ECS Motherboard

I got a K7S5A when they first came out and never had a problem with it although alot of people do have problems with this board.This board needs a quality psu.You would be better off going with the MSI 745 ULTRA for a few dollars more.For $20 or $30 more dollars you could go with a basic Nforce2 board. Sorry,I did'nt see the sdram,so k7s5a it is then.Tell them to splurge alittle and go with ddr.Newegg has Crucial 256mb pc2100 for $37.99.256mb ddr would be better than 512mb sdram.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by lwj81 on 02/21/03 08:09 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

I've used an ecs k7s5a on several boxes, never had a problem. However, you need a QUALITY power supply unit, don't even THINK about getting a generic one. I'd also highly recommend a new stick of ddr ram instead of sdram. It's really worth your money for the problems it will prevent.

I have the exact same motherboard which was from my previous system that had an Athlon 1400. I thought it was a great board...easy to install, stable...not the fastest thing on the block but relatively problem-free. In my experience, I would say it was an excellent value.



I want to move to space, so I can overclock processors cooled to absolute zero.

Have recently put together a couple of those
K7S5A/1700+/256m DDR2100
and they make a great little value setup... no Probs - and suprizingly zippy!

I keep thinkin they'd make good replacements for PIII boxes so I can reuse the SDRAM.
But when ya put SRDRAM in em - it takes the Zip right out of them!
DDR ram does have "Double" the data rate - SDRAM is like puttin concrete in its boots - pulls mem bandwidth right down from 1780MB/s to 750Mb/s. I've found that DDR is MORE than twice as fast in that mobo, ya can really feel the difference.
Using SDRAM is a tempting option but big preformance limitation.
Try to go DDR right outa the box if possible - its really worth it!

I've been using this board on my own system for over a year now and never had a problem. I started with SDRAM but upgraded to DDR and there was a huge difference! Don't even think about SDRAM...esp since DDR prices are so low right now (just got a stick of Crucial 256 PC2100 for $30 last weekend!)

Are Durons that much cheaper than Athlon 1700+? You can get retail for $60 these days...

Ditto on the PSU...get a decent one...you should anyway.

my sig left me for an Honorary Guru...

The best value going is the ASUS A7N266-VM with integrated GF2 MX video for a budget system. It sells for $72 at Newegg, hard to beat even with a K7S5A with cheap video card. Realize that the ASUS has three PCI slots, it's a micro ATX board.
Whatever board you choose suggest that for about $10 more go with a XP1700 vs a 1.3 Duron and DRR vs SDRAM (there about the same price). The Duron FSB is 200 vs the XP at 266. The XP1700 with DDR will be noticably faster than a Duron with PC133 RAM. With the money you save on a video card, go with the ASUS with an XP and DDR RAM.
As for the K7S5A, I have one and would not recommend it. I had problems getting the video crad to seat properly in the AGP slots, and it would freeze at random times until I figured out I had to run the memory timing different from the default 2.5 CL. Too much trouble getting it stable. I built the ASUS system and it's trouble free, and simple to build.