Just built a new computer - suprised by PCCHIPS

[Steve]

Originally posted by: Freejack2
I will gladly pay extra for an Asus board. Less headaches, less compatibility problems, more bios updates, and LESS FAILURES!

Compatibility? With what? Please elaborate.

My PC-Chips board has a good number of BIOS updates.

 

[Steve]

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.

Bull

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: Kvaerner Masa
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.

Some people only have a budget of $200-300, and it can make building a system hard if 1/3rd of the budget is spent on the motherboard.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: Kvaerner Masa
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.

Supermicro is owned by ECS.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: Kvaerner Masa

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

They have bad caps too?

:laugh:

 

[aircooled]

5 out of the 6 ECS K7S5A I put on the company floor are still running strong, and they are powered on 24x7.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: RockHydra11
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.

The labeling issue is weird. But their boards do ship with CMOS jumper in Clear to preserve battery life. And people wonder why they won't POST

 

[Steve]

It seems to me, from word of mouth alone mind you, that ECS/PC-Chips seemed to be the least affected by the bad capacitor era. I'm willing to take a look at hard stats if anybody has some.

 

[Steve]

There's so much bull and FUD in this thread it makes baby Jesus cry.


Honestly, if you can't build a decent, stable, consistently running system with an ECS or PC-Chips board, maybe you need to rethink how to build a computer. That means using quality, reliable parts that act the way they should, such as your PSU, RAM, CPU cooler, etc.

 

[geecee]

Like everything else, you'll get some bad motherboards from time to time. Two of the more stable boards I've used over the years have been made by Biostar (M6VCF) and ECS (K7S5A). Low end stuff perhaps, but worked very well for me. I've only had two boards go bad on me (out of the 20 or so boards that I've gone through over the years) - Asus (P4B533, out of warranty) and Abit (KV8, during warranty). It doesn't mean I won't buy Abit and Asus anymore. I just attribute it to bad luck. Why eliminate an entire line of boards completely from your options?

 

[Rock Hydra]

Originally posted by: sm8000

Originally posted by: RockHydra11
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.

The labeling issue is weird. But their boards do ship with CMOS jumper in Clear to preserve battery life. And people wonder why they won't POST

Well, I checked to see which bank of jumpers was the CMOS, I would have noticed if it was in the clear position. I didn't check the manual, which could have said which one, but I just looked right on the board and the diagram. And, I have never bought a board where the CMOS reset button was in the "clear" position. Even an ECS board my uncle had, (which lasted a couple years and died *JUST* before the extened warranty he had put on it) POSTed out of the box.

 

[sharkeeper]

Supermicro is owned by ECS.

Cunard is owned by Carnival.

Point?

 

[cronos]

Originally posted by: 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

typing on an ECS K7S5A right now. have been for more than 3 years now (still with my trusty Athlon XP 1700+)

Edit: oh and ECS = PCChips = Amptron

 

[SagaLore]

The first computer I put together was an on-board everything pcchips. It worked great for 4 years with no problems until it was just too old and slow for what I needed and built a new one.

 

[shilala]

Originally posted by: episodic
Hmm, no love for a review of a component?

Seriously, the board is older technology no doubt. It went in fine, was sturdy, had excellent docs. I had no problem figuring out anything on the board. On the other hand, I remember ASUS's manual for my board was hard to figure out, particulary the front panel connections.

The board posted the first time, no errors. I updated the bios to the latest available - again no problems. The board is running cool.

Asus docs do suck. I can't comment on PCchips stuff, I'm too afraid to try it. I just hang with Asus. I never lose (and if I do, they're great about rma's).

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: Kvaerner Masa

Supermicro is owned by ECS.

Cunard is owned by Carnival.

Point?

Some people, when they find out some Abit and all Shuttle (after Shuttle outsourced boardmaking to them) boards were made by ECS, have a negative reaction. I want to see if ownership of another company induces a similar negative reaction. Logically it shouldn't, but then again not everyone on the internet is known for logic

 

[Steve]

Edit: oh and ECS = PCChips = Amptron

Yep, although Amptron is just a reseller, not an actual maker.

 

[JHawk56]

Originally posted by: sm8000

Edit: oh and ECS = PCChips = Amptron

Yep, although Amptron is just a reseller, not an actual maker.

True. But not all Amptrons are PCCHIPS.The past couple years, most of them were Biostars.

SOYO is another brand that is sometimes PCCHIPS.

PCCHIPS M851LU v1.3a
Matsonic MS8188E v1.3A
Kobian/Mercury KVM400M-L
SOYO SY-K7VME
Shuttle MK40VN

All above are the same board.

 

[cchen]

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 a PC Chips board from 97 that still runs great

 

[OS]

I'm convinced all these inbred taiwanese mobo manufacturers all suck.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: sm8000
Honestly, if you can't build a decent, stable, consistently running system with an ECS or PC-Chips board, maybe you need to rethink how to build a computer.

Honestly, if you have to make 15 different posts to say three different things, maybe you should rethink how to use the quote button

 

[Ornery]

Christ, I thought the big advantage to building your own PC was picking and choosing quality components.

• • :roll:

And yeah, that's the first thing I'd compromise on... the motherboard!

• • :roll:

 

[JoeKing]

OP,

good for you. The kt266 chipset is so mature by now I'm willing to bet just about any board based on that chipset will work fine.