Hello people….today we have a few motherboards from a company which is relatively unknown here.
Presenting two motherboards from ECS : 970M-A Deluxe and 990FXM-A Deluxe .
So lets see what these boards have in store for us…shall we?
Am going into this review with no expectation since this is my second time with an ECS product.
hers’ what Wikipedia has to say about them :
Elitegroup Computer Systems Co., Ltd,is a Taiwan-based electronics firm. It is the fifth largest PC motherboard manufacturer in the world (after Asus, Gigabyte Technology, ASRock, and MSI), with production reaching 24 million units in 2002. Many of these motherboards have been produced for OEM customers and are used in systems assembled and sold by such brand-name companies as IBM, Compaq and Zoostorm. Its main competitors are Micro-Star International and ASRock.
So without further ado lets move on the unboxing and then out of the box performance.
First up the 970M-A Deluxe the entry-level 970 chipset motherboard, Since we see the Deluxe moniker expect to see some high-end stuff here.
First lets take a look at the specification then we will move into the board itself.
| CPU | Supports AMD® AM3+ & AM3 socket for AMD® FX-Series and Phenom™ II processors High Performance AMD HyperTransport 3.0 CPU Interface TDP: 140W 100% Solid capacitor design Supports AMD® 125W 8 Core / 6 Core processors |
| CHIPSET | AMD® 970 AMD® SB950 |
| GRAPHICS | Supports ATI® 2-Way CrossFireX™ |
| MEMORY | Dual-channel DDR3 Memory architecture Supports DDR3 1866/1800/1600/1333/1066 non-ECC, Un-buffered SDRAM Memory Supports up to 2133+(OC) 4 X 240-pin DDR3 DIMM socket Support up to 32 GB* AMD® AMD Memory Profile (AMP) Memory Modules |
| EXPANSION SLOT | 2 X PCI Express X16 Gen 2.0 slot(s) 2 X PCI Express X 1 slot(s) 2 X PCI slot(s) |
| Storage | AMD® SB950 Express Chipset 5 X Serial ATAIII 6Gb/s 1 X eSATAIII 6Gb/s RAID0, RAID1,RAID5, RAID 10 configuration |
| Audio | 8-Channel HD audio CODEC Compliant with HD audio specification Realtek ALC892 ‧Realtek ALC892 8-channel High Definition audio CODEC ‧Compatible with Direct Sound 3D™, A3D™, I3DL2 ‧Smart multiple streaming operation ‧Intuitive Configuration Panel (Realtek Audio Manager) to enhance user experience ‧7.1+2 channel multi-streaming enables concurrent gaming/VoIP |
| LAN | Realtek 8111E Gigabit Fast Ethernet Controller Wake-On-LAN |
| USB | 2 X USB3.0 port(s) up to 5Gb/s 14 X USB2.0 port(s) Up to 480 Mb/s ECS EZ Charger (Gray USB header) |
| REAR PANEL I/O | 1 X PS/2 combo connector 1 X Audio port (Line-in,4x Line-out, SPDIF out) 1 X RJ-45 port 1 X eSATA 6Gb/s port(s) 2 X USB3.0 port(s) 8 X USB2.0 port(s) |
| CONNECTORS & HEADERS | 1 X 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector 1 X 8-pin ATX 12V Power Connector 1 X 4-pin CPU_FAN connector with smart fan 1 X 3-pin SYS_FAN connector 1 X 3-pin PWR_FAN connector 1 X Front panel audio header 1 X Speaker header 3 X USB 2.0 header Support additional 6 USB ports Support EZ charger (gray color) 1 X S/PDIF out header 5 X SATA III 6Gb/s connector(s) 1 X CLR_CMOS header 1 X Serial port header (COM) |
| SYSTEM BIOS | AMI BIOS with 32 MB SPI Flash ROM Supports M.I.B X Utility ACPI & DMI F7 hot key for boot up devices option Support ECS EZ BIOS Plug and Play, STR (S3) / STD (S4) , Hardware monitor, Multi Boot Multi-Language BIOS Audio, LAN, can be disabled in BIOS Supports PgUp clear CMOS Hotkey |
| FORM FACTOR | ATX Form Factor 305mm(W)*220mm(H) |
| OS Support | Windows XP 32-bit Windows XP 64-bit Windows Vista 64-bit Windows 7 32-bit Windows 7 64-bit Windows 8 32-bit Windows 8 64-bit |
| Certifications | CE/FCC Certification ErP/EuP Certification WHQL Certification WHCK Certification |
| Bundled Software | ECS Intelligent EZ Utility : eBLU, eDLU, eOC, eSF Creative Sound Blaster Cinema software |
I would warn you beforehand since my Hard-disk crashed i lost a lot of pictures which included the ECS boards; so the picture quality and quantity maybe less than satisfactory.
I would retake the pictures as soon as i get access to the pictures and a better camera(the one i always use).
The motherboard comes itself in a no frills box with just the motherboard packed inside.
The box has information printed all over if you haven’t noticed.
The board in itself is not as feature laden as its bigger counter parts but out of the box is nicely specced as clear from the above table. Being a part of the “Golden” line up we see golden anodized heat-sink throughout the board.
On e of the So called “innovative” feature is the “Anti Dust Shield” whihc is said to prevent dust accumulation on the board. Quite a good effort on the Designers part,how ever i would have liked the effort in some other area’s.
The board gives you dual PCIe slots. One running at the full x16 lanes, while the second is operating electrically at x4 lanes. Now this may cost you in benchmarking but in real life scenario the performance wont be so harshly affected.
i will end the un boxing here…see you in the performance testing page !
this board is THE top end board from ECS on AMD lineup..so expect see many features.
But first…the specifications
| CPU | Support AM3+ 32nm FX-Series processors Support AM3 socket for AMD Phenom™ II processors Support 140W Phenom™ II X8 processors AMD Cool ‘n’ Quiet™ Technology High-performance HyperTransport 3.0 CPU Interface |
| CHIPSET | AMD® 990FX & AMD® SB950 North Bridge: AMD® 990FX South Bridge: AMD® SB950 |
| MEMORY | Dual-channel DDR3 memory architecture Supports DDR3 2133(OC)/1866/1600/1333/1066 Un-buffered Memory 4 x 240-pin DDR3 DIMM socket support up to 32 GB |
| EXPANSION SLOT | 3 x PCI Express Gen 2.0 x16 slots 1 x PCI slot 2 x PCI Express x1 slots |
| STORAGE | Support by Marvell 9128 • 6 x Serial ATA 6.0Gb/s devices • 2 x eSATA 6.0Gb/s ports supporting external SATA 6.0Gb/s devices • 1 x IDE channel support 2 Ultra DMA133/100/66 devices |
| AUDIO | Realtek ALC892 8-Ch High Definition audio CODEC Compliant with HD audio specification |
| LAN | Dual RealTek RTL8111E Gigabit Fast Ethernet Controllers with Teaming Realtek 8105E 10/100 Lan(Optional) |
| REAR PANEL I/O | 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port 1 x Clear_CMOS button 1 x Bluetooth 8 x USB 2.0 ports 2 x RJ45 LAN connectors 2 x eSATA 6.0Gb/s ports 2 x USB 3.0 ports compatible to both USB 3.0/2.0 devices (blue) 1 x Audio port (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in) 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector |
| INTERNAL I/O CONNECTORS & HEADERS | 1 x 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector 1 x USB 3.0 header supports additional 2 USB 3.0 Ports 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power Connector 1 x 4-pin CPU_FAN connector 1 x 3-pin SYS_FAN connector 1 x 3-pin PWR_FAN connector 1 x Front panel audio header 1 x Front panel switch/LED header 1 x Buzzer 1 x SPDIF out header 1 x 7S-LED Display 6 x Serial ATA 6Gb/s connectors 1 x Clear CMOS header 1 x PWR button/ 1 x RST button 1 x IDE connector |
| SYSTEM BIOS | AMI BIOS with 32Mb SPI ROM Supports Plug and Play, STR (S3) / STD (S4) , Hardware monitor, Multi Boot Audio, LAN, can be disabled in BIOS F7 hot key for boot up devices option |
| FORM FACTOR | ATX Size, 305mm*244mm |
As i have said before,i lost a lot of pictures,so am posting all i could salvage from my HDD.
The Box is full of information as usual.
ECS does a good job of advertising almost all the features on the box; the glossy finish is a turn off for me.
A few more pictures and i will close this up and jump to out of the box performance.
we have out of the box SLI capabilities but i am disappointed to see lack of crossfire bridges and sata cables.
The IO panel is wisely populated but i wouldn’t mind seeing the PS/2 go and inclusion of two more usb ports there. The Clear CMOS button is a nice touch(although expected).
So there goes the showcase part…now its time to close it with out of the box performance and a few thoughts.
So lets check out some number..shall we?
but first let me give you an idea about my test system.
| CPU | AMD FX 8350 |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | 970M-A Deluxe and 990FXM-A Deluxe |
| Ram | Kingston Hyper X Beast 1600Mhz 16GB DDr3 @ 1866MHz 9-10-9-27 |
| Storage | Western Digital 320GB HDD (WD320AAKX) |
| Video Card | Sapphire HD 7790 Dual X |
| Cooling | SVG Tech HOC 40 |
| Case | Ghetto made bench table |
| Power supply Unit | Corsair AX 1200W |
Every benchmark was run until the results were consistent to rule out margin of errors as much as possible.
A few points when analyzing the graphs:
*AIDA 64 Benchmarking suites:Higher score is better
*SuperPi:Lower score is better
First up is memory performance, for this we used AIDA 64 memory benchmark
The 970M lags considerably in the memory copy benchmark but makes up for it in the memory read..kind of weird results. But it remained the same throughout all the runs.
next up is the CPU and FPU suite which demonstrates the capability of CPU and Motherboards working together.
the Cpu results are comparable between the two boards;the only difference being the Photoworxx where the 990FXM wins by a good margin.
This means persons working with Photoshop or any other similar software might get a boost.
am going to conclude this part with two big boys of benchmarking world : Super Pi 1M and 32M since the selection of a good motherboard is a very big factor in the benchmark.
The 990 won as expected in this part.
So there it is folks…two budget level motherboards that works decently out of the box. But is it recommended? lets see.
Grading motherboards are always a bit difficult , since the parameters for judging a good motherboard often differs among persons. So there will always be some disagreement among users.
So for simplicities sake lets just list PRO’s and Cons and be done with it.
PRO’S
- Price : With a the 970 coming at 5k+ range and the 990FX coming at 8500+ range the prices are good for those who just want a board and wont do any kind of overclocking. this are pretty decent boards for budget guys who wants to dabble at high end without burning a hole in the pocket.
- Overall looks are pretty good with the gold being not overused.
Unfortunately the pro’s stops there only.
Con’s
- Bios is a big letdown for me. It lags a lot even with keyboard and several features are missing.
- The VRMS needs to be more beefy, it puts more than necessary a vcore and thereby ramps up the heat output.
- Availability : as of now the boards are not widely available. i couldn’t find a flip-kart link or any reputable online seller selling them.
Despite the shortcoming i would really would love to see this board in the market albeit in a refined form : maybe with a better VRM and a bit better QC? found quite a few misaligned IC’s which shouldn’t happen these days.
Overall a 6/10 from me. Decent board but there are vast rooms for improvements. without those improvements i cant really recommend it.
with that i bid my leave…
Sumon