To you other computer newbies

[Reedimus]

I'm still very new to computers and I wanted a new motherboard. I read a lot of reviews and heard a lot of opinions and got the ECS K7S5A anyway. I figured the $40 saved would be nice and its shortcomings wouldn't be that big of a deal. In the 24 hours that I've had it up and running I have learned how wrong I was! I like to listen to music, surf the internet, and run various minor programs at the same time and this motherboard cannot handle it. In about 10 hours of use I've gotten the BSOD 6 times. Did I mention one of the USB ports doesn't work?

so I'd just like to say to all of the other newbies: when the people on this board tell you not to get a cheap motherboard, listen to them. they know what they are talking about. I've already ordered an Epox 8kha+ and some crucial memory to replace this mistake.

[Sauron]

Man...I hope that the mo I am planning on buying doesn't have those probs..brrr

[LawyerRon]

Reedimus,
That's how we all learn. The position I'm in, as are other professionals, is that I don't have the time to screw around with a motherboard. I stick with a formula that works the first time, every time.

In fairness, a lot of people have that ECS board and are satisfied with it but they do seem to have a higher DOA rate then some of the top brands.

I like Soyo boards but a friend of mine only uses genuine Intel boards which are probably the easiest of all to set up.

[highrisemech]

A lot of us try to steer people away from these board like ECS
but everybody wants to learn from thier own experiece which is understandable.
But from a computer building standpoint it is best to start with a quality board since a good system can be built up from it. After all the other parts only ad onto the board therefore the system starts with the board. It is simply not practical to start with boards that have been known to cause problems.
But again in all fairness to ECS not everybody has problems with them.
But it is certainly no fluke that experienced builders recommend the
quality boards there is a reason for it.

[freptide]

on that note can anyone give me some honest opinions experiences with
Asus boards?

[glc]

Asus Intel chipset boards are top quality, their others are only average. Their tech support is almost non-existent and their quality has slipped a lot since the BX chipset days because they moved their production from Taiwan to mainland China. They appear to have it back together witth their Intel chipset boards but I won't touch anything from them that says Via, SiS, or AMD on it.

[highrisemech]

I just built an ASUS TUSI-M
This system has onboard sound and graphics.
Well sufice to say after the installation of a 700mgz Celeron CPU,
A Volcano heatsink/fan, Arctic Silver, 4gig WD Hardrive.
This board booted first try,loaded OS, Loaded drivers.
Everything worked first shot out, not to mention the onboard nic.
That is quality in itself.
I usually check performance running multi tasks.
I bought more boards then heck, and usually run into some sort
of adjustment all be it jumper,bios flash,bios chip, you name it.

[reboot]

The Asus/Intel combo is probably the best around. I won't give up my P3B-F anytime soon.