ECS A85F2-A Golden Review: All That Glitters
by Ian Cutress on January 12, 2013 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- ECS
- FM2
- A85X
As part of the research that goes into a review, it is not uncommon to look around the internet to see what people are saying about a product – both end users and other reviewers alike. I noticed a sizeable number of reports relating to the looks (I will be honest, a golden colored motherboard is different to the norm and well worth pointing out) rather than the underlying meat of the product itself, especially when it comes to usability, performance, and actually taking it by the horns for eight seconds.
The ECS A85F-A Golden looks good. I cannot fault the color scheme – it is a nice mix of black and gold which would be a great asset if I were to make or purchase a boutique or one-off build. It also implements a version of MultiCore Enhancement that ensures the top turbo mode is applied under all CPU loading – this pushes the CPU performance of turbo based processors a bit further without stock, and as long as the action is not memory limited, we see better performance than other FM2 boards out of the box. Another positive is the seven SATA cables in the box, helping anyone wanting to build a storage device around the motherboard and platform.
A number of issues are worth pointing out, however. On the initial BIOS, only memory rated 1600 C9 or below would allow the board to POST. After installing an OS and updating the BIOS to the latest 11/14 version (OS had to be installed as there is no updating utility in the BIOS itself, but there is a DOS bootable version), the motherboard did post with any of my kits up to 2133 C9. Despite this, no XMP profile worked, and any memory timing adjustments caused the board to not POST again. The board did boot up at 1600 C11, thus the benchmarks were run at that speed, but as a result some of the memory-dependent results were not as good as they could have been.
The BIOS easy mode is a unique design different to that of anyone else on the motherboard market, but the rest of the BIOS is bland and a little disorganized, especially when it comes to the OC section. Regarding our overclocking tests, the ECS A85F2-A Golden did not push our CPU as far as other FM2 boards. On the software side as well, we need to see a real push from ECS in order to make this area of the motherboard package more likable and user friendly.
Gold is nice, but gold needs to be great. For ~$127 as currently listed, the ECS doesn't match up to the competition with respect to usability, features, and memory capability on our sample. In order to succeed in the channel/end-user markets, ECS need to take their Black Series and Golden range of products and create a whole brand around them, like ASUS have with the ROG, ASRock with the Fatal1ty, Gigabyte with the G1, or even MSI with the Big Bang.
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santeana - Saturday, January 12, 2013 - link
Actually, I was surprised to see they did as well as they even did. Hasn't ECS always been sort of a no-name class board? I've seen them a lot over the years in OEM systems but I would never think to look for an ECS board if I were building a custom PC. Then again, with all the new gadgets I've had my hands on lately, maybe I'm just out of the PC-loop lolmayankleoboy1 - Saturday, January 12, 2013 - link
Maybe ECS is bigger is Asian countries ?RyanLochte - Thursday, January 17, 2013 - link
Love my job, since I've been bringing in $5600… I sit at home, music playing while I work in front of my new iMac that I got now that I'm making it online(Click on menu Home)http://goo.gl/FTmpQ
Happy New Year!
Flunk - Saturday, January 12, 2013 - link
I think they build a lot of boards for large system integrators.CeriseCogburn - Monday, January 14, 2013 - link
I think the gaming results page is a forced sham since we don't see any Intel based systems spanking the crap out of this amd junk.
BrokenCrayons - Monday, January 14, 2013 - link
When reviewing motherboards, the board itself should be compared among competing products which would mean using as much common hardware as possible to eliminate the differences introducted by parts that are not subject to review. In the case of the AMD platform in question, using similar equipment (processor, GPU, memory, storage, etc.) allows a reader to see where among other motherboards this particular product fits because it becomes the only variable between each review.Numbers obtained from Intel parts wouldn't add any comparative value to the review since more than just the motherboard would become a factor in quantification of total system performance. In the case of this review, the deviation in system memory was disclaimed and could not be prevented because of problems with the BIOS failing to recognize DIMMs that were common to previous reviews. Ian pointed that variation out before, during, and after presenting benchmark results so readers would be aware something changed that impacted performance AND that the new variable was a necessity due to apparent manufacturer design flaws.
If you want to compare this board's results with Intel products (probably to make yourself feel better for having blind brand loyalty if you're not simply attempting to troll), then you can check out the results in the benchmark database. Just click the "BENCH" link at the top of the page for instant brand-loyalist gratification.
CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - link
All you're doing is claiming ONLY A FRIKKING BRAND LOYALIST WHO WILL ONLY CONSIDER THIS AMD SOCKET TYPE MOTHERBOARD NEED BE INFORMED.YOU STUPID IDIOT !
We know the prices of amd boards and amd cpu, an Intel equivalent is VERY EASY to come up with.
you're the ******* brand loyalist you dummy.
cabonsx3 - Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - link
LOL, Cerise... what are you 14?Seems legit to me. Was this article a comparison of Intel and AMD platforms? Didn't seem to be... looked like an ECS FM2 motherboard review and comparison to other FM2 offerings. You know, competitive products, ones that use the same technologies?
BrokenCrayons hit the nail on the head.
CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - link
You're a lying idiot too.zero2dash - Sunday, January 13, 2013 - link
I had an ECS board with my P4 3.0C and it was a solid, stable board.These days though, I can't say I'd go for an ECS when there's Asus, ASRock, and Gigabyte which have all been trouble-free for me and typically are all feature-rich.