Upgrade my motherboard to ECS L7S7A2?

[Nitemare]

I'm thinking about upgrading my ECS K7S5A r.1 board to this.

I like the price (54 on Newegg)
It's a full size board
Has 3 memory slots (up to 3 GB)
onboard lan and audio
will do 400 FSB
8x AGP
and will support the latest CPU's

I'm looking for something stable, compatible and can do the latest technology. Is this a good board or would you recommend something else in the < $75 range?

 

[Nitemare]

bumpity

 

[Vette73]

I got this board for my backup computer. Been very happy with it. Good sound, ethernet works fine, and for the price can't be beat. I never thought I would buy a SiS board but they have come a long way.

Also it comes with a free memory card reader, like SM, CF, etc...

 

[pspada]

Just realize that the ECS boards are very very cost-effective, so don't expect it to be a overclocking wonder or for extreme performance.

 

[Rodamus]

It's a decent motherboard. I'm currently running my 2100+ at 2700+ using a 166fsb and at 1.68 volts. Pretty stable so far. Been running the torture test from prime95 for about 7 hours now. It's a cheap mobo in which you get decent sound, ethernet, overclocking options. ECS and AMDMB have alot of info on this mobo.

Rod

 

[Peter]

Stay seated.

New revision of L7S7A2 just round the corner - new name 748A. Replaces 746 chipset with 748, and seems to be quite a bit faster from early reports. (748A seems to drop the onboard FireWire option though, but this has rarely been actually seen in retail L7S7A either.)

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Peter
Stay seated.

New revision of L7S7A2 just round the corner - new name 748A. Replaces 746 chipset with 748, and seems to be quite a bit faster from early reports. (748A seems to drop the onboard FireWire option though, but this has rarely been actually seen in retail L7S7A either.)

Know of the ship date yet?

any review of samples?

 

[Peter]

ASRock 748 chipset board tested on ocworkbench to give you a performance taster; ECS 748-A board is already on www.ecs.com.tw ... how long it takes for it to appear on shelves depends on where you are. This takes 3 to 4 weeks usually here in Germany.

 

[McCasper]

Does anyone know if the L7S7A2 supports the older Athlon 1.2? My mainboard died and I wanted to get a replacement that I could upgrade the cpu on later.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: McCasper
Does anyone know if the L7S7A2 supports the older Athlon 1.2? My mainboard died and I wanted to get a replacement that I could upgrade the cpu on later.

If it is a 133Mhz FSB chip then yes, BUT if it is a 100Mhz FSB chip then NO.

You would have to lower the multiplier and set the FSB at 133mhz, and even then the chip would have to be able to handle it.

 

[McCasper]

Thanks for the information!

It is a 133Mhz FSB chip so cool. I was curious because the ECS web site did not have a cpu compatibility chart for that mainboard and didn't want to send back the board due to incompatibility.

 

[Peter]

Indeed, no 100 MHz bus CPU support on L7S7A2 anymore. Says its manual.