ECS K7VZA

06-10-2001, 18:04 | posts: n/a

Is this board really as ****ty as everyone says? I've read upteen good reviews of it, and the only reason I'm worried is something about it having phase 1 power vs phase 3 power. I'm looking into getting this board, with a T-Bird 900mhz, keeping my Voodoo 5, having 768mb ram, Soundblaster X-Gamer, dvd, cdrw, 15gb hd, all in a 300w ps case (AMD certified). Will I have any problems with this setup running the T-Bird at about 1ghz or even staying at 900??

06-10-2001, 20:02 | posts: n/a

The very first review i pulled up for that board says.. 
 
"Unfortunately, no option is provided which would allow users to control the clock multiplier, or the Vcore voltage." and thus "No overclocking features." 
 
Also.. "Little space is available around the CPU socket, which will make it difficult to install large coolers." (another review i read basically said the opposite) 
 
It does have an Award Bios tho which is a plus in my book, VIA chipset, Onboard Sound (to give you something to *instantly* disable) and 4x AGP. 
 
 
all in all.. Yuck.. this review was written back in January so the board has been around a while too. It just hasnt been making alot of noise apparently. If you could tool around with the multipliers/vcore settings it would be alot better. When the hell did Award make a bios you cant do anything *fun* with..?? Tsk tsk.. 
 
Personally id go for a somewhat higher end board. Something with AGP Pro, support for DDR memory, 266 FSB, a bios that lets you tweak the voltage/vcore. But thats just me. 
 
X™

08-18-2001, 17:03 | posts: n/a

kiss my ass

Dave · 08-19-2001, 04:06 | posts: 8,447 | Location: Lost in boxes

why would he need agp pro? 
he has a voodoo 5 (inside info if I recall correctly, plans on gf3) 
so the pro is moot. but all in all, I'd go after another board.