ECS (Elitegroup) boards are junk

[vh1atomicpunk]

Hey, I may get negative responses for this, but I had to add to the community here - ECS boards are junk. So are MSI, PC Chips, Jetway, Foxconn, FIC, and whatever other bargain basement wung-fung-chu brand out of Taiwan or China you can think of.

They are cheap and cheesy. Let's all face it and quit buying them already. As few layers as possible, the capacitors they all use are as low tolerance and cheap as possible, and are almost always flimsy to the point of being broken by simply opening the package.

Stop buying from companies that make crap!

Buy Gigabyte, Asus, Asrock, Intel, SuperMicro, etc.

Spend and extra $15-$20 for a board that works, or at least has someone (even and east indian) that speaks English to support it.

Stop buying junk and stop having DOA, flimsy, non-supported products, end of discussion.

 

[ubernoobie]

msi and foxconn isn't always junk, msi's top end is fairly good and foxconn's high end ( bloodrage [not gti]) overclocks like a champ and has a good sound card

 

[flyin15sec]

Gigabyte, Asus(Asrock) are based out of Taiwan.
Supermicro specializes in server boards.

So based on your logic, no one should buy anything but Intel boards.

Tell me what is "junky" about this board: ECS X58, 222bclk, 4.3ghz i7 920

 

[rand_79]

I've had good and bad ecs boards I still have 2 7 year old ecs k7s5a's in service.
0 problems.

I had a k7vta3 that was total crap... and a k7vta r3(revision3) that was fine

 

[rand_79]

woo I can double post.. not sure how that happened

 

[daft]

i have an ECS board. and the only problems i have so far with it is the 95 watt cpu limit on it, and lack of NB/integrated gpu voltage control. ive been able to get a great oc on my last cpu and on my ram.

 

[flyin15sec]

The simple answer is " You get what you paid for". A freebie ECS board you got with a processor is not going to perform or have quality parts like a $150 dollar motherboard.

ECS have a wide range of motherboards, just like Toyota has a wide range of cars. They can make cheap cars Corollas and they can also make quality cars, Lexus.

As it is the OP is just trolling to get a rise out of ECS board owners.

I had 1 ECS board, an old P4 478, which is long gone now(sold). Never had a problem with it. Didn't try to overclock, just ran that it as is.

 

[DokkRokken]

I was under the impression that brands like Foxconn made components for other companies like MSI, and Gigabyte. My MSI board has been running like a champ for over two years, and ECS has really stepped up their game over the past year with their Black Edition boards. Not sure where the OP is getting his opinions from; sounds like the sheeple mentality that plagues many hardware forums where a vocal portion of posters believe there's only three/four manufacturers worth buying from, and everything else is inherently crap in comparison.

 

[vh1atomicpunk]

Glad you all made these points.

I do know that most motherboards, regardless of brand, are manufactured in Taiwan, sometimes Chine or Mexico, and very rarely the U.S.

Why do I believe ECS is junk? The bulk of what they sell are the low-end, low-cost, low-end component variety. Those are what I have experience with. Blown caps, check. Memory incompatibility (double sided-dimms, low voltage range, low-speed/low-end support) check. Goofy plastic colors a and low number of layers, check. USB ports that catch on fire w/a device connected, check. Almost non-existent tech. support for English speakers, check. Miserable RMA process, check. I would list more, but I don't have any other bad experiences.

ECS may make some, that is a small amount that actually gets sold, quality boards, but most are junk. If you buy the cheap one, you own the cheap one. ECS makes mostly cheap ones.

In my experience and opinion, the difference in ECS boards and another manufacturer like ASUS, SuperMicro, Intel (mostly, they have had some out-sourced junkers), Tyan, and most Gigabytes is build quality. Sure, if they function there is nothing to complain about. When they don't there is a lot to complain about. The issue I've seen is that ECS boards refuse to function properly much more often than some of the other manufacturers.

To illustrate the difference - for a number of years I served as a lead tech in a retail and business support environment. A private company that limited itself exclusively high-quality parts and service. By this I mean service within hours, fully-backed and trusted. We sold a small amount of hardware, mostly things like NICs (almost all Intel), RAM (almost all Micron), replacement/upgrade HDs (almost all Seagate), modems (almost all USR hardware modems), and motherboards when needed. Two blocks down the road there was a competitor's shop. They'd been in business for a while. This was in a town of 30,000 or so, they had been the only game in town for almost 20 years, w/one 'consultant' that also sold PC's (of low quality in my opinion). People would be amazed and impressed at our level of service, and the reliability of our work. We could not have achieved that using low-end components or cheap components. Not a few times I visited the competitors shop. They carried MSI and ECS boards exclusively. I can tell you that a full 20% of our business was generated with people being fed up with the service down the road. Not because they had bad techs or bad prices (in fact significantly lower prices usually), but because we offered a quality product and service.

In sticking with the aforementioned brands, I had to do no RMAs, replacements, or hardware repairs in almost four years. Hundreds of systems (not all in need of hardware), and no returns, replacements, or RMAs on replaced/upgraded/new parts in four years.

I won't buy any ECS, MSI, Biostar, or Foxconn boards based on my experiences w/them. They aren't worth the effort.

If you buy the cheap one, you own the cheap one. And you'll pay for it later in most cases.

That's may take, and I'm sticking to it.

 

[M3d]

I think it's more luck of the draw. I have had DOA Gigabyte and Asus boards for a couple of Socket 775 builds over the years.

Believe it or not I picked up an ECS, board, with a goofy purple color, with an Athlon XP in 2002 at a computer show and it's still working after all this time.
Back when the Athlon 64 was top dog I built many rigs with only MSI boards and most of them are still going strong.

I currently have a Foxconn motherboard on my home server and that has not given me any trouble and it's been on 24/7 for almost a year. Also, Foxconn does manufacture parts for every other major mainboard manufacturer.

I still think some times you get a good board some times you just don't.

 

[DokkRokken]

Glad you all made these points.

I won't buy any ECS, MSI, Biostar, or Foxconn boards based on my experiences w/them. They aren't worth the effort.

If you buy the cheap one, you own the cheap one. And you'll pay for it later in most cases.

That's may take, and I'm sticking to it.

And you know, that's no huge deal, and it's a sensible mindset, especially given your previous experience.

It's just that companies like ECS and BioStar aren't going to stand still and let the big boys beat 'em. Call me crazy, but I wouldn't be surprised if ECS is in the top tier in the next five years. Their budget P55 board result here does go to show that they have plenty of work to do though. I sure wouldn't dig buying a board that was On Fire! But Rome wasn't built in a day, either.

Right Now, consumers won't Jump at boards that are just Good Enough. Giving people the Runaround in terms of poor products and service just means the manufacturer will Hear About it Later on the internet and forums like this, with complainants telling the reps 'You're No Good!' So they have to do better; cheap boards at the cost of service and support is a no-go. Even in this economy, you got to have the Best of Both Worlds.

Heck, remember it wasn't all too long ago that a little car company called Hyundai had some dismal products like the Excel and Pony, and yet if I were to go back to 1984 and tell people they'd be the fastest growing car company that makes products comparable to the class-leaders in 2009, well I'd be Strung Out!

I'm now going to put away my VH albums because I've probably killed you with horrible references.

 

[tcsenter]

It's just that companies like ECS and BioStar aren't going to stand still and let the big boys beat 'em. Call me crazy, but I wouldn't be surprised if ECS is in the top tier in the next five years.

Ehh...ECS has been a first tier mobo manufacturer for over 10 years now. It ships far more motherboards than MSI or Gigabyte, and in fact is the #2 motherboard manufacturer globally (#3 if you count Foxconn). At one point (about eight years ago), ECS nearly shipped as many motherboards as MSI and Gigabyte combined.

As for Foxconn, since the OP loves Intel motherboard so much, nobody tell him that Foxconn co-designs and manufactures almost all of Intel's desktop boards, including ALL of Intel's Extreme Series boards for the past several years. Oh and Foxconn makes most NVIDIA reference boards, too, such as those rebranded by pretty much everyone (EVGA, XFX, MSI, et. al.).

Its true that ECS focuses on value segment boards, but this is a FEATURE differentiation, not a "quality" differentiation. If you compare $50 ECS board to a $50 ASUS board, you're going to get the same quality. If you're trying to compare a $50 ECS board to a $120 ASUS board, you're an idiot.

 

[tcsenter]

Oh, and FWIW, the premium own-branded retail motherboard market accounts for maybe 10% of the motherboard business done by companies such as ASUS and Foxconn. The performance/overclocking enthusiast segment accounts for maybe 3% of that. Its a very profitable segment with huge markup (and lots of media or press) but overall pales in comparison to the value and mainstream segment boards that ASUS and Foxconn supply to system builders such as Dell, HP, and countless others.

HP and other large customers have no problem buying millions of motherboards from ECS. If ECS were 'lower' quality than ASUS, large customers would see the statistical difference in defect/failure rates because they purchase a few hundred thousand (or more) of them per year. If ECS had a higher defect/failure rate than ASUS, large customers would know it and drop ECS like a bad habit.

Retail end-using purchasers, however, do not remotely purchase enough motherboards to make any valid statistical conclusions about defect/failure rates.

 

[Guest]

ECS are indeed crap. Only they don't crap out immediately, they just live shorter lives before capacitors on the boards swell up and they die.

When my friends heard I had all these boxes with ECS motherboards in, they passed out from laughing so hard.

I am in the unfortunate position of having 400 or so of these crappy motherboards and at a smidgeon over 2 years, they are starting to come home, dead or deranged.

And don't talk about their support.

 

[Guest]

Oh, and FWIW, the premium own-branded retail motherboard market accounts for maybe 10% of the motherboard business done by companies such as ASUS and Foxconn. The performance/overclocking enthusiast segment accounts for maybe 3% of that. Its a very profitable segment with huge markup (and lots of media or press) but overall pales in comparison to the value and mainstream segment boards that ASUS and Foxconn supply to system builders such as Dell, HP, and countless others.

HP and other large customers have no problem buying millions of motherboards from ECS. If ECS were 'lower' quality than ASUS, large customers would see the statistical difference in defect/failure rates because they purchase a few hundred thousand (or more) of them per year. If ECS had a higher defect/failure rate than ASUS, large customers would know it and drop ECS like a bad habit.

Retail end-using purchasers, however, do not remotely purchase enough motherboards to make any valid statistical conclusions about defect/failure rates.

Hi i've also just had an ECS board break on me it worked for a while and then would'nt turn on so i then changed video card and that worked then next day would'nt turn on again changed power supply that worked (it was a better one)
then started installing basic software like Office , Nero etc shut down during Nero install i'm getting sick of it and will bring it back it's an old P4 board but i too have had previous bad experiences with this Brand also, i will refuse to buy this brand in the future especially second hand.

Regards John.

 

[jparcjr]

Until Recently I haven't had any problems with ECS Boards, Mine is a P4mm2 board, I would still use ECS and asus boards as they have given me over 7 years of solid service. I just find that the dang things are just too flimsy for desktop's. IMO they need to be at least 3 times thicker. at the moment I don't have a computer of my own up and running so until I have the money I will grab a cheap IBM M41 Netvista just too get my work done.

 

[Droo]

HI all,

It's funny to read comments like ECS is junk and that you recommend buying ASUS by spending 10-20 dollars more......seriously. You probably work at ASUS and if so, then you know that ECS is the manufacturer of ASUS motherboards.....YES, people that buy ECS motherboards are smart because they are buying for cheaper the same motherboard that ASUS sell.

Differences? well , the color of PCB of course, sometimes they add or take out ports, etc, and guess what ECS has all those models for cheaper. ASUS doesn't have factory!!!! they outsource though US , YES , I WORK AT ECS.

Feel free to contact me for further questions.

Marlene.
Please do not post your @mail (that way u are helping to spread the spam), u will be automatically notified if some one post fresh line in your thread. Thanx : )

 

[nikorr]

This thread is old...

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr.