ECS Elitegroup 2005 Editor's Day

Post by **Apoptosis** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:01 pm

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) is the world's leading producer of motherboards, but is just now starting to build products aimed at the enthusiast community. We went out to San Jose last week to discuss their new image and we dig deep to figure out why they are entering a new market right now.

When most of our readers hear the name ECS, they automatically think of low cost entry level boards that are aimed at the budget minded consumer who just wants a computer. For years LR has tried to work with ECS to do product reviews, but they never wanted to market their boards with the online enthusiast sites. Early last month we recieved a phone call from ECS saying that they want to enter the enthusiast market with some new innovative boards.

http://legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=238

Random Pictures Not Found in the Article:

The ECS USA Lobby:

The ECS S.D.G.E card insalled

The ECS Break Room Water Bottle Rack

gvblake22 · Post by **gvblake22** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 9:22 am

Damn, thats some pretty cool stuff. Wonder what the performance will be like on that type of system. Would that S.D.G.E. thing take any performance hits?
Either way, it looks like ECS is developing some very innovative products indeed. I also read an article over at Anandtech about the new ECS motherbaords and saw one that will support intel LGA 775 with DDR2 and s479 for mobile chips with DDR as well as AMD s754 and s939 with DDR! I'm really intersted to see how these things perform though. If performance is on par with that of native solutions and the stability and driver support is there, then I can see these products being very desireable for the upgrade enthusiast!
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2521&p=3

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 10:39 am

I swear this is something I've never seen before. A miniature mobo on an already functioning mobo?!?!?!?

can anyone explain this technology to me? because I'm really really lost right now, lol

gvblake22 · Post by **gvblake22** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 10:53 am

Well, it's generally called a "daughter board" and I think it's basically just a matter of adding a lot more traces to the motherboard and probably changning a few jumpers around and having a slightly more complicated BIOS. Kinda makes me wonder about the cost of this motherboard though

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 10:56 am

yeah, but what I'm referring to specifically is what are the benefits? because I really don't understand that I guess.

gvblake22 · Post by **gvblake22** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:00 am

killswitch83 wrote:yeah, but what I'm referring to specifically is what are the benefits? because I really don't understand that I guess.

Well, the benefits are pretty obvious. You can spend money on one motherboard and have options to upgrade to prettymuch every recent processor and platform available right now!
For instance, I have a s939 system with DDR right now but if I wanted to give an intel dual core system a try, I would have to get a motherboard, processor, and DDR2 RAM. But if I had that ECS motherboard, I wouldn't have to worry about getting a whole new motherboard. Or it looks like you could just go and buy a Dothan processor and just plop it in and you don't have to worry about getting a new motherboard, video card, and adapter.

The possibilites and combinations are seemingly endless!

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:25 pm

ohh ok, so it's more like it's useful to where you can replace just the expansion card instead of the entire motherboard and all to get the latest technology. Damn, that's pretty handy, cheers!!

EvilCloudStrife · Post by **EvilCloudStrife** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 6:13 pm

huh? whats the point of that? i bet it costs a TON of money

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 9:32 am

it's called tryout by way of a daughterboard, so that way you don't have to waste money on another mobo, you can just use that expansion card; it comes in handy when you want to try out processors compatible with that socket (in the case of the photo, socket 939); I thought it was pretty handy myself, though it uses a primary processor on the motherboard, but you could probably pop a celeron or something to that effect on there just for resource management. As for price, I dunno, but I got a feeling it is pretty high myself.