ECS P35T-A Motherboard Review

[Capper]

Over the past two years I've reviewed almost every board released by ECS, and during that time I've touted them as a great choice for those wanting a solid motherboard and great bundle for a modest price. After visiting with the folks from ECS at Computex, and touring their facilities in China, I had really high hopes for their future motherboards. While I've been a bit underwhelmed with their recent offerings, I've had to temper my disappointment with the understanding that ECS is not trying to compete with enthusiast board makers like ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI.....instead looking to bring performance boards to those who don't want to spend top dollar. when taken from that point of view, ECS has been extremely successful.

ECS P35T-A Motherboard Review

[Jokerswild]

Great write-up Rich. There any chance of ECS doing a bios upgrade on this board?

[Computer-Ed]

Excellent review that took the product at the level it is intended. Looking at the design I think they wasted the space with the second PCIE, especially since at this price point it is "usually" not an option. That beings aid I am curious, you mentioned the slots are two close for crossfire, however is that with using say a 2600? Will single slot cards still be able to crossfire in it?

The reason I ask is I have noticed a lot of adds of late that list 2400 and 2600 cards in crossfire, the same for nVidia with 8500 and 8600 SLI.

[Yellowhello]

I liked the review, Rich.

Even though ECS released a good 680i motherboard, I still don't really trust ECS. A few of my relatives had had bad experiences with ECS, and many of my friends. I myself never owned an ECS board. I think that there are much better choices for P35 boards. IMO.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Computer-Ed

That beings aid I am curious, you mentioned the slots are two close for crossfire, however is that with using say a 2600? Will single slot cards still be able to crossfire in it?

The reason I ask is I have noticed a lot of adds of late that list 2400 and 2600 cards in crossfire, the same for nVidia with 8500 and 8600 SLI.

The two x16 slots are not directly next to each other, they are separated by that x1 slot. So you should be able to fit two dual slot video cards in there, it's just not ideal because with two dual slot cards the top most card will be sitting right up against the back side of the bottom card and airflow is greatly reduced.

They call them dual slot cards for a reason, the card and heatsink/fan all together take up exactly the space of two slots. And yes, you would also be able to easily fit two HD 2400 or HD 2600 cards in this board as well...

[qazwsx]

that bundle is really mean there. My asrock came with loads of stuff (not that it all works) and thats near enough the same price

[Capper]

ECS has always been known as an extreme budget company. Those of you who have shopped at Fry's probably know ECS boards because you'd get a "Throw Away" when you bought a new processor.

Over the last couple years, starting with the KA1 MVP, up through the PX1 and PN2-SLI2+, the quality has improved dramatically (although the PN2-SLI2+ was just the reference design with the ECS name screened on it). After all the time I spent with ECS, the impression I got was a company that was looking to move more toward the mainstream and enthusiast markets, so hopefully the P35T-A and M33T-M2 are abberations, or just boards to fill a niche more than they are what we can expect from ECS going forward.

I will say, that if you look at the benchmarks, the ECS boards perform as well as every other board (If you factor in a slight 3-5% margin of error, nothing really separates any board). what you should take away from this is that if you have no plans for overclocking, then simple boards like these are perfectly fine to use.

[polobunny]

Better design than the Asus P5KC. I just hated this one for the IDE placement. @_@
It was painful to see a IDE cable &/)"($&/@ my nice cable job for a damned optical drive. :P

Edit: P5KC, not P5KR. Typo.

[Computer-Ed]

Originally Posted by polobunny

Better design than the Asus P5KC. I just hated this one for the IDE placement. @_@
It was painful to see a IDE cable &/)"($&/@ my nice cable job for a damned optical drive. :P

Edit: P5KC, not P5KR. Typo.

IDE cables??!! YUCK!!!! SATA FTW

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Computer-Ed

IDE cables??!! YUCK!!!! SATA FTW

Thanks, but some people would like to still be able to use their IDE periphals, that are working perfectly fine. :P
Besides, we do what the client wants.