is this a good deal?

[elcamino74ss]

I was looking at the Fry's combo in the ad with the C2D E4500 and the ECS 945GCT-M for $118

I was either going to use it to upgrade my home w2k3 AD, SQL, IIS, etc box from a s754 AMD 2800

or

the kids ecs s754 3100 sempron box

At some point I'd probably ditch the ecs board

Is the e4500 a good cpu over the e21xx?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[OdiN]

ECS motherboards are crap.

Not a bad price for the CPU though. And you could probably ebay the motherboard for a few bucks.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: OdiN
ECS motherboards are crap.

Do you now, or have you ever owned an ECS MB?

 

[elcamino74ss]

The one I have in the kids pc now has been running fine for several years. Its not the best at overclocking but it runs fine for them. NForce 3 chipset even. The biggest complaint I've heard on them is DOA but once you have one that works they are fine. The two that I've had never caused me any grief.

 

[DSF]

Is this a brick & mortar only deal, or is it available online?

 

[elcamino74ss]

not sure I saw it in the local news. prob a b&m thing. luckily there is one near work and the deal ends today but they always seem to be running deals

 

[Modelworks]

Thats a very good price.
I just paid 120.00 for the E4500 cpu alone.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: OdiN
ECS motherboards are crap.

Do you now, or have you ever owned an ECS MB?

No. I have never owned one, and never will, because they are crap.

I've worked with a lot of them when I was managing a computer store.

When I took the store over, they were in a middle of a build of about 150 systems for a business. To cut corners, they were using ECS boards. I told them not to order them, and use Intel boards instead. They didn't listen.

About 100 of those ECS boards failed within a year for one reason or another. Some stopped working completely. Others the onboard LAN stopped working. Others had onboard video problems. By the time they had to warranty all of those, they would have spent less money going with a quality motherboard.

This is typical of ECS boards I have found. Lots of problems in customer systems who had those ECS boards in them. I'd say they were one of the most problematic. Also PCChips...but I think ECS bought them or something, can't recall.

From then on they used Intel boards for business systems. It was much better, as with Intel, I could send in an RMA for a board and have a replacement the next morning. Try that with ECS, or really any other board manufacturer.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: OdiN
When I took the store over, they were in a middle of a build of about 150 systems for a business. To cut corners, they were using ECS boards.
About 100 of those ECS boards failed within a year for one reason or another.

:shocked:

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: OdiN
ECS motherboards are crap.

Do you now, or have you ever owned an ECS MB?

I've worked with a lot of them when I was managing a computer store.

When I took the store over, they were in a middle of a build of about 150 systems for a business. To cut corners, they were using ECS boards. I told them not to order them, and use Intel boards instead. They didn't listen.

For a frame of reference, what year was that?

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: OdiN
ECS motherboards are crap.

Do you now, or have you ever owned an ECS MB?

I've worked with a lot of them when I was managing a computer store.

When I took the store over, they were in a middle of a build of about 150 systems for a business. To cut corners, they were using ECS boards. I told them not to order them, and use Intel boards instead. They didn't listen.

For a frame of reference, what year was that?

Oh hell....2002ish? I don't remember exactly.

Yes the ones that they used were lower end, microATX boards, and maybe they have improved, but I won't ever trust them or recommend them with the number of problems that I've seen. And it wasn't just that year, I saw plenty more over the years. Not at that scale though as we never used them ever again.

 

[VirtualLarry]

ECS mobos contain free "wierdness" built-in. It's a common feature.