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ECS k7s5a(Sis735) or PC Chips 830 (Sis735)???

W

waqasusman

Member
Is the modem on the PC Chips 830 any worth? Otherwise the specs seem to be similar for both the boards. Also, there are a lot more reviews from websites and customers for ECS k7s5a, whereas PC Chips 830 is not much talked about.
 
Same manufacturer, same mobo, different name is all.

Check carefully, modem may be an option. Both have at least slot for modem.
 
Tenoc, I was referring to the modem that comes with PC Chips, "Bundled optional AMR v.90 56k modem".
I thought PC Chips and ECS were two different manufacturers, aren't they? (though in these two mobo's the chipset is the same, sis735)

Are there any users of PC Chips 830?
The only thread discussing 830 is http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=753605&highlight_key=y&keyword1=pc%20chips
Have more people bought PC Chips 830 since March 31st? 🙂 Any feedback from 830 users will be highly appreciated,
Thanks
 
It is the same company, Elitegroup being the retail brand and PC-Chips the OEM brand.

The 830LR is the absolute same board as the K7S5A w/ LAN, 830 is K7S5A w/o LAN. The only things that differ are the name string in BIOS, the paint job, and the items packed along with it in the box.

PC-Chips box sometimes includes an AMR modem card, while Elitegroup tends to pack more cables.

Mind the BIOS - you should by all means use the 2002/03/25 release from www.pcchips.com.tw.

Peter - (happy 830LR user)
 
ECS group owns PCCHIPS, AMPTRON, ELPINA, SHUTTLE, PINE, HSINGTECH, and many more... just FYI. *Edit*: Additional info, ECS is also the owner of PC WAVE (non AMD mobo producers), PCWARE, PROTAC (a popular mobo in UK), ARISTO, MINSTAPLE, EURONE (for European market), and MATSONIC.
 


<< ECS group owns PCCHIPS, AMPTRON, ELPINA, SHUTTLE, PINE, HSINGTECH, and many more... just FYI. *Edit*: Additional info, ECS is also the owner of PC WAVE (non AMD mobo producers), PCWARE, PROTAC (a popular mobo in UK), ARISTO, MINSTAPLE, EURONE (for European market), and MATSONIC. >>



Wow, almost a dozen companies... I thought shuttle was another company, didn't know about the other names you've mentioned (perhaps pine -- soundcards?)

 
ECS - retail pack
PC Chips - oem pack

I presume PC Chips 830LR would come with 90 day warranty, whereas k7s5a retail would come with a 1year warranty.

If that's right, shouldn't I go for 1year warranty with the retail pack? (cables etc won't matter, but a modem with 830LR is more important to me, if it comes with a decent warranty)

Peter, did your 830LR come with 90day warranty or 1 year?

Thank you all guys for clearing things up for me!

Waqas Usman
 
waqasusman,

From your other threads, it sounds like you are in the market for an economical board + CPU. If you are buying a new CPU, why not consider the Soltek SL-75DRV4 ($72 if you buy with new AMD CPU) or Shuttle AK31A ($67 if you buy it with new AMD CPU) from Newegg.com?

Both are fast motherboards with oc features. The problem with Soltek is that it doesn't have as large a following (tech support might be a problem) and the Shuttle might be made by ECS (in which case why not buy ECS instead).

Just wanted to throw addtl alternatives out .....to confuse you more like the rest of us.
 
Both are essentially the same board the 2 main differences are ECS has significantley better service and support. With PC CHips products, you buy it, and thats it aside from bios updates. The other factor is PC Chips often has on-board modems which from my experience are perfectly fine. The system I'm on now uses a PC Chips SiS 630S P3 mobo with a On_board Modem and I'm using it and it works great! Having used 3 ECS/PC Chips products (K7S5A, K7VMA and the one mentioned previously), I feel that they are a manufacturer that makes good boards and I will never hesitate to recommend them.
 
Copperpipe,
I've read some bad reviews from users on these forums about VIA's poor DMA performance. A guy performed quite a scientific comparison between VIA's disk read/write with some extremely faster processor and the good old BX2 chipset with some Celeron 300, and he said that the Via's performance was considerably poorer than even the BX2!! Some other people also posted links to other websites that pointed out the same problem with VIA's chipsets.

Also, I've read people having compatiblity issues with common hardware like SB Live (I have one).

And last but not the least, I have a very very tight budget (bought an Olympus C-2100 a few months ago) and I've got to upgrade my RAM, VGA, Mobo, Processor and Hard Disk, virtually everything. So I want to keep the cost as low as possible, otherwise adding $10 or $20 in each item would cause an increase of $50-100 in the total 🙂
 
waqas,

Be sure to check your warranty from whomever you buy your ECS board from. Newegg and many other online resellers sell them cheap because do not offer any warranty beyond a 30-day period. Outside of the 30 day warranty period, you will have to try to get service from the manufacturer. And don't count on ECS for any support/RMA beyond the 30-day period. I've heard of others being unable to get a replacement board directly from ECS. There are some online resellers who do offer a 1 year warranty on the board but their prices are higher (Axiontech.com is one such company).

bambam,

I am not sure about power supply issues with the Soltek board but I've heard of people having problems with the ECS K7S5A being able to run the Shuttle AK31A without any problems with the same hardware.
 
I thought newegg gave 1 year warranty on the retail k7s5a, that's why I preferred it over PCChips.
Thanks for telling me, otherwise I would've bought it with an expectation of 1year warranty.

Do you know any retailer that gives 1 year warranty for PCChips boards? I didn't find any PCChips board at axiontech. At wired-zone.com, there was PCChips board with 90day warranty.
 
I don't know of any company who sells the PCChips boards with a one year warranty. Perhaps you can email PCCHips that question. I don't mean to discourage you about PCChips, but I've been advised by many people to avoid that brand. Apparently they don't have a very good reputation as compared to other brands.

It is very important to try to check out the reputation of the online retailer....use pricegrabber.com or resellerratings.com. If/when you need to RMA a product, you don't want to have to argue with the vendor in getting a replacement or refund.

Many of us buy from places like Newegg and give the hardware a good workout/test with the idea that if the product is bad, the defects will appear (hopefully) within the first 30 days......although 90 days would be better. It seems that this is a bit of a gamble....but I've never had to return a mobo or CPU yet in the more than a dozen systems that I've built over the years.

Am not sure about the ECS brand though....have heard from several people about their boards dying after 3 to 6 months. Mine are still going strong after about 6 months.....hope they last at least a year from now...at which time I'll look forward to them crapping out to give me another excuse to upgrade again.
 
Copperpipe,
Thanks for the tips regarding pricegrabber and bizrate ratings, I used to search on engines like pricescan, pricegrabber, pricewatch and then look for the vendor's ratings at resellerratings.com, pricegrabber does provide rating, but sometimes (infact most of the times?) the list of vendors is much smaller on pricegrabber/ pricescan than on pricewatch.

About bizrate, it doesn't rate vendors on the customers' feedback, it rates them on the services they offer, no matter whether they actually practice those according to the promise or not. (at least that's what happenned till a couple of months ago, I don't check bizrate now)

I have made up my mind to go for ECS from axiontech because I would like to have a 1yr warranty, I have seen a couple of threads here when I came to learn that the board is crap if the vendor doesn't provide a 1yr warranty.
 
Wow, pricegrabber has improved the interface alot, earlier there was a mess of separate "Duron 1.0", "Duron 1000mhz" lists that should've been grouped into one category, now they are grouped into one category.
 
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