Thinking of purchasing an ECS K7S5A Pro for my third build.............yes or no?

[powerMarkymark]

Got a bunch of spare parts to build a third puter from upgrading my other two builds.

Athlon XP 1800+ CPU
Antec 350 w PSU
GF3 TI 200 64 AGP
2 X 256 Generic 256MB DDR 2100 RAM
WD 120 GB HHHDD
Samsung 95DF 19" monitor


Just missing a MOBO, case and Floppy.

Now this is a third puter so I want to go cheap but don't want to spend all my time fixing problems so is this a good budget Mobo or not? If no, what do you suggest?

TIA

Mark

 

[Buz2b]

You guessed right in the title; go ECS Pro. Looks like all your hardware would be in the "comfort zone" for that, not to mention the price factor.
EDIT: Just noticed the "generic" RAM. Not sure how the ECS Pro board is with this, so there may be a concern here. Others with real time experience can probably testify to this, one way or another.

 

[KF]

Everyone should have at least one K7S5A.

I'm not sure why the motherboard needs to be rock-bottom cheap. Since you already have everything else (almost) you should have extra to splurge on the mobo. But that mobo may be less picky about RAM than an nForce2 mobo. There is a pretty cheap nForce2 Shuttle mobo, AN35N, that has OC capability, which is always nice.

 

[Peter]

Generic RAM is fine, as long as it's OK and up to its own specification. www.memtest86.com

But if you have DDR RAM there, then there's really no reason to go for the old K7S5A. Get something more recent, like the L7S7A2. You'll get a faster chipset w/ native USB 2.0 and 166 MHz CPU bus support.

 

[novice]

Take a look at the new Shuttle AN35N and AN35L at Multiwave. very inexpensive and I really like my AN35N. Nforce 2 chipset, onboard LAN and okay sound for less than $75 shipped. I got my AN35N (has dual memory controllers) for $66 shipped from newegg. The price has climbed a bit. The AN35L is a single memory controller version that is only $57.51 plus shipping. If you ever do decide to upgrade the ram, the board can run a 200 Mhz fsb. Why pay close to the same price for much older technology? My new AN35N spanks my 2 MSI KT3 Ultra 2 boards with same video cards and CPU's.

 

[robcy]

good board, very stable. I have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at mine, and I have had not one problem. Even the onboard sound, while not the best around, did not noticebly slow down games. With the parts listed, it should be a pretty good system. Good Luck.