ECS L7S7A2 - opinions?

[brentkiosk]

Will soon build a budget system for my daughter. I've had good luck with two modest K7S5A systems - basically worked right out of the box. I've seen some positive comment about the L7S7A2. Overclocking and demanding gaming is not an issue. Any comments on this board?

 

[Peter]

Reviews have been positive (in performance and stability). This board is to follow the K7S5A's footsteps - with a current chipset that has FSB333 and DDR333 support as well as USB 2.0 and FireWire inside, still on a cost effective no-nonsense board.

 

[bambam]

These are tempting because of the performance for the price but they're just too "new" . However if they are as flaky as the K7S5A I had , you could waste alot of time getting it to work to only have it totally quit months down the road . For my time and $ worth , I would pass and spend $ 20-40 more on Abit, Asus, Epox, etc discussed here .

 

[Peter]

No matter how often that myth is spun, K7S5A has been anything but flaky. Dozens of millions of them sold, most into high volume OEM deals, over a timespan of two years. Had it been "flaky", this wouldn't have happened - you don't keep your OEM customers if you don't deliver reliable product.

 

[brentkiosk]

Thanks. I'll think a while longer, but my K7S5A experience has been good, so might try the new one.

 

[oustedone]

I've got an L7S7A2 with an xp 2600+ and its been rock solid. I was running PS2100 DDR Nanya Ram which kind of hurt the performance. Never once has it given me any guff. It even overclocks very well considering the limitations my RAM was giving me. I was able to get it to 2700+ with no voltage increases. I will have to get some better memory for it to see what hights it can achieve.

 

[brentkiosk]

Thanks - that pushes me the way I sort of want to go anyway.

 

[rogue1979]

I bought mine with overclocking/performance in mind. I wanted an alternative to the nforce2 chipset, I am still not confident that is 100% compatible and stable yet. The L7S7A2 has excellent benchmarks/performance. Mine is able to push a 1700+ to 2400MHz @ 1.82v. I have also hit a 200MHz fsb, as many people have. You need to make sure you have a quality power supply as well as ram to insure no problems. I am currently running 195 x 12 for 2340MHz at 1.71v, rock stable, absolutely no issues.

 

[brentkiosk]

Sounds good - I think I'll take the chance.

 

[Mattster]

I took the plunge and ordered one on friday from Newegg. I'm not an overclocker by any means, but if the OOBE (Out of Box Experience)
is good i.e. starts up first time with no issues and loads OS, I will be a happy camper.

I'll post back here when I get it in and running (should be here Wednesday and I may have it up late Wednesday night).

Matt

 

[TimeKeeper]

Just finished a system last week w/ L7S7A2 w/ 1700xp 1.5V-A running at 1.83Ghz/ 2200xp.
The board is fast and so easy to setup. (just make sure you don't install SIS IDE driver, it will not run faster than your WinXP driver)

Voltage can only increase 1%, 3% and 5%, needless to say, not enough juice to do serious overclocking. But connecting a single bridge on your L11 is not that hard anyway.

Clockmultiplier up to 12.5X only, but I always like JUMPERS!!!!!!!!

Pushing memory speed in the mobo is just ....too easy.
I have PC2100 Apacer @2.6V , I am running it @166Mhz.
AGP/PCI lock is BIG PLUS!!!!!!

By comparing to my previous NF7-S or N7N2-ILSR, I would NOT hesitate to buy this mobo again!
(okay, I am cheap and I have no problem connecting L11 bridge on my CPU )

 

[rogue1979]

I had to connect some L11 bridges to get over 1.70v, as well as a vdimm mod to get up to 2.94v for the ram.

 

[Vette73]

Great cheap stable board.

I got this board for my backup system and it does very well.

 

[antmanbee]

I just ordered this board, $57 shipped from Newegg and I am waiting it's arrival. Going to pop in a xp1700 Thoroughbred B in it. It looks like it should be a very good board and I am surprised there is not a lot more interest in this board.
From what I have read it is about as fast as any AMD boards out now and it is very low cost with a lot of features as well as some O/C features. I have built around a dozen systems with the K7S5A,
dating back about a year and a half ago and have been very pleased with the quality and performance.