Initial results :ECS K7S6A

[osage]

system specs: ECS K7S6A, shipped with bios V1.0B
1600+XP w stock HSF
256 Crucial PC2100
Evercase E4252WEF5
Enhance 300W PSU, it's on the AMD approved list for up to 1600+XP
Maxtor 30 gig 7200
Lite-on 24x10x40
Sony floppy
Matrox G450
Samsung 955DF
Win2K Pro, fresh install

So far so good, no cold boot problem, I installed a new cmos battery before I put the board in the case. Booted, went into setup checked temps, 38 at idle.
The first thing is that you now have a lot more options for ram settings, cpu fsb,cpu voltage etc: Jumpers on the board to set the multiplier, I haven't used these yet. Looks good so far.....more later with some Sandra scores.

MBM dosen't seem to work like it did with my K7S5As, when setting the sensor 3=cpu sensor to use the std 8705F-3 sensor it shows the temp as -55C.
to get it to show the correct temp I must now use sensor 8705F-2, strange but no big deal.

 

[DoobieOnline]

Hey osage! Just got mine installed last night but didn't have time to play with it much. One thing I noticed, when I select Ultra memory setting, I can't also select 2-2-6 on memory timings - it won't boot when I do. If I leave it at 2.5-3-7 it works just fine, so I wonder if Ultra is already using the max mem settings available. I'm using 256MB Crucial PC2100 too, so I'm wondering what your using for settings. Everything else is sweet so far, and having the option to run the mem & cpu asynchronously is going to be a joy to play around with. Thanks!

 

[darth maul]

Ok boy'z, enuff with the chit-chat about it working when plugging it in, give us benchmarks, give us overclocking reports on how high it will go with the lowest multiplier used (tell me you have unlocked your chips already right?), and give us the full story on dividers and settings used and bench marks with each divider used assuming it ain't auto, if its auto, benchmark the Mhz it kicks in and benchmark the Mhz before that one.

Ok, now go go go go!!!!

 

[Katana]

Movin on up.


I'd also like to know how it benchmarks and how it overclocks, where are the reviews for this board?

 

[DoobieOnline]

Hmmm... I seem to be screwed with my K7S6A. Fnished the build last night, got home tonight to install XP and my Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 never would work (red led never even came on) on either USB port. I've tried everything possible in the bios settings to no avail - safest setup, fastest setup, tried each individual setting but nothing. The thing that kills me is even my old Intellimouse won't work on the PS2 port. Heck, I even installed M.E. to see if it was software related. Keyboard works on the PS2 port, so that's interesting. I'm going to slap my 8KHA+ back in tomorrow night to make sure the mouse is still working. If any proud new K7S6A owners have suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em! Hopefully I won't have to RMA this to Newegg cuz I wanna frag on it this weekend! Thanks!

 

[osage]

Well, the dreaded cold boot problem has reared it's ugly head.....system hangs just before the Win2K splash screen, if I hit the reset button it will boot OK.

Once the system has been started its OK unless left off for a few hours. I will be trying an Enermax 350W psu tonite

This is in a system for my brother so I won't be unlocking the chip or getting real carried away with OCing.

System boots and runs fine at 147mhz FSB, won't post at 150mhz even with conservative mem timings.. I have not used the multiplier jumpers yet.

Sandra @ 147mhz: memory 822/893
cpu 4328/2132
hdd 25132

 

[osage]

Well I may have the cold boot prob fixed, I think it was some setting in the bios that it didn't like, not sure which one it was however. I didn't change the PSU, and it has started right up the last 3 times.

 

[Duvie]

Have you used any of the ram voltage adjustments??? I am curious as I believe that is a factor in my only being able to be 100 percent stable at 142.7 on my k7s5a sis735 mobo...I am sure if I could boost voltage to ram up from 2.5v I could stability at 150...

 

[DoobieOnline]

RMA'd mine - Intellimouse worked like a charm on the 8KHA+ so the USB ports were indeed a no show on the K7S6A. Kinda bummed cuz I was looking forward to this board for so long, but I'll give it another shot when a different manufacturer comes out with one - especially if it has ATA133 support.

 

[SoundBoy]

s6a running well and stable with music applications, after doing the obligitory pci/irq shuffle.

xp 1700+, 256M ddr, Korg Oasys soundcard, tulip based netgear nic, and win98/logic audio. Black evercase, too.

Slightly beating the cas2 kt266a board in mem benchmarks sandra 2002. 1935 for the alu. at 133/cas 2.5

I can boot at 147, but not load windows, and 138 is stable (I havent even put a fan on the pep66 (just have a table fan pointing at it so far), nevertheless I'll probably keep it at 133 and if anything crank *down* the voltage for less heat. I'll make sure I hook something up to usb, I wonder if you had some wrong thing on the usb internal connector (of which there are 2).

Benches well, stable so far, and does more than 3.5x more work than the 900mhz athlon andara kt133 that it replaced. I'm pleased with the sis chipset/ecs mb at this time, and I haven't even done a clean install of win 98se yet. The ECS manual seem pretty good too.

The case, MB and proc. came out to 265USD or so inc shipping.

 

[ZimZum]

<< Hmmm... I seem to be screwed with my K7S6A. Fnished the build last night, got home tonight to install XP and my Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 never would work (red led never even came on) on either USB port. I've tried everything possible in the bios settings to no avail - safest setup, fastest setup, tried each individual setting but nothing. The thing that kills me is even my old Intellimouse won't work on the PS2 port. Heck, I even installed M.E. to see if it was software related. Keyboard works on the PS2 port, so that's interesting. I'm going to slap my 8KHA+ back in tomorrow night to make sure the mouse is still working. If any proud new K7S6A owners have suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em! Hopefully I won't have to RMA this to Newegg cuz I wanna frag on it this weekend! Thanks! >>



SIS has a patch for the USB problem

Link

 

[SoundBoy]

I don't have a usb mouse but my compact flash reader plugged right in, works perfectly. Actually everything works perfectly, I'm couldn't be more happy. Stable is good. I can't seem to crash this and I'm using Win98!

 

[osage]

I'm RMA ing the one I got for my brother. Even with my Enermax 350W psu it won't boot clean from a cold start. About 50% of the time when cold, and about 70% of the time on warm boot or a restart..
Not acceptable, I've played with it for a week and can't cure it.

 

[SoundBoy]

Sandra 2002 memory

2005/1865

1700+ at 137, cas 2.5

Still very stable, flashed with the newer bios at ocworkbench.com gave a +5% in memory bandwidth.


I need to change my sig cause Logic rocks on this System!

 

[Duvie]

Sounds like limiting factor for ocing the fsb with stability is that ecs used double sided tape as the thermal paste between the chipset and heatsink...You need to remove it and apply some good thermal paste...I have seen reports of 150fsb stable past that point....

Some reviews could not stability past 137mhz w/o doing this mod...I would find that laughable since I can do 143 now on my ecs k7s5a perfectly stable...

I am also disappointed in the disk mark scores, the gaming scores, and the 133/166 scores....

Is it me or is a bigger scam then ata133 drives the 333ddr scores...I mean actually decreases when running 133/166...What a f^cking joke....


At current time it doesn't seem like much of an upgrade from my k7s5a board...I sure hope some other board will implement the firewire and little better scores and stability with a better bios...then I can maybe see the benefit....


This board should have esily surpassed the kt266a if it was a true improvement...

 

[picardal]

I got this board and I wasnt too worried about overclocking. I just thought it was a decent price for an alternative to via
And Im very satisfied. Im never going back to via unless they have have some technological marvel .
This board is ridiculously rock stable.... The most stable I have ever had surprisingly... I have owned many different boards b4 this one 2... Ecs really surprised me... At least Im happy

 

[Duvie]

I agree I am very happy with my current ecs k7s5a I picked up for like 64 bucks 3 months ago...However that being said I am commenting on the fact that the sis745 doesn't seem to have enhanced much beyond the ability of the sis735...I am hoping it is due to the product being very new and the bios has some fixes that need to be done...


At current state I don't see an upgrade period on the amd side that would offer a substantial REAL-WORLD performance boost over my current ECS K7S5A....

 

[SoundBoy]

Yesterday I flashed the kgood bios from ocworkbench.com. 137,143,147 are all stable, SuperPi, Sandra Multimedia burn-in for 500x, etc. ALU over 2100 at 147. No problem booting into Win98@150 fsb, however not stable.

Now here's the kicker, I only have *one* Adda fan in the whole computer. It's the 80mm fan from the Enhance PS, removed from the PS and set inbetween the PS and the Pep 66 heatsink (basically it sucks all the hot air off the top of the Alpha heatsink and blows it through the power supply and out the back of the PS)

Since I can boot into win98@150 with the factory Doublesided Tape on the chipset, I would say that this board will have legs in the right hands. I'm running a solitary 80mm fan@ 7volts for all of these tests.

BTW, @ 147 I'm checking out the network performance, doing music, everything *STABLE*

Tonicom PC2700 cas 2.5, 1700+ CPU

PS the tbreak.com review of this MB shows either no difference or a positive influence at 133/166.
The sandra HD scores seem low on this board, however I think that in the real world the IDE is far better than the via chipset. Running 24bit audio, with dozens of tracks and context switches is much smoother and network access, soundcard DMA is much better than VIA. In addition the board scores higher than any others on winstone business, which has much to do with HD speed.

 

[CTho9305]

<< ...I installed a new cmos battery before I put the board in the case. >>



might I ask why anyone might want to do that???

 

[SoundBoy]

150 FSB 11x stable, posting from Win XP right now. 150fsb, 1650 Mhz, 300.07 DDR

Standard Voltages, nothing but I bios adj. Still only one 80mm fan in the whole computer. If I were keeping it at this speed I'd definately run the fan at 12 volts/right now its 7V.

2143/2002 Sandra mem 2002

 

[wdeep]

click

 

[SoundBoy]

Man tough crowd, I guess no-one is interested in a stable MB, that's under $70, is quiet and overclocks well.

 

[Insane3D]

"Man tough crowd, I guess no-one is interested in a stable MB, that's under $70, is quiet and overclocks well. "

Well, it can't even hit 140FSB...that is not exactly "overclocking well". Also, most motherboards are quiet...it's the CPU's and case fans that are noisy. Also, the Shuttle KT266A board can be had for close to the same price..

I've got nothing against the ECS, it's just not anything exciting...

 

[SoundBoy]

Mine has no problem with 150fsb, prime95, winxp etc. Or 143, Or 147fsb all of these are above 140fsb. Re: quiet, well the chipset is on a smaller process than VIA and the northbridge/southbridge doesn't have a fan. Less heat= quieter, at least for me, I tune my fan down so they have enough airflow but are quiet.