# Is ECS Good Mobo Manufacturer?



## Reventon (Apr 9, 2009)

My computer still has it's stock ECS Iris 1.0 motherboard, I was wondering if ECS was any good. I've heard they are decent, but I am wanting to check. Maybe a ASUS mobo should be my next purchase.


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## 3dsage (Apr 9, 2009)

Whats your rig specs?
I wouldnt recomend ECS, dont think they suck. But there is alot of better options out there.

My priority for MOBO- DFI- Gigabyte- Asus- maybe MSI.


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## ShadowFold (Apr 9, 2009)

They are good for non-gamers and non-overclockers. If you game or overclock you better get a good brand like ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, AsRock, Biostar etc.


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## Mussels (Apr 9, 2009)

ECS is pretty close to bottom of the pile.


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## BrooksyX (Apr 9, 2009)

I have never had any problems with ECS. They may not overclock or bring tons of innovation to the table but they get the job done for an office/cheap gaming machine.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Apr 9, 2009)

Fill out your system specs.

Anyways, it all matters if you want to OC, if you aren't interested in doing that I really wouldn't worry. But if you want some voltage control then your going to want to step up most likely to a better chipset and manufacturer.


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## Reventon (Apr 9, 2009)

Just filled them out.

I'm not really interested in OCing my motherboard, as it isn't necessary for any of the games I play. 
I play all of my games on max settings with nothing overclocked and my computer does fine.


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## Mussels (Apr 9, 2009)

Reventon said:


> Just filled them out.



you gotta change the drop down box to allow other users to see it.


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## Athlon2K15 (Apr 9, 2009)

they arent the greatest but my ECS does its job


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## suraswami (Apr 9, 2009)

ECS is good stable board manufacturer.  Their bios sucks for overclocking but the quality of their boards are really good.  If I am buying something for a server build I buy ECS boards.


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## Reventon (Apr 9, 2009)

Mussels said:


> you gotta change the drop down box to allow other users to see it.



I fixeded it


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## Mussels (Apr 9, 2009)

Reventon said:


> I fixeded it



well i can see how a system like that can power a 19", so yeah OCing isnt a priority for sure.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Apr 9, 2009)

Reventon said:


> I'm not really interested in OCing my motherboard, as it isn't necessary for any of the games I play.
> I play all of my games on max settings with nothing overclocked and my computer does fine.



Then I wouldn't worry about swapping out your motherboard. Put that money away for when you want to pick up a bigger monitor, better videocard, or better processor/motherboard. 

If your not gonna overclock that ECS should be fantastic. Don't need a amazing board to run stock clocks. I been using a $45 Asus M2V-SE in my gf's comp for 3 years and it still runs great!


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## Reventon (Apr 9, 2009)

Okay. Probably put some money towards either another HDD, another screen for dual-screen display, or something else.


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## Mussels (Apr 9, 2009)

Reventon said:


> Okay. Probably put some money towards either another HDD, another screen for dual-screen display, or something else.



The systems very balanced as it is. If you get a bigger, higher res monitor you'll want a more powerful video card, which means a bigger PSU... and so on, with other upgrades.

IMO, slowly save up for an entirely new PC in 6-12 months.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Apr 9, 2009)

I would say save up for a PII 720BE and 790GX mobo, but make sure to get a PSU also.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339009

MY gf has that PSU and I used that PSU in 4 other peoples comp builds, hers has been running 3 years without 1 issue, and all the others havent had one problem either. It's enough amps to power any single GPU card on the market and won't break your wallet.

That 400w you got just isn't going to cut much more, I'm really surprised it's hacking what you got.

The 4850 with a PII though should do quiet well.


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## FordGT90Concept (Apr 9, 2009)

ECS is fine.  It is about in line with PC Chips and the other budget brands.  They aren't perfect but they get the job done.

I've used motherboards from MSI, DFI, Gigabyte, PC Chips, and ECS and have got bad boards from them all.  IMO, Gigabyte is the worst and the rest tie for average.

Gigabyte gets a rock thrown at it because they release BIOS that makes the situation worse, not better.  Not to mention, the computer was barely running with the stock BIOS so you had to risk a BIOS update just to get it stable.  It was a PITA and I'm not inclined to purchase another because of that.


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## Studabaker (Apr 9, 2009)

I have used a lot of ECS boards and they have all been stable and worked great for a long time.  They were cheap models so there wasn't a lot in the way of overclocking but they work.  ECS makes a lot of boards for OEM computers (Dell, HP etc).

Edit, as to the post above, ECS' quality is above and beyond that of PC Chips.


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## BrooksyX (Apr 9, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> ...Gigabyte is the worst and the rest tie for average.
> 
> Gigabyte gets a rock thrown at it because they release BIOS that makes the situation worse, not better.  Not to mention, the computer was barely running with the stock BIOS so you had to risk a BIOS update just to get it stable.  It was a PITA and I'm not inclined to purchase another because of that.



What are you talking about? Gigabyte is one of the best board makers. Their boards are the exact same boards as Asus. They are made in the same factories and come of the same assebly lines. One bad experience that you may have had with a board doesn't condemn a whole company. Me and many others would agree that gigabyte is great. Nothing but good experiences from them.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Apr 9, 2009)

Hey hey now, don't go bashing PcChips!

I have used their boards in numerous budget builds for friends, and back when I was just starting to get into comps myself. I havent ever had one crap out on me, and thats gotta be out of like 10 boards.


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## Mussels (Apr 9, 2009)

BrooksyX said:


> What are you talking about? Gigabyte is one of the best board makers. Their boards are the exact same boards as Asus. They are made in the same factories and come of the same assebly lines. One bad experience that you may have had with a board doesn't condemn a whole company. Me and many others would agree that gigabyte is great. Nothing but good experiences from them.



No. gigabyte have the second highest failure rate in video cards, for example. They also have lots of reports of "sudden death" in their intel boards.

Gigabyte are very cheap, shoddy boards... if you get lucky they can be good, but most people arent so lucky.


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## BrooksyX (Apr 9, 2009)

Mussels said:


> No. gigabyte have the highest failute rate in video cards, for example. They also have lots of reports of "sudden death" in their intel boards.
> 
> Gigabyte are very cheap, shoddy boards... if you get lucky they can be good, but most people arent so lucky.



I find that hard to believe. Why is gigabytes p45 GA-UD3P one of the highest sought after motherboards for the 775 platform?

Oh well I am not gonna sit here and defend gigabyte as my new favorite manufacturer is MSI. Havent let me down yet.


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## Mussels (Apr 9, 2009)

i updated with a link to the video card reference. (and a few typos)

Google around, you'll see tons of people with Giga boards that wont POST anymore. I've ran into quite a few personally where the IDE controller shat itself, preventing the system from booting (Solid HDD LED, even with no HDD's attached)


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## EiSFX (Apr 9, 2009)

ECS are really good boards if you don't plan on OCing at all and i don't know why ppl have a thing against gigabyte i have owned 5 different motherboards and 3 different video cards from then and have never had a problem with them they where all very solid and had really nice OCing options too


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## ShadowFold (Apr 9, 2009)

BrooksyX said:


> I find that hard to believe. Why is gigabytes p45 GA-UD3P one of the highest sought after motherboards for the 775 platform?
> 
> Oh well I am not gonna sit here and defend gigabyte as my new favorite manufacturer is MSI. Havent let me down yet.



Gigabyte's P35 and older AMD 700 series chipsets SUCKED. I had a gigabyte P35 just die randomly after a few days of use and two 780g's die from them. I think their newer boards are good but a user here has their newer 790GX boards and the sata port died on him so I think I'm gonna steer clear of them for the rest of my life.


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## Reventon (Apr 9, 2009)

Well with the way my system is running my games right now, I have no reason to upgrade for a while. I'm getting 80-230FPS in all of my games maxed out to everything.


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## FordGT90Concept (Apr 9, 2009)

BrooksyX said:


> What are you talking about? Gigabyte is one of the best board makers. Their boards are the exact same boards as Asus. They are made in the same factories and come of the same assebly lines. One bad experience that you may have had with a board doesn't condemn a whole company. Me and many others would agree that gigabyte is great. Nothing but good experiences from them.


Gigabyte authors the BIOS and the BIOS on that board were hideous.  If memory serves, the board came with F4 on which it would only run about 30 before restarting.  I tried updating to F7 and it would only run about 60 seconds before restarting.  I finally went back to F6 and it finally ran as it should.  New BIOS are supposed to fix stuff, not break it.  The board itself was fine but they need to get better BIOS programmers.

Both BIOS updates were the most nerve racking experience I've ever had with a motherboard.  If it decided to restart during the BIOS update process, the board would have been bricked.


Oh, tried a Foxconn too.  It was alright.  Still haven't found a favorite.


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