Anyone got anything good or bad to say about PC Chips MBs?

[Nolan75]

Was just wondering as I have seen them for cheap and wondered if it was a case of getting what you pay for. I was thinking that if they are decent that I might buy some to build machines to sell.

Nolan

 

[jarsoffart]

I remember there was a hot deal with a PC Chips motherboard, but everyone said that they are horrible and fall apart. I do vaguely remember them being bought up by some company, but I'm not sure.

 

[hbkh]

crap crap crap.... bought two a few years ago... both failed... and weren't even overclocked!

PS. PC Chips wasn't bought out if i remember right.... PC Chips bought ECS and some Amptron (or something like that) company.

 

[Buz2b]

Get over it guys. PC Chips is not "crap, crap, etc". They are a well known, budget MB maker. They usually offer a good selection MB's with a wide variety of "built-ins" that most "enthusiasts" would not want but many others do. While I am not, by any means an expert on their offerings, there are others here that can "enlighten" you.
No, they are usually NOT what you would call an overclockers board or a power users board. For the most part, they do not and will not compete with the offerings from the likes of ASUS or Epox. That's not what they intend to do anyway. But, if you want something decent and are on a budget, you would be hard pressed to beat the value. I'd bet that, sooner or later, someone like "Peter" could chime in here and enlighten you a bit more than myself. Hopefully, he will notice this thread and do so.

 

[pdo]

I have built system using PC CHIPS 810L and 830L and both are very stable boards and were not meant for overclockers. So if you wanna overclock then look somewhere else but if you want a stable budget board then you won't go wrong with either of those boards.

 

[Regalk]

We had one in our office for a loong time and it worked real stable (Celeron 333) with onboard sound and video. A pain to setup but works real fine once you are done and running stable. If you are gonna sell them make sure your buyers are not in the enthusiast market otherwise they will stress you out man.

 

[Oakenfold]

PC chips has come a long way since the S7 era, back then I would be back on the crapwagon but now for budget purposes they do a good job.

 

[Peter]

I've been using their boards ever since midway into the Pentium era ... and even these old things still run fine. Especially their all-in-ones are great bargains. The only things you don't get are overclocking features and related toys - and no end user support either, beyond BIOS and driver updates that is.

As for build quality ... PC-Chips and ECS are the same company, Abit and Shuttle have their stuff made by them, Shuttle even outsources mainboard designs to them.

They've been in the top spot of mainboard makers last year for a reason.

regards, Peter

 

[tcsenter]

Get over it guys. PC Chips is not "crap, crap, etc". They are a well known, budget MB maker. They usually offer a good selection MB's with a wide variety of "built-ins" that most "enthusiasts" would not want but many others do. While I am not, by any means an expert on their offerings, there are others here that can "enlighten" you.

Reputations are difficult to overcome, especially ones that were well deserved at one time, even if you take heroic measures to overcome them.

I would love to have a time machine and take you back to the days (circa 1994 - 1998) when PC Chips and all other labels under which these boards were sold (including those with no labels at all) were synonymous with "junk" among PC technicians, system builders, and enthusiasts everywhere. They were crap, they used fake L2 cache chips that did not work (search google groups for "fake cache" and see what you get), they used unauthorized (i.e. pirated) BIOS code and invalid BIOS ID numbers, they had the highest DOA/RMA rates in the industry, bar none.

Hell I thought the entire Hsing Tech enterprise was some front company for the Chinese mob or something, nobody could have a legitimate company with products that bad, or a system of distribution that shady and deceptive, where seven 'different companies' all offer identical products that didn't even attempt to differentiate themselves by using a different model naming scheme for their motherboards, while each was claiming 'We are the manufacturer!' (that was the actual slogan used by either Amptron or Alton PC at one time).

Apparently, some person who had some significant stake in this Hsing Tech empire realized "Hey, our products really suck ass, and we're not talking your average ass suckiness, either! We've set a new standard for extreme ass suckiness." because things sure have turned around in the last few years. You couldn't GIVE me a PC Chips board in 1996 or pay me to use one.

But I have used some of their recent boards and they were pretty good.

 

[compudog]

I have to agree with tscenter. The early PC Chips/Alton/Amptron boards were total suck. The newer ones I have used are not bad at all. There are some great Biostar (M7VKQ) that are great values as well. I have been using them with a great deal of success.

 

[Peter]

"Illegal" BIOSes they didn't use. That is a myth generated by the fact that they had ONCE (on the M537) screwed up on the Award BIOS ID string, which made it look like they stole a Tyan BIOS.

As for the fake cache chips, that was in the 486 era. Bad that was, yes. Investigation IIRC showed that it was a large OEM customer who ordered them that way, and then the stuff trickled into retail anyway.

At least since I started using them in mid-1997, their products have been OK and reliable. DOA rate is in line with everything else I use. I do not buy from shady suppliers, that seems to be the key here.

regards, Peter

 

[kmmatney]

I bought to PC Chips motherboards I while back. These were the boards with both a Slot 1 and 370 socket on board. One of the motherboards was DOA, and the other took forever to set up and get working, and the Slot 1 interface never worked at all. I vowed never again to buy a PC Chips board. I have had great luck with recent ECS motherboards, though...

 

[ScrapSilicon]

I know of 2 Amptron 599 SS7 mobos still chugging along..both 500mhz..

 

[UnTech]

Is FuguTech the same as PC Chips?