ECS - good mobo's ?

[Blues X]

I'm looking at upgrading my 1ghz system to a P4 2.4Ghz chip. I've seen an ECS mobo available for about $60 that seems to have all the features I want. But with it being only $60 I keep thinking it's too good to be true.

From what I've read regarding reviews of ECS products, that's about what everyone thinks. It's so inexpensive there must be a catch, but then when they review it they say it's a good stable product.

The specific ECS mobo I'm considering is the ECS P4VXASD2+. I like it because I won't have to immediately replace my sdram with ddr ram, but I can in the future. It has USB 2.0, built in LAN, supports 333DDR and the 533 P4 cpu bus.

And I won't be overclocking, so that's not a worry.

Any opinions of ECS mobos, one way or another?

Thanks.

 

[Kazuo]

If you're not overclocking, ECS boards are fine. They're a HUGE producer of motherboards in Taiwan, so they can afford to sell their boards for dirt cheap. They produce boards for a lot of other brands as well. If the board has what you need, odds are it'll be OK.
ECS is quality for OEM-type systems (not much overclocking, lots of integrated features). Still, if you can find reviews of it, what they say is usually pretty representative of what you can expect- try to read a few though before deciding; I've seen some reviews say "This board is rock-solid stable!" and then another one will be like "This board didn't make it through ANY of my tests. It's awful." Keep in mind that some reviewers could theoretically be using inadequate cooling or power or cheap RAM or something too. If you make sure you get all of the good parts, ECS boards work fine.

 

[Peter]

Two "surprises" for system upgraders: (1) You will need a MUCH stronger power supply unit. (2) Don't be disappointed if the RAM from your old system doesn't work right in your new one. P4 and Athlon systems push much harder on RAM throughput, revealing manier slightly flaky DIMMs that worked OK in older, slower gear. www.memtest86.com

That considered, the ECS boards are solid product.

 

[Blues X]

Thanks for the info. You reinforced my feeling that these mobo's are fine, but I just wanted to be sure.

I'm going to upgrade my case when I get the parts (it's old, noisy, and a pain to get into), and I'm going to get at least a 350watt power supply. From what I've seen in P4 systems being sold, that should be enough.

My current memory is pretty high quality from Crucial, so I think it'll work okay. But I'll be prepared to get new sticks if I have to.

Thanks again.

 

[Kazuo]

P4s need special power supplies, too. Make sure you get one that works.
Moreover, the wattage of a power supply means just about exactly dick. It's a good basis to work from, but a crap brand 400W power supply won't be as good as a good company's 300W as far as powering a system. How "clean" the power lines are (free from ripple and how exact they are to what's being asked for) is very important too.
That said, companies like Antec, Allied, Sparkle, and Enlight are good brands to choose from (among others). Allied power supplies are really nice and cheap, but you'll likely want to get a higher rated one with one of those to make sure that the power lines are up to snuff with others.
Crucial RAM is excellent. And if it doesn't work, you may be able to get a replacement, but I wouldn't count on it.
Good luck on your P4 upgrade

 

[Viperoni]

Originally posted by: Peter
Two "surprises" for system upgraders: (1) You will need a MUCH stronger power supply unit. (2) Don't be disappointed if the RAM from your old system doesn't work right in your new one. P4 and Athlon systems push much harder on RAM throughput, revealing manier slightly flaky DIMMs that worked OK in older, slower gear. www.memtest86.com

That considered, the ECS boards are solid product.

I agree, in my experience with the ECS p4vmm2, they're pretty good!

 

[techietam]

The specific ECS mobo I'm considering is the ECS P4VXASD2+

I haven't worked with "+" model, only with a regular P4VXASD2.
I'd stay away from it. We completely discontinued that model due
to very high RMA rate, and I mean VERY high.

It's possible that they fixed those bugs in the "+" model.

techie

 

[Peter]

Would you care elaborate what these "bugs" were?

 

[clicknext]

My K7S5A has worked flawlessly for over a year now.

 

[PCHPlayer]

Just upgraded my kids K6-400/66 to an ECS K7S5A + 1 G Duron + 128 MB of SDRAM for $100. So far so good. The paper documentation that came in the box sucked! On-line docs were much better. I just made sure that the 3.3/5 volt rail on the PS put out at least 190 Watts.