Overclocking and Thoughts
Overclocking
ECS have made big noise about the KV2's overclocking ability. With the initial BIOS release, that was a big fallacy. But with the 1.1D BIOS revision, things take a definite turn for the better. Using the BIOS, 259MHz derived HTT (using 4X multi) was the upper limit with a working multiplier adjust. That was with the disk hookedup to the VT8237, indicating a locked SATA host clock at the very least. No other PCI devices were enabled in the BIOS during overclocking testing.The BIOS really needs to offer more than the stock 1.55V adjust from the CPU's VID table, and more than 2.7V Vdimm too. I've requested that ECS's BIOS engineers look to see if that's possible, to help the enthusiast achieve good memory speeds and overclocks that require more CPU voltage.
Hopefully they'll respond.
Finally, the KV2 was very picky about the timings I could run my memory modules at. It didn't allow me to adjust very far from the SPD timings at DDR400, which stopped me backing off on them to find more HTT clock. At DDR333, things were little better. Trying a couple of other sticks I have lying around confirmed what I was seeing with my usual Corsair.
Thoughts
Two out of three ECS boards tested, two out of three really excellent products. The PF4 impressed and so does the KV2. Again, the price, feature set and basic performance are the reasons why. At a very low £82 inc VAT in the U.K., which includes that good bundle, the KV2 lives up to ECS's cheap reputation without sacrificing on quality, something they tended to do in the past.You get good flexibility in your disk configuration, due to the choice of addition SATA and ATA controller, the K8T800 Pro is a fine platform for Socket 939 CPU performance and the bundle was great.
A good BIOS that ECS are looking to improve further, listening to what testers and potential customers have to say about the product, is a good sign and a nice step forward for ECS.
If Socket 939 is your CPU socket of choice, consider the KV2 Extreme as a base for the CPU you select. It's a fairly ugly looking thing, but there's nothing ugly about the rest of the package and presentation, the bundle, its performance or its very low price.
Going back to my opening paragraphs, it doesn't get it quite as right as I wanted it to, but it's closer to the mark than others I've seen recently.
Recommended.
Score
Pros
Good bundleDecent layout
Excellent performance
Good overclocking
Very low price
Good BIOS
Cons
Needs more voltage range for a couple of optionsDidn't like deviation from SPD memory timings much, something that might be rectified with more voltage range in a new BIOS
HEXUS Awards
