ECS NFORCE4-A939 - any good?

[Rob Nicholson]

I'm considering upgrading my PC to an AMD64 with PCI-E based system. Support
for PCI-E and AMD64 only really arrived just before Christmas so it's still
early days.

I've been watching the topics in alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus about the
new Asus A8N-SLi motherboard which looks like a great board for about £95
here in the UK. However, after been burnt (tee hee, a joke) with buying a
useless AOpen DVD burner recently before checking the reviews, I've been
interested in the problems people have been having. There have been quite a
few BIOS upgrades and problems reported over there which has made me hang on
for a while. Lots of BIOS upgrades can be taken one of both ways - the
manufacturer is keen to support and resolve issues or they didn't test it
enough

Anyway, I happened to wander over to www.pcnextday.co.uk to check prices and
came across the ECS NFORCE4-A939 motherboard. What caught my eye was the
price tag of £66 which is a lot cheaper.

The ECS web site has the following post:

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/NewsRoom/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=185&MENUID=14&LanID=0

And there's a link to the Computer Shopper article - short but sweet.

I've never come across ECS before - anyone got anything to say about them
and in particular this board?

Thanks, Rob.

 

[Rob Nicholson]

Anyway, I happened to wander over to www.pcnextday.co.uk to check prices

and came across the ECS NFORCE4-A939 motherboard. What caught my eye was
the price tag of £66 which is a lot cheaper.

PS. I know this this the Asus website but I thought readers who have been
looking at the A8N might have also thought about the new ECS board.

Cheers, Rob.

 

[Brad Clarke]

In my mind, ECS stands for Extremely Cheap Stuff

I know two people whose ECS boards just up and died for no apparent
reason. Those boards were replaced with Asus boards.

 

[Rob Nicholson]

In my mind, ECS stands for Extremely Cheap Stuff

I can understand that especially when the motherboards are so much cheaper
But although I'd never heard of ECS, they're not exactly a small outfit.
Quote "ECS is one of the world's largest motherboard manufacturers":

http://www.crn.vnunet.com/news/1158378

I know two people whose ECS boards just up and died for no apparent
reason. Those boards were replaced with Asus boards.

Equally, I've also had Gigabyte boards blow up as well. But hear what you're
saying...

Cheers, Rob.

 

[SteveH]

I can understand that especially when the motherboards are so much cheaper
But although I'd never heard of ECS, they're not exactly a small
outfit. Quote "ECS is one of the world's largest motherboard
manufacturers":

http://www.crn.vnunet.com/news/1158378


Equally, I've also had Gigabyte boards blow up as well. But hear what
you're saying...

Cheers, Rob.

Had nothing but trouble with ECS - Never agin!

SteveH

 

[BananaOfTheNight]

I know two people whose ECS boards just up and died for no apparent

reason. Those boards were replaced with Asus boards.

The same goes for Matsonic.

A friend had one of those in an el-cheapo 'Novatech Motherboard and
XP2500+' bundle. It caused him no end of troubles (instability, random
crashes, etc.). I told him to get an A7N8X-E and all the problems just
vanished (with a bit of a performance and sound quality boost into the
bargain).

 

[Ed]

Had nothing but trouble with ECS - Never agin!

SteveH

I have one ECS I bought in summer of 2000, it still works fine (stable)
but has some weirdness to it, like AGP 4X will only run @ 2X, changing
ram timings doesn't do anything, making a backup image under Ghost 2003
(DOS) is super slow (80MB/Min.), so all in all it works but doesn't
perform very well. I doubt I ever buy an ECS again, my favorite boards
are still Asus and MSI.

Good Luck,
Ed

 

[Hellraiser]

I've never come across ECS before - anyone got anything to say about them
and in particular this board?

ECS are the company behind PC Chips, they specialise in low budget
motherboards - used a few in the past, they're OK but nothing to write home
about. I'm in a similar position to yourself, and am currently leaning
towards either the A8N SLi Deluxe or the MSI equivalent. I wouldn't use
something cheap like an ECS in a machine for myself, I'd only use one if I
had to build down to a budget.

Hellraiser.........>

 

[Rob Nicholson]

ram timings doesn't do anything, making a backup image under Ghost 2003

(DOS) is super slow (80MB/Min.), so all in all it works but doesn't

Is that across the network or to another local hard disk? We usually expect
around 100MB/Min across 100MBit network so 80MB/Min doesn't sound too bad.

Cheers, Rob.

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

making a backup image under Ghost 2003
(DOS) is super slow (80MB/Min.)

hint: "ghost.exe /ide:yes"

 

[Andre LaFramboise]

I have their pt800ce-a and just got a ati x800xt agp and it does not work in
it and I just got off the phone with a person that use to work for ecs in
teck support and he said that the problem is more then likely due to that
fact that they use cheap parts.but I have an asus p4c800 deluxe to change it
with.find out tomorrow.you get what you pay for.

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

ECS are the company behind PC Chips, they specialise in low budget
motherboards - used a few in the past, they're OK but nothing to write home
about. I'm in a similar position to yourself, and am currently leaning
towards either the A8N SLi Deluxe or the MSI equivalent. I wouldn't use
something cheap like an ECS in a machine for myself

Agreed. We're using Asus A8Vs in machines at work and they are very
good boards. If you're going to get a good CPU, it's worth using decent
hardware with it IMO.

 

[Hellraiser]

Agreed. We're using Asus A8Vs in machines at work and they are very

good boards. If you're going to get a good CPU, it's worth using decent
hardware with it IMO.

Bloody hell, people agreeing with me rather than flaming me - can't let this
continue, or my reputation may suffer

Hellraiser..........>

 

[zzipper]

virtually no quality control and no dealer or customer support for RMA. I
know a dealer who threw out 50 boards in a year because ECS refused to
exchange or repair them. Of course, he doesn't sell any ECS products
anymore, I wonder why? Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, people who will actually create
BISO updates that work and replace or repair a defective board, I'd stick to
them. There are non-SLI NForce 4 Ultra boards coming from these companies,
wait for them. You'll likely regret it if you don't.

 

[Ed]

Is that across the network or to another local hard disk? We usually expect
around 100MB/Min across 100MBit network so 80MB/Min doesn't sound too bad.

Cheers, Rob.

No network. The drive was fast under Windows just really slow in DOS, on
a Soyo board w/same VIA chipsets it was around 350MB/Min.
Ed

 

[Rob Nicholson]

Bloody hell, people agreeing with me rather than flaming me - can't let
this

continue, or my reputation may suffer

Okay, okay - I'll avoid ECS

Cheers, Rob.