Elitegroup PF1: Get The Price Down! Continued
ECS has used a universal layout for the 865 motherboard, so that the VGA outlet can be integrated in the 865GE chipset, if necessary. Otherwise there are connections for FireWire and USB 2.0 (four).
Savings have been made on both the Gigabit LAN and the ICH5-RAID : there is no CSA technology or IDE RAID - the target group wouldn’t miss it either. The product comes with a slot panel for SP/DIF output, round IDE cable and Serial-ATA connections. A positive feature is the color-coding of the pin contact strip for the housing panel.
In the performance test, the motherboard is not quite able to play to the gallery : in all the benchmark disciplines, ECS is one of the lowest ranking products. This would all be no problem if it weren’t for the high price of $159.
Included with ECS.
Our assessment in brief : like the Asus P4C800 Deluxe, the ECS PF1 is not very cost-effective. The customer gets a very meager range of equipment with few features at a relatively high price. Another factor is the weak performance compared to that of other products in test field.
