ECS K7S5A vs K7S6A

[TheCorm]

I have been building systems with the K7S5A for some time now and have just completed by first build of a K7S6A board, I have noted some negative points FYI:

1. Instead of 5 PCI, 1 AGP & 1 AMR it now has 4 PCI, 1 AGP and 1 shared PCI/CNR.
2. Less support screw holes on the inner part of the board (near hard drives)
3. CD Supplied is v1.0....all my K7S5A boards come with v1.2....which is odd (1.0 does not support win xp)

and some positive points:
1. More USB headers than you can shake a stick at
2. 2 front panel connectors supporting all types of cases (no more 2 pin power LED prob as with K7S5A)
3. SiS 745 chipset....performence has definately improved.

Just waiting for the integrated LAN version to land with our suppliers now.

 

[DieHardware]

K7S5A has a better ATX connector placement, more flexible memory options and of course a better price. When its days are over its going on my motherboard wall of fame(and for others with worse luck...on their wall of shame).

 

[Peter]

K7S6A has no more SDRAM slots, no LAN option, much less BIOS maintenance ... but on the other hand has the better performing, DDR333 RAM supporting SiS 745 chipset, but stupidly enough no FireWire although the chipset would offer it. Price is about the same. You choose.

regards, Peter

 

[Buz2b]

CD Supplied is v1.0....all my K7S5A boards come with v1.2

OK, silly and insignificant question and/or statement but because this chipset is different and this is the K7S6A and not the K7S5A, why wouldn't the first version of the MB CD be version 1.0?? I see nothing odd about that. But then again, I've been referred to as odd myself from time to time.......:Q

 

[yodayoda]

remember, the best feature of ECS mobos is price. K7S5A is more cheap--i saw some refurb jobs at newegg for $35, you can't beat that =)

 

[TheCorm]

Quote

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CD Supplied is v1.0....all my K7S5A boards come with v1.2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK, silly and insignificant question and/or statement but because this chipset is different and this is the K7S6A and not the K7S5A, why wouldn't the first version of the MB CD be version 1.0?? I see nothing odd about that. But then again, I've been referred to as odd myself from time to time.......

Exactly what I thought when I opened the box but when I put in the revision 1.0 cd that came with the K7S6A it said that windows xp was not supported, I put in the revision 1.2 cd that came with the K7S5A cd and it installed fine, even came up as K7S6A install, I am guessing ECS have a standard motherboard installer cd.

Yup gotta love the price.