Overclocking Performance
The overclocking performance graphs allow for a better comparison on the overclocking capabilities of previously tested boards. For more details on the specific overclocking abilities of this board please refer to the Overclocking and Memory Stress Test section in the Basic Features section.
The ECS KA1 MVP Extreme is an excellent overclocking platform except for the stock 12x multiplier anomaly we witnessed with our AMD Athlon64 4000+ CPU. We had no issues booting into Windows XP at 251HTT x12 settings and running our 3DMark/game benchmarks, but the system was not Prime95/MemTest86 stable for more than six hours unless we dropped to a 238HTT x 12 setting. We tried various voltage settings, LDT multipliers, and memory modules but the system remained unstable in Prime95 and MemTest86 with the 1.1d BIOS. We were able to reach a stable 245HTT x12 setting with the 1.0e BIOS but could not extend the board past 265HTT settings with the original BIOS.
The ability of the ECS KA1 MVP to overclock our Athlon64 4000+ CPU at a 320HTT x9 setting is the best test result we have witnessed with this particular CPU and memory combination. The same holds true for our AMD Opteron 170 CPU with settings of 285HTT x10 and 315HTT x9 while remaining perfectly stable throughout our benchmark testing. We should also note the ability of this board to run our OCZ PC4800 memory at settings of 2.5-3-3-7 at 1T for all overclocking tests.
The overclocking performance graphs allow for a better comparison on the overclocking capabilities of previously tested boards. For more details on the specific overclocking abilities of this board please refer to the Overclocking and Memory Stress Test section in the Basic Features section.
The ECS KA1 MVP Extreme is an excellent overclocking platform except for the stock 12x multiplier anomaly we witnessed with our AMD Athlon64 4000+ CPU. We had no issues booting into Windows XP at 251HTT x12 settings and running our 3DMark/game benchmarks, but the system was not Prime95/MemTest86 stable for more than six hours unless we dropped to a 238HTT x 12 setting. We tried various voltage settings, LDT multipliers, and memory modules but the system remained unstable in Prime95 and MemTest86 with the 1.1d BIOS. We were able to reach a stable 245HTT x12 setting with the 1.0e BIOS but could not extend the board past 265HTT settings with the original BIOS.
The ability of the ECS KA1 MVP to overclock our Athlon64 4000+ CPU at a 320HTT x9 setting is the best test result we have witnessed with this particular CPU and memory combination. The same holds true for our AMD Opteron 170 CPU with settings of 285HTT x10 and 315HTT x9 while remaining perfectly stable throughout our benchmark testing. We should also note the ability of this board to run our OCZ PC4800 memory at settings of 2.5-3-3-7 at 1T for all overclocking tests.
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Per Hansson - Saturday, April 8, 2006 - link
Well, from your last mobo review: "Attention - Per Hansson by Gary Key on: Mar 23, 2006 12:06 AMRating: 4Our next article will have a high resolution picture of the capacitors and other items of importance in a pop-up window. I am sure the capacitors utilized on this board will be of interest to you. ;->"
Gary Key - Saturday, April 8, 2006 - link
Please email me - I have the photographs. We are doing some revisions on the engine and could not get these in but I did take the photographs for you.
Stas - Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - link
I always had nVidia and ViA chjpset based mobos. Now I really want an ATi based mobo. Very nice perfromance and overclockablility. It's good that ECS made a board like that, better for the competition. I got tired of seeing 1337 ASUS and DFI mobos, now it's time for less popular companies.SilverTrine - Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - link
And somehow Nvidia gets a pass for all their issues. The original Nforce was a totally unstable board on par with something like Abits awful KG7. Yet the fanboism let many to the slaughter with that board. Nforce 2 also had severe USB and IDE problems, yet fanboism kept most of that in the dark.Hopefully we can all get past the fanboism and be honest about things, as long as people are getting paid to post on boards that is a pipe dream though. We simply have to call these vultures on their conduct.
QueBert - Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - link
I owned a number of Nf2 MB's, and now a Nf3. SW-IDE doesn't work at all on any of them for me. Infact on 1, it actually caused my burner to not burn until I uninstalled them. Nf3 I have the lovely NF Firewall thing, does this work even somewhat for anyone? I'm not a fan boy, but from my past Nvidia experince (and remember I run a NF3 board now...) the ATI couldn't possibly be much worse. could this board be bad? sure, you can take a decent chipset and ruin it with a poorly designed motherboard.bob661 - Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - link
I'm going to test the firewall sometime when I get the chance. I'm willing to bet I won't have problems but I could be wrong.Regs - Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - link
Examples of the peripherals that are suffering? Any one else want to fill me in?
Gary Key - Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - link
The Firewire and Marvel Gigabit Ethernet controller are tied to the SB450. The performance of these items are sub-par compared to results on other boards. This is explained in the test detail sections and the final words recap. We have a new bios today that should bring the performance of both peripherals up to par with other boards that utilize this same components. However, there is nothing that can be done with the USB 2.0 performance although it really is not that bad. :)JakeBlade - Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - link
I find it amazing that this website can test a motherboard more thoroughly than the company who makes it. Pathetic.highlnder69 - Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - link
You might want to fix the word mothergoard in the title to be motherboard..