Just built a new computer - suprised by PCCHIPS

[Yzzim]

What'd you do with the old parts?

My grandfather is looking for an upgrade (he's currently using a K6-2 400mhz I believe) and your wife's old comp would give him a nice upgrade.

 

[Calin]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
If ECS and PCChips are the same, then PCChips should be fine. I did 5 or 6 machines for friends and family about 3 years ago when the ECS K7S5A was the hot budget board for Athlon/Duron and all are still running fine.

They are built by the same company - there was an article on anandtech.com about ECS mainboard production facilities.
I own an ECS K7S5A, no problems so far, hope the future is smiling. However, my brother in law bought one K7S5APro that had some bad condensers
EDIT: however, BIOS updates are at least lacking, not to say different

 

[Demon-Xanth]

I've had a number of PCChips boards go bad. They suck.

 

[episodic]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
I've had a number of PCChips boards go bad. They suck.

Conversely, I've had an ABIT board and a MSI board go bad over the years. Should I make a blanket generalization?


I ran prime 95 all night to get the temps up and burn in - not a glitch.

 

[Calin]

I trust now the ECS boards (as I didn't had contact with them except my own board and one more). But I would refuse to touch a PCChips board with a 10 feet poll

 

[eLiu]

im a fan of biostar for budget boards

 

[Malladine]

ECS are awesome. SIS735 (K7S5A) in my wife's rig been stable running close to 24/7 for almost 3 years now.

 

[dmcowen674]

Is that a PCchips board without onboard Video or did you disable the onboard Video to put the ATI board in???

 

[LeadMagnet]

I belive Ampton - Matsonic - PCCHIPs are all the same. I have built dozens of PCs using the cheaps barebones from PriceWatch.com . Usually the CPU/MB/case/PSU/Floppy for around $140 including shipping, and have almost never had a problem. Any computer is usualy very stable after a 2 days of burn-in time. Almost all problems I have been called on to fix was user-error or bad code.

I don't build systems any more cause Dell does it faster, better, and cheaper - all with 24/7 tech support and a legal OS installed.

 

[mobobuff]

PC Chips motherboards, if they work OOTB, have a very short life. They use cheap capacitors and cheap everything. I'm just surprised you didn't get a dud.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: eLiu
im a fan of biostar for budget boards

When I first started hearing about Biostar, it was mostly problems. That was a few years ago, though, and some of the same people are running on newer Biostars with no problems.
I myself like MSI and Soyo.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: minendo
Give it a month and report back. Should only take ~1 month for that POS pcchips board to crap out.

PCCHIPS, Amptron... NEVER AGAIN.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Originally posted by: episodic

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
I've had a number of PCChips boards go bad. They suck.

Conversely, I've had an ABIT board and a MSI board go bad over the years. Should I make a blanket generalization?


I ran prime 95 all night to get the temps up and burn in - not a glitch.

I've had one Abit board go bad. One Asus board go bad. I've had five or six PCChips boards go bad. They have improved since the 486 era. (when they made fake cache chips)

 

[zbalat]

Originally posted by: mobobuff
PC Chips motherboards, if they work OOTB, have a very short life. They use cheap capacitors and cheap everything. I'm just surprised you didn't get a dud.

I have built 8 budget systems with this MB over the course of the last 2 years and have yet to have a single problem. Go to New Egg and read the reviews. It has been a very solid board for a lot of people.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Build one out of curiosity - died on day # 95.

Junk.

ASROCK is the ASUS 'Market Share' 2nd line.

 

[Rock Hydra]

My friend got a PCChips motherboard. It would not power on. He let me look at it and I could not figure out WTF was wrong with it. It turns out that they mislabeled the CMOS reset jumper and the jumper was in the reset position, even though it was labeled otherwise.

 

[mobobuff]

Originally posted by: zbalat

Originally posted by: mobobuff
PC Chips motherboards, if they work OOTB, have a very short life. They use cheap capacitors and cheap everything. I'm just surprised you didn't get a dud.

I have built 8 budget systems with this MB over the course of the last 2 years and have yet to have a single problem. Go to New Egg and read the reviews. It has been a very solid board for a lot of people.

And a very poor one for many other people, including myself. I'm not saying they don't produce boards that work and work for a long time, I'm saying they produce many more flakey boards than other manufacturers, enough to make the cost difference insignificant.

 

[phantom309]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth

Originally posted by: episodic

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
I've had a number of PCChips boards go bad. They suck.

Conversely, I've had an ABIT board and a MSI board go bad over the years. Should I make a blanket generalization?


I ran prime 95 all night to get the temps up and burn in - not a glitch.

I've had one Abit board go bad. One Asus board go bad. I've had five or six PCChips boards go bad. They have improved since the 486 era. (when they made fake cache chips)

They really screwed the pooch with the fake cache chips - that destroyed their reputation as a brand. Regarding the caps, every major manufacturer was selling boards with bad caps for a couple years in there.
My experience with ECS boards is that if they work out of the box, they're just as good as any other board. But not as many of them work out of the box.

 

[sharkeeper]

SuperMicro is the best board mfr.

You get what you pay for!

SOME Biostar boards are good value for money but if the chance is not worth taking why risk it over $100? That is just silly.

 

[episodic]

It was without.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: MDE

Originally posted by: Kvaerner Masa

I HATE PCCHIPS!!! {IF YOU COULDN"T TELL FROM THE CAPS}

They have bad caps too?

They would probably tend to be more prone to them.

That's just bull. Can you even back that up? (Note that I'm posting before reading the rest of the thread)

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: shimsham

Originally posted by: Parrotheader

Originally posted by: shimsham
arent pcchips and ecs the same company? or made by the same company and rebaged under those names? i think i read that somewhere, but im not sure.

And isn't ASROCK the budget brand of Asus?

yeah, ive hears that before for sure, but i dont know if its true or not.

i wish shuttle was still making mobos. they were great values with nice ocing.

Shuttle outsourced all their boardmaking to the ECS/PC-Chips group.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: Calin
I trust now the ECS boards (as I didn't had contact with them except my own board and one more). But I would refuse to touch a PCChips board with a 10 feet poll

They're the same. Same factory and production. Just different sticker and paint job.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: Parrotheader

Originally posted by: shimsham
arent pcchips and ecs the same company? or made by the same company and rebaged under those names? i think i read that somewhere, but im not sure.

And isn't ASROCK the budget brand of Asus?

Asrock is its own company, spun off from Asus.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: LordMorpheus
Off brands are touch and go. Could be you got a board that'll last forever, could be it'll be gone in another couple hours. The big names, Asus, Soyo, etc. worry more about making sure more of their boards last, so, as a rule, I buy from companies like them. I've had an ASUS and a Soyo, never had trouble with either of them.

I'm not sure what makes them an "off-brand." They're one of the if not the largest volume boardmakers in the world. ECS for retail and PC-Chips for OEM. They make of have made boards for Abit, Shuttle, and Apple.