Pros: It worked fine for as long as it worked (8 weeks). The parallel port is a nice feature which I needed. The serial ports could be handy also.

Cons: The product failed after two months, and the vendor (ECS) can only be contacted through a website in Taiwan. The form submission for issues on that site is broken.

Other Thoughts: I would avoid all ECS products due to lack of support.

Pros: Looks cool
Low cost
Low power usage
No noise

Cons: Would not output video through HDMI
Would not boot from usb
Would not work with memory I already owned
14 day rebates are lame, and give less time for testing

Other Thoughts: This really is a cool little board, but it refusing to boot from usb was a deal breaker for me (was going to be a router, so the hdmi did not matter - vga worked fine). If I had a spare SSD around I probably would have kept it. If I could find low capacity SSD's, 16gb or less, for a really low cost, I probably would have kept it.

Somewhat off topic, but it still surprises me that in spite of how SSD's are so well suited to use for operating system drives and not storage, and that most linux operating systems would do just fine with 12-16gb of space (or less), that no one seems to make them that small. The 32gb models the few times I've checked seemed to be a terrible value for the money compared to 64gb+ models. And 64gb+ just seems stupidly large for any os drive where you do not need storage for other things. So then, usb drives are the closest I've found, and in particular the sandisk extreme usb 3.0 16-32gb, and that was going to be the drive for this particular build. No usb booting means I would have had to buy a more expensive drive, thereby killing whatever good deal this ecs board could have been for me (besides the additional money for compatible memory I already spent).

I really like these ECS embedded boards, but be prepared to have to order memory using their Qualified Vendors List. Also, the 14 day rebates kind of suck, because in the event that the memory you have does not work and you have to order more and wait, you might not have much time if any to test anything. Also, if the board does not post, and you get no beeps, and you've got no video, there is a GOOD chance that it is just the memory not being compatible with the board, or some connection may not be seated properly (i would reseat everything, psu, memory, etc). I have never needed the QVL for an asus board, but the ECS boards I've gotten have yet to work with whatever memory I happen to have on hand.

So even with the few issues I've had, I'm still kind of an ecs fan. I've done 2 builds with ecs boards, and both have cost me more money/hassle than I was planning, but ECS embedded boards with a rebate are the best value for the money I've seen (especially if your memory works). Will definitely try again at some point.

Pros: It is a nice board and works as advertised. Used this to build a small form factor build for my parents. Using a Pico 90w psu, no fans, and the cpu hovers somewhere around 55-60 degrees C under moderate load which is great.

Cons: It's REAALLLY picky with memory, did not accept any of my Corsair or G.Skills. Ended up using a Samsung stick from an old laptop.

I recommend checking here:

http://www.ecs.com.tw/website2008/Product/Product_Detail.aspx?DetailID=1564&CategoryID=1&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=17&LanID=0#fragment-Memory

If you're looking for compatible memory

Other Thoughts: So far it's great, though it has only been two days so well see how this board lasts in the upcoming months.

Pros: Great price for a modest bay trail board.

Cons: Hanging on reset under CentOS 7.1. Went to check the BIOS and discovered that ECS BIOS update support does not exist for linux.

Other Thoughts: I've been spoiled using ASROCK and other systems that have modern Internet updating BIOS tooling. I've got that feeling where I saved a few dollars and ended up buying something I'm going to hate a little forever.

Pros: Quiet, cool, inexpensive, and fairly fast!

Cons: Not a gaming machine MB.

Other Thoughts: Good all around choice for NAS, Media PC, or for just surfing.

Pros: Small form factor, comes with SATA data cables. CPU is fast, great BIOS options. Comes with every connector you could want...

Cons: ...except IDE! That's really my only gripe so far. That and it only has one SO DIMM slot so it can only hold 8GB max.

Other Thoughts: Very nice performance so far. I'm just now loading Win8 on it so we'll see how it does but boot-up screams at 2.41GHz, even with only 4GB RAM (12800). Will put CPU-Z on it and see how it benchmarks but overall, I like this board. Time will tell if ECS lives up to the billing but so far, I am impressed. I am also impressed with the way ECS has responded to other complaints I have seen on Newegg. They seem to have it going on!

Pros: Great price! Has two PWM fan headers and fan speed can be fine tuned. This thing sips power, I'm using a 300 watt Seasonic which I realize now is laughably overkill. It supports uefi booting, which was a surprise to me. I was expecting the old school wall of text while booting, but it shows a nice looking motherboard logo with the Windows 8 boot animation just like the more expensive boards. It boots FAST with Windows 8.

Cons: ATX PSU connector can be a pain to get on (connect it before mounting inside the case or you might break something). Front panel headers aren't labeled, you have to refer to the manual like the old days.

Other Thoughts: Integrated boards have come a long way. Using this in a budget Windows 8 HTPC build for my sister. I can't believe how well it performs! Using Windows Media Center with a HVR-2250 and everything works just fine. I always figured one of these would agonizingly slow, but I was wrong. It handles web browsing and 1080p youtube watching just fine. Don't get me wrong, you CAN get it to bog down at times if you do too much at once. But for basic things, it's more than fine.

Pros: Works well with both pfsense and untangle. I own 2 of these now and I am impressed. The first one I used to try some router distributions and fell in love. The second I installed kodi(xbmc), it streams 1080p movies flawlessly. To test the win7 issue some of the other people are having, I installed it with NO ISSUES. For the power consumption im running an old 3.5 40gig hard drive, 80mm fan, dual port intel server network card,4gb stick of ddr3 1333 1.35w, all off of an inefficient 250w power supply and im getting 37.8 watt idle according to my kil-a-watt.

Cons: no pci x16 slot and the existing pci x1 doesn't have the back cut out for the ability to use x4, x8, x16 cards for instance my nc360t dual gigabit network card with an x4 slot. To fix this problem I simply ordered a flex riser card and made a home brew case.

Other Thoughts: Overall this motherboard is well built and thought out. Most issues can be tackled with a little common sense.

Pros: Very compact, quiet and affordable

Cons: Unreliable, the MB friezes for no reason - 8GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive
Power off while rebooting (bizarre behaviour)
Not a simple option, just Windows or EFI-Windows
This motherboard is replacing an old VIA 500MHz 512MB of RAM system running Linux Debian 6 basic installation with Serviio Media Center

Other Thoughts: If I want, I can install any version of windows from 3.11, NT, XP,7 and 8 including server and workstation, professional etc because I have the original installation media and licenses for it, but I just don't want to get into the world viruses and antiviruses, constant vulnerabilities patches and spyware etc - I just need a simple system not specifically designed for Windows
Somehow I feel guilty for purchasing this motherboard in here when I can buy a Linux box but I felt into the great price's trap

Manufacturer Response:

We are sorry to hear about the issues you are expereincing with your BAT-I motherboard. If you haven't already, please contact us as we would like to work with you to any possible solutions.

When contacting us, you can refer to case #ECD15022510003

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: Great little system, even at full price. Board itself only draws 20 watts. Working great as a router with DD-WRT x86.

Cons: I wish there were a dual NIC version

Other Thoughts: It looks like the BIOS supports 1.5v and 1.35v DDR3. The specs on Intel ARK for the Celeron J1800 appear to indicate that it prefers 1.35v memory, so that is what I used.