ECS NF650iSLIT-A Motherboard Review

[Capper]

While INTEL continues to release quality chipset after quality chipset (with their G33 and G35 chipsets already showing up for pre-order), those who favor the NVIDIA silicon and the benefits they offer (SLI anyone?) are fairly limited. Those wanting to match a Core 2 Duo processor with SLI were forced to toss down premium money on high end 680i motherboards, or settle for the older NVIDIA 570 or 590 SLI mobos, which, while no slouches, don't feature 1333FSB support or other newer features found on NVIDIA's 680i chipset. Enter the NVIDIA 650i chipsets.

ECS NF650iSLIT-A Motherboard Review

[Jokerswild]

Excellent review Rich. Too bad there's a few problems with the bios as I was expecting better from ECS and there's really no excuse for the lack of cables. Sometimes saving money on a motherboard just isn't the way to go and personally I wouldn't be looking at this board for myself.

[One4yu2c]

The DDR 1.95V upper limit on the new BIOS is going to be a deal breaker for many. Be interesting to see if they address the tweaking options in a future BIOS release, and the voltage droop.

[Quakindude]

Very good and thorough review Rich. As background info, I had this board installed in my main rig doing a review right before the tornado hit. I noticed the voltages issue as well as the CMOS and IDE issues. The voltage for the CPU was a dealbreaker for anyone hoping to overclock IMHO. I noticed on the mobo I had that I could overclock my E6600 to 3.0Ghz, but needed the BIOS CPU voltage set to like 1.5V to get 1.36V out of it under load. As soon as I removed the load, the CPU voltage would go up to 1.5V. Put the load back on the CPU, the voltage would drop to 1.36V and still move around a bit, by .25-.5 fluctuations, during testing.

Stock performance was fine. But the CPU Voltage would still wander around even at stock settings. In this case, I think stepping up to ECS's 680i would be the better choice.

[Capper]

You can look at it a couple different ways......
1. The results were impressive across the board at default settings, and considering the two boards I used for comparison, thats a good thing
2. The problems might be addressed in a BIOS revision, which could make the problems a moot point........it also could be just this board having problems, although I don't believe it is.

The price should counter the issues, and with the G33 and G35 chipsets knocking at the door, the sub-$120 price should drop even further, moving this from a mainstream option to a great budget option in the $80-100 range.

Originally Posted by Quakindude

Very good and thorough review Rich. As background info, I had this board installed in my main rig doing a review right before the tornado hit. I noticed the voltages issue as well as the CMOS and IDE issues. The voltage for the CPU was a dealbreaker for anyone hoping to overclock IMHO. I noticed on the mobo I had that I could overclock my E6600 to 3.0Ghz, but needed the BIOS CPU voltage set to like 1.5V to get 1.36V out of it under load. As soon as I removed the load, the CPU voltage would go up to 1.5V. Put the load back on the CPU, the voltage would drop to 1.36V and still move around a bit, by .25-.5 fluctuations, during testing.

Stock performance was fine. But the CPU Voltage would still wander around even at stock settings. In this case, I think stepping up to ECS's 680i would be the better choice.

I actually remember us talking about this....but got busy and didn't remember this until I was at the point of pulling my hair out testing this board for the third time last night......I honestly thought it was one of my components or me, as not another review of this board makes mention of issues like this.....but with both of this having seen this issue on two separate test benches, I feel better in a way.

The board performed excellent at default, and considering the BIOS and voltage issues, even overclocked very well.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Quakindude

Very good and thorough review Rich. As background info, I had this board installed in my main rig doing a review right before the tornado hit. I noticed the voltages issue as well as the CMOS and IDE issues. The voltage for the CPU was a dealbreaker for anyone hoping to overclock IMHO. I noticed on the mobo I had that I could overclock my E6600 to 3.0Ghz, but needed the BIOS CPU voltage set to like 1.5V to get 1.36V out of it under load. As soon as I removed the load, the CPU voltage would go up to 1.5V. Put the load back on the CPU, the voltage would drop to 1.36V and still move around a bit, by .25-.5 fluctuations, during testing.

Stock performance was fine. But the CPU Voltage would still wander around even at stock settings. In this case, I think stepping up to ECS's 680i would be the better choice.

What were you using to measure voltages? CPU-Z has been known to report incorrect vCore voltages.

[Capper]

Voltage readings were consistent using the BIOS, my Ultra-X test kit, and other sources I typically use for testing....

[Quakindude]

For me, CPU-Z, Everest, SpeedFan and Nvidia's control panel all showed the same results for the V-Core.

I agree with you Rich, for a stock build, there's nothing wrong with using this board.