ECS NFORCE4-A939 - any good?

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/NewsRoo...UID=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.

> 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.

On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 13:13:43 GMT, "Rob Nicholson"
<> wrote:

>>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/NewsRoo...UID=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?
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.

> 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.

"Rob Nicholson" <> wrote in message
news:7XDYd.17279$...
>> 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.
Had nothing but trouble with ECS - Never agin!

SteveH

> 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).

On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 15:44:17 GMT, "SteveH"
<> wrote:

>"Rob Nicholson" <> wrote in message
>news:7XDYd.17279$...
>>> 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.
>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

> 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.........>

> 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.

In article <>, Ed
<> writes

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

hint: "ghost.exe /ide:yes"

--
..sigmonster on vacation