Joined on 06/07/05
Nvidia & ECS Hybrid Sli Yes
Pros: Now have built 2 of these I own one of them my customer loves his we are both Nvidia fanboys. I will admit some of the bios settings have to be set at the first boot some things need to be in Automatic and if you read the reviews from Birdman and a few others you will find those tweaks most of them just need to be set to AUTO. I also right after installing Vista go to ecsusa.com and get the latest bios the flash will fix a few issues and upgrade the type of CPU's that are compatible. I am using the AMD Kuma its a great X2 with Phenom features at a low affordable price my games play smoothly and look awesome in Hybrid SLI using an inexpensive BFG 8500gt. While at the homepage or while your waiting for your mobo to arrive download all the latest drivers this will make your build go more smoothly. I used Vista 64 bit Ultiimate had no issues installing it and have 4gb of pc6400 not one complaint. Runing Windows update will help also.
Cons: it doesn't make coffe when I am up late gaming
Overall Review: If you already have an 84 or 8500 pcie video card you can greatly extend the life of it with this mobo. I won't call other negative reviewers inexperienced but I will say this I have been buying ECS for 1 1/2 years now due to the money savings on builds which I can pass on to my buyers and not one has comeback doa and the one and only doa I had on any ecs board was during install and within the return policy period Newegg took good care of me and paid for return shipping as well. I had my replacement in a matter of days. I always read all the specifications on anything I buy and never assume just cause your a buider that you know everything modesty and pre planning can go along way in having a succesful buid and business relationship with your buyers. Also check out the other Black Series ECS boards they are all great and depending on your preferences one might be more suitable to you like the ATI. Newegg has the best online Catalog of goods and customer service to match.
Problematic Driver for Vista 32bit
Pros: At first I was very happy with this card but it suddenly started acting up on the original board I installed it in, I then moved it to ECS A780GM-A Black Edition, it worked fine there and all appeared well then I was playing Titan Quest and it kept restarting the driver as it would fail. So I updated the drivers and things only got worse, Now for no reason it just goes out my system is still running but monitor responds as if nothing is connected to it, I wan't to beleive I just got a bad card but, after some Googling and Reading on Amd site this is a known issue and hotfix driver is out but it makes things even worse.
Cons: A product with over six months on the market should have quality working drivers. I expect Nvidia & ATI to follow up on reported errors and deliver. When Vista debuted the Nvidia 8500gt had driver issues that were fixed in less than a year. Vista has been out long enough for ATI to have tested working drivers.
Overall Review: If you haven't experienced the new 780 or 790 AMD/ATI motherboard chipsets you don't know what your missing they are fantastic especially for casual gamers and home theater pc builds no need for a dedicated Video card, and when you add one the performance overall improves. One reason I am so dissapointed with this video cards performance & behavior.
Purchased in May its Defective. Samsung Support huh
Pros: none it was cheap I guess? Having same issues as Crazy Jamiacan left in his reveiw
Cons: No support Samsung cannot help me no RMA becuz they can't find it in the system no serial number tagged on labels any number on those labels I give the support guy on phone cannot find in system.
Overall Review: will updates this reveiw if I ever get made whole
Plug N Play in Vista
Pros: easy install good performance low cost
Cons: none
Overall Review: none
Perfect for Laptop Replacement
Pros: worked great plug n play on an older toshiba like 3yrs old breathed new life into it and was just what I needed
Cons: none
Overall Review: WD makes good hard drives
Quality & Price
Pros: good quality, good price, good performance been using Rendition lately due to budget constraints and it has exceeded my expectations
Cons: none
Overall Review: you could buy more expensive ram but not sure it would perform so much better as to offset the cost difference