ECS A780LM-M2 AM3 AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Good board and stable enough for Windows 8. I used this to build a system for a friend and her son loves it but I dont know about how she feels about Windows 8. With the right Amd cpu and Graphics card this can really be good gaming board as it has overclocking capabilities that one can utilize.

Cons: Non so far.

Other Thoughts: The price was excellent for the combo of Win8 and the board. $140.00 and I was convinced on the purchase.

Pros: I've build around 6 or 7 systems using this board.

Cons: One of them failed within 2 days.

Pros: Great value, loads of features for a budget motherboard!

Ide support, parallel port add on for uber old printers.

Support for oc ram and worked flawlessly.

Onboard gpu is solid, other reviews said didn't play on hd content without choppy playback, I did NOT notice any issues hooked up to a 1080p monitor and streaming 1080p content. The other poster may have had am inferior processor.

Cons: Had to download updated ethernet drivers for windows 7.

Pros: Nice layout of the motherboard as well as being compact. Easy to set up and ran well out of the box. Also comes with a three year warranty on parts. This is a nice straight-ahead no-frills motherboard that you can use for a basic machine, with your leftover AMD processors laying around the house.

Cons: I only rated the motherboard at three stars and this is why, "the motherboard is listed on the ECS website as being able to unlock cores. In fact after trying two known AMD processors that can be unlocked core wise, neither of them would unlock." After looking further on the ECS website they list actual motherboards that have this feature and the A780LM-M2 was not on the list at the time I viewed it. The feature that supposed to allow this is called "ECS "Special ACC"technology" and is not functional on this motherboard.

Other Thoughts: Other than the fact that you cannot unlock cores this motherboard, it is a very decent basic AMD motherboard. You should not be deterred by the unlock feature not working if you don't intend to use it anyways.

Manufacturer Response:

We are sorry to hear about the issues you have experienced with the Unlock feature (Advanced Clock Calibration). Please contact us, as we would like to find out what CPUs you are using and which BIOS is being used. We do want to work with you and find a solution to this.

When contacting us, you can refer to case #ECD13021210010

I or any of my team members here at technical support will be able to help you.
Our hours are Mon-Fri 9am-6pm PST.

Thank you,
Andy
Phone# 1-510-456-9836
Email: andy_K@ecsusa.com

External Link(s):

Elite member 99-hour service|

Pros: I used this board to do a basic build for a client. She loved it. It's still running, as I have asked to make sure. Really good for a budget board.

Cons: None, I thought I was going to have a pain installing in her old case, but it went smooth.

Pros: a solid replacement MB for a 955 Phenom II X4

Cons: none

Pros: Gets the job done for a basic build
RAID support
Legacy IDE support
Good amount of PCI expandability

Cons: - Only up to 95W CPU support
- Only 2 fan connects (1 x CPU and 1 x Case)
- No Gb LAN
- Really weak video card for high resolution monitors. In fact I would say if you're using Hi Def resolutions on a nice monitor, be prepared to buy a dedicated video card. There's lag moving windows around at Hi Def res.

The rebate process!! See below

Other Thoughts: Bought this to gut & rebuild someone's OLD desktop by re-using an Athlon X2 240 I had laying around. The board gets it done but is VERY basic. This is the smallest Micro ATX board I've ever seen! Kinda freaked me out when I unboxed it.

I kicked myself when after I ordered this I found the ECS A880GM-M7 for $5 more and its MUCH nicer! Bought one of them for another build and would again in a heartbeat.

I docked 1 egg for just how basic the board, bios and feature-set (non-existent really...) are. The other egg due to ECS's rebate.

I've never seen such a blatent attempt by a company to cause difficulty on a rebate, no doubt to hose people out of getting it. First, you need the serial number off the board! Come on now. Second, you only have 18 days to get it in the mail. Rediculous. Just make sure you know these things if you purchase one of these and get that rebate done quickly.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for your feedback. For your reference and any filling out a rebate, the serial number can also be found on the UPC sticker from the motherboard box, below the bottom bar code. If you have any further questions or concerns regarding your motherboard or the rebate, please do contact us. We are here to help.

When contacting us, you can refer to case #ECD12111310004

I or any of my team members here at technical support will be able to help you.
Our hours are Mon-Fri 9am-6pm PST.

Thank you,
Andy
Phone# 1-510-771-0284
Email: andy_K@ecsusa.com

Related File(s):

UPC example

External Link(s):

Elite Member 99-hour service|

Pros: * Price
* Manual

Cons: * Blank Screen
After owning this MB for 6 months, it was working fine until the 6 month period. For no apparent reason other then part failure, my screen blanks with no warning messages, etc. The system will not respond to CTRL-ALT-DEL, any mouse movements, or keystrokes. You have to press and hold the power button in order to shutdown, but when you do that, it also affects the startup and will not boot until after several tries of pressing/holding the power button.

* Tech Support
Good luck in trying to reach tech support at their number. For days now, all I get is a message to leave my number. No call backs at all.
VERY DISAPPOINTED

Other Thoughts: This MB is just a middle-of-the-road unit, graphics card (ATI Radeon 3000 series) is good for productivity, passable for gaming. Really disappointed in the name-brand support and service. I would have expected better.

Manufacturer Response:

We are sorry to hear about the issues you have experienced with your motherboard. Please do contact us as soon as possible. You can reach us by the phone number or email below. If you contact us by email you can leave your contact information and we will call you as soon as possible. Normally voice mails are returned within 1 business day. Our hours are listed below. We would like to help resolve your issue and address your concerns.

When contacting us, you can refer to case #ECD12103110003

I or any of my team members here at technical support will be able to help you.
Our hours are Mon-Fri 9am-6pm PST.

Thank you,
Andy
Phone# 1-510-771-0284
Email: andy_K@ecsusa.com

External Link(s):

Elite Member 99-hour Service|

Pros: Great basic motherboard. Core unlock is a nice feature for those who want to try their luck and get an extra core or two. IDE support lets you use older hardware.

Cons: None, so long as you aren't trying to build a gaming PC with it, this motherboard is decent. Not enough room for large GFX cards or CPU heatsinks, but considering this is a cheap micro ATX board, you shouldn't be trying that anyway.

Pros: Legacy IDE for mom's hard drive.
Onboard video
Small size board.
Booted off of old hard drive with XP so I could recover some files.

Cons: Minor small nit to pick - screen was blank on boot. No message to hit 'DEL' for setup or "Press any key to boot from CD" might just be my monitor.

Other Thoughts: This board, along with an AMD Athlon II X2 270CPU and 4g o G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 RAM cost me $145 and sucessfully upgraded moms computer - a 9 year old Athlon XP 2400 on an Asus board. Out with the old, in with the new, power up and it booted on the 2nd try - 1st try gave me a boot device error. I had to go into the BIOS and make the IDE HDD the first device.

On the 2nd try the old install of XP came up and went into new hardware discover mode and for giggles I let it try install drivers. I was able to transfer documents and pictures using a thumb drive. I like it when I can do that without digging out the IDE-to-USB adaptor to retrieve files.

Installed Win7. Nothing to complain about.

Reloaded browser & email backups and Mom is set for another 9 years.