Legit Reviews

The performance of the ECS A890GXM-A motherboard...  We were a little disappointed to learn that we were not able to unlock the 4th core on our Triple-Core CPU with this board.  It is available on other boards, and it really should just be a simple BIOS switch.  ECS has informed us that the newer revisions of the board will have this feature enabled in order to increase the available performance for tweakers and enthusiasts.  Other than that, this board performed well and showed us that adding a dedicated graphics card like the Gigabyte Radeon HD5670 to the system will certainly make gaming possible at a much higher level than just the integrated graphics alone.

The bundle of the board was pretty much the same that we have seen on most boards lately: very thin.  ECS has a winner with the Black Series of boards and should probably put a little more into the bundles of the Black Series as to give it a more serious look from enthusiasts.  Of course, doing that may mean raising the price a bit.

The layout of board was excellent.  There was nothing at all that stood out as even a minor inconvenience during our setup and installation.  This board is well thought out and designed!

Overclocking on this board was actually a mixed bag.  We really did hope to get a bit more out of it at the default multiplier, but we were then very impressed with the overclocking we achieved with a lower CPU multiplier.  Overall, for the price of this board we were pleased with the results.

Pricing of the board at time of press was $119.99 shipped, which is more than a fair price for a board of this quality!  As I said, ECS should seriously consider making this more of a premium line of boards and put just a bit more into it.  Yes, it will cost more, but enthusiasts are willing to pay a bit more for great boards!

Legit Bottom Line: With the price being right $120, it is hard to really knock anything on this board.  It performs well, has a great feature set and will allow some mild overclocking. A little more effort in the BIOS for overclocking and this could have been a great board.  For now, let's just say that this is a board that is worth a glance if you see it at a great price at an online etailer!