ECS Editors Event
Introduction
If you have never heard of ECS, shame on you. ECS is extremely well known for their inexpensive motherboards. For those who live near a Fry’s electronics, you should be able to recall some of the best CPU and motherboard combos that go on sale during weekends. Guess what motherboard is included in that combo? That’s right, it’s an ECS motherboard. While ECS motherboards are not known for providing the utmost extreme flexibility in terms of tweaking and overclocking, their boards are known for providing solid performance for an average Joe’s every day tasks. Considering that the majority of consumers out there only use their systems for email, web surfing, and typical word documentations, an ECS board would be the best solution. The price just cannot be beat. Their motherboards are very well known for making OEM systems and a grandma’s beige box.
I am pretty sure that many of you will jump in and say that ECS motherboards do not come with great quality. Personally, I have to agree. I have been burnt with ECS motherboards in the past and I am sure that many of you have as well. Fortunately for us, ECS is a company that grows and strengthens as time passes by. Why else would they be one of the top 5 motherboard manufacturers in the world? The RS480-M was a good board that overclocked well and provided a rock stable computing environment. Our upcoming review of the KN1 SLI Extreme is also exemplary of the maturity of ECS through time.
Editors from around the States have been invited to attend and ECS event and I was fortunate enough to be on the list of attendees. The reason of the event was to show the roadmap and goals of the “new” ECS. What exactly do they mean by “new”?
ECS Event
Before you read on, please bear with me that this coverage will be photo deprived. I am terribly sorry that there are no raunchy pictures to show you. Due to my procrastination and pressured luggage packing, I left my camera back at home. I remembered everything else but the camera. I sincerely apologize.
Editors arrived from all over the country on Thursday and were all gathered to meet at Dave and Busters for an introductory dinner. If you have kept up with my news postings, you should be familiar with DnB and the fun I usually have there. We were welcomed with a nice buffet and some drink stubs. Obviously I took advantage of it and exchanged it for my beers. After the dinner, the majority of the editors headed off to bed. Remember that there is a time zone difference so it was already bedtime for them. It was actually a smart move to go to bed early. We had to be ready for the event at 8 AM the very next day.
We started out with a ECS US office tour. Joe Chang, Director of Product Marketing, led the pack by introducing us to all the different departments and employees. We were then left with Alex Tao, Senior Vice President, who gave a brief background on the ECS sales market and product quality control. The meeting room overlooked the warehouse where boxes and boxes of hardware piled everywhere. The whole place was huge.
As soon as our lunch break ended, we were gathered in a well air-conditioned room and prepared for the series of presentations. CEO See See Lo (haha that kinda rhymed) kicked off with an introduction speech welcoming us to their “new ECS” event. She spoke of how the enthusiast market is growing and that they realize that growth and have begun projects catering to that need. Unlike many of the companies out there, ECS is really dedicated to the needs of consumers and actually open up their ears to listen.
The event continued with Adam Chou, Senior Manager of Marketing; Joe Chang, Director of Product Marketing; Dan Snyder, Intel Public Relations Manager; Vic Bhagat, AMD Product Marketing Manager; Levent Bilgrin, ATI Marketing Development Manager; and George Meyers, Nvidia Desktop Manager, gave their brief presentations on upcoming products and prospects.
Dan from Intel spoke about Intel’s development and research into low wattage processors. This reduces the power consumption in a household that will not only cut down on electricity bills but heat issues as well. The other topic he spoke of is Intel’s Viiv technology. Basically, the Viiv pushes for home entertainment that any grandma can use without a problem. It’ll be like watching typical TV at the palm of your hands.
Vic from AMD basically told us what we already knew. The Athlon 64 is currently the most popular desktop processor and is recognized by everyone that it provides the best gaming performance. The FX series is aimed at gamers who need the very last frame possible. The X2 series is aimed at multimedia stations and multitasking. Unfortunately, Vic did not mention anything about the upcoming M2 socket and DDR2 memory support.
Levent from ATI knew that we were all hyped about Crossfire. He quickly went through the usual PR presentation and headed straight for Crossfire. He informed us that the chipset will be ready in September and that motherboard partners like ECS will have solutions readily available. ECS is already ready to ship the KA1 (AMD version of Crossfire) and the PA1 (Intel version of the Crossfire). They’re just waiting for ATI to release the master cards. He further ensured us that Crossfire will work with ALL games without the need to create custom profiles or special drivers. Every game will be compatible, whether it be the original pong or the popular Battlefield 2, Crossfire will run the game without a hiccup. Video card support is very flexible with the ATI Crossfire. This means that your current X800 family PCI-E video card can be run in Crossfire mode. Just make sure that your second card will be the master card for your Crossfire setup, meaning that your second card is Crossfire capable. You do not need to have two master cards.
George from Nvidia mainly talked about the new nForce4 x16 chipset. The new chipset will support dual x16 PCI-E slots in SLI mode. It will become the new enthusiast target, with the current nForce4 SLI chipset more mainstream. The nForce4 x16 chipset will also feature RAID 5 support, software-wise. Personally I was more interested in hearing their future Intel solutions since their current C19 is extremely buggy.
Now to the main point of this article: What is ECS offering in the near future and how they’re the “new” ECS? There are two major things that ECS presented that was quite interesting and exciting. I am pretty sure that some of you have heard about their PF88 motherboard and the additional SIMA cards. This motherboard, along with the SIMA card, will allow users the flexibility in using any platform he/she wishes. There are more SIMA cards coming out and it will support all different sockets–Socket 754, 939, 479. Consumers will only have to buy a single motherboard and when the time calls for a new flavor or upgrade, a $50 SIMA card can change your Intel platform to an AMD.
The next topic up for discussion was the innovative SDGE. SDGE stands for Scalable Dual Graphics Engines. This is an ECS exclusive technology. They realize that many gamers who build systems, budget or high end, have been building SLI systems with dual graphic cards. This ECS exclusive SDGE invention is to allow gamers and enthusiasts to run dual graphic cards in SLI mode on ANY chipset. That is right, any chipset. This means that you can run two Nvidia video cards on an Intel chipset! Sweet huh? The way this works is that the SDGE capable ECS motherboard will come with an additional slot to allow the SDGE card. There will be another chipset on the SDGE card that acts like a “second” Northbridge. The technology and design are there, but ECS is having a little trouble in regards to “friendly” cooperation from both Nvidia and ATI. I find this invention excellent. It should, in no way, hinder the sales of any company.
My Thoughts
Throughout the entire event, the only real new announcement was the SDGE technology. Of course it should be that way considering it was an ECS held event, but to me, it just means that computer technology is really slowing down. Whatever the case, it can only benefit the consumer. My experience at the ECS event was a pleasant one. I felt that it was a good move by ECS as it shows their sincerity in reaching out to the enthusiast market. Throughout the whole event, I had the pleasure to speak to some of the ECS employees and they all ask for opinions on ways to improve. A good company is a company that listens. My best wishes go to ECS for their enthusiasm and effort. It is all up to you now to show us what you’ve got.
A big thanks goes out to Joanne Lo for making this event possible. It was a fun time hanging out with her and all the editors at local pubs after the dinners. Haha.