Run: Fry's e4300 OEM + ECS Mobo - $149+ tax

[RMSistight]

Originally posted by: AkumaX
O SNAP

time to return that 805 combo!!!

YOU SAID IT! *goes and does the samething.

I bought the Pentium D 925 deal too.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Grabbed a combo this morning. The lady tried to hand me a used board cause "You guys throw away the boards anyway cause you just want the chip". I set it down beside her and walked over to a huge stack of new ones and grabbed one.

I'll be using this in an Abit IB9 board tonight with an AC Preezer Pro and 1GB of that 4-4-4-12 PC5400 they had on sale yesterday. I'll be posting my OC results.

 

[Conky]

I wonder how well this E4300 will overclock on this ECS board or the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA. I have the ASRock board left over after my upgrade and the FSB limit of ~300 made this a poor overclocker but 300x9 on one with this new cpu would be a very respectable overclock of 2.8Ghz... very tempting.

Good deal! 🙂

 

[AkumaX]

Originally posted by: RMSistight

Originally posted by: AkumaX
O SNAP

time to return that 805 combo!!!

YOU SAID IT! *goes and does the samething.

I bought the Pentium D 925 deal too.

might want to update the bios first!!!

BIOS Name BIOS for P4M800PRO-M (PCB:2.x)
Version 061214
Release Date 2006/12/14
Update Description -Update release
-Support Conroe E4300
-Fixed CPU temperature is not correct in Hareware Monitor

 

[Rockhound1]

I built a friend a system using this board and an E6300 that I picked up from Fry's as a combo deal for $160. The system was very stable at stock speeds. I didn't try and overclock. Just don't expect too much from this board. It offers a solid platform, that's all.

 

[nomadh]

Got the 805 combo 2 weeks ago also. Initially impressed with overclock ability with my big thermaltake and ddr1 400 memory. But as I added my video and tv capture card it went down hill. Its not a new build of windows so it could be something in there but generally it either is dead or squirrly as hell if left alone for 12-15 hrs. Either way needs a reboot and thats not good for a htpc. That and 24/7 at 170 watts minimum is a bit much. Was trying a 167fsb overclock from the 133 stock and it ran but in the morning I had no network card. Wouldn't come back until I went back to 133. For the $80 I paid I'm still pretty impressed with the chip. I'd continue testing to see if my prob is something in windows but Fry's set the rules on returns to 2 weeks not me. BTW 2 friends did the deal on the d915 and the e6300 w/ this MB. The 6300 was rock stable for him but be warned the 915 was nearly non functional. The board was flawless with a prescott and the 915 was perfect in my 945 MB but the 915 in the p4m800 wouldn't run long enough to risk a bios update. Did it with the other chip but still couldn't use the 915. He took the ecs back to frys, got a $34 refund on the board alone and bought a $54 gigabyte. Prob solved. Also neither the 805 or the 915 is offically supported in ecs docs. Probably not the 4300 either.
Can't believe I wasted this much time on this post for something that won't mattter in a few weeks. Hope it helps someone.

 

[atlr]

The most recent BIOS has a release date of 2006/12/14 and mentions that it was released to support the E4300.
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Produc...il.aspx?detailid=673&DetailName=Bios&M enuID=1&LanID=0

Kind of a chicken and egg problem to update the BIOS if one does not have another socket 775 processor handy. I hope Fry's B&M techs would help out if a flash is needed.

I picked up this combo today at the Alpharetta, GA store. P4M800PRO-M V1.0A and V2.0 boards were mixed together. I am hoping the boxes sealed by 2 plastic straps are the unopened variety. I have read in other threads that people find opened-and-returned boxes of this motherboard model at past sales at some Fry's stores.

The number on the ECS barcode label that I am guessing is the serial number has the form Q22990E636xxxxx. Does anyone happen to know the information encoded in the serial number? For example, I would guess that 636 could mean manufactured in the 36th week of 2006.

Out of curiousity, what are the serial numbers on the boards people are getting?

 

[pennylane]

Originally posted by: superHARD

Originally posted by: TrojanAaron

Originally posted by: MustangSVT
how much o/c is it possible with this mobo??

Put it this way, you'll be lucky if your mobo lasts more than a few months running at stock speeds.

Not true...

I've had an ECS mobo for over 2 years (with an Athlon 64 3200, S754) and my computer has NEVER crashed. Stock speeds though.

 

[Cowtown]

Picked up this combo early this morning and I have now made three trips to Fry's and still don't have a working combo. After the second return they decided to bench test them before I took them home. Tried 3 new V 2.0 boards right out of the box and not one of them would post with two different E4300s. Put a P4 900 series CPU in the ECS boards and they all would post. Put the E4300s in another 775 board and they all posted. Conculusion... this group of boards are not compatable with this group of E4300s. The techs said the E6300s on this same board do not have a problem. I guessing a Bios problem but I had no way to flash it.

If you love Fry's don't read any more........

Three trips equals over 200 miles for me plus all the bench testing brought the total time investment to 10 hours. They finally offered me a $20 discount on a different board but they did not have anything less than $150 that fitted my needs. I ask them to let me purchase the E6300 and the ECS board for the usual sales price of $170 but they acted like I was some sort of crazy person (which was about half-right at this point). I asked to talk to the store manager and he talked to me while he was working on one of the computers in customer service and never looked at me until I raised my voice. He says he can not do "ANYTHING" but he is sorry. I asked him if he was going to pull the combo off the sale and he said no he couldn't and he still wasn't sure anything was wrong with the combos (even thought his own tech proved they would not post on 3 different boards). I went back to the CPU/motherboard area and looked at another combo that had a P4 925 and the manager of the department told me it was a 2.8. Found out after I got home that this is really a 3.0. (This guy is in charge of the department)....

Anyway long day and I'm typing this on my kid's computer. I going to newegg next to see what I can find.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: antmanbee
To answer the question of overclockability of this 4300/ecs combo, I imagine it should at least do 2.4Ghz up from 1.8Ghz by just raising the FSB from 200 to 266. That is the defautl FSB for the 6300 and that works just fine on this board.

That's exactly what I was thinking. If the board doesn't let you manually set it, then time to head to Intel's developer site for some info on which BSEL pin to mask.

 

[VinceDee]

Originally posted by: atlr
The most recent BIOS has a release date of 2006/12/14 and mentions that it was released to support the E4300.
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Produc...il.aspx?detailid=673&DetailName=Bios&M enuID=1&LanID=0

Kind of a chicken and egg problem to update the BIOS if one does not have another socket 775 processor handy. I hope Fry's B&M techs would help out if a flash is needed.

I just installed the board/cpu/HS and the unit won't fire up. It just makes a clicking sound every five seconds. It's the v 2.0 board and I'm using a slightly older 20 pin ATX power supply on it (which is supposed to work according to the manual, it has the connector for the extra 4 pin plug, which I also plugged in).

You don't suppose the v2.0 board also requires a BIOS update before it will work with this E4300? That would supremely suck.

Also, my sn is (I presume this is the sn): q221500246ab3144

Vince

EDIT: ah hah! I see somebody is having the same issue. Then I guess you can count me in as another person who discovered the board and cpu aren't compatible. Stupid Frys...

 

[janizary]

Picked up the combo at the Las Vegas Fry's tonight. Board will get ebayed. E4300 will go in a mini system replacing an aging HTPC.

Edit: Lots of boards and cpus still available when I was there.

 

[BigShroom]

Oh man selling a combo that doesn't even work. thats some fine bs there. I was thinking about driving 30min to my nearest fry's to pick this combo up but I guess I won't now. Thanks for the head's up on fry's ineptitude guys. Still a decent deal if you just want the cpu though.

 

[jjdeltor]

Just a heads up, but the issue VinceDee is having is a bios issue. The latest bios for this ECS board is dated 12/14 (ie it is likely that your board does not support this chip at teh moment) and it is this bios that provides support for the E4300 CPU. So if you can find someone to help you flash your bios with another older CPU you will be fine.

- J

 

[nomadh]

Just got the combo in san diego. Also will not post. No beep code, no clicking, nothing but the cpu fan. This bios is even less able to hande this chip than the 915. I was able to up the bios on the 915 combo although it didn't help it any. So you think the 2006/12/14 bios should solve it? So now I need to dig up some old 5xx series pentium and install it just to up the bios to install my new chip? Yup that sounds like Fry's. Maybe I'll just go down there and try and get them to upgrade me to the gigabyte MB with the same chipset. They are the same price at frys so maybe it works out

 

[highwire]

Last posts on "no-beep" BIOS issue are most certainly right.

The board I got just four days ago with the E6300 was BIOSed 07/19/2007. There are 2 or more updates since.

Only the latest has the E4300. A screw-up for sure. Only a board hot off the docks (5 weeks old) could have the required BIOS

My board serial number is: Q22150G6422xxxx. Maybe something in there indicates the BIOS level.

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: fqdn

if you get one that runs ok for a couple weeks it should be ok for quite a long time. i have quite a few ECS boards that are running great (and for a few years now) at stock settings. that being said if you find one that gives you trouble, return/exchange it immediately! i also have this exact board from the 6400 combo a month ago and it's been rock solid.

QFT

ECS is a no frill, no tweak type of mobo but it works and is functional.
Mine has been almost 2 years and alive!

 

[funboy6942]

Whoa, I got to get me one of these!

 

[Zap]

I came up with some overclocking info on this combo: thread in CPUs

 

[foolish501]

i so wish the nearest fry's wasn't over 600 miles away from me, i would have jumped on this deal

 

[Doh!]

Originally posted by: foolish501
i so wish the nearest fry's wasn't over 600 miles away from me, i would have jumped on this deal

The deal does not work. The motherboard is not compatible unless you have another LGA775 cpu to flash the bios. If you really want it, you would have to purchase an older cpu, flash the bios, return it, and then get the combo.

 

[htne]

This is not the first time Fry's has pulled a bone-headed stunt like this. Last year, maybe 6 or 8 months ago, I purchased one of their combos. A different ECS motherboard, based on the ATI chipset, and a Pentium D 805 cpu. Turns out they would not work together, and the ECS website clearly stated they would not work together -- that particular motherboard did not support any Pentium D cpu.

 

[mrrman]

Ive had bad luck with ECS mobos, especially from Frys and will never buy 1 again..prefer MSI/Gigabyte

 

[Cowtown]

I posted last night about my three trips to Frys yesterday and them refusing to admit that there was a problem with this combo. Decided the $119 P4 925 would be a good alternative since it was a retail box. I drove to our other Fry's (yea we have two within 40 miles of Fort Worth) and I purchased the 925 combo. I told them I had purchased three of the E4300 combos at the other store on Friday and we finally discovered that they were not compatiable. So I asked if they were still selling them and they say "uh yea". I asked if they knew there was a problem and one salesman said he had heard something about it. I told them about the bios problem and asked if they could flash a bios there at the store and they said no. I took the 925 combo and have it up and running at home now and it seems like a good setup.

 

[nomadh]

I think the 925 was listed as compatable. Helped a friend with his 915 combo recently and with the latest bios it wasn't compatable. I I proved it with a few different parts and the mgr at frys refunded the $30 somthing part of the combo and let him buy the $54 or so gigabyte. Working flawlessly now