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So is the ECS K7S5A still worth getting?

S

spazntwich1

Banned
I'm helping my brother build a decent, but very very budget, computer. We're basically looking to spend the minimum amount of money required and still come out with something that will give us decent performance.

My question for you all is the subject. I've seen great success stories with this board, and I've also heard horror stories. Is there a better, cheaper motherboard available with integrated sound and lan?
 
i just bought a K7S5A & it's worked great so far. i don't know how you could possibly get anything better for less than $60.
 
I've built 2 machines using this Motherboard, and have had no problems with it. It's a great MB for basic systems. Just don't expect to OC.
 
the k7s5a is a good board, built a sytem for my parents around it and its rock solid with a duron 1.2
performance is good, stability is good
just get a high quality power supply
an antec or other name brand 350 w would be good
most of the problems people seem to have with this board seem to be power related, and a better psu just makes for a more stable overall system anyway
i reccomend going with pc 2100 ddr for your ram, the performance boost is worth the relatively small extra cost
 
Ditto here. This board is solid. I've used it with both SDR and DDR memory for almost 6 months now with no problems.
 
It's still the best choice in the ultra-cheap area. Everything else down there is even older DDR incapable stuff.

If you build from scratch and it has to be extra cheap, consider using an integrated-VGA board like the M841LR. That'll shave another $30 or so off the bill, since it comes with VGA, sound, LAN and modem right out of the box. (These however should really be equipped with DDR RAM for decent graphics performance.)

regards, Peter
 
My how times change. 😀 I can remember about a year ago when this same type of thread would have produced at least a half dozen "nay-sayers" with nasty comments on SIS and their quality. It looks like the tide has changed; finally. OK, enough strolling down memory lane.

As to the question at hand, you probably won't find a better budget solution with the kind of performance than the K7S5A. I have also built several of these and all are going strong to this day. Peter's suggestion of the PC Chips board is an excellent one also if you need to go that route. That would give him a very budget minded system with integrated video (that has decent performance) and at least some upgrade possibilities. However, I don't believe it has an AGP slot so future upgrades for video would require another board.
 
Another one to consider would be the Asus A7N266-VM. It is reasonably priced and has very good onboard sound, onboard LAN, onboard nVidia graphics plus an AGP slot for upgrading. The chipset is the nForce220D, and since it doesn't have the dual-channel memory controller it will not be a great video solution for cutting-edge gaming (that's why the AGP slot is there, right?), but for schoolwork, browsing, or playing older games, that would be adequate.
 
I will never change - I absolutely refuse to recommend this board but thats me. If others like it so be it. Personally I would get the A7S 333 or MSI's version but I am not in the market for SiS 735/745 anymore. So not everyone is in the bandwagon.
 
not everyone is in the bandwagon.
Click to expand...
Trust me, no one would EVER accuse you of being in the K7S5A "bandwagon". 😉 We all have our priorities and beliefs. To each his own. 😀
 
Well, you all have convinced me. I was initially reluctant to get it because I've been out of the motherboard loop for so long. I wondered if there wasn't a cheaper/better mobo out by now.

I don't think we're going to get anything with integrated video. The ONE area of his computer we're going to even slightly splurge on will be the videocard. I think we'll get whatever is the cheapest Geforce3 Ti200 and stick that in.

Someone mentioned not being able to overclock. Can I not overclock with this at ALL? We're planning on getting a 1.1ghz duron for the comp, and FSB overclocking it a little. Is that out of the question?
 
I got a 1GHz Duron for my ECS K7S5A and it made the jump to the 133MHz FSB at default voltage. You might want to do that, because it costs less than a 1.1 and is more likely to do the dance at 133MHz FSB. Keep in mind that you can boost the voltage from 1.75V to 1.85V by the pencil trick on the Duron if you need to. Do you have a cooler lined up yet, by the way? If not, I saw a couple of possible good deals rolling around on the market... LMK the amount of noise you'd tolerate (low, medium, noisy) and a price budget.

Edit: well, here are a couple of them to look at, just in case: $9 Globalwin SAK38 with noisy fan and $6 SVC GC68 with quiet 80mm fan (I would opt to add the $8 YS Tech Adjustable-rpm fan to this for more versatility)

And if you need a case/power supply, people like the Evercases from Newegg a lot, despite the low price.
 
I just built a cheap computer for a friend and used the K7S5A. It works great, but we did have to replace his old PCI ATI video card...the on-board sound doesn't work very well with a PCI video card. When watching a DVD it sounded like everybody was gargling water!

Dave
 
K7S5A, if you don't happen to have one of the very very early v1.0 ones, takes anything from Duron-600 to Thoroughbred XPs. And yes, this is a no-nonsense board, no overclocking toys offered. Spend the money saved to buy a faster CPU right away ...
 
I built about 3 systems with that board and I must say it's a great deal for $60. No problems. I could even overclock a 1Ghz duron to 1.4 with it. Real good.

If you're planning to get a GF2 or something similar you should also take a look at nforce chipset based boards. Asus has one for $90 with ddr (nforce 220D), and other for $120 (nforce 440D), the 440D performs better with 2 sticks of memory installed.
 
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