Editors Day 2005: A “NEW” ECS Looks to the Future
by Wesley Fink on September 2, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Our Take
The first ECS Editors Day was well organized and very well attended. It was clear to everyone attending that the company wanted to kick-start the "New" ECS and the Editors Day was an effective way to deliver that message.ECS did present quite a few innovative ideas for the motherboard market, though we have reservations on whether there is really a need for a lower-cost dual video solution like S.D.G.E. when both ATI and NVIDIA will be marketing their own SLI/Crossfire at mainstream prices. There is no doubt that the ECS solution is creative. We just wonder how many people out there will really buy it.
The PF88/SIMA card solution is also quite innovative. The idea of a future-proof base board with modules for new processors is appealing - particularly if not too many compromises in performance and flexibility are required. The future modules will answer those questions, but for now, the SIMA cards are certainly a unique approach to today's multiple sockets and varying features by platform.
We were very impressed with the creativity and innovation that went into the ECS products that were show-cased, but as we have said many times before, calling a product "extreme" does not make it so. Over time, we will see if ECS is serious about targeting the enthusiast market. They tell us that we will soon see new standard enthusiast level options on all their Extreme boards, along with overclocking performance much better than what we have measured with ECS in the past. We look forward to these changes, and time will certainly answer any questions about how genuine ECS is in the push into the enthusiast market.
Demonstrating ATI Crossfire boards now with plans for availability at launch are certainly steps that tell us ECS is serious. So are shipping NVIDIA SLI boards for both AMD 939 and Intel 775 processors, and the choice of a well-organized Editors Day to launch the "New" ECS. We had a great time at ECS Editors Day, and learned a lot about the ECS product offerings.
The questions that remain are whether or not any of these new boards provide the range of adjustment options and overclocking performance that will make them compelling choices for the enthusiast. ECS doesn't have to be the absolute top enthusiast board maker right now to get attention from the market. But they will have to provide reasonable enthusiast-level performance along with excellent value to get anyone's attention in the tough enthusiast market.
Time answers all these questions and we are looking forward to discovering in the future whether ECS delivers on the promise of a "New" ECS or whether this was all just lip-service. We sincerely hope that ECS has the internal conviction to truly turn the corner in the enthusiast market.
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bhtooefr - Saturday, September 3, 2005 - link
High FSB overclocking: On 939, that's more CPU dependent than chipset dependent. And, many 939 boards have really good OC options. And, as for the BX boards hitting high FSBs, that's Intel making a kickass chipset, not mobo makers making kickass mobos. If you want a high OCing P4/P-D, go get yourself an i925XE or i955X.Dual slots: WTF? First, slotted processors haven't been around for five years. Second, that's nothing any mobo maker can fix - again, it's a limitation of the CPUs. Seeing Intel's dual-core architecture, it's POSSIBLE to do a dual LGA775 for two single cores on an i945/955, but then again, the CPUs could also be locked out from SMP (unlikely, though - the only reason Celerons were locked out from SMP is that they used the same slot (slot 1)/socket (socket 370) as an SMP capable CPU, and someone figured out how to make it so that the Celery worked in SMP mode).
smn198 - Monday, September 5, 2005 - link
I didn't mention a particular CPU type or package. I was listing some things that motherboard makers did with motherboards using the BX chipset.Same again - I was listing some things that motherboard makers did with motherboards using the BX chipset.
So what are you trying to say? It seems you are contradicting yourself. Having a dual socket 939 board would be great if some clever motherboard maker could work out a way to make it happen. It has happened before with other CPUs and chipsets so it is not too far fetched to hope it could happen again.
TheInvincibleMustard - Friday, September 2, 2005 - link
Strange that Mr Fink here didn't say that ECS USA had merged with PCChips (even though both http://www.viperlair.com/articles/editorials/event...">ViperLair and http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=ODA4">Hard|OCP did so). Granted, this took place a while back, but if it was important enough for the CEO to comment on (and other tech sites), it's strange that it wasn't mentioned here. (what's even stranger is that I can't find really any mention of an ECS/PCChips merger on AT aside from a brief blurb in a VIA KT333 roundup -- http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&...">Google search ... maybe AT doesn't let robots go through its news sections?)Overall, though, I'm pretty impressed by the direction that ECS is heading -- it certainly seems as if they're aiming themselves more towards the enthusiast line of products, which is always nice as that will provide more competition. However, given ECS' previous track record, it seems as though they have a long ways to go before being able to compete head-to-head with the likes of DFI, ASUS, or MSI.
KristopherKubicki - Friday, September 2, 2005 - link
Actually, we have covered the PC Chips buyout of ECS for some time. During our factory tour of ECS back in Sept 2003, we detailed this very clearly:http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=1891&am...">http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=1891&am...
To be pedantic, PC Chips owns all of ECS, not just ECS USA. For the conspiracy theorist inside, here are some other interesting bits of trivia:
* ECS Manufacturers tons of OEM laptops; including a Taiwanese brand that starts "A" and ends in "cer"
* ECS, while generally thought a low quality manufacturer, manufacturers most of Abit's PCB (at least they did during the time I visited their factory).
* ECS's HK facility manufacturers the most motherboard connector components outside of Foxconn. Generally if it doesn't have Foxconn written on it, it's made by ECS/PCC.
* Matsonic is also a PC Chips brand.
Kristopher
4AcesIII - Saturday, September 3, 2005 - link
Ah why then do you apparently seem to support such a manufacturer? If you reviewed cars would you be promoting the Yugo? People used to rely on Anandtech but I know I don't anymore and I'm beginning to believe that I'm not the only one here who thinks you've sold out. I don't care if one of you got a digital camera and now thinks they're a professional (recent photos from conventions and events show this to be completely false with pic quality hahahahahaha) and give advice on how to take pics? You should stick with computer components only, you can barely do a decent job of reviewing these let alone something that just plugs into the comp once in awhile. You seem to have sold out, your reviews reek of lies and falsehoods. ECS was bought by PC Chips so they could dump their crap inventory on unsuspecting customers and hide their name behind what they assumed was better than theirs reputation.....aaaaaaaaaannnnnntttt! someone should have told them that ECS is just as bad as they are but noooooooo Anandtech wants to attempt to mislead us into thinking ECS is all better now and they make good things, not PCB's stuck together with elmer's glue and string!!!!!!! If you want people to believe you, support you and say hmmm they just might know what they're talkin about then you've got somethings you need to do. First don't review crap components that EVERYONE agrees through experience that they're crap (in other words don't pea down our backs and tell us it's raining) secondly you need not play favorites (right now you looke like a big advertisement for EVGA, XFX and a couple of others) you tend to loose readers that way. In the end you will produce the exact opposite effect of what you wish. so go ahead there's always Sharky's Extreme and Tom's Hardware who don't seem to suffer from the kickbackitis as it would seem some are :)Phiro - Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - link
wahahaha, to use the words "Tom's Hardware", "don't" and "kickbackitis" is the biggest joke on the internet.
Thank you for making my tummy hurt from the laughing.
You may or may not like Anandtech's content, but I still truly believe Anand is above being bought or unduly influenced by corporate dollars in his pocket.
If you choose to believe otherwise, that's your choice. I'd advise you to quit reading his articles and in general perusing this website.
Wesley Fink - Friday, September 2, 2005 - link
I confess. This is a conspiracy to keep the vital information about PC Chips from our readers.In all seriousness, the "merger" of PC Chips and ECS is very old news - first announced many months ago. It is also not a true merger since there has always been a connection between ECS and PC Chips. The company just decided to reorganize the business so PC Chips now appears a full division of ECS.
Frankly, we believed everyone already knew about this.
rqle - Friday, September 2, 2005 - link
Why would someone buy an addon board when nforce4 939 starts at $60 (newegg 939)? Price for a cheap 775 and a 939 board = cheaper and better then a 775 with a 939-adapter. Doesnt make much sense for the buyer.What I would buy:
1. Socket 939 w/ PCI-E and and addon board that support SOCKET A.
2. Socket 939 w/ PCI-E and and addon board that support Intel 478 and 479.
These would be true upgrade path and not a rinky dinky buyer that cant choose between 775 and 939.
If you own a 939 cpu, then buy a 939 board, you can spend the extra 45 bux if you like for a true cheap 775 board and let it collect dusk in the closet to make you get that "JUST IN CASE FEELING."
TheGee - Friday, September 2, 2005 - link
Not sure if I agree. If the main board has the latest tech on ie Gigabit lan. PCIe reasonable audio, DDR667 then it would suit some people to, say, buy a 939 sima with the upgrade till the end of that socket and then move to 940 when they become mainstream as long as the sima cards are a reasonable price it appears a good path to take. If there are no perfomance implications apart from maybe reduce OC capabilities which are not required by everyone. I can't see it being used to swap sima cards in and out just for the hell of it but I have a box of perfectly good MBs that I need to move on and this would be way of not being forced (by me!) to buy the latest every couple of monthsI know it's off topic but our thoughts are with the victims of the hurricane and hope that things improve soon.
Furen - Friday, September 2, 2005 - link
"with fewer pipelines, more cache, lower CPU speeds, yet higher performance."Fewer pipeline stages, fewer pipelines implies (to me) either less execution units or (I guess) non-fully-pipelined ones.