Good Combo Deal On Budget Video Cards and Motherboards @ Newegg

[GnomeCop]

Saw this on the Newegg.com homepage:

ECS Motherboard/Video Card Combos

Decent for some work & light gaming systems on a budget, the 10 dollar instant savings absorbs shipping fees and/or tax (if that applies to you) and some combos have stackable rebates.

 

[longhorn]

This is a bit off-topic, but hopefully of wide interest.

I have purchased inexpensive CPU/ECS Mobo combos at Fry's in the past.
Of the 3 such combos I have purchased, 2 of them had significant problems
which were the result of poor quality ECS motherboards. Even the "good"
combo had the mobo die after about 2 years. I have seen comments from
others in various forums talking about their difficulties with ECS motherboards.
And the Fry's always seems to have lots of returned ECS motherboards in
stock.

So, I have sworn off ECS mobos regardless of how good the price looks.

Yet I see a number of people talking about ECS motherboard deals on these
forums.

Has ECS improved their quality? Are the large number of returns at Fry's a
result of the huge number of combos they sell, and not an indicator of problems?
Is it worthwhile to give them another chance?

 

[LiquidIce1337]

I seocnd that, the ECS brand is hurting. I had the K7S5A and I thought it was a great baord until one night.. click flash!! found out the capcitors exploded.. thank god non of my hardware was affected, Just a heads up I don't know if they have surpassed the bad batch of capacitors from japan yet.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I built 4 systems with the K7S5A about 4 years ago and AFAIK all of them are still running fine.

 

[GnomeCop]

Even though ECS is one of the lower tier brands, I've never had a problem with their boards before. Of course, I am not as hard on them as I would be with my Gigabyte and Asu overclocking oriented boards, but they've never caused me any hardware distress. The late model boards do seem more feature packed though.

 

[spittledip]

Originally posted by: LiquidIce1337
I seocnd that, the ECS brand is hurting. I had the K7S5A and I thought it was a great baord until one night.. click flash!! found out the capcitors exploded.. thank god non of my hardware was affected, Just a heads up I don't know if they have surpassed the bad batch of capacitors from japan yet.

Considering the time period that particualr mobo was being made I would guess that your board just had part of the batch of bad caps on it like many of the boards being built at that time. So, I would not consider that a reflection on ECS. I have had one since March paird with a Brisbane x2 3600 and it actually overclocks pretty well considering that lack of bios options (low end model). Passes Prime95 for 10 hours no problems. Hopefully longevity won't be an issue.. as long as it is kept fairly cool i don't think it will be an issue though.

 

[esquared]

I've built 50 to 60 computers with ECS motherboard/combos from Fry's since the K7S5A.I'Ve had just two boards DOA from the start and I have only had two go bad in the ones I built. I never hesitate using ECS in these combo deals. BTW, that K7S5A board can still command 20-40 on eBay. They are still considered a versatile board.

 

[BoomerD]

I've only had 1 ECS motherboard, (L4VXA2) and that was enough to keep me from ever buying another of their boards...

 

[Jiggz]

Count me in! After a big fiasco with 3 ECS mobo's never again. Another one that I also despised, even though they seem to have improved, is Acer. I've seen 22" and 20" Acer monitors at bargain price but I'd rather spend another $20 or even $40 more just not to get an Acer. I mean any Acer products. It's just me and my bad experience. Nothing personal and don't infer others to do the same.

 

[Lpenguin]

People are always complaining about ECS boards. I have probably built two dozen systems using ECS combos from Fry's. I have had two problems, and both were three years ago or more. One was DOA and one lost onboard sound after a year or more. I did not set up the DOA board for several months after I bought it so I ate that one, I think the return period on the combos is 30 days. In addition I have recommended ECS combos from Fry's to many people and I have not heard of any problems. There are many old socket A/478 ECS systems that I built for friends/relatives that are working just fine today.

Maybe they are not for OC'ers or tweekers, but for an inexpensive system for your non-geek family/friends that does what it is supposed to I always with no regrets suggest the Fry's ECS combos. I set up my wifes office in March with three new ECS combos and everything is fine.

Maybe all the people with problems are trying to set up a new system without a new clean install of the OS. That can cause trouble with any brand motherboard. Give the ECS combo a try for yourself, you will probably be satisfied.:beer:

 

[Tomer]

Through our business we have built 100's of ECS motherboarded systems. We don?t have a need to overclock, just need a rock solid board. The K7S5A was a rocking board except for the CMOS memory issue, but for the price it was outstanding.

These days we use the ECS NFORCE4M-A with excellent results. Even though most of our customers don?t use them, I like a board with some extra slots and 2 IDE connectors. I'll admit my prejudice against SATA and I'll be one of the last to switch over and only when I absolutely have to. A lot of the newer design boards only carry one IDE connector in favor of the flimsy SATA connector and blue-steel stiff SATA cables.

In the end we have not had even one bad ECS board out of all we have built and sent into the field. ASUS on the other hand has given us nothing but headaches. We have tried some Gigabytes with good results also.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Depends of model. Have a very fast C2D rig but I still use my ECS KN1 Lite board as my main PC. Absolutely no difference in speed vs the C2D rig. Well, at least with the stuffs that I use each day. Board is very stable. All NF4 chips run hot, so I made some changes to the heat sink for quiet operation. Easy 297MHz FSB with just a bump in Vcore. Their NF4 754 and 939 boards are also fast and stable. NForce4M-A is based on the same platform so reliability should be very high.

ECS is a little weak with extreme C2D oveclocking. Ony their 650i board is capable of +450MHz FSB. Other Intel-based boards are okay up to 350MHz.

 

[Richardito]

Originally posted by: longhorn


This is a bit off-topic, but hopefully of wide interest.

I have purchased inexpensive CPU/ECS Mobo combos at Fry's in the past.
Of the 3 such combos I have purchased, 2 of them had significant problems
which were the result of poor quality ECS motherboards. Even the "good"
combo had the mobo die after about 2 years. I have seen comments from
others in various forums talking about their difficulties with ECS motherboards.
And the Fry's always seems to have lots of returned ECS motherboards in
stock.

So, I have sworn off ECS mobos regardless of how good the price looks.

Yet I see a number of people talking about ECS motherboard deals on these
forums.

Has ECS improved their quality? Are the large number of returns at Fry's a
result of the huge number of combos they sell, and not an indicator of problems?
Is it worthwhile to give them another chance?

AMEN, same here... If you want to piss off someone build them an ECS mobo system.

 

[Bonesdad]

5 K7S5A builds, all are still operating perfectly...

 

[GnomeCop]

bottom line is if you're gonna be doing some hardcore overclocking, then you probably wouldn't even be looking at this thread long enough to comment. However if you are looking for an inexpensive solution for everyday computing with some light gaming on the side, ECS is as good a choice as the next guy. But everyone has been bit by different manufacturers.