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Motherboard Question [message #404045] Sat, 26 September 2009 22:55 Go to next message
nikki6ixx is currently offline  nikki6ixx
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I've been looking through P55 boards for an upcoming build which will hopefully come soon, and I want to know if anyone has had experience with the brand 'ECS' ?

Here's their P55 offering: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135244&Tpk=ecs%20p5 5h-a

I'm not aiming for huge overclocks, and would likely be using an I5-750.

In enthusiast circles, the brand isn't woo well regarded but I tend to find people on hardware websites to be snooty douchebags, so I'm coming here to see if anyone has some input.


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Aircraftkiller wrote on Fri, 10 January 2014 16:56

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Re: Motherboard Question [message #404069 is a reply to message #404045] Sun, 27 September 2009 03:30 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Homey is currently offline  Homey
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Never personally used them...or even heard of them for that matter. I'd stick to a good brand, gigabyte has some cheaper P55 boards and I'd be going with them or EVGA. There's a reason these companies have a good rep, good quality and CS. I've done a few RMA's with EVGA, very easy. Their P55 boards are overpriced though.

Homey
Re: Motherboard Question [message #404208 is a reply to message #404069] Sun, 27 September 2009 23:45 Go to previous messageGo to next message
EvilWhiteDragon is currently offline  EvilWhiteDragon
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No personal exp with ECS, but it is generally known to be more of a budget motherboard builder, so personally I would go for something like Gigabyte.

I would certainly not go with Asus no matter what.


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Re: Motherboard Question [message #404215 is a reply to message #404208] Mon, 28 September 2009 01:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
CarrierII is currently offline  CarrierII
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EvilWhiteDragon wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 07:45

No personal exp with ECS, but it is generally known to be more of a budget motherboard builder, so personally I would go for something like Gigabyte.

I would certainly not go with Asus no matter what.


Why not ASUS? I've done three builds w/ ASUS boards, no complaints and nice prices.


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Re: Motherboard Question [message #404217 is a reply to message #404215] Mon, 28 September 2009 02:03 Go to previous messageGo to next message
EvilWhiteDragon is currently offline  EvilWhiteDragon
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CarrierII wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 10:25

EvilWhiteDragon wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 07:45

No personal exp with ECS, but it is generally known to be more of a budget motherboard builder, so personally I would go for something like Gigabyte.

I would certainly not go with Asus no matter what.


Why not ASUS? I've done three builds w/ ASUS boards, no complaints and nice prices.


I have had to RMA it 1, 2, 3, 4, no 5 times. And I only have had 3 Asus boards.


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Re: Motherboard Question [message #404218 is a reply to message #404045] Mon, 28 September 2009 02:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
CarrierII is currently offline  CarrierII
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I had to RMA one once, but I wasn't too bothered, due to good CS, but it was via the retailer. Hmm...

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Re: Motherboard Question [message #404236 is a reply to message #404218] Mon, 28 September 2009 06:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
EvilWhiteDragon is currently offline  EvilWhiteDragon
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CarrierII wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 11:05

I had to RMA one once, but I wasn't too bothered, due to good CS, but it was via the retailer. Hmm...

A couple of times the RMA service by retailer was decent (directly switched MB's) but at other times I had to wait 8 WEEKS before I got a working motherboard again. AKA no fun.


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Please visit http://www.blackintel.org/

V, V for Vendetta

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Governments should be afraid of their people.
Re: Motherboard Question [message #404287 is a reply to message #404236] Mon, 28 September 2009 14:20 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Homey is currently offline  Homey
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EvilWhiteDragon wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 09:36

CarrierII wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 11:05

I had to RMA one once, but I wasn't too bothered, due to good CS, but it was via the retailer. Hmm...

A couple of times the RMA service by retailer was decent (directly switched MB's) but at other times I had to wait 8 WEEKS before I got a working motherboard again. AKA no fun.

EVGA = 3 weeks, Gigabyte is something similar. That's for me, with 1 week shipping each way.


Homey
Re: Motherboard Question [message #404299 is a reply to message #404287] Mon, 28 September 2009 16:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
_SSnipe_ is currently offline  _SSnipe_
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Homey wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 14:20

EvilWhiteDragon wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 09:36

CarrierII wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 11:05

I had to RMA one once, but I wasn't too bothered, due to good CS, but it was via the retailer. Hmm...

A couple of times the RMA service by retailer was decent (directly switched MB's) but at other times I had to wait 8 WEEKS before I got a working motherboard again. AKA no fun.

EVGA = 3 weeks, Gigabyte is something similar. That's for me, with 1 week shipping each way.

I heard EVGA is pretty good and very easy over clockable
Re: Motherboard Question [message #404300 is a reply to message #404045] Mon, 28 September 2009 17:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
nikki6ixx is currently offline  nikki6ixx
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EVGA would be OK, but their P55 LE is 169 bucks before a rebate, whereas the ECS is $119 before a rebate which comes out to be 99 bucks. The EVGA doesn't have much over the cheaper ECS, and if I were spending 170 bucks on a board, I'd be looking at an MSI P55 GD-65.

170 dollars is starting to head into 1366 board territory, and then I'd just be tempted to then spend another 100 bucks on a 920 lol.


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Aircraftkiller wrote on Fri, 10 January 2014 16:56

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Re: Motherboard Question [message #404301 is a reply to message #404300] Mon, 28 September 2009 17:08 Go to previous messageGo to next message
_SSnipe_ is currently offline  _SSnipe_
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nikki6ixx wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 17:00

EVGA would be OK, but their P55 LE is 169 bucks before a rebate, whereas the ECS is $119 before a rebate which comes out to be 99 bucks. The EVGA doesn't have much over the cheaper ECS, and if I were spending 170 bucks on a board, I'd be looking at an MSI P55 GD-65.

170 dollars is starting to head into 1366 board territory, and then I'd just be tempted to then spend another 100 bucks on a 920 lol.

I thought i5 are faster then i7? but yet there cheaper :S
Re: Motherboard Question [message #404302 is a reply to message #404045] Mon, 28 September 2009 17:20 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Homey is currently offline  Homey
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i7 and i5 are similar, but i7 has a few differences other than speed. X58 also has more lanes than P55, better for multiple GPU solutions overall.

Have you looked at the gigabyte P55 boards? They're a little cheaper I believe and generally are of the same quality as EVGA and have decent CS.

P.S. You use NCIX and pricematch right? Every Canadian should Smile


Homey
Re: Motherboard Question [message #404304 is a reply to message #404302] Mon, 28 September 2009 17:29 Go to previous messageGo to next message
nikki6ixx is currently offline  nikki6ixx
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Homey wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 19:20

i7 and i5 are similar, but i7 has a few differences other than speed. X58 also has more lanes than P55, better for multiple GPU solutions overall.

Have you looked at the gigabyte P55 boards? They're a little cheaper I believe and generally are of the same quality as EVGA and have decent CS.

P.S. You use NCIX and pricematch right? Every Canadian should Smile


My problem is the PCI-e lanes, because on one hand, I don't think I'd need to SLI/Crossfire, but on the other, I keep my stuff for a long time, and if the 8x lane becomes a bottleneck in the future, I'd be kicking myself. Thing is, my monitor is limited to 1680x1050 so I really doubt I'll be using CFX/SLI anytime soon.

I've heard good things about Gigabyte and I've checked out their offerings, but I'm waiting to see if I can get my hands on some more reviews.

As for price matching, I'll likely be buying from the States because I have an American dollar account, so nothing from NCIX. I'm happy Hardware Canucks mentions pricematching constantly because it has saved me some money in the past.


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Aircraftkiller wrote on Fri, 10 January 2014 16:56

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Re: Motherboard Question [message #404340 is a reply to message #404045] Mon, 28 September 2009 21:49 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Homey is currently offline  Homey
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Ah alright, I find ordering from Canada still cheaper most of the time, especially if any border fees come into play.

What's your HWC user name?

Just noticed you're in BC. Ncix charges PST/GST for BC residents. We only pay 5% GST here, for the next year or so til the HST comes into effect.


Homey

[Updated on: Mon, 28 September 2009 21:50]

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Re: Motherboard Question [message #404374 is a reply to message #404217] Tue, 29 September 2009 03:54 Go to previous messageGo to next message
danpaul88 is currently offline  danpaul88
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EvilWhiteDragon wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 10:03

CarrierII wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 10:25

EvilWhiteDragon wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 07:45

No personal exp with ECS, but it is generally known to be more of a budget motherboard builder, so personally I would go for something like Gigabyte.

I would certainly not go with Asus no matter what.


Why not ASUS? I've done three builds w/ ASUS boards, no complaints and nice prices.


I have had to RMA it 1, 2, 3, 4, no 5 times. And I only have had 3 Asus boards.



Wow, thats really bad. I have bought about 10 ASUS boards over the last few years and never had a problem with any of them. I still have the first one I ever bought about 8yrs ago running somewhere, that's how reliable they have been for me. I never even consider other brands now as I know when I buy an ASUS board I am getting good value for money and, in my experience, excellent reliability.


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[Updated on: Tue, 29 September 2009 03:56]

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Re: Motherboard Question [message #404432 is a reply to message #404045] Tue, 29 September 2009 11:58 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Homey is currently offline  Homey
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Was it an nvidia chipset? They tend to suck the big one. I've used a 780i, 790i and a 45 chipset. The 780i has died twice, 790i and 45 have been fine. Moving to X58 this week, much more stable than any nvidia chipset could dream of.

Asus had a lot of bad boards, like evga because of nvidia chipsets. Wasn't really their fault these boards were such junk. If you had that many problems with an intel chip, that's odd.


Homey
Re: Motherboard Question [message #404439 is a reply to message #404374] Tue, 29 September 2009 12:27 Go to previous messageGo to next message
EvilWhiteDragon is currently offline  EvilWhiteDragon
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danpaul88 wrote on Tue, 29 September 2009 12:54

EvilWhiteDragon wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 10:03

CarrierII wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 10:25

EvilWhiteDragon wrote on Mon, 28 September 2009 07:45

No personal exp with ECS, but it is generally known to be more of a budget motherboard builder, so personally I would go for something like Gigabyte.

I would certainly not go with Asus no matter what.


Why not ASUS? I've done three builds w/ ASUS boards, no complaints and nice prices.


I have had to RMA it 1, 2, 3, 4, no 5 times. And I only have had 3 Asus boards.



Wow, thats really bad. I have bought about 10 ASUS boards over the last few years and never had a problem with any of them. I still have the first one I ever bought about 8yrs ago running somewhere, that's how reliable they have been for me. I never even consider other brands now as I know when I buy an ASUS board I am getting good value for money and, in my experience, excellent reliability.

Fair enough, my oldest Asus board (A7N266-c, Athlon XP palimino age) is still running with a Athlon XP-M 2400+ at 2,3 Ghz (17*133). So yeah, that one performs fine, but the others where BAD.


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Re: Motherboard Question [message #404451 is a reply to message #404045] Tue, 29 September 2009 14:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
danpaul88 is currently offline  danpaul88
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Homey wrote on Tue, 29 September 2009 19:58

Was it an nvidia chipset? They tend to suck the big one. I've used a 780i, 790i and a 45 chipset. The 780i has died twice, 790i and 45 have been fine. Moving to X58 this week, much more stable than any nvidia chipset could dream of.

Asus had a lot of bad boards, like evga because of nvidia chipsets. Wasn't really their fault these boards were such junk. If you had that many problems with an intel chip, that's odd.



Actually... I think most of my boards are nvidia chipsets, all my recent ones certainly are. My current board has the 750a chipset and my last one had the 570 chipset... strange how different peoples experience with the same product can be. Perhaps it's because I never overclock any of my components because I prefer them to actually last a long time.


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Re: Motherboard Question [message #404464 is a reply to message #404340] Tue, 29 September 2009 17:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
nikki6ixx is currently offline  nikki6ixx
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Homey wrote on Tue, 29 September 2009 00:49

Ah alright, I find ordering from Canada still cheaper most of the time, especially if any border fees come into play.

What's your HWC user name?

Just noticed you're in BC. Ncix charges PST/GST for BC residents. We only pay 5% GST here, for the next year or so til the HST comes into effect.


My HWC name is 'DokkRokken' , and I haven't been on long at all; just lurked for a couple years.

As for shipping, I have a bud in Seattle who holds US shipments for me so whenever I head south for a day or two, I just pick it up at his place. It also means I get to avoid some of the taxes, and I just don't declare it at the border.

Edit: Saw this on ebay.ca, and it's through NCIX outlet.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ASUS-Rampage-II-Gene-mATX-DDR3-X58-CrossFire-SLI-37051D_W0QQi temZ310171644566QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotherboards?hash=item4837abb296&_trksid= p3286.c0.m14#ht_9222wt_958

Even though it's 'open box' I'm going to try grabbing it, although I have this bad feeling other people are watching it too. Shame I can't just go to their place and get it because it'd be just a 20 minute drive.


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Aircraftkiller wrote on Fri, 10 January 2014 16:56

The only game where everyone competes to be an e-janitor.

[Updated on: Tue, 29 September 2009 20:33]

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Re: Motherboard Question [message #404483 is a reply to message #404045] Tue, 29 September 2009 21:56 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Homey is currently offline  Homey
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Ah, must be nice to have someone that close. Port Huron is about 50 minutes from here and I don't know anyone there. Seems like a good deal, but if I had known you were interested in mATX boards there are still a few more nice ones out there as well. In fact, the X58 EVGA Micro looks really good.

Homey
Re: Motherboard Question [message #406534 is a reply to message #404045] Sat, 10 October 2009 18:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
nikki6ixx is currently offline  nikki6ixx
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So I was poking around again, and came up with this 'i7' cart with a few rebates:





It comes out to $1,151.95 before shipping and rebates. The rebates are 90 bucks in total, but two of them will likely require me to use my bud's address.

I could finaggle with it, and get the mATX EVGA board, but I think the x58 LE variant should be worth the couple extra bucks. The 4770 is there to tide me over until ATI's DX11 card prices fall, and when nVidia shows it's hand with the GT300 cards.

The SSD is in there, because they're mighty awesome, and I wanted to get that specific Thermaltake case in the first place, so win win, eh?

I haven't added any third party heatsink because if I decide to OC, it won't be for quite a while.

Any thoughts? This is still tepid, but if I get anything, it'll have to be at the month's end. I'm gaming at 1680x1050, and I really won't be working the high-end platform, but I like a little future-proofing. Smile


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Aircraftkiller wrote on Fri, 10 January 2014 16:56

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[Updated on: Sat, 10 October 2009 18:49]

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Re: Motherboard Question [message #406538 is a reply to message #404045] Sat, 10 October 2009 22:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Homey is currently offline  Homey
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Looks good man. Personally I'd save a bit of money and go with a Vertex, I got one for $170 AR from newegg.ca 2 weeks ago, 60GB. Is that the new generation intel or old? If it's the new one, it's an ok price. I'm doing the same deal right now with my card, sitting on a gts 250 til nvidia shows their cards. Then I'll go with ati or nvidia, whomever seems best. Pick up a Hyper 212+ heatsink, I got mine for $25 at ncix, does a mighty job for the price. Frankly it'd be worth putting in now.

Homey
Re: Motherboard Question [message #406539 is a reply to message #404045] Sat, 10 October 2009 22:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
nikki6ixx is currently offline  nikki6ixx
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I originally was going to pull for a 60GB Vertex, but with the Intel/Thermaltake combo, it's 30 bucks less, than if I bought the Thermtaltake case and OCZ Vertex. I ain't gonna complain about that! Mr. Green

And I went ahead and added a 212, plus an extra fan with some Arctic Silver 5. I doubt I'll be overclocking anytime soon, but since you mentioned that it's decent for i7, I might as well grab it. All in all, the subtotal before shipping is $1,197.

Like I said, this is still a bit tepid, but if I can swing it, this would be what I'd end up with.


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Aircraftkiller wrote on Fri, 10 January 2014 16:56

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Re: Motherboard Question [message #406540 is a reply to message #404045] Sat, 10 October 2009 23:27 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Homey is currently offline  Homey
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Oh damn, didn't realize that was the combo price!! Very nice deal, wow I must be out of it. I'm using my hyper 212 on my 920, haven't OC'ed yet, but getting about 60C load temps. Should be able to hit 3.8-4.0 safely.

The extra 20GB for less money is awesome. I love my SSD, 13 seconds into Windows, 1st in game in every game...you can't beat them Smile

So did you grab the Micro or the LE? I used the LE in a buddy's build about 2 months ago, was a nice mobo. From what I've read the Micro is awesome though, so that'd be a tough choice!


Homey
Re: Motherboard Question [message #412772 is a reply to message #404045] Mon, 30 November 2009 22:04 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
nikki6ixx is currently offline  nikki6ixx
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I was thrown a financial changeup, so my plans are a little more modest. Mr. Green

So now, I've got a Phenom 955 and MSI 790FX-GD70 coming my way that I got for 300 bucks, plus a Corsair 750TX.

So now I'm gonna be on the lookout for bargains for RAM, HD's and a GFX card or two. I'll be posting on HWC forums for questions regarding that stuff, but if anyone here has some ideas about good DDR3 Dual Channel that could allow me to have a decent OC, that'd be great. Smile


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