ECS P43T-A2 Review

[sno.lcn]

I was actually mildly surprised with this board. It got a lot further than the ECS boards I've owned in the past :)

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/6599/pic01gr7.jpg


The only obvious design flaws are the south bridge heatsink (or lack thereof) and the SATA port placement if using a dual-slot video card. Also there is a fan header sandwiched between some caps and the 4-pin CPU power.

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/635/pic02ot8.jpg



Specs:
North Bridge – Intel P43
South Bridge – Intel ICH10
4x DDR2 Slots with dual-channel support, up to 16GB RAM
1x PATA
6x SATA 3GB/S
6 Channel Audio
1x Gigabit LAN port
4x Rear USB
Form factor is ATX
1x PCI-Express 16x
3x PCI-Express 1x
2x PCI




The test setup:
ECS P43T-A2
Intel Core 2 e8500
2x1gb Team Xtreem PC2 8000
BFG 8800GTS 512mb
Corsair HX 520w
Thermalright Ultra-120


BIOS Option are about what I expected from a budget board.

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/8153/pic06ni1.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/6610/pic07oz4.jpg
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/9971/pic09nq2.jpg
http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/3301/pic11wg2.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/496/pic12ye7.jpg




The absolute max stable FSB on 5:6 RAM ratio is 362 MHz.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/9254/pic13tk5.jpg


At 1:1 ratio I got much better results. By no means a record setter, but a pretty nice little board for something like a budget CPU with a low FSB wall :)

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1600/pic15ke0.jpg

[WhiteFireDragon]

don't be offended, but that's not how you test max fsb. you need to lower the multiplier, then increase fsb.

as for the board, i still consider ECS junk. their reputation is already slandered in the high end parts. and i see they still have that fugly purple that only a mother could love. they are decent boards for people that leave everything at stock speeds and utilize only a few slots, or want to replace a fried dell mobo. but for an enthusiast board, i just wanna yak...

[sno.lcn]

I know, unfortunately no multi adjustment either :(

[lolhalol]

would be a good board.. for budget users...