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PCChips motherboards 3
- Thread starter dds82
- Start date
I just tossed one out the other day. It completely quit for no apparent reason after about 8 months of very light use. It was an MR805 (or 805MR, something like that). As an FYI, these seem to be the same motherboards as Amptron. Not sure if there's a distinction or if they're just being sold under 2 different names.
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- #4
gargouille
IS-IT--Management
Pcchips has gained a foothold in the world market with OEM manufacturers, and it's well known they're made by ECS. The numbers of boards they sell this way has put them in the top 5 suppliers.
The biggest problem you may have with them is support...
and to get around that others have turned to ECS. In fact, some are flashing their BIOS' with ECS updates!
The biggest problem you may have with them is support...
and to get around that others have turned to ECS. In fact, some are flashing their BIOS' with ECS updates!
When it comes to motherboards I don't skimp! I always research for the most reliable/stable board that is readily avaiable with the features that I need and/or will need!
I use the analogy of would you drop a tweaked engine into a rust bucket of a chasis with unreliable streering and brakes!?
You can always find cheap solutions but with effort you can discover a good deal!
Cheers
I use the analogy of would you drop a tweaked engine into a rust bucket of a chasis with unreliable streering and brakes!?
You can always find cheap solutions but with effort you can discover a good deal!
Cheers
gargouille
IS-IT--Management
That's a problem I always have with a customer who wants to go "cheap"...case in point right now, I have a customer I've finally convinced to abandon his ill-fitted, botched together rig and he insists on tying my hands by not spending more than $50 for a case/power supply...and now I'm worried that the rest of his rig will suffer for it.
(about all you can do is tell them, whether they actually listen or not is up for grabs!)
I at least chose a case with an AMD-approved PS. (of course, I'm a worrier!)
Had to find a motherboard to accomodate his PC100 RAM, too, so chose one that will eventually let him upgrade to DDR.
(about all you can do is tell them, whether they actually listen or not is up for grabs!)
I at least chose a case with an AMD-approved PS. (of course, I'm a worrier!)
Had to find a motherboard to accomodate his PC100 RAM, too, so chose one that will eventually let him upgrade to DDR.
- Thread starter
- #7
I don't need much. I had a P3 450 until about a week ago, when the CPU blew out. The board is so old that for the price of replacing the CPU, I can get a new board/CPU combo. Can anybody recommend some inexpensive solutions?
The only requirement is that the board must have 2 SDRAM slots. I'm looking to spend around $150; it doesn't have to be a top of the line system.
Thanks.
The only requirement is that the board must have 2 SDRAM slots. I'm looking to spend around $150; it doesn't have to be a top of the line system.
Thanks.
gargouille
IS-IT--Management
The customer I was talking about in my last post, I'm gonna' try (when it gets here) an ECS K7S5A which was on sale at newegg for $57. It also has slots for DDR (of course, can't use both at the same time) and onboard sound.
Not exactly a trouble-free choice, but one that fit his budget. The video card sweet spot right now seems to be the ATI's, and their 64 MB cards are much less than the competitors.
Depending on where you are, local shops will have specials on RAM/CPU/mobo barebones that come mounted/pre-tested.
Anxiously awaiting the delivery trucks! (adding to my frustration, he didn't wanta' spend extra money to get higher quality parts, and then said "Yeah, expedite 'em, it's my Christmas present to myself!"
whatcha'gonna'do?
Not exactly a trouble-free choice, but one that fit his budget. The video card sweet spot right now seems to be the ATI's, and their 64 MB cards are much less than the competitors.
Depending on where you are, local shops will have specials on RAM/CPU/mobo barebones that come mounted/pre-tested.
Anxiously awaiting the delivery trucks! (adding to my frustration, he didn't wanta' spend extra money to get higher quality parts, and then said "Yeah, expedite 'em, it's my Christmas present to myself!"
whatcha'gonna'do?
I here ya gargouille!
I only build for myself and friends. They are forever complaining to me about some cheap price of crap that they bragged about a month ago! And then want me to "fix" it, no prob!, until they see the bill... Then "some", will have the gall to show me a cheap system upgrade from the S.O.B. that took them the first time! Some people never learn! My satisfaction is that most of them learn a thing or two and are gratful for the help...they should be, as I don't charge them.
Not to ignore you dds82 but the best solution is to find locally what is available, get all the info (model and version numbers), go online and research what others (users and pros) say about the components. Afterwards, you can be assured of the best price and performance with insight of any problems/solutions that might occur!
Cheers all and the best of the season!
I only build for myself and friends. They are forever complaining to me about some cheap price of crap that they bragged about a month ago! And then want me to "fix" it, no prob!, until they see the bill... Then "some", will have the gall to show me a cheap system upgrade from the S.O.B. that took them the first time! Some people never learn! My satisfaction is that most of them learn a thing or two and are gratful for the help...they should be, as I don't charge them.
Not to ignore you dds82 but the best solution is to find locally what is available, get all the info (model and version numbers), go online and research what others (users and pros) say about the components. Afterwards, you can be assured of the best price and performance with insight of any problems/solutions that might occur!
Cheers all and the best of the season!
- Thread starter
- #10
On that note, has anybody worked with ECS boards before? And for gargouille, what do you mean by "Not exactly trouble-free"? Finally, I shouldn't have any trouble using the power supply that powered my P3 system to power an Athlon XP system, should I?
Thanks.
Thanks.
gargouille
IS-IT--Management
There's a thread 'round here the other day where one of the builders, paparazi I think, was discussing the board with someone and he mentioned in passing there's an issue with the board using sdram...asked him about it but he must have missed my question.
Anyway, like Popeye says, "Ya' pays yer money and ya' takes yer chances! We'll cross that bridge when the board comes in. I've been trying to convince this recalcitrant (translate=stubborn) customer that he really should buy some ddram and be done with it, and it may be just the persuader I need.
Whether or not your power supply will do well with an AMD board...the AMD site lists approved power supplies and they can be picky about them. You may have to invest in another...but you can try yours 1st and then go from there.
Anyway, like Popeye says, "Ya' pays yer money and ya' takes yer chances! We'll cross that bridge when the board comes in. I've been trying to convince this recalcitrant (translate=stubborn) customer that he really should buy some ddram and be done with it, and it may be just the persuader I need.
Whether or not your power supply will do well with an AMD board...the AMD site lists approved power supplies and they can be picky about them. You may have to invest in another...but you can try yours 1st and then go from there.
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- #12
Festive Greetings everyone!!
Yes my knowledge is born from dozens of builds with various hardware configurations.
The ECS K7S5A was for a relatively short time the basis of our mid to low end system builds.
It proved to be fast but querky in version 1.1, lots of stability and conflict problems most were rectified with V.3.1 but one underlying trend transpired and that was systems built with SDram modules were returned with problems on a 10/1 ratio compared to systems built with DDR modules.
Over the 4-5 month period we used this board many differant memory makes were tried (admittedly mostly OEM) but that didn't seem to make much differance to the above findings.
The motherboard we stumbled across that to replace the ECS K7S5A is the Jetway V266b, at about the same price but fitted with the faster and better supported Via KT266a chipset.
I can't praise this motherboard enough, it has the lowest returns rate of any we have tried, better than most of the major brands (Abit, Gigabyte, MSI ) it takes SDram as well as DDR and has no memory issues that we have experienced.
Merry Christmas to one and all! Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.
Yes my knowledge is born from dozens of builds with various hardware configurations.
The ECS K7S5A was for a relatively short time the basis of our mid to low end system builds.
It proved to be fast but querky in version 1.1, lots of stability and conflict problems most were rectified with V.3.1 but one underlying trend transpired and that was systems built with SDram modules were returned with problems on a 10/1 ratio compared to systems built with DDR modules.
Over the 4-5 month period we used this board many differant memory makes were tried (admittedly mostly OEM) but that didn't seem to make much differance to the above findings.
The motherboard we stumbled across that to replace the ECS K7S5A is the Jetway V266b, at about the same price but fitted with the faster and better supported Via KT266a chipset.
I can't praise this motherboard enough, it has the lowest returns rate of any we have tried, better than most of the major brands (Abit, Gigabyte, MSI ) it takes SDram as well as DDR and has no memory issues that we have experienced.
Merry Christmas to one and all! Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.
biohazzard72
Technical User
I think that most here have been a little critical of PCChips boards. I have built a number of servers and desktops with those boards and like everything else in ife ; You get some good and you get some bad. (I've heard more complaints with the highend boards like Gigabyte and ASUS than I have the cheaper boards in these threads). I have had a very good success rate with them tho. It's the fact that they intigrate alot of diffrent things on the board (Video, Lan, Sound Ect..) that make people shy away and shun them. I happen to think that if you have a small budget, that you could do worse than PCChips.
- Thread starter
- #14
Since I need SDRAM support, and ECS/PCChips boards give trouble with that, I'm going to go with paparazi's Jetway/AMD idea (unless anybody can give me a good reason not to... :-]).
On that note, is there anything I need to know about AMD processors and power supplies? I've never worked with AMD before.
Thanks.
On that note, is there anything I need to know about AMD processors and power supplies? I've never worked with AMD before.
Thanks.
- Thread starter
- #15
mistanapesis
Programmer
I have had 2 Jetway in the past. Now got a V266A, Never had any problems with both boards and they are reasonably priced too.....Oh I had a PC Chips board as my very first board....Nothing but problems with USB ports switching off and having to reboot to re enable them. (not fun when you are using USB webcam). Onboard graphics and sound wouldnt work properly either even with updated drivers. Thats assumming you can actally get on to their site in the first place to download anything. Anyway I love Jetways and PC Chips Just suck at everything. If your unsure....Dont do it!
I've had experience with 3 PCChips motherboards, and all three of them have had wierd problems, and it is a major pain to try and find drivers, support, etc. for the boards. I don't think I'd give a PCChips board the job of being a doorstop, much less actually using it in a computer. I have one PCChips board that just freezes occasionally (after many OS reinstalls), another one that blue screens upon startup... most of the time. Sometimes it starts fine, and reinstalling the OS multiple times has not helped. The other one is just dead. Anyway, run as fast as you can, order an ECS board or something (even thoughi hear they are made by the same company, I've never had a problem with an ECS board, and it's relatively cheap).
Hi dds82! it is nice to see others who like Jetway boards and see the V266B as a good solid budget offering.
The V266B supports upto the XP2.6+
It is also ATA 133, has two DDR and two SDram slots.
Onboard sound
5 slots PCI
1 4X AGP slot
Is full size ATX form factor
Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.
The V266B supports upto the XP2.6+
It is also ATA 133, has two DDR and two SDram slots.
Onboard sound
5 slots PCI
1 4X AGP slot
Is full size ATX form factor
Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.
I still have a machine (a reserve spare) with a PC Chips M590 system board. It was as unstable as hell until I updated the BIOS this summer after 3 years of angst since when it works fairly well. However, it would only run reliably at 75MHz although it was stated to be a 100MHz board. I think that words like cholera are not inappropriate to describe these components.
The Jetway V266B is a cracking good system board and inexpensive too. It supports my Athlon 1600XP and overclocks well. I don't routinely overclock. I just wanted to see what she would do and then reverted to 133MHz FSB. I use PC133 SDRAM, not DDRAM, and have found that the memory works fine with 5222 instead of the default 6333 timings.
The Jetway V266B is a cracking good system board and inexpensive too. It supports my Athlon 1600XP and overclocks well. I don't routinely overclock. I just wanted to see what she would do and then reverted to 133MHz FSB. I use PC133 SDRAM, not DDRAM, and have found that the memory works fine with 5222 instead of the default 6333 timings.
- Thread starter
- #20
Well, after seeing how happy everyone is with Jetway, I've ordered the V266B and an Athlon XP 1700. I'm only going to be running PC100 SDRAM, but this is a low-cost repair job for a P3 450 that blew out 2 weeks ago. The only new components are going to be the board and processor; everything else comes out of the old system.
Thanks for all the help.
Thanks for all the help.
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