bad? I loved the K7S5A. I ordered one.

 

[Jenova314]

link to info at ECS website

it's got cool looking cobalt colored DIMM slots

i'm seriously considering getting this board since it'll use my existing SDRAM. AMD CPUs have been getting cheaper and cheaper but DDR RAM is still up there, so i'd probably use my old DIMMs until something happens in that arena. maybe i'll end up being the guinea pig for you guys

 

[Princeman]

Jenova, This board just takes DDR, look again...

 

[HappyNic]

I can still remember the good old days when DDR ram was $25 for 256mb, (a month ago) , now it's like $75:Q

Anyways back on topic, I love my ECS K7s5a, using the latest Bios, running at 138mhz,fastest ram timing, super stable. I even got it stable at 150mhz, but that's without the soundblaster 5.1 card install., The onboard sounds no good, so no 150hmz for me. I'm very intrested in the reviews that will be comming up soon, but if it doesn't allow changing of multiplier or if it's not faster than the Kt266a or the nforce in anyway, I'm just gonna stick with my K7s5a. it's still a very good board. The K7s6a at $70 is a very good price, I would of jump on it , if I didn't already have a K7s5a.

You can overclock your K7s5a with any bios, if you us a little program call chfsb, it uses the hidden FSB settings that's in your bios, to 112,124,138,150,166..

 

[LordThing]

I just did a build using the K7S5A. Its was a bit picky with Certain cards in different PCI slots. Took me the longest time to figure that one out. Still, I thought it was a low cost and very nice board overall. I especially like the fact that LAN is onboard. I heavily considered doing a lowcost bump of my main rig at home with one. You could do the board and 1gig Duron for less than 100 bucks! Almost a no brainer. I don't feel like spending 100-200 bucks on DDR ram right now, so I probably wont grab the new 745 MOBO. I would just jump on that Office Depot Deal of 256 megs of pc133 for 20 bucks and OC like an SOB.


OCWorkbench's Forum for ECS MOBOs has been the best resource of info I have found.

 

[Tazan007]

I haven't read anything about this board but I have the k7s5a and it's rock solid. I only have one problem with it. I get a BSOD when I shutdown/restart the machine(using Win98se). I bet it's some windows thing. Either way, I have a XP 1700 and it was easily overclocked to 143Mhz FSB using the CPUCool program. It's rock stable at it's default voltage. I have not had it crash once unless I try to shutdown/restart the machine. I like the fact that sis chipset has the halt command enabled by default so it keeps my CPU cool when it's idling. My VIA board doesn't have halt enabled by default. The board is noticably faster then my old IWILL KK266 board and I am using my old SDRAM DIMMs. The onboard lan controller is pretty good too. I can easily get over 7MB/s average when transfering data between two 100MBit workstations. I have disabled the onboard sound since I like my old vortex 2 card. I haven't had any problems with the board at all (as of yet). Not to mention my Pinnacle DC10Plus card works fine with this motherboard whereas it would not function correctly with my IWILL KK266. I have really lost faith in IWILL boards. They really just suck. I only got the K7s5a since I had random freeze up problems with the XP 1700 and the IWILL KK266. After replacing all the components that I could have been bad, I just got the cheapest motherboard that supported SDRAM (the K7s5a). And it works great with no random freeze up problems. So much for the Palamino compatiblity the KK266 advertised when I bought it last Feb.

p.s. Just make sure you have a good power supply. I recommend the Enhance ENP-0730 which is $29 + $10s/h at newegg.

-Hiral

 

[grifterspawn]

Well Ive built 4 systems with the K7S5A so far and sold an extra to a friend. Three systems were perfect, one board was DOA. The one I sold to the friend didnt work right in his cheap nasty case (with its cheap nasty PS), so went and bought an Enermax, all good now.

 

[trikster2]

I just built a K7S5A and love it.

Can't beat MB and CPU combo 1Ghz for about $100.

What did I miss by not waiting 3 weeks for the 745?

All I can see on the ECS website is that this MB supports DDR333?

Other than that is there any reason to get this board?

 

[Jenova314]

<< Jenova, This board just takes DDR, look again... >>



ohhhhhh that makes me mad :|

 

[Princeman]

Any reviews out yet for the K7S6A?

 

[grifterspawn]

Not in english...

 

[RazB]

<Ive built a few systems on the K7S5A board...
For all the trouble i went through on ALL of em, im stickin to EpoX, worth the extra money to me >

I'm up to 3 + 3 more that friends have built....the only problem I had was a no post issue that turned out to be the PSU set to 220 from the factory. So basically 6 for 6 NO PROBLEMS other than the right drivers (98 is fine, a little more for work for Win2K). I just ordered my 4th and have the UTMOST confidence...if you're having trouble with with "ALL of em" maybe the problem isn't the board!

 

[Jenova314]

<< Good price! How come the K7S5A isn't there anymore?

Its there, just put k7s5a in the search box and it'll come up. Except that its still out of stock and the ETA is 1/21. >>



dunno about you guys but i still can't find it

 

[cavemanmoron]

ooh cool thanks for the info,i want to try one
i have the k7s5a its ehhh but the new one is supposed to be better

 

[Princeman]

Board received DOA, what's with that?

 

[unsped]

ECS is as name brand as sugar pill, about as good too.