ECS today announced a motherboard in the market for the Intel Pentium 20th anniversary edition processor, Z97-PK , has been released to all the fans that are searching for exciting overclocking perfor... ECS Releases new Z97-PK Motherboard
Don't know if ECS is getting any better now prior to my past (very ugly) experiences with (almost all) ECS motherboards in someone else's computers and their almost non-existent tech support (didn't received not a single response from their tech support). And yes, their older mobos were very poor in therms of OC and new BIOS releases. If nothing has changed DRAMATICALLY I wouldn't touch their mobos not even with a 10 foot pole.
"...the ultimate OC performance..." Yeah right, just look at that poor CPU's VRM section. Put some i5/i7-4xxxK and do some OC beyond 4GHz and you can expect c:
It's specifically designed for the Pentium G3258 processor as the article suggests. It doesn't say it's any good with the i7-4790K. At least it accomplishes 4.7 GHz which no other Haswell Refresh based processors can reach, and at only 1.448 V!
^^^ Probably you're right and probably "binned" CPU on "healthy" 1.448V. And probably no one with a bit of healthy brain cells won't be buying this POS to pair it with some i7-4xxxK although that thing probably supports all i7-4xxxK CPU's.
I see it has a high end chipset cooler on it . To be honest, it looks more like a B85 board that they put a Z97 chipset for marketability. The price would have to reflect this. If I were to get a Z97 board from them, it would be this one: http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Pr...oryID=1&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=172&LanID=0 However, that's if there were no other choices . It does look significantly better than the Z97-PK though, the Z97-Pk tends to suggest the -PK designation is short for PuKe (colour).
Even if they gave me money to buy it I wouldn't, never again. Past experiences taught me veeery well. I sorta keep track of what I've had and I've had 3 ECS mobos, all of them went up in smoke.
Good lord, nearly 1.55V... Hopefully the board doesn't give up after a short time of usage. In July Anandtech managed to get it to 4.7Ghz at 1.375V although they didn't specify the hardware used. http://www.anandtech.com/show/8232/...ary-edition-review-the-intel-pentium-g3258-ae Anyways this processor/mobo combo is really going to give consoles a run for the money.
I am amazed ECS hasn't gone out of business they recycle parts for their products. They are the most under-handed and shady of any company I know of, all their products are garbage tier crap that will lead to nothing but broken or buggy systems or maybe even a house fire.. :bang:
Picture of ECS Z97-PK here on Guru3D article is clearly showing 3-phase VRM section for CPU and that could be more than enough for all 4gen Core CPU's @ stock frequency if VRM section on that mobo is build from quality components. But in case of ECS and cheap class that mobo belongs I highly doubt VRM will last for a long time on such high OC above 4.5GHz+ even with Pentium G3258. Quality, high OC and long life (from my experience) are words opposite to ECS brand. For some HTPC or office use with some Celeron G, Pentium G, i3/i5 and even (maximum stupidity with this mobo) i7 @ stock speed that mobo will probably do it's job right. Long story short, all I want to say to those who are planing to buy this mobo for OC:
I remember even worse from early Pentium I & II era: motherboards from PC Chips and Zida Tomato I was PC newbie back then in early '90 coming from C-64 and A500, buying and building my first PC's with mid-class affordable QDI and Chaintech mobos and some 486 & Pentium I class CPU's from Intel and AMD (I admit I had used one Cyrix P200 and even tryed to do some OC with it), trying to find nice, mid-expencive and OC capable mobo to OC fantastic CPU's like Celeron 300A and similar. But just one look on some some cheap PC Chips or Zida Tomato motherboard back then was enough touke2:. It's was almost unimaginable how bad thew were, it was really bad just to look at them and not to mention to see them working in some PC back then. After all this spiting on ECS I think ECS will send PM to Hillbert to close future comments on this article
The worst thing about that Rhino 5 board is that the parallel/printer port would just disappear and I could not print until I restarted the computer.