P55 Mobo Roundup
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motherboard roundups are kind of passe. they all offer the same general feature set and the only distinguishing qualities manufacturers use to stand out are color schemes and warranties (and with the exception of MSI, a load balancing ASIC for multi-GPU gaming). all the usual names (asus, gigabyte, biostar, msi, evga, foxconn) still stand for quality, and ECS/Elitegroup still sucks. not much has changed in that regard.
was there something particular you were looking for?
was there something particular you were looking for?
And yet, ECS still ships far more motherboards than Gigabyte, Biostar, MSI, or EVGA (ECS most likely manufactures some of their boards). Apparently, people just like to reward suck by buying more of it? :roll:
if you count all the OEMs that use foxconn and MSI, it's about equal.
i'm talking about retail boards. i've had so many DOA boards from elitegroup (just simple integrated stuff for soho). never had a DOA board from anyone else, so i stopped buying them. jetway is my new brand when i want to go slumming. have you ever used ECS?
nice job staying on topic by the way. if you want to recommend ECS motherboards, then just come out and say it. i'm sure avp2306 thanks you for your contribution to his thread by recommending the top name in shit shipments.
i'm talking about retail boards. i've had so many DOA boards from elitegroup (just simple integrated stuff for soho). never had a DOA board from anyone else, so i stopped buying them. jetway is my new brand when i want to go slumming. have you ever used ECS?
nice job staying on topic by the way. if you want to recommend ECS motherboards, then just come out and say it. i'm sure avp2306 thanks you for your contribution to his thread by recommending the top name in shit shipments.
No, its not. Foxconn is even larger than ASUS, if you count its OEM/ODM business. I didn't mention Foxconn for this reason.
I've almost exclusively used ECS boards for the past five or six years. The only boards I've RMA'd in the past year are an ASUS and ZOTAC that I decided to try because there was a killer rebate deal on them.
Well, me and all the others who've made ECS the #2 motherboard maker in the world for several years now, WAY ahead of MSI or Gigabyte.
lopri
Elite Member
- Jul 27, 2002
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i'm just looking for community feedback to support your claim. all i have to go on is that they're the #1 shipper and you love them, so who else does and where are they? i've never seen ECS acclaimed or recommended anywhere by anyone.
most people go with asus, gigabyte, evga, and foxconn, and those are the primary names we suggest for people coming here for guidance. once again, never seen one hand up for ECS, ever.
most people go with asus, gigabyte, evga, and foxconn, and those are the primary names we suggest for people coming here for guidance. once again, never seen one hand up for ECS, ever.
ECS is #2 if you exclude Foxconn, otherwise #3.
As far as being recommended...back when numerous 'enthusiasts' were recommending ABIT while trashing ECS, they were shocked to learn after I (and a couple others) pointed it out that several of ABIT's boards were actually just a rebaged ECS model. You could even open the ABIT BIOS in a text editor and find the words "ELITEGROUP". ASUS, ASRock, and Shuttle, too.
IOW, the level of confusion and misinformation among computer hardware 'enthusiasts' is second only to perhaps the audio 'enthusiast' (audiophile) community.
As far as being recommended...back when numerous 'enthusiasts' were recommending ABIT while trashing ECS, they were shocked to learn after I (and a couple others) pointed it out that several of ABIT's boards were actually just a rebaged ECS model. You could even open the ABIT BIOS in a text editor and find the words "ELITEGROUP". ASUS, ASRock, and Shuttle, too.
IOW, the level of confusion and misinformation among computer hardware 'enthusiasts' is second only to perhaps the audio 'enthusiast' (audiophile) community.
all of that is kind of irrelevant. i don't really care whose employees make the boards or write the BIOSes, i just care about the level of quality control and the parts they choose. foxconn made EVGA boards for years and they probably still do, but evga offers a better warranty and prompt support because they're a thousand times smaller than foxconn. there is still a separate company behind the brand regardless of where the manual labor is coming from and people making a choice among many brands take comfort in knowing that. labor is consolidated. that's just business. but some brands represent higher quality than others and the number of total shipments over a given timeframe does not determine quality or the ability of the support personnel behind the brand name to uphold a given commitment to that quality. i'm not saying that you should get ripped off by ASUS "deluxe" or EVGA "classified" boards. hopefully everyone knows they're practically pricing scams. there is a cost effective happy medium between build quality and the assurance of it.
for a while there were only certain brands who offered solid state capacitors as opposed to electrolytic, or heatsinks for the VRMs and for personal builds that was a big deal. these were things that premium brands used to separate their boards from the rudimentary nondescript products that you got from brands like ECS. that's mostly changed now and it's pretty much a wash from brand to brand with only the warranty and the support being distinguishing qualities, and ECS is beaten by other brands in that regard. i'm glad you'd never had one die on you. i'm sure even the shittiest brands have seen decreased failure rates over time, but ECS lost my business years ago, and for a given socket/chipset there are other cost-effective choices that are equally competitive on features/service/support, no matter which south pacific sweatshop hellhole they were built in.
if i bought an ECS board today, would it POST if i hooked it up? probably. do i care? no. would i put one in a high-end machine? no, they're still on the bottom rung of the ladder for retail boards, at least in my book.
for a while there were only certain brands who offered solid state capacitors as opposed to electrolytic, or heatsinks for the VRMs and for personal builds that was a big deal. these were things that premium brands used to separate their boards from the rudimentary nondescript products that you got from brands like ECS. that's mostly changed now and it's pretty much a wash from brand to brand with only the warranty and the support being distinguishing qualities, and ECS is beaten by other brands in that regard. i'm glad you'd never had one die on you. i'm sure even the shittiest brands have seen decreased failure rates over time, but ECS lost my business years ago, and for a given socket/chipset there are other cost-effective choices that are equally competitive on features/service/support, no matter which south pacific sweatshop hellhole they were built in.
if i bought an ECS board today, would it POST if i hooked it up? probably. do i care? no. would i put one in a high-end machine? no, they're still on the bottom rung of the ladder for retail boards, at least in my book.
Other than several NForce boards a while back, most of which were NVIDIA reference boards, ECS doesn't do enthusiast boards.
The highest product segment that ECS does is the premium mainstream performance segment. In this respect, they are no different from the mainstream performance offerings of any other manufacturer. Their tech support does suck, but then I can count on one hand the number of times I've ever encountered better than a thumb sucker from numerous computer companies. A lot of people don't have much love at all for the tech support of ASUS, Gigabyte, or MSI, either.
But the difference is, you pay for it when you buy the ASUS, Gigabyte, or MSI but are not guaranteed to get it. I'm OK with shitty tech support if I didn't pay the premium. I rarely ever need tech support even if I'm having problems, so I don't like to pay the premium for it. I just need them to honor their warranty, which ECS has always done for me. Gigabyte on the other hand...
RussianSensation
Elite Member
- Sep 5, 2003
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Please stop exaggerating / spreading false information without actual statistics to back up your claims.
"Asustek Computer, Gigabyte Technology, EliteGroup Computer Systems (ECS) and MicroStar International (MSI) are currently the world?s largest makers of both branded and generic mainboards, who control the lion?s share of the market. According to some estimations, Asustek supplied 21 million mainboards in 2008, ECS also shipped 21 units, Gigabyte produced 19 motherboards and MSI delivered 16 mainboards."
So please explain how ECS is WAY AHEAD of Gigabyte and MSI? and why is Foxconn not on this list?
Considering Gigabyte has only focused on increasing marketshare in 2009 and 2010, I would seriously doubt that ECS is still #2.
Nonetheless, you are also assuming that the greater the marketshare = the better the product. I guess with this logic we should just assume that because Honda civic has bigger global marketshare than a Ferrari F430, it is a better car.
ECS probably has large market share due to competing on volume and low price, as well as offering very cheap CPU+mobo bundles at places like Newegg, Microcenter, Fry's etc. But in no way shape or form does ECS make good overclocking enthusiast boards that can rival Asus, Gigabyte, EVGA or MSI.
If as you state Asus and Asrock boards are just rebadged ECS boards, then why have I not seen ECS win any overclocking competitions or people on the forums hitting 4.0ghz on Core i7s on ECS boards? If ECS makes different tiers of motherboards (i.e., low end branded ECS, high end supplied to Asus, etc.), then you would recommend the Asus board, regardless of who makes it!
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OP,
$100-120 = Gigabyte UD2
$130-150 = Gigabyte UD3R, MSI GD-65, Asus P7P55D, EVGA P55, Asrock P55 Extreme
$170 = Gigabyte UD4P, Asus P7P55D Pro, MSI GD-80
All of these boards will hit 210 FSB. It is more about the features you want vs. price.
And?
There are thousands of people that still buy crappy Geforce4 MX/FX 5200 series card, 200-300w PSUs today.
Just because they're selling more than a Radeon 4970 X2 or another graphics card doesn't mean anything.
Foxconn and ECS may ship billions of boards or own 90% of the market share for all I care.
I won't ever buy a motherboard from either of them because they have crappy support and always perform at the bottom rung in motherboard round ups.
Asus boards are ECS? Abit boards are ECS? Lothar's boards are ECS?
Who cares?
If ASUS uses ECS, then how come they don't perform exactly the same and ECS never wins a motherboard round up based on standard and overclocking performance while ASUS, Gigabyte, eVGA and others always do?
It's simple...They provide better support, fix bios issues promptly, and provide features(overclocking adjustments, etc...).
Isn't Jetway skating on thin ice?
I read somewhere that they might be going out of business(ala Abit, Epox, etc...) or that they almost went out.
I think it was one of the recent P55/X58 reviews on Toms or somewhere else.
Biostar and ASRock are my current budget boards of choice when I go shopping for family members/friends.
Foxconn doesn't suck anymore?
I never considered them one of the top tiers but I've always put them a step above ECS.
- Jan 20, 2008
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Some boards do get better performance than others, even if its only reflected in synthetic benchmarks. I've been Asus/Gigabyte user for years so just wanted to see some comparisons of p55 boards. As for feature set, just the usual... decent number of usb/sata ports, prolly 3 pci-e slots.
Tom's put one up today. http://www.tomshardware.com/re...-motherboard,2436.html
You have to check out the overclocking part the Asrock, MSI, and ECS motherboards were all damaged by voltage increases.
You have to check out the overclocking part the Asrock, MSI, and ECS motherboards were all damaged by voltage increases.
RussianSensation
Elite Member
- Sep 5, 2003
- 19,458
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Very.
Memory
Enable X.M.P. Profile. All timings detected as 7-7-7-24
Manually force 1.56V in the DDR Voltage profile from X.M.P. Profile rating of 1.60V.
Enable 8.0x ram ratio
CPU
Set PLL voltage at 1.86V from 1.80V
Leave PCH Voltage at Auto (Southbridge)
Set QPI Voltage at Auto (should probably narrow this instead of leaving it at Auto setting, will attempt to do so shortly).
Set CPU Voltage at 1.300V in the BIOS.
Set BCLK to 190.
Enable Load Line Calibration
Done!
Right now I am temperature limited NOT cpu or motherboard limited. My board boots at 210 Base Clock and I can get into the desktop at 4.4 ghz (210x21) at 1.36V. I am 100% certain this isn't Prime95 stable but that's because even at 4.0ghz my temperatures are already hovering in the 77-79*C range. I will try to rearrange the cooler to face towards the back of my case fan as opposed to the top. But i am not sure how much more this will reduce my temperatures, if any.
I also returned MSI-CD53 in exchange for the UD3R board because it couldnt' even pass any Prime95 stress testing!
IMO, between $130 and $150 the boards to get are UD3R, Asus P7P55D and Asrock P55 Extreme.
Too bad about that Asrock board. Only EVGA and Asrock provide LGA775 mounting holes, and I'd rather not shell out for EVGA. I wonder if the Asrock deluxe has the same issue..
RussianSensation
Elite Member
- Sep 5, 2003
- 19,458
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mmnno, what 775 cooler do you plan on using? and do you plan on overclocking?
My Core i7 860 under Megahalems runs 10*C-15*C hotter at 4.0ghz than Q6600 G0 @ 3.4ghz was under Tuniq Tower in the same case with same Graphics Card.
Core i7 chips run extremely hot once overclocked. Therefore you may think twice before using a Socket 775 cooler, unless it is Scythe Mugen 2, TRUE or something along those lines.
The $150 Asrock board has significantly better power circuitry cooling
My Core i7 860 under Megahalems runs 10*C-15*C hotter at 4.0ghz than Q6600 G0 @ 3.4ghz was under Tuniq Tower in the same case with same Graphics Card.
Core i7 chips run extremely hot once overclocked. Therefore you may think twice before using a Socket 775 cooler, unless it is Scythe Mugen 2, TRUE or something along those lines.
The $150 Asrock board has significantly better power circuitry cooling
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