Review: ECS PF4 Extreme

Overclocking and Thoughts

With a maximum of 1.5875V Vcore available to feed the 3.4 Extreme Edition (up from 1.5V standard), maximum speed testing was never on the cards. So I turned to the PF4's working multiplier adjustment for the ES CPU, keeping the target speeds on or around 3.4GHz while dropping the multiplier and upping the front side bus speed.

13 x 260 for 3.38GHz (DDR692 @ 1.90V) wasn't a problem with the unstable limit hit at 263MHz, with the CPU at a shade over stock voltage at 1.525V.

Retesting ABIT's AG8 with the most recent BIOS shows a similar front side bus ceiling, so the PF4's potential for overclocking using Prescott CPUs and good cooling is there. More than applaudable and ECS not getting stung by the supposed clock limit on the new core logic.

Thoughts

Excellent performance, a nice BIOS, brilliant extra hardware and software bundle, great features (including HD Audio and Matrix Storage), sensible layout, good overclocking. What's missing? Ah yes, price. At just under £105 including dreaded V.A.T in the U.K., it's the same price as an ABIT AG8 and significantly less than the DDR-II toting ABIT AA8 DuraMAX, with better performance, features and a better bundle. That's not all. It's nearly £50 cheaper than ASUS's DDR-II Grantsdale board which has a comparable feature set. Providing you've got no trouble investing in DDR-II memory, the ECS PF4 Extreme looks to be the best LGA775 mainboard we've yet tested at HEXUS, by quite a distance.

I'm struggling to fault it, bar being slightly annoyed it didn't have more Vcore range for the 3.4 Extreme Edition I use for testing. Given the number of those on the market, does it really matter?

Like the AA8, AG8 and ASUS's boards, the PF4 suffers from the downsides of the new Pentium 4 platform. Short supply of graphics cards and CPUs to fit are the main problems, but with DDR-II starting to come into its own in terms of overclocking and tempting prices. I still can't really recommend the platform because of those issues.

However, if you're keen, slap the PF4 Extreme at the top of your shopping list, because ECS's Computex promise seems to have carried over to the boards that are reaching retail.

Excellent stuff. Snag one from Protac (phone sales only, ring 08701 205370) until ECS sort out some more U.K. resellers. Non-U.K. readers, pester your local hardware vendor.

Score

Pros

Excellent performance
Excellent bundle, software and hardware
Overclocked very well
Good layout
Comparatively cheap
Nice presentation

Cons

The platform isn't compelling enough for most to consider a switch

HEXUS Awards

Thanks

ECS UK for the sample

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ECS have always made incredibly cheap motherboards, branded as ECS, Elite or PCChips. I have owned a couple, and they were both cheap in both senses of the word (i.e. low cost and somewhat flimsy), but both are still working fine. I do remember, however, reading a website (can't find it on Google any more, though) from a small Australian system builder that hated ECS mobos with a passion, based on their problems with returns, misleading marketing information, and the amount of corner-cutting used in manufacture.

Maybe they've got their act together now, though?

oyster
… based on their problems with returns, misleading marketing information, and the amount of corner-cutting used in manufacture.

Maybe they've got their act together now, though?

Yes ECS really gave themselves a bad rep through the way they went about producing boards cheeply and it really didn't do them any good. The new stratagy of ECS is to change all this and make a name for themselves with there enthusiast range while maintaining, as far as possible, there trademark value.

Another board to keep in mind is the KV2 (AMD 939PIN) board, which is also turning heads.

i don't think their trademark HAS value. even skoda's efforts haven't saved them from years of jokes. even if they're using the ecs brand for good now, i'm not sure it's enough to sway the hearts & minds of those who've been burnt (in cases literally) with pcchips.

Speaking of which, the KV2 is next on my list mainboard list :) The article should be live end of this week, or the start of next, all going well.

As far as perceptions of quality with their boards, I'm nothing but impressed so far, from the three mainboards I have at the moment. Some hiccups with an early PF4 sample, but they were fixed in the retail revision I reviewed.

Good stuff methinks.

Rys

directhex
i don't think their trademark HAS value. even skoda's efforts haven't saved them from years of jokes. even if they're using the ecs brand for good now, i'm not sure it's enough to sway the hearts & minds of those who've been burnt (in cases literally) with pcchips.

Everyone has put out crap at some point, even the mighty manufacturers that never seem to put a foot wrong.

Public perception of Skoda certainly has changed, at least in this country, and it's for the better. I'd buy a Skoda.

There's no reason why ECS can't turn it round in a similar fashion with some well-received products and some positive experiences from the brave that dare to try them (as well they should).

I'd buy an ECS mainboard too.

Rys