Warm? AMD Athlon XP 2600+ and MB = $84.99

[usernamemax20charact]

Fry's Ad from L.A. Times.

Warm? Hot? Fry's has a Athlon XP 2600+ and MB combo on sale for $84.99. It's a bare CPU and I'm not sure who the manufacturer is for the MB, but deal looks tempting for me.

 

[ofacto]

Its an ECS motherboard.

 

[amdskip]

Good deal, ecs has been good for me. I'd pick one up if Fry's was closer

 

[RagingBITCH]

Alright at best. About 2 months ago they had the 2600 + the nForce mobos for $64.99. The 2700 retail + that board was $84.99 as well, with the 2800 retail + mobo being $99. I'd rather go nForce than VIA but that's just my personal pref.

 

[Dogbertt]

Wasn't that the one day Memorial Sale that had the Nforce? If so don't expect to see that deal until Thanksgiving

 

[usernamemax20charact]

Originally posted by: amdskip
Good deal, ecs has been good for me. I'd pick one up if Fry's was closer

Thanks. Might pick this up to build a new computer for my cousin who's starting college soon enough.

 

[neovan]

anybody know the model # of the ECS mobo?

 

[Steve]

According to ecsusa.com, the only ECS boards with KT600 are the AF1, AF1 Deluxe, and AF1 Lite. All the pictures there are the same and none of them match the Fry's ad.

I wonder which 2600+ this is?

 

[techiecool]

normally the KT600-A. i've wanted this deal but ecs scares the heck out of me.

 

[imported_nitrus]

ECS is ok if you dot mind troubleshooting. in some cases i have trouble making it work out of the box, once its all set though, it will be rock solid. i've built about 13 systems with ECS boards and not one crash yet.

 

[Steve]

ECS boards will be fine provided your RAM and PSU are tip-top.

 

[conehead433]

Well I haven't seen a post yet with someone complaining because there was not a Fry's near them. So here it is. Damn Fry's for not being anywhere near me!.

 

[dud89]

Originally posted by: sm8000
According to ecsusa.com, the only ECS boards with KT600 are the AF1, AF1 Deluxe, and AF1 Lite. All the pictures there are the same and none of them match the Fry's ad.

I wonder which 2600+ this is?

This is the board.

 

[TrentSteel]

Originally posted by: nitrus
ECS is ok if you dot mind troubleshooting. in some cases i have trouble making it work out of the box, once its all set though, it will be rock solid. i've built about 13 systems with ECS boards and not one crash yet.

Agreed. They can be frustrating, but once they start working, they don't stop.

 

[mannydx]

Fry's arizona has this motherboard and the 2500+ retail for 79.99. I might be persuaded to grab and ship for someone if they really want it.

 

[Bad Dude]

Originally posted by: mannydx
Fry's arizona has this motherboard and the 2500+ retail for 79.99. I might be persuaded to grab and ship for someone if they really want it.

Do you know which board this is?

 

[RajunCajun]

This same deal is at Fry's in Houston, Texas. The board is an ECS KT600 - same one they'be been bundling for the last month. Newegg has this same board ALONE for $53, so this AND a retail 2500+ for $80 is great, but not as good when they bundled this same CPU with the ECS nForce2 Ultra 400 around memorial day for $70.

I think I'll buy this bundle just for the CPU. Someone gave me a crappy mobo with a XP2000+ cpu - I'll just use this KT600 with that CPU, and buy a high-end nForce2 MCP+ mobo for the retail 2500+. Hope to hit 3200+.

Nothing else in the circular caught my attention except the retail AIW Radeon 8500 for $90 and the bundled set of round cables (IDE x2 & floppy) for $8, which I bought last week for this price!

 

[JafCo]

Beware the ubiquitous Fry's returned motherboards. Everytime I look for mobo's at Fry's, they've all got the "returned but wonderful condition, we promise!" sticker on it. While that may be true, quite often people return them after they've bent capacitors, etc. So, check carefully and keep your receipt!

 

[Granorense]

I have bult about 50 computers with ECS boards without a single problem. I gues some times you have to know what you are doing. I just built the last one using the ECS kt600 with an AMD 2600+.

 

[krackato]

Can you overclock at all with the ECS KT600? I think my Fry's is selling the Athlon XP 2500+ Barton retail with this motherboard.

 

[Braxus]

The one Fry's is selling with the Retail 2500+ is the bundled with a SiS board this time. Not the KT600. Checked on Friday.

Board Link

Odd thing was that this board supposedly only supports the 266FSB max officially according to SiS' documents. Guessing there's a newer revision that supports the 333FSB (unless the 2500+ is a 266 part).

In any case, the KT600 board has SATA RAID support as well as 400MHz FSB support. This guy only has 333MHz DDR w/333FSB "overclocked" (?) at best I think. Upside is that you get an extra PCI slot (5 instead of 4).

 

[htne]

I just returned from the Fry's in Houston, and they were out of the XP2500 cpus, but I did get a rain check. This is the first time I have encountered them being out of stock on their advertised combos.

 

[zettler]

Okay, for all of you who have bought, installed, troubleshot and recomend the ECS MB's (KT600-A), can you recommend a couple of links to somewhere where people who have actually written down what to do with one and how to get one to:

A. Actually work.
B. Recognize (properly) the CPU and RAM.
C. Register actual (at least approximate) temps on the CPU.
D. Whatever else people should know to get them to actually work correctly.

I am not being sarcastic or the like, it is just that I bought one of the combo from the Chicago Fry's Grand Opening and I am having serious issues!

1. The temps on MBM5 are saying anywhere between 170 and 260 degrees for the CPU - but it still runs.
2. It will not recognize the CPU that was bundled with it - it will only show it as 1290mhz.
3. When I reset the jumpers from 100 to 200, the board wont even start.

My setup includes: AMD2700 CPU; Thermaltake Smartcase Fan 2; SK7 HS; ATI Radeon 9700 Pro, 2-256 PC3500 HyoerX; WD 160GB; 120GB Maxtor; Lite-On 48x24x48 CDRW; Cyberdyne DVDRW; Santa Cruz Turtle Beach; ANTEC ATX (BIG) case; 350W Antec Smartpower; rounded cables and the like - so its not a bad setup.

I got it running but worry greatly about those temps!! I also worry about not being able to set it up properly so it recognizes the bloody CPU that came with it. The SmartFan has a temp probe which I thermal taped to the bottom of the CPU but I do not know how to set something up that will tell me the temps via that probe.

Also, I for the life of me cannot recall how to check what version of the BIOS it has and when I tried to use the ECS (Taiwan) BIOS update program, it wouldn't work....

I wasn't even going to use this ECS MB but when I went to clean up my sons PC that had all the above included in it except the new 2700 CPU, the darn EP-8RDA+ quit and will not even power up now. No clue how or why this happened. Tried setting it up twice too!

Anyway, I am posting my dilemma here and will in the MB forum now that I am awake from dinking with it till 7 AM this morning BUT would really appreciate any and all consideration, counsel and assistance!!!

 

[Freewolf]

well as far as the cpu you it won't boot at 200 because it is a 333 cpu and has to be set at 166.

 

[zettler]

Even an ole dog like me still needs to be reminded - THANK YOU.

Please send more feedback!