There is very little difference in average frame rate here again, which is a logical theme as both chipsets are basically the same, save for the integrated video on the 915G.  The ECS board is slightly more efficient with its use of CPU time as it manages to use more of the CPU for each real second its encoding.  Again the 15% increase happens when overclocking this motherboard. 

    SysMark 2004 is a well respected benchmark that goes through many different programs and loads that people use to stress their computers when working.  This is from large Access databases to video editing projects.  The one thing I hate about this program is that all it gives you is a number for your result, I would prefer to see how long it takes to do every task instead.  Lets take a look at how well the ECS board performs.

Conclusion

    We've seen everything about this board, from its packaging to the performance of the board, what can we thus conclude about it?

    First the package, which is fairly unassuming, with a silver eagle on the front cover of the box.  But its what's inside that counts, right?  Well on the inside we are greeted by the included extra's, IDE cables, the manual/CD, and a backplate for the system.  Nothing to write home about here. 

    The board itself is much more interesting, as it provides both DDR and DDRII memory options, as well as PCIe x16 and "AGPExpress" video card connections.  As for cards that work in the "AGP" slot, ECS has a list of supported video cards.  The fact that only one IDE channel exists is fairly annoying for those who still have a IDE based hard drive and optical drive as well, an add-on IDE controller like that included with the Albatron board would be nice, especially for a board aimed at those just wanting to move to a new socket design.  The use of thermal pads instead of proper thermal paste one the MCH and ICH still annoys me, but is logical on the ICH as there is no other way to hold the heatsink on.

    Next is the BIOS of this system.  Its fairly standard with some very nice options, especially the CPU PnP section of the BIOS where the overclocking options are fairly straight forward.  There was one annoying flaw with the BIOS/system as once the sound card was disabled it wouldn't re-enable the C-Media card, rather it thought it was a older AC '97 based sound card which didn't work in Windows at all.  The only way around this was to reset to original BIOS defaults and change everything back except for the sound which is by default enabled.  Again like the Albatron board there didn't seem to be a PCIe lock as we didn't get near the previous high overclock of 247MHz even with the same basic tools and a better cooler.

    Performance of this board was for the most part identical to the Albatron board based on the same series of chipsets (915G/915P).  The major differences came when the sound card came into play, especially in UT2004.  Here there was a marked difference between the Albatrons' Realtek card and the ECS' C-Media card.  In every other test there was at most a 2% difference if that, which is really within our error range.

    Price is a important consideration, as this motherboard seems to be targeted at a budget upgrader, who has older components that they want to use with their new socket 775 processor.  It is about the $80 (US) price range at the moment which for what it gives you (DDR2/DDR, "AGP"/PCIe x16) is a very nice price.

Good Points

• DDR2/DDR slots
• "AGP"/PCIe x16 slots
• Good Price
• Clear CPU socket area
• Good sound card

Bad Points

• Poor overclocker
• BIOS sound card problems
• Only one IDE channel
• Basic bundle

Final Words

    This board has some very interesting things that someone upgrading from their older PIV or Athlon system and wants AGP and PCIe, DDR and DDR2.  Overall this is a solid basic board for someone who doesn't overclock much, if at all.

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