Gaming on Ecs Boards what your opinion?

[FSH42NA]

till recently I thought of ECS mobos as POS mobos. After all that's why Fry's basically gives them away for free with their cpu/mobo combos. Well, that changed after building a value pc for a family friend. I got a Fry's combo of a Celeron 430 with an ECS mobo (forgot the model, but it's one of their standard Intel giveaway mobos). Anyways, the build was pretty simple except for a problem with the onboard sound. Turned my video card's built in sound chip conflicted. Anyhow, their customer service actually responded several times with helpful hints on what to do. These responses weren't the canned responses that I've gotten from ASUS which never really answered my question.

As far as overclocking, options were extremely limited, but I knew this going in. So if you want a mobo that does what it was intended for and no frills, then I don't see reason not to go with ECS now.

 

[Kraeoss]

so it's safe to say that ecs boards are 'sensitive' boards that require stable psu's.

 

[FSH42NA]

I'd say that they are fine for basic, no frills pc's. Unstable power supplies aren't good for any mobo, no matter which brand. If you have a crappy mobo, a great power supply isn't going to change the likelihood that your pc will be glitchy.

 

[cubeless]

Originally posted by: Kraeoss
so it's safe to say that ecs boards are 'sensitive' boards that require stable psu's.

they use simpler power sections, so a better power supply lets them be more stable in some situations... but that can happen to any board...

i use ecs boards all the time... i figure that if i get the board for free i just buy a more expensive combo and get a faster stock chip and don't have to oc as far and generate less heat, etc... if, down the road i want to upgrade the mobo i do so... but any more i just let'em run most the time...

the 7100/7150 boards seem to be the best runners right now... even with the single channel memory they seem to oc better and are less finicky about memory...

 

[Kraeoss]

if only i had access to those deals eh..... unfortunately i dont have bargain stores in my area

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: FSH42NA
Unstable power supplies aren't good for any mobo, no matter which brand.

:thumbsup:

Really, the whole "ECS is crap" has not applied to their products from the past few years, but persists like an urban legend. ECS is definately not high end, but not-high-end =/= crap.

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: FSH42NA
Unstable power supplies aren't good for any mobo, no matter which brand.

:thumbsup:

Really, the whole "ECS is crap" has not applied to their products from the past few years, but persists like an urban legend. ECS is definately not high end, but not-high-end =/= crap.

They seem to have turned the corner with the K7S5A board. They may have turned it before then and nobody really noticed, but since the K7S5A became hugely popular I've seen and heard more people going with ECS not only because they are budget boards, but also because they perform as designed and hold up well enough.

I remember the bottom boards used to be PC Chips, ECS, Biostar. I haven't used a Biostar board but they have gained in popularity over the past year or so and their 780G offering got great reviews and has been a solid pick for HTPC builders. Looks like Biostar is out of the dumps now.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: doubleOseven
I heard (correct me if I'm wrong) that ECS actually manufactures AsRock's motherboards... (although Asus owns AsRock, AsRock only designs / specs the boards, while ECS makes them for AsRock. Anyone know if this is true?

ASRock entered the market with some rebranded ECS boards, so there could be a continued manufacturing or procurement relationship. ASUS has used ECS designed or manufactured boards in the past as well.

Commercial ties and business relationships in Asian countries are highly convoluted, anyway. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that ECS or ASUS have some convoluted ownership tie with each other.

 

[anirudh33]

Can some body guide me which one would be better in terms of performance or reliablity An intel original g31 board or an ecs g31 board.I need this as quick as possible so please help.

 

[Zap]

Hello anirudh33, and welcome to the forums.

In terms of performance, the two boards you mentioned are based off the same chipset so they should perform nearly identical to each other. For reliability, you probably won't be overclocking on either so they should both be stable. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Intel branded motherboards tend to be very reliable.

 

[anirudh33]

thanks for ur guidance

 

[anirudh33]

I had an intel 915 gav original board before with an p4 3.0 ht processor. I was quiet comfortable with the performance.(audio+Video As well as in some general gaming). An Ecs G31 would be better than what i have got till now i think. PLease comment.(I am going to use intel core 2 duo 2.53 ghz processor with it)

 

[anirudh33]

I had an intel 915 gav original board before with an p4 3.0 ht processor. I was quiet comfortable with the performance.(audio+Video As well as in some general gaming). An Ecs G31 would be better than what i have got till now i think. PLease comment.(I am going to use intel core 2 duo 2.53 ghz processor with it)

 

[Zap]

Yes, the G31 is a much newer chipset that supports SATA II, HD Audio and 1333FSB. The integrated video is also a newer design, GMA 950. The best thing is that you can upgrade the video through the PCI Express x16 slot.

 

[anirudh33]

Thanks Zap information is really helpfull to me. I am confident now.
(its gma3100 i think)

 

[tcsenter]

G31 is hard limited to 4GB address space, though, so you're going to have the old 32-bit problem of overlapping address space constraints.

 

[justinm]

Hmmm....

I had a few ECS boards and only one gave me problems. The USB was flaky on an X2 system I had a while back so I had to get a PCI USB controller. The other two builds ran perfect for what they were built for.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: murray6475
I had a few ECS boards and only one gave me problems. The USB was flaky on an X2 system I had a while back so I had to get a PCI USB controller.

Was it an ECS NFORCE4A-939 motherboard?

Initially the NForce 4 chipset had some USB quirkiness that most vendors resolved on a PCB or BIOS level, but on that particular board ECS never fixed the issue. Basically it caused lockups or flakiness when high speed devices (USB HDDs or network devices) were used.