$43 motherboard Build

[mplsmelo]

I decided to do a build to replace our computer in the kitchen (an old T-Bird 1.2). I struggled for over 8 hours with a new Asus board before declaring it DOA. I returned it and against my better judgement picked up an ECS GeForce 7050-m-m for $43; paired it with a 5200+ , 2 gigs of Corsair ram and within an hour I was online. Everything went smooth as silk. The real kicker here is that the integrated sound is absolutely top notch, very clean and crisp and the video is more than acceptable (text is very good, better than my HD 4670) for casual, everyday use.

I know ECS gets low marks on this board but from what I've read their quality is improving. Time will tell if this system's reliable but for now it exceeds anything I thought possible from such an inexpensive board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135086

[bd1886]

I've used them for budget builds and have not had one issue in 7 builds. All these builds started out with a combo CPU/mobo purchase and were for neighbors, family etc.. (did 'm for free). I can only say I haven't had a prob and many others haven't. Talk to people who build computers for a living... they hate messing with them. It only takes a few dollars more to get a better board and have piece of mind. Would I use them again? Only for non critical builds. How much the present attitude towards them is justified...time will tell.

[Rev_pizzaguy]

I have the ECS 6100SM-M mobo in a pc right now paired with the AMD BE-2300 overclocked from 1.9GHz to 2.6GHz running perfectly stable. The board was free in a combo I bought. I know it isn't a great board, but it hasn't bombed on me in a year and a half of being overclocked.

[jdeb]

I like the Foxconn 45CMX.

[bd1886]

Just did anther easy build with a budget ECS board. Again... smooth. Batting 100 percent on 8 ECS builds over 3 years. (All running fine still.) I'll keep using occasionally.