ECS P965T-A: Quality or not

[Wonderwill]

I'm a first-timer system builder. I already finished my first build:
ECS P965T-A
1 Gb Wintec Ampo DDR2667
E6600
...

Anyway, the board seems perfectly fine, POSTed on first try, everything went smoothly-even BIOS flash to allow ocing and update a few features as well. Was buying this board a good idea? I got it w/combo E6600 for $315 just because the specs looked fine, pretty good reviews, and decent ocing for future endeavors. (Too scared to try yet)

 

[coolgecko9]

nice build! what gfx card did you use? I have that same board and have had no trouble with it has many features. For $315 for a E6600 and a ECS P965T-A i would have to say that was a great deal.
I have yet to flash my bios, but i sure am itching to. what did you use to flash the bios? the utility on their site? They just came out with a new bios a month or so ago, don't know of any benefits other than quad-core compatibility.

 

[Wonderwill]

nice build! what gfx card did you use? I have that same board and have had no trouble with it has many features. For $315 for a E6600 and a ECS P965T-A i would have to say that was a great deal.
I have yet to flash my bios, but i sure am itching to. what did you use to flash the bios? the utility on their site? They just came out with a new bios a month or so ago, don't know of any benefits other than quad-core compatibility.

I flashed bios with the latest dual-core upgrade and have had no problems. The winflash utility on the site worked great. I don't plan on getting a quad core for this mobo anyway; by the time I can afford it I will need a new board anyway. For a graphics card I got a 7600 GT. So far the mobo has been perfectly fine and lasted me 3 months with no issues whatsoever (other than my own mistakes 😳 )

 

[coolgecko9]

i would have to say that is a great build. Seems like you got a few good deals.

Another question: when you flashed the bios with the windows utility did you clear the cmos or just update some of the areas? I am somewhat hesitant to use this windows tool bios flasher but it seems like the only option ECS offers. The directions they have in that PDF file didn't really explain anything, it just stated all the different options.

I also have the 7600gt. Its a great mid-range card although at resolutions above 1280x1024 it starts to show its 128bit interface and slows quite abit.

Thanks for the quick response!

 

[Wonderwill]

i would have to say that is a great build. Seems like you got a few good deals.

Another question: when you flashed the bios with the windows utility did you clear the cmos or just update some of the areas? I am somewhat hesitant to use this windows tool bios flasher but it seems like the only option ECS offers. The directions they have in that PDF file didn't really explain anything, it just stated all the different options.

I also have the 7600gt. Its a great mid-range card although at resolutions above 1280x1024 it starts to show its 128bit interface and slows quite abit.

Thanks for the quick response!

I didn't have to clear the cmos after flashing, if that's what you're asking. You should be just fine. I love the 7600 GT also, my 19" only goes up to 1280 by 1024 anyway so I am very well off in most modern games. (excluding oblivion, there you might get 7 fps)

 

[coolgecko9]

i just flashed my bios to the newest bios. all i have to say is i am extremely disappointed. 🙁 there are barely any overclock options. It is some what pathetic. The P965 is supposed to be a good overclocking chipset but when the bios has 2 options for FSB it makes it impossible to do any ocing. I can either set my FSB to stock (266) or to 333. Which would mean getting my cpu to 2.33ghz.
I sure hope you don't overclock because with this board you can't (not that you really need it with that E6600)

I was really looking forward to getting this E6300 to over 2ghz and was hoping for 2.5 but i can't even get past 1.86ghz. What a bummer. doubt if i'll buy from ECS again.

 

[Wonderwill]

i just flashed my bios to the newest bios. all i have to say is i am extremely disappointed. 🙁 there are barely any overclock options. It is some what pathetic. The P965 is supposed to be a good overclocking chipset but when the bios has 2 options for FSB it makes it impossible to do any ocing. I can either set my FSB to stock (266) or to 333. Which would mean getting my cpu to 2.33ghz.
I sure hope you don't overclock because with this board you can't (not that you really need it with that E6600)

I was really looking forward to getting this E6300 to over 2ghz and was hoping for 2.5 but i can't even get past 1.86ghz. What a bummer. doubt if i'll buy from ECS again.

Don't buy this board for ocing, but most reviews on newegg said that. With an fsb of 333 I still get 3Ghz which is as far as im going anyway. I'd say it is a good stable board but wouldn't recommend spending money on an ECS over another top brand. Since mine was free, I don't see any harm in using it until i actually need something better.

 

[lancer_3k]

what bios update did you get? I have a P965T-A but like someone else said, it's not very flexible... I can pick 266 or 333, which doesn't do much.

Also, does anyone know of a way I can underclock the ram and just up the FSB on this board? I just have basic Kingston DDR2-533s, so I can't bump anything at all there.

 

[Wonderwill]

what bios update did you get? I have a P965T-A but like someone else said, it's not very flexible... I can pick 266 or 333, which doesn't do much.

Also, does anyone know of a way I can underclock the ram and just up the FSB on this board? I just have basic Kingston DDR2-533s, so I can't bump anything at all there.

I just got the latest from the website, and as I said, DON'T depend on it for extreme overclocking. 333 brings me up to 3 Ghz, which is far enough. Sorry, you can't go lower than 533 on this board. You can overclock it to as far as 800 and do whatever you want to the timings. (which hasn't worked so well for me...4 cmos clears and counting)

 

[Baren]

i bought this motherboard a month ago,well..although my system is not high end spec,but i always try something new with anything...i thought i will find something new or something different with this mobo..it s**ks, there is nothing you can do with this mobo..eventhough i already updated my bios..it's getting worse...

Don't update your bios,unless you really need it or you have trouble with your bios...as long as your bios works fine...don't update it

And now my mobo doesn't have CPU clock setting, i can't raise up my fsb more than 200..not even 1 ghz..it's crazy...f***in crazy..it doesn't have multiplier memory...what else you can do ?..UNLESS again...you only use this mobo for normal application and normal use,i recommended..no OC's here..so don't hope so much with this mobo

The things that i like with this mobo are power support with molex on the board, beside 24 pin ATX and 8 pin 12V and also heatsink arround caps..looks rocks and fully board..that's all

this is my standard specs...

Pentium 4 631
DDR II 533 512mb 4-4-4-12 1.8V
Samsung DVD RW
Gecube X1550 256 mb 128 bit (485/420)
Thermaltake i cage 12cm fan
Arctic cooling 12 cm pvm
9 cm Fan 2A
PSU Codegen 480 watt

 

[Wonderwill]

That's strange. The increments on mine are 233, 266, and 333, which are perfectly suited to any mid-range overclocker. The memory timings are pretty cool.

 

[Baren]

That's strange too..i can't increase my FSB..coz there is no option for that,since i updated my BIOS with new version which released on February 2007,although i already cleared CMOS with release jumper, back to default setting and also my maximum pay load size for PCI express on BIOS setting became 128 not 4096 bytes again just like default setting...and now i only can run on FSB 200 for CPU clock, not more 🙁 poor me.. 😀

 

[lancer_3k]

Just wondering if anyone's managed to figure out a way to overclock at all on this board. I have an E6300 and Kingston Value RAM (533MHz) and I'm locked in at 1.86 GHz... Since I have an X1950 Pro I was hoping to get some more out of the set up.

 

[Wonderwill]

Just wondering if anyone's managed to figure out a way to overclock at all on this board. I have an E6300 and Kingston Value RAM (533MHz) and I'm locked in at 1.86 GHz... Since I have an X1950 Pro I was hoping to get some more out of the set up.

Hmmm... I have the ability to overclock with my e6600 at 333 fsb. I also overclocked my 667 RAM to 800 Mhz. Just go to the cpu page and choose the corresponding fsb. It isn't that hard...

The only choices are 233, 266, and 333

 

[marcs4020]

I was wondering how you managed to get a stable oc. I've tried to change to the 333 setting and the board won't post. What options did u change in the bios to make the board post at that fsb?


thanks a lot ,
Marc