ECS unveils two new motherboards

Nick Mertes 7 Oct, 2010 at 4:51pm ET Article published in Tech

ECS recently unveiled two new motherboards to support the mid-range enthusiast/overclocking segment.

First up is the ECS H55H-MU. While full specs were not immediately available, lots can be determined from product images. The board is a uATX form factor and supports the integrated graphics on Intel Core i3/i5 processors. Two memory slots should support up to 8GB of DDR3-1600 RAM. The six SATA ports should all support 3G since there doesn’t appear to be a separate 6G controller. A USB 3.0 controller is included, likely boosting two of the board’s six USB ports.

Next is the ECS Black Series A890GXM-A2. This board supports all socket AM3 CPUs and is powered by the AMD 890G northbridge and 850 southbridge. Three PCIe x16 slots (one is electrically an x4 slot), one PCIe x1 slot, and a PCI slot are provided. Four memory slots allow up to 16GB of RAM at DDR3-1800 via overclocking. Onboard graphics are the standard Radeon HD 4290 integrated in the chipset with 128MB of sideport RAM. All five of the SATA ports and the single eSATA port are of the 6G variety thanks to the southbridge. A currently-unnamed controller provides two USB 3.0 ports in addition to the four USB 2.0 ports. Also of note is what ECS calls “4most Display”, which is fancy labeling for the four display outputs on the I/O panel: VGA, DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort.

Pricing and availability were not available.

Comments

9 Oct 2010 ~ 12:04pm Zuntar those look nice.... be even nicer in my rig!!!
9 Oct 2010 ~ 10:29pm mertesn The AMD board looks good, but I'd rather see their take on an 890FX board that's on the level of the P55H-AK Black.
13 Oct 2010 ~ 9:41am Zuntar True true.
13 Oct 2010 ~ 9:48am mirage We don't have ABIT or FIC anymore and techies get excited about ECS instead of DFI. Times are changing ...
13 Oct 2010 ~ 11:51am primesuspect They always have. Remember a time when DFI was considered a budget crap brand and SOYO existed and was awesome? #nostalgia
13 Oct 2010 ~ 1:18pm mirage You are right, I remember the good times of Soyo. Out of nostalgia I guess, I completely overhauled a 10-year old Powermac recently. It is now running all the latest software like a champ and I like it so much. It is getting more usage than my quad core PC lately. See the third machine in my sig.
13 Oct 2010 ~ 2:31pm Cliff_Forster I just want to give ECS mad props for dropping IDE. Some people will complain, but I say, the less legacy stuff to clutter my board the better. No IDE, no PS2 on the IO = Love...
13 Oct 2010 ~ 3:03pm mertesn

Cliff_Forster wrote:

I just want to give ECS mad props for dropping IDE. Some people will complain, but I say, the less legacy stuff to clutter my board the better. No IDE, no PS2 on the IO = Love...

Now if they'd do away with PCI slots...
13 Oct 2010 ~ 10:16pm ardichoke

Cliff_Forster wrote:

I just want to give ECS mad props for dropping IDE. Some people will complain, but I say, the less legacy stuff to clutter my board the better. No IDE, no PS2 on the IO = Love...

Bah I say. I won't buy a board without at least 1 IDE channel until my DVD and DVDRW drives both break. There's no reason to get a SATA optical drive unless you don't already have a working optical drive. Fact of the matter is DVD/CD drives don't even use the full IDE/133 bus. As for PCI slots, I've got PCI WiFi/NICs laying around and I'd like to be able to use them if need be.

You all may be in a big rush to get rid of everything legacy, but some of us have hardware that requires the legacy bits to be there.

inb4 I get called tim.
13 Oct 2010 ~ 10:35pm mirage I have not used serial/parallel and PS/2 ports since maybe several years. I have recently disabled the addon IDE on my PC as well (yay for 2 seconds faster boot). But I still need at least one PCI port especially for the WiFi cards.
13 Oct 2010 ~ 11:01pm ardichoke I still have working PS/2 keyboards laying around.... parallel is pretty much useless, serial is still useful for servers in some cases, but generally not for desktops. That said, serial and parallel ports have been around and have been "obsolete" a lot longer than IDE, PCI and PS/2.
13 Oct 2010 ~ 11:26pm Cliff_Forster All I want on my IO is USB 2.0 / 3.0 and External SATA, and my audio connections, and a DVI port if onboard video is included. Kill fire wire, kill 15 pin VGA ports, get rid of the IDE channel, PS/2 ports, serial, parallel, and legacy PCI can beat it too.

Its a little thing I like to call progress.

I guarantee you there was a marketing meeting at ECS, and a bunch of guys sat around debating the removal of IDE as a small cost cutting measure for hours, and you probably had a guy in the room that went on and on about the Tim's of the world, oh how it will pain them to spend the $17.95 on newegg for a new DVD ROM Drive, and then, common sense prevailed. SATA is better, and has been for about a decade now. I congratulate ECS for being bold enough to drop legacy support.

I know its a seems like a silly thing to point out, but I really think the board looks cleaner without the IDE interface taking up room for legacy peripherals that nobody should be plugging into a board this sexy to begin with.
14 Oct 2010 ~ 12:08am ardichoke So... your argument is that SATA is somehow viscerally better and that the board "looks cleaner".

Sure, SATA is better for things that can actually utilize the extra bandwidth, like hard drives.... but there is no difference between the speed of an IDE DVD-ROM drive and a SATA DVD-ROM drive. The limitation isn't the connection, it's the speed that you can rotate a disk at before it shatters. The difference between the Tims of the world, and this is that the Tims of the world refuse to upgrade no matter what. This is a case where upgrading is unnecessary because doing so actually offers no benefit whatsoever. A SATA DVD drive will not outperform an IDE DVD drive because the interface is not the bottleneck. If I can save 40 bucks while upgrading by not replacing 2 parts that don't, realistically, need to be replaced... guess what? I'm going to save that money.

Oh yeah, and going back to serial ports.... there's a damn good reason to still have them that I just remembered. Some equipment (especially enterprise level routers and switches) require a null serial connection to configure them.
14 Oct 2010 ~ 8:33am Zuntar Although there are times I need need to use legacy parts, I don't have any issues dropping them for advancement purposes.

If you need to use legacy parts use a hybrid board.

Oh yea, ps2 and serial/parallel ports should have been dropped YEARS ago IMHO.
14 Oct 2010 ~ 9:32am mirage Guys, let's chip in to buy a DVD drive for ardichoke, then we can get rid of the legacy interfaces
14 Oct 2010 ~ 9:48am MAGIC You can get a PCI card for almost any legacy port. I would rather have a cheaper better performing board than cram generations of ports on an I/O pannel just because.
14 Oct 2010 ~ 9:52am mirage You mean PCIE? PCI is also legacy.
15 Oct 2010 ~ 12:06pm Zuntar

mirage wrote:

Guys, let's chip in to buy a DVD drive for ardichoke, then we can get rid of the legacy interfaces

MAGIC wrote:

................. I would rather have a cheaper better performing board than cram generations of ports on an I/O pannel just because.

This^
15 Oct 2010 ~ 12:25pm Cliff_Forster It is thrilling to know that I can still stir the pot!

Seriously though, I would wage a war against legacy support if I could. I just think its technology, a huge part of tech is eventual obsolescence. I embrace that concept for the sake of progress.
15 Oct 2010 ~ 12:51pm mirage We also did not mention that without the legacy ports, supporting chips, and BIOS complications, the motherboards will be cheaper. See, Ardichoke's DVD drive might cost even less
15 Oct 2010 ~ 1:02pm Cliff_Forster

mirage wrote:

We also did not mention that without the legacy ports, supporting chips, and BIOS complications, the motherboards will be cheaper. See, Ardichoke's DVD drive might cost even less

QFT. Smart simple design FTW.
15 Oct 2010 ~ 11:31pm ardichoke The great thing about legacy parts are that they're cheap to manufacture. I'd wager that they contribute no significant cost to the manufacture of each board.

Hell... if they were really that bad more manufacturers would get rid of them. Supply and demand right? If most manufacturers are still including them, there must be a market for them and it must not be hurting their bottom line.
16 Oct 2010 ~ 8:10am Zuntar Yea, I'm sure tons of money was made on the acr / cnr / amr slots when they were around what with all the demand.:rolleyes2

ANY additional port / slot / feature on a MB costs the manufacturer, hence the consumer. Its no different then putting toys in a happy meal; useless junk to entice the consumer.
16 Oct 2010 ~ 4:43pm ardichoke Except it's not useless. Because... you know... it has uses.
16 Oct 2010 ~ 5:05pm Thrax I was more than willing to pay $40 to ditch IDE in exchange for cleaner wiring, better airflow and a less cluttered motherboard. Tech moves on, and so do I.
16 Oct 2010 ~ 7:00pm Cliff_Forster For the record, I love Ardi, he has his stake in the ground and no logical argument will ever prevail...

Do we know anyone else like this?
17 Oct 2010 ~ 3:07am ardichoke A well rounded set of IDE cables aren't much larger and no less messy looking than SATA cables. Plus the one I has is UV reactive! Oh, and since I have 2 optical drives, I only need to run 1 IDE cable as opposed to 2 SATA cables if I had 2 SATA drives. 1 cable makes less of a rats nest than 2

Tech moves on, so do I, when it's warranted. There's a number of reasons that it's not in this case. Sure, when the drives finally die, I'll replace them with SATA drives... but there's not enough justification to replace a fully functional DVD drive just so I can change cables. Especially when a board with an IDE port is no more costly than one without.
17 Oct 2010 ~ 9:43am _k Who still uses DVD drives?
17 Oct 2010 ~ 10:22am mertesn

_k_ wrote:

Who still uses DVD drives?

I use Blu-Ray drives for two of my four systems (one reader, one writer). The others are using DVD drives.
19 Oct 2010 ~ 12:35pm Zuntar

_k_ wrote:

Who still uses DVD drives?

When Blu-Ray becomes a little more reasonable, I'll move over.

Until then......
19 Oct 2010 ~ 12:53pm mertesn

Zuntar wrote:

When Blu-Ray becomes a little more reasonable, I'll move over.

Until then......

BD-ROM $49.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106326

BD-R $99.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136181

How much more reasonable does it have to get?
19 Oct 2010 ~ 12:56pm Cliff_Forster

mertesn wrote:

BD-ROM $49.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106326

BD-R $99.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136181

How much more reasonable does it have to get?

I have not gone blu-ray simply because I see no value in the format. For mass data storage I have better options, and I still see blu-ray as this kind of transitional tech that will likely die in just a few years when the broadband pipes get fat enough. Down with optical disks! Delivered content on demand is the future.
19 Oct 2010 ~ 1:41pm MAGIC

Cliff_Forster wrote:

I have not gone blu-ray simply because I see no value in the format. For mass data storage I have better options, and I still see blu-ray as this kind of transitional tech that will likely die in just a few years when the broadband pipes get fat enough. Down with optical disks! Delivered content on demand is the future.

I... agree... with...... Cliff....

Never thought I would say that.
19 Oct 2010 ~ 2:19pm mertesn I disagree with the few years argument. ISPs just aren't that interested in improving user speeds to the point of supporting 1080p+ streams. I'm betting on 5+ years before they can be bothered to do so.

Besides, I have a large television and I can tell the difference between Blu-ray and upscaled DVD. That difference bothers me and detracts from my movie experience. I understand that most people either can't tell the difference or just don't care (my wife falls under both of those). For those folks, waiting for the next new thing is fine.

I want the resolution AND the physical media, therefore I buy Blu-ray.
19 Oct 2010 ~ 2:34pm fatcat

ardichoke wrote:

Tech moves on, so do I, when it's warranted. There's a number of reasons that it's not in this case. Sure, when the drives finally die, I'll replace them with SATA drives... but there's not enough justification to replace a fully functional DVD drive just so I can change cables. Especially when a board with an IDE port is no more costly than one without.

a SATA DVD drive is $16....

mertesn wrote:

I want the resolution AND the physical media, therefore I buy Blu-ray.

people still buy movies? like on a disc? (and no I am not promoting piracy, there are a million+one ways to get 720/1080p movies legally)

DEATH TO LEGACY!
19 Oct 2010 ~ 3:00pm mertesn

fatcat wrote:

a SATA DVD drive is $16....

people still buy movies? like on a disc? (and no I am not promoting piracy, there are a million+one ways to get 720/1080p movies legally)

DEATH TO LEGACY!

Yes, I buy movies on Blu-ray that I actually want to watch multiple times. Otherwise I rent...but starting today I'm getting Netflix with the Blu-ray option now that the PS3 doesn't require a disc.
19 Oct 2010 ~ 4:32pm MAGIC

mertesn wrote:

Yes, I buy movies on Blu-ray that I actually want to watch multiple times. Otherwise I rent...but starting today I'm getting Netflix with the Blu-ray option now that the PS3 doesn't require a disc.

The diskless interface is a bit janky.
19 Oct 2010 ~ 5:30pm ardichoke

fatcat wrote:

a SATA DVD drive is $16....

and that $16 could buy me 3 used DVDs (or 1-2 new ones, depending on the DVD and where I buy it from). Why fix what isn't broke? There is NO BENEFIT to replacing an IDE DVD drive with a SATA DVD drive. They're not any faster. They're not any better. They're the exact same thing but with a different connector. You're just upgrading to upgrade. If you don't care about spending money to upgrade for no practical reason, that's fine by me, you can waste your money all you want, it doesn't hurt me any. I will take that money and put it toward something I could actually use though. For the 2 drives in my system, that's 32 dollars closer to a PS3 (or some other device that I want, that I don't already own).
19 Oct 2010 ~ 7:01pm shwaip Improved airflow in your case
19 Oct 2010 ~ 7:06pm Thrax (Except for improved airflow, easier cable management, better disc-to-disc copying, you're totally right).
19 Oct 2010 ~ 8:08pm fatcat

ardichoke wrote:

and that $16 could buy me 3 used DVDs (or 1-2 new ones, depending on the DVD and where I buy it from). Why fix what isn't broke? There is NO BENEFIT to replacing an IDE DVD drive with a SATA DVD drive. They're not any faster. They're not any better. They're the exact same thing but with a different connector. You're just upgrading to upgrade. If you don't care about spending money to upgrade for no practical reason, that's fine by me, you can waste your money all you want, it doesn't hurt me any. I will take that money and put it toward something I could actually use though. For the 2 drives in my system, that's 32 dollars closer to a PS3 (or some other device that I want, that I don't already own).

why you wasting money on DVDs, Blu-ray is the standard?

and I didn't read any of your rant beyond the first line because then it became legacy
19 Oct 2010 ~ 9:23pm ardichoke Because I don't have a Blu-ray player at this point nor do I have a desire to buy one. When I get around to buying a PS3, then I'll consider paying the premium for Blu-ray, though I'm dubious that Blu-ray will look noticeably better on a 32" screen even though it is 1080p. Frankly, I haven't noticed any issues with DVDs played in my HD up converting DVD player.

@Thrax - airflow is a moot point, I have a rounded cable that isn't going to obstruct airflow any appreciable amount.
Cable management - once again, rounded cable and 1 cable instead of 2. Cable management isn't an issue.
Disc-to-disc copying isn't something that I ever do.

Care to try again? You still haven't given me a single good reason that I should spend money to replace a fully functional drive apart from "because it's not the latest and greatest cable".
19 Oct 2010 ~ 9:32pm fatcat ardi...
19 Oct 2010 ~ 9:48pm mirage

ardichoke wrote:

Care to try again? You still haven't given me a single good reason that I should spend money to replace a fully functional drive apart from "because it's not the latest and greatest cable".

You win!
19 Oct 2010 ~ 10:00pm ardichoke http://twitpic.com/1su45m

oh noes... look how horridly cluttered that one cable is. o_O it's clearly going to completely cut off air flow. HERPDERP
19 Oct 2010 ~ 10:08pm mirage Yuck! Is that an IDE cable.
19 Oct 2010 ~ 10:18pm fatcat what a horrible heatsink...
19 Oct 2010 ~ 11:03pm ardichoke keeps my PhenomII X4 under 50C at full load.
20 Oct 2010 ~ 12:04am Thrax He mad.
20 Oct 2010 ~ 12:15am ZenMode

Thrax wrote:

He mad.

So mad breh~
20 Oct 2010 ~ 5:50am ardichoke

U the ones mad bout legacy ports. I gots mah legacy ports.
20 Oct 2010 ~ 8:31am Zuntar

mertesn wrote:

BD-ROM $49.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106326

BD-R $99.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136181

How much more reasonable does it have to get?

$19.99 mostly cuz i don't need it. (pssst $99.99 is not even close to reasonable)

Cliff_Forster wrote:

I have not gone blu-ray simply because I see no value in the format. For mass data storage I have better options, and I still see blu-ray as this kind of transitional tech that will likely die in just a few years when the broadband pipes get fat enough. Down with optical disks! Delivered content on demand is the future.

This^ = truth.

For movie viewing, BR is awesome no doubt but IMHO useless for PCs.
20 Oct 2010 ~ 12:53pm UPSLynx Blu-Ray is not going to die out any time soon. It's entrenched in the film industry, and people actually like it.
20 Oct 2010 ~ 2:05pm custompcmax Bluray will be around for years to come. Sure, it hasn't probably been quite as adopted on the PC side of things yet as traditional CD and DVD discs were. But, give it time. Once drives are as much as current DVD burners and media is as cheap as a stack of DVDs, PC users will be using it as a cheap form of backup and file sharing. When you can get 25 gigs on a .25 cent disc with a $20-30 drive, it will be embraced by a lot of people.

Not to mention having a means to archive and view your HD home movies... I have hours and hours of footage taken with my HD camcorder. I don't want to limit myself to low res DVD discs for it. Most people are in the process of upgrading all their home entertainment equipment (if they haven't already). Bluray is part of that picture.

I do agree that when highspeed internet (I am talking 20+ mb connections) are available to most of the nation, disc based movies will become obsolete. Until then, though (and it will be quite a while) the need for high density storage discs will be high. My DSL provider won't give me anything higher than 3 mb and I am 5 minutes from Minneapolis.
20 Oct 2010 ~ 2:13pm Thrax 10 years on, I'm still waiting for dual layer discs to be as cheap as DVD-Rs. Not holding my breath. Maybe Blu-ray will be as cheap when I'm 40.