Final thoughts
ECS' PF5 Extreme has its fair share of good and bad points. Let's take the good first. The company's Scalable D.G.E. technology offers up a possible quad-display setup that's run off two PCI-Express cards. No, it's not SLI or CrossFire, so don't expect true dual-card 3D performance, but it's handy for those that need the screen real estate and a step up from mixing onboard graphics displays (i945G) and discrete cards'. The layout and feature-set for a £90 board are both good, too.Where ECS really needs to work on the PF5 Extreme is in providing a BIOS that really caters for the enthusiast/gamer. As it stands with the shipping v1.0 BIOS, the board's performance is definitely below that of a decent, well-tuned i945G's. We hope this situation is rectified with a subsequent BIOS release because, right now, the PF5 Extreme isn't the appealing proposition that it can be. ECS is now competiting in the premium sector along with the likes of ASUS, MSI, ABIT, et al. Those motherboard manufacturers already have names and reputations that enthusiasts are familiar with. ECS, then, not only has to match the incumbent manufacturers in terms of performance and cost, it has to continue to beat them on a number of levels to increase the tempo and interest.
The ECS PF5 Extreme isn't a bad board by any means. We feel as if a few tweaks here and there will make it into a real contender in the sub-£100 LGA775 market. Solid, stable and generally feature-rich, yes, the must-have i945x board? Not yet.
