Did I just buy a piece of crap?

[TUK101]

I just bought a ECS k7s5a motherboard for my XP1600 cpu that I bought about a month ago. Is this mobo a total pos, or is it just a poor OC'er? I can handle it if it is just a poor OC'er, but I dont want an unstabile board. Oh well, if it is just a poor OC'er then I will just unload the box that I am putting together with this board and then maybe be able to afford to get a real mobo lol.

 

[Randy]

From what I have seen in my own personal experiance and read here the ECS K7S5a is a good bang for the buck mobo. Not buggy good stability and you can do some overclocking. All in all IMHO its a good low buck mother board

 

[TUK101]

Thanks Randy. I have read quite a bit of reviews on the board and up until last night I didnt realize that the board doesnt have much OC'ing potential. From the reviews though it is said to be a fairly descent board for the money just like you say. Hopefully one of these bios's that I have read about will unlock some OC'ing potential buried deep within the board lol.

 

[Dragon_Engineer2]

I stand by the ECS K7S5A 100%.They are great board for people that want a good stable system but with no frills.

 

[attack]

Well it's not a ****ty mobo, it's stable and cheap and is great for OEM's that don't OC. It isn't the best for OCing but if you don't got a ton of cash to spend it's an excellent choice. In the future checkout newegg's refurbished items, excellent deals there and you can get great boards that normaly cast 100's+ for a steal.

You didn't get the best but you are VERY FAR from buying a piece of crap.

 

[JDXNC]

I have my OC'd Duron on one... its my main rig I am on right now, I have to stand behind it 100% as well. Just get the OC workbench BIOS to get additional FSB settings and it works pretty good, if you want to be hardcore there is a lot of info on how to make a volt mod for it.

BTW.... it is a power hungry mobo, just make sure its getting plenty of juice.... 300W bare MINIMUM for PSU... I highly recommend at lead 350W.

 

[TUK101]

Thanks for all the feedback. I dont feal so bad about buying it now. One of the main reasons for buying it is that I dont have ddr memory quite yet and it allows me to use my sdram for now. I have been slowly piecing together an amd rig as I can afford it and this seemed to fit the bill pretty well for now. I have a pretty good 300 watt right now, but am going to get a 350-400 watt when I can afford it. I have been shopping for one, and this purchase was either the psu, or the mobo.

 

[Randy]

TUK, where in Washington are you from?

 

[Kunaak]

there a overclocking bios for the K7s5a?

I use that as my backup board cause it has no overclocking features so I can't mess with it, hence I can't kill it.
thats why it's my back up...
it's a great board.
I have no complaints, except minor details like the AGP lock is hard to get to, but who cares...

wheres the overclocking bios for this board?
I wanna give it a try.

 

[TUK101]

Kunaak, check in the ECS section for the bios, there is a sticky there for this particular board. Randy, I live in Spokane Washington.

 

[Dragon_Engineer2]

I couldnt find the bios on their site can you link me?

 

[juliendogg]

i also have built systems with the ecsk7s5a, 2 exactly. i would recommend this board to anyone who doesn't want to get into extreme o/c'ing. both systems were extrememly stable, and if you check into the reviews, performance from sis735 chipset at default speed settings is right on par or even just above that of a kt266a @ the same speeds settings. there is an overclocking bios for the board, may sacrifice some stability but i got 200mhz o/c from a 1000mhz duron with it. not too shabby. great board imho.


*edit* missed your last post as i was posting my own @ the same time . that bios is not from ECS. you will not find it on their website. do a search in the ecs mobo section. i'm sure you'll find a link to it there. good luck!

 

[lonewolf1983]

these boards really rock for the price, but lack overclocking features found on most boards.

http://forum.ocworkbench.com/ocwbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=37 for all your OCing needs on this board

one of the most stable boards ive ever owned, and equal in performance to the kt266a

 

[JDXNC]

One reason it may not be OC'ing well is the fact you're using SDRAM, I only got to 1120 with that, when I switched to DDR it runs at 1240 no prob, 100% stable.

 

[james.miller]

another vote for the k7s5a. mine's stable as hell.
also you dont need the overclocking bios (made by cheepoman).

just download cpufsb and do it from there. no bios flashing needed

 

[DipStickTony]

Ill 7th that its a great board. I just put togeather a nice cheap upgrade for my liltte brother as his comp has hit the point where he can no longer play any new game out. UT2k3 absolutely killed the poor celly.

Anyways board setup is good, hasnt crashed yet with xp pro on it, he plays games from the second he gets home until the second he goes to bed. And his 1600+ went straight to 166fsb without any volt modifications. Great Board, every board I have bought from ECS has been great. They arnt top of the line but I think they are the best for price/preformance.


Edit**: Ill change my sig in the morning had a long day dealing with mailbox etc.

 

[TUK101]

Ill 7th that its a great board. I just put togeather a nice cheap upgrade for my liltte brother as his comp has hit the point where he can no longer play any new game out. UT2k3 absolutely killed the poor celly.

Anyways board setup is good, hasnt crashed yet with xp pro on it, he plays games from the second he gets home until the second he goes to bed. And his 1600+ went straight to 166fsb without any volt modifications. Great Board, every board I have bought from ECS has been great. They arnt top of the line but I think they are the best for price/preformance.

Sounds good. You should change the stats for your bros rig in your sig.