We spent a couple of weeks with the ECS A990FXM-A before beginning our review. As always, we do spend a fair bit of time using the board for daily tasks and gaming to get a real feel for the board, and to look for any possible issues users might encounter. During the testing period with the ECS A990FXM-A, we encountered several issues that left us dumbfounded, and required close investigation as to pinpoint the source of the problem. At first, overall performance left a bit to be desired, and power consumption was way too high.
A BIOS update managed to fix the performance issues, and did drop power consumption a bit, but we still noticed a 50W increase in power drawn via the EPS 8-pin connector compared to other products running the same CPU. Upon investigating the problem, we noticed that the default voltage applied to our CPUs was well over what it should be, and this was tested to be true with multiple CPUs. We notified ECS about the problem, but in the time since ECS has failed to provide a fix for this problem in particular. Combined with the non-working memory dividers, we are forced into a situation where we cannot recommend this product under any circumstances; for fear that the higher voltage applied to the CPU may shorten the lifespan of ANY installed CPU. Considering ECS has shown us they are capable of much better, we are left hugely disappointed in the ECS A990FXM-A, and we hope that ECS does not have this problem with other products. This situation might be acceptable for low-end products, but it is definitely not acceptable for a high-end product.
If it worked well, the included accessories, Bluetooth, and IDE justify the $240 price tag,
but it's hard to accept the pricing with so many issues present. If ECS can provide a fix for the current problems via a BIOS update, this board comes at a small cost, all things considered.