W1zzard
Jul 29, 2005, 11:25 AM
[pagE=Introduction & Features]
Introduction
I would like to thank ECS (http://www.ecs.com.tw) for supplying the tested motherboard.
Founded in 1987, ECS, the long known "king of motherboards" is headquartered in Taiwan with operations in North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim. In June 2003, ECS was selected for two years in a row for Business Week Magazine's exclusive Information Technology 100 list (50th place in 2003 and 8th in 2002). In the category of Computer and peripherals, ECS is ranked the world's 12th and leading other Taiwanese based motherboard manufacturers.
ECS has built the RS400-A motherboard with cost in mind. Since Intel's chipsets are rather expensive they went with an ATI RADEON XPRESS200 chipset.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/shield_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/shield.jpg)
ATI's chipset allows some nice features like having PCI-Express x16 and AGP at the same time, you can also use either DDR1 or DDR2 memory. AGP Express is not really AGP, it is more two PCI slots put together in form of an AGP connector. This means it does not offer the special features of AGP like Sideband Adressing or Direct Memory Execute. Bandwith is also shared with all PCI devices on the bus, resulting in slower performance. Compatibility could be an issue, but in theory all AGP cards should be able to run in PCI mode.
This board looks like an upgrader's dream to facilitate the transition to DDR2 with PCI-Express x16.
Features
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="resulttable">
<tr>
<th colspan="2">ECS RS400-A</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Processor</th>
<td>Intel Pentium 4 LGA Socket775</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>FSB</th>
<td>533/800 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Chipset</th>
<td>ATI RADEON XPRESS200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory</th>
<td>2x 240 Pin DDR2, Dual Channel DDR2 400/533/666, up to 2 GB<br />
or 2x 184 Pin DDR, Dual Channel DDR333/400, up to 2 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>BIOS</th>
<td>AwardBios</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Slots</th>
<td>1x PCI-E x16<br />
1x AGP Express<br />
2x PCI-E x1<br />
2x PCI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>HDD Connectivity</th>
<td>2x ATA-133<br />
4x SATA</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Networking</th>
<td>10/100 Mbps - Realtek RTL8100C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Ports</th>
<td>8x USB 2.0 (4 on Back Panel)<br />
1x Serial, 1x Parallel</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Audio</th>
<td>6 Channel, Realtek ALC655</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Form Factor</th>
<td>ATX 305 x 244mm</td>
</tr>
</table>
Specifications from Elitegroup
CPU
LGA775 socket for latest Intel Pentium 4 / Celeron processor
FSB 800/533 MHz
Support Hyper-Threading Technology
CHIPSET
ATI® RS400 & SB400
North Bridge: ATI® RS 400
South Bridge: ATI® SB 400
GRAPHICS
On Chip (Radeon X300-based. 2D/3D graphic engine)
MEMORY
Dual-channel DDRI & DDR2 memory architecture
2 x 184-pin DDR DIMM or 2 x 240-pin DDR2 DIMM socket support up to 2 GB
Support DDR400/333 DDR SDRAM or DDR2 667/533/400 DDR2 SDRAM
EXPANSION SLOT
1 x PCI Express x16 slot
2 x PCI Express x1 slots
2 x PCI slots
1 x AGP Express slot
STORAGE
Supported by SB 400
-- 4 x Ultra DMA133/100/66/33 devices
-- 4 x Serial ATA devices
RAID0 & RAID1 configuration
AUDIO
Realtek ALC655 6-Channel audio CODEC
Compliant with AC'97 2.3 specification
LAN
Realtek RTL8100C 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet Controller
REAR PANEL I/O
1 x PS/2 keyboard & PS/2 mouse connectors
4 x USB ports
1 x VGA port
1 x RJ45 LAN connector
1 x Parallel port (LPT1)
1 x Serial port (COM1)
1 x Audio port (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in)
INTERNAL I/O CONNECTORS & HEADERS
1 x 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector
1 x 4-pin ATX 12V connector
1 x FDD connector supports two 360K~2.88MB FDDs
2 x IDE connectors
4 x Serial ATA connectors
2 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 4 USB Ports
1 x Speaker header
1 x SPDIF out header
1 x Front panel switch/LED header
1 x Front panel audio header
1 x TV out header
CD in/ AUX in headers
CPUFAN/PWRFAN/SYSFAN connectors
SYSTEM BIOS
Award BIOS with 4Mb Flash ROM
Supports Plug and Play 1.0A, APM 1.2, Multi Boot, DMI
Supports ACPI revision 1.0 specification
FORM FACTOR
ATX Size 305mm*244mm
[pagE=Packaging]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package1.jpg)
The motherboard packaging uses black and blue as dominant colors, it is a standard size box.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package2.jpg)
On the backside you get a quick glance at the available features.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package3.jpg)
Inside the package you will find the included accessories on top.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package4.jpg)
Under that is the motherboard in an anti-static bag.
Contents
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/contents.jpg)
You will receive:
Motherboard
Users Manual, Quick Installation Guide, CPU Installation Guide
1x IDE Cable, 1x Floppy Cable, 4x SATA Cable, 1x Dual-SATA Power Adapter
IO Shield
Driver CD, SATA Driver Floppy Disks
Front Panel USB Port
The included cables are pretty much standard, but nothing essential is missing. Four SATA cables are nice. One IDE cable should do for most people, people who still use more than two IDE drives will most likely have the cables, anyway.
[pagE=Board Layout]
Board Layout
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/board_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/board.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/back_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/back.jpg)
Click here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/board_fullsize.jpg) for a 3000x2500 high-res shot of the board (3 MB download), the backside is here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/back_fullsize.jpg).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/cpuarea_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/cpuarea.jpg)
While we have seen boards with more space around the CPU area, there is definitely enough space for big monster coolers.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/io_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/io.jpg)
The back panel follows the standard really close. From left to right: PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse, parallel port, serial port, VGA out, 4x USB 2.0, LAN and audio.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/dimm_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/dimm.jpg)
One interesting feature is the support to run either DDR1 or DDR2. One of them, not both at the same time. The purple slots are for DDR2, the blue ones for DDR1. Since there are only two slots each, the board will automatically use dual-channel, once you install two memory modules.
Connectors
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/atx_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/atx.jpg)
The placement of the ATX power connectors is ok, other boards have the ATX12V connector further to the right, so that cable lengths are reduced at a minimum. On the other hand routing a lot of power half across the board would create even more interference with other signal lines.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/ata_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/ata.jpg)
You can connect up to four PATA devices to the two ports. The four black SATA connectors are a bit hard to spot in above picture.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/headers_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/headers.jpg)
The front panel connector is color coloded, there is no text printed on the PCB which describes each individual pin group. Also located here is the Clear CMOS jumper which you use in case you change your BIOS settings to values which no longer boot your system.
Slots
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/slots_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/slots.jpg)
A highlight of this motherboard is the support for both PCI-Express and AGP. If you need a lot of screen space, but not much 3D performance, this board offers three video cards (PCI-E, AGP and onboard-VGA), which means you will be able to connect up to 5 displays to it, using rather standard (=cheap) video cards. Unfortunately the AGP Express slot suffers a serious performance hit, but it still remains well usable for upgraders.
[page=Layout continued]
Cooling
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/chipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/chipset.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/sb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/sb.jpg)
Chipset and southbridge are passively cooled, they only put out a few watts. Together with a silent 1U CPU cooler you can build a very slim and quiet media PC system which still has massive CPU processing power. TV out of the onboard-VGA is available via a header on the motherboard.
Chips
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/monitoring_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/monitoring.jpg)
Hardware monitoring is done by ITE's 8712F - one of the most common ones, so it will be easy to find software support.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/lan1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/lan1.jpg)
A Realtek 8100C Ethernet controller handles the 10/100 MBit network connection. Given the current cost of Gigabit ethernet chipsets, the added few bucks would have been worth it in my opinion.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/audio_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/audio.jpg)
More Realtek chips: An ALC655 6-channel audio chip from Realtek gives you a surprisingly high-quality 6-channel audio.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/clockgen_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/clockgen.jpg)
ATI chipsets need a special clock generator to supply clocks to the onboard-VGA. Another specialty of the RS400 chipset is that the memory clocks are completely independant from FSB, so if you set memory clock to 200 MHz, you can freely change FSB without effect on the memory clock. ICS' 951413 clock generator handles these tasks.
[pagE=BIOS]
BIOS
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_bios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_bios.jpg)
ECS uses a Phoenix AwardBios.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_standardcmos_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_standardcmos.jpg)
The first page is called Standard CMOS and offers settings to change date/time, HDD and floppy settings.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_advbios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_advbios.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_advbios2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_advbios2.jpg)
Advanced BIOS has settings to adjust general BIOS settings like typematic rate and additional bootup-delays. One thing that is really annoying, you can not disable the full screen logo. The only way I found to get to the POST screen is by not connecting a keyboard, so that the BIOS stops at "Keyboard not detected. Press F1 to continue".
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_hddpri_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_hddpri.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_cpufeature_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_cpufeature.jpg)
On a subpage you can change the order in which the system will try the available devices to boot from. Several CPU Features can be disabled here as well, an option for enabling/disabling EIST is not available.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_advchipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_advchipset.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_pcie_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_pcie.jpg)
Chipset related options can be found on the Advanced Chipset Page. You can change the TV standard of the on-board TV out here, very important for Media PCs. Other settings of the integrated VGA can be tweaked here as well. On the PCI-E config page you have options which you rarely need, maybe they are useful for fixing bootup problems - I never had any problems with PCI-Express on any board.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_memclock_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_memclock.jpg)
The most important option on this page is "Memory Clock". It is used to change the frequency your memory runs at, the list of options is dependant on whether you run DDR1 or DDR2 and is auto-switched.
On the ATI RS400, the memory clocks are completely independent from any other clock. So if you set 200 MHz here, your memory will always run at 200 MHz, no matter what the FSB or any other clock is. The option "SYNC" always runs your FSB at the same clock as your FSB.
Memory Timings
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_dramtiming_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_dramtiming.jpg)
The ECS RS400-A does not offer any options to change memory timings. I hope the values from the SPD chip on the memory modules are read and used. It could also be possible that some very slow JEDEC standard timings are used. Confirming this was impossible, since there is no software which can read the memory timings the ATI chipset is running at.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_memoc_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_memoc.jpg)
A few lines above, we talked about how the memory clock is independent from the FSB, so how do you overclock the memory now? Use this option. You select a percentage, how much the memory clock should be increased. Available options are 0% to 31% which almost covers the whole spectrum.
200 MHz * 1.31 = 262 MHz - the next "standard" option is 266 MHz. 266 + 31% = 349 MHz, next starts at 333 MHz, and 333 MHz will take you all the way up to 436 MHz.
Integrated Peripherals
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_integrated_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_integrated.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_onchipide_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_onchipide.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_onchippci_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_onchippcie.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_superio_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_superio.jpg)
Integrated Peripherals has options to change, which SATA and IDE ports are activated and to enable/disable USB, Audio, LAN, Floppy. An option to select which video card will be the primary one, if you have multiple installed, can be found here as well.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_power.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_resume_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_resume.jpg)
Under Power Management, you will find the standard options split into two pages, so it looks a bit different than the standard page.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_pnp_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_pnp.jpg)
PNP/PCI Configurations has no useful options. The option "Init Display First" which is used to select whether a PCI-E or PCI VGA card is used as primary device is located on the page Integrated Peripherals.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_monitoring_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_monitoring.jpg)
The Hardware Monitoring page shows the essential temperatures, CPU fan speeds and the usually monitored voltages. Options to dynamically change fan speeds based on temperature are not available.
Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_oc_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_oc.jpg)
ECS puts the overclocking options on a page called "Frequency/Voltage Control". I find this page should be called "Alibi-Overclocking-Page". Basically you have only three useful options to change.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_vcore_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_vcore.jpg)
VCore adjustements are possible in four steps, up to +9%. This comes down to 1.635V maximum for a 1.5V default CPU. Way too little.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_vddr_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_vddr.jpg)
Next we have an option to increase memory voltage. Again, four options (same for DDR2), which give you 2.95V VDDR1 max. This was a good maximum in 2003.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_fsb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_fsb.jpg)
And the last option is FSB speed. At least you can key in some direct values and are not limited by some % increase option. The settings range from 200 MHz to 510 MHz. Underclocking would have been nice for some media PC users who dont need all the processing power and are more concerned with heat and noise. 510 MHz max. FSB is completely unrealistic, especially after seeing how this board overclocks. Ah well, at least I can't say "not high enough" here.
[page=Performance: Test systems]
Test Systems
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "KN1 SLI"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ECS KN1 SLI Extreme, Bios 1.11a</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC is 300 FSB x 9 = 2700 MHz, Mem ratio 2:3 -> 200 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "K8SLI"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Albatron K8SLI, Bios 1.07a</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC is 300 FSB x 9 = 2700 MHz, Mem ratio 2:3 -> 200 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "LanParty NF4"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra-D, Bios 5.10-2 Fix</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC is 300 FSB x 9 = 2700 MHz, Mem ratio 2:3 -> 200 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 3.0F"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 3.0F (S775; 2MB; Prescott)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE, Bios 1.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB OCZ PC2-5400 EB 4-2-2-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 4500 is 15x300 FSB, Mem Ratio 1:1 (=300 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 2.4C"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 2.4C (S478; 512KB; Northwood)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT IC7, Bios 2.8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 256MB Generic PC3200 2.5-3-3-6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X800 XT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Antec TrueControl 550W</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 3400 is 15x283 FSB, Mem Ratio 2:3 (=188 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Sandra & Everest]
SiSoftware Sandra
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/sandraint.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/sandrafloat.gif
Strange results here, this mainly CPU dependant benchmark shows absolutely no performance increase from overclocking. Other benchmarks do show improvement, so there must be something fishy going on inside the chipset.
Lavalys Everest
Higher is better. For latency, lower is better.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/everestread.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/everestwrite.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/everestlatency.gif
At least Everest shows a difference in performance, unfortunately not much of an increase, if one at all. I would blame the ATI chipset here again.
[pagE=Performance: SuperPi]
SuperPi
Lower is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/superpi1m.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/superpi32m.gif
SuperPi shows about the right performance improvement, we could not overclock much. But overall the performance here can not really compete with the other systems.
[page=Performance: PCMark04 & 3DMark01]
PCMark 2004
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/pcmark2004.gif
Thanks to the Intel CPU's HyperThreading Technology, the RS400-A is faster than the AMD systems. This suggests that this motherboard might make up a good office system.
3DMark 2001
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/3dmark2001.gif
In 3DMark the board stays competitive, but could not really impress us.
[page=Performance: CineBench & Kribibench]
CineBench
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/cinebench.gif
Both DDR1 and DDR2 showed exactly the same performance on the ECS RS400-A, that's why we show only two graphs, which helps keep it a bit cleaner.
Performance is pretty good in this benchmark, not much of a difference to the twice as expensive ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE.
KribiBench
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/kribibench.gif
KribiBench's software renderer seems to be affected by the same problem as SiSoft Sandra. Performance does not improve when overclocking.
[page=Performance: Comanche 4 & Quake 3]
Comanche 4
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/comanche4.gif
Overclocking makes the RS400-A even slower in Comanche 4. About 54 FPS unoverclocked is ok.
Quake 3 Arena
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/quake3.gif
Quake profits a good amount from overclocking, any FSB change is reflected 1:1 in the score. This shows how CPU/memory limited this benchmark is. ABIT's Fatal1ty board is almost 10% faster at the same clock speed.
[page=Performance: Audio RMAA]
Rightmark Audio Analyzer
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/rmaa.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/loopback_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/loopback.jpg)
We used Rightmark Audio Analyzer together with a loop-back cable to analyze the quality of the on-board audio solution.
Summary
<table width="600" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:</strong></td>
<td>+0.19, -0.60</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Noise level, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>-76.2</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Dynamic range, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>77.9</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>THD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.044</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.061</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Stereo crosstalk, dB:</strong></td>
<td>-78.9</td>
<td>Very good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD at 10 kHz, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.210</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
</table>
General performance: Good
Frequency Response
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/fr.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Frequency range</strong></td>
<td><strong>Response</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-4.61, +0.19</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-0.60, +0.19</td>
</tr>
</table>
Noise Level
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/noise.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power, dB:</td>
<td>-71.7</td>
<td>-73.9</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>-75.5</td>
<td>-76.2</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Peak level, dB FS:</td>
<td>-59.7</td>
<td>-58.8</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>-0.55</td>
<td>0.73</td>
</tr>
</table>
Dynamic Range
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/dynamics.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range, dB:</td>
<td>+73.7</td>
<td>+74.5</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>+77.9</td>
<td>+78.0</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>-0.55</td>
<td>0.73</td>
</tr>
</table>
THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/thd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD, %:</td>
<td>0.0436</td>
<td>0.0440</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0640</td>
<td>0.0693</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0661</td>
<td>0.0665</td>
</tr>
</table>
Intermodulation distortion
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/imd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0606</td>
<td>0.0623</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0508</td>
<td>0.0512</td>
</tr>
</table>
Stereo crosstalk
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/cross.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>L <- R</strong></td>
<td><strong>L -> R</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB:</td>
<td>-74</td>
<td>-76</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 1 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-76</td>
<td>-78</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 10 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-74</td>
<td>-74</td>
</tr>
</table>
IMD (swept tones)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/imdswept.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 5 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.0872</td>
<td>0.0886</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 10 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.1980</td>
<td>0.1986</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 15 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.3442</td>
<td>0.3479</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Audio Games & Sound Levels]
Quake 3
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/q3asound.gif
Comanche 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/c4sound.gif
Sound Levels
Since the board does not use any fans, its total sound level is 0 dbA. Even under heavy load there are no coils or other electronic components that emit sound.
[page=Overclocking]
Overclocking
If you read this review so far, you should probably not expect much when it comes to overclocking.
As in the previous benchmarks, we tested both DDR1 and DDR2 memory to see if there is a recommendation which memory performs best on this board.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/maxperfddr1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/maxperfddr1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/maxperfddr2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/maxperfddr2.jpg)
There is no difference. As testing from the previous pages shows, both setups inhibit about the same performance. Overclocking maxxed out at 239 FSB for both. One MHz more and the system would immediately crash/not start doing the POST.
One factor which severely limits overclocking is the sheer number of traces on the PCB. DDR1, DDR2, onboard-VGA, PCI-Express and AGP sure create a lot of interference. Another factor is ATI's chipset which has certainly not been optimized for overclocking at all.
BIOS options for overclocking are very limited as well, which shows that ECS did not emphasize overclocking too much for this board, or maybe they already knew that ATI's chipset didn't offer solid overclocking, so adding the options to the BIOS would have been a waste of time, anyways.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The ECS RS400-A goes for around $70, which is an absolutely incredible price for an LGA775 motherboard.
</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Unbelievably low price
Supports PCI-Express and AGP
Supports DDR1 and DDR2
Quiet - all passively cooled
Integrated RADEON X300 + TV out
Good on-board Audio
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Overclocking is very limited
AGP performance lacks
Not many options in BIOS
Mediocre performance
Only 100 MBit Ethernet
</td></tr>
<tr><th>7.0</th>
<td>Overclockers don't want this board. The BIOS does not offer many options and ATI's chipset seems to have some issues with overclocking.<br />
However, if you are looking to build a cheap Pentium4 LGA775 system, which will not be overclocked and where price is more important than performance, you could use this board.<br />
Since it uses no fan, its quiet operation make it a good candidate for a media PC. This is where the on-board VGA comes in. The integrated VGA has the performance of an X300, certainly not enough for gaming, but good enough for video playback. Composite TV-out is integrated on the motherboard, so no extra hardware is required here either.<br />
Another use could be to use this board as an intermediate motherboard until you make the switch to PCI-Express and DDR2. You can use your old AGP card and your old DDR1 memory, until you have built up more money to get new hardware.<br />
For a low-profile server the lack of a GigE network port could become an issue, a second ethernet port would help here as well.
</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td></td></tr>
</table>
Introduction
I would like to thank ECS (http://www.ecs.com.tw) for supplying the tested motherboard.
Founded in 1987, ECS, the long known "king of motherboards" is headquartered in Taiwan with operations in North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim. In June 2003, ECS was selected for two years in a row for Business Week Magazine's exclusive Information Technology 100 list (50th place in 2003 and 8th in 2002). In the category of Computer and peripherals, ECS is ranked the world's 12th and leading other Taiwanese based motherboard manufacturers.
ECS has built the RS400-A motherboard with cost in mind. Since Intel's chipsets are rather expensive they went with an ATI RADEON XPRESS200 chipset.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/shield_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/shield.jpg)
ATI's chipset allows some nice features like having PCI-Express x16 and AGP at the same time, you can also use either DDR1 or DDR2 memory. AGP Express is not really AGP, it is more two PCI slots put together in form of an AGP connector. This means it does not offer the special features of AGP like Sideband Adressing or Direct Memory Execute. Bandwith is also shared with all PCI devices on the bus, resulting in slower performance. Compatibility could be an issue, but in theory all AGP cards should be able to run in PCI mode.
This board looks like an upgrader's dream to facilitate the transition to DDR2 with PCI-Express x16.
Features
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="resulttable">
<tr>
<th colspan="2">ECS RS400-A</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Processor</th>
<td>Intel Pentium 4 LGA Socket775</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>FSB</th>
<td>533/800 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Chipset</th>
<td>ATI RADEON XPRESS200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory</th>
<td>2x 240 Pin DDR2, Dual Channel DDR2 400/533/666, up to 2 GB<br />
or 2x 184 Pin DDR, Dual Channel DDR333/400, up to 2 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>BIOS</th>
<td>AwardBios</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Slots</th>
<td>1x PCI-E x16<br />
1x AGP Express<br />
2x PCI-E x1<br />
2x PCI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>HDD Connectivity</th>
<td>2x ATA-133<br />
4x SATA</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Networking</th>
<td>10/100 Mbps - Realtek RTL8100C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Ports</th>
<td>8x USB 2.0 (4 on Back Panel)<br />
1x Serial, 1x Parallel</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Audio</th>
<td>6 Channel, Realtek ALC655</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Form Factor</th>
<td>ATX 305 x 244mm</td>
</tr>
</table>
Specifications from Elitegroup
CPU
LGA775 socket for latest Intel Pentium 4 / Celeron processor
FSB 800/533 MHz
Support Hyper-Threading Technology
CHIPSET
ATI® RS400 & SB400
North Bridge: ATI® RS 400
South Bridge: ATI® SB 400
GRAPHICS
On Chip (Radeon X300-based. 2D/3D graphic engine)
MEMORY
Dual-channel DDRI & DDR2 memory architecture
2 x 184-pin DDR DIMM or 2 x 240-pin DDR2 DIMM socket support up to 2 GB
Support DDR400/333 DDR SDRAM or DDR2 667/533/400 DDR2 SDRAM
EXPANSION SLOT
1 x PCI Express x16 slot
2 x PCI Express x1 slots
2 x PCI slots
1 x AGP Express slot
STORAGE
Supported by SB 400
-- 4 x Ultra DMA133/100/66/33 devices
-- 4 x Serial ATA devices
RAID0 & RAID1 configuration
AUDIO
Realtek ALC655 6-Channel audio CODEC
Compliant with AC'97 2.3 specification
LAN
Realtek RTL8100C 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet Controller
REAR PANEL I/O
1 x PS/2 keyboard & PS/2 mouse connectors
4 x USB ports
1 x VGA port
1 x RJ45 LAN connector
1 x Parallel port (LPT1)
1 x Serial port (COM1)
1 x Audio port (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in)
INTERNAL I/O CONNECTORS & HEADERS
1 x 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector
1 x 4-pin ATX 12V connector
1 x FDD connector supports two 360K~2.88MB FDDs
2 x IDE connectors
4 x Serial ATA connectors
2 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 4 USB Ports
1 x Speaker header
1 x SPDIF out header
1 x Front panel switch/LED header
1 x Front panel audio header
1 x TV out header
CD in/ AUX in headers
CPUFAN/PWRFAN/SYSFAN connectors
SYSTEM BIOS
Award BIOS with 4Mb Flash ROM
Supports Plug and Play 1.0A, APM 1.2, Multi Boot, DMI
Supports ACPI revision 1.0 specification
FORM FACTOR
ATX Size 305mm*244mm
[pagE=Packaging]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package1.jpg)
The motherboard packaging uses black and blue as dominant colors, it is a standard size box.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package2.jpg)
On the backside you get a quick glance at the available features.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package3.jpg)
Inside the package you will find the included accessories on top.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/package4.jpg)
Under that is the motherboard in an anti-static bag.
Contents
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/contents.jpg)
You will receive:
Motherboard
Users Manual, Quick Installation Guide, CPU Installation Guide
1x IDE Cable, 1x Floppy Cable, 4x SATA Cable, 1x Dual-SATA Power Adapter
IO Shield
Driver CD, SATA Driver Floppy Disks
Front Panel USB Port
The included cables are pretty much standard, but nothing essential is missing. Four SATA cables are nice. One IDE cable should do for most people, people who still use more than two IDE drives will most likely have the cables, anyway.
[pagE=Board Layout]
Board Layout
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/board_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/board.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/back_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/back.jpg)
Click here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/board_fullsize.jpg) for a 3000x2500 high-res shot of the board (3 MB download), the backside is here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/back_fullsize.jpg).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/cpuarea_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/cpuarea.jpg)
While we have seen boards with more space around the CPU area, there is definitely enough space for big monster coolers.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/io_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/io.jpg)
The back panel follows the standard really close. From left to right: PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse, parallel port, serial port, VGA out, 4x USB 2.0, LAN and audio.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/dimm_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/dimm.jpg)
One interesting feature is the support to run either DDR1 or DDR2. One of them, not both at the same time. The purple slots are for DDR2, the blue ones for DDR1. Since there are only two slots each, the board will automatically use dual-channel, once you install two memory modules.
Connectors
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/atx_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/atx.jpg)
The placement of the ATX power connectors is ok, other boards have the ATX12V connector further to the right, so that cable lengths are reduced at a minimum. On the other hand routing a lot of power half across the board would create even more interference with other signal lines.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/ata_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/ata.jpg)
You can connect up to four PATA devices to the two ports. The four black SATA connectors are a bit hard to spot in above picture.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/headers_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/headers.jpg)
The front panel connector is color coloded, there is no text printed on the PCB which describes each individual pin group. Also located here is the Clear CMOS jumper which you use in case you change your BIOS settings to values which no longer boot your system.
Slots
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/slots_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/slots.jpg)
A highlight of this motherboard is the support for both PCI-Express and AGP. If you need a lot of screen space, but not much 3D performance, this board offers three video cards (PCI-E, AGP and onboard-VGA), which means you will be able to connect up to 5 displays to it, using rather standard (=cheap) video cards. Unfortunately the AGP Express slot suffers a serious performance hit, but it still remains well usable for upgraders.
[page=Layout continued]
Cooling
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/chipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/chipset.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/sb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/sb.jpg)
Chipset and southbridge are passively cooled, they only put out a few watts. Together with a silent 1U CPU cooler you can build a very slim and quiet media PC system which still has massive CPU processing power. TV out of the onboard-VGA is available via a header on the motherboard.
Chips
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/monitoring_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/monitoring.jpg)
Hardware monitoring is done by ITE's 8712F - one of the most common ones, so it will be easy to find software support.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/lan1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/lan1.jpg)
A Realtek 8100C Ethernet controller handles the 10/100 MBit network connection. Given the current cost of Gigabit ethernet chipsets, the added few bucks would have been worth it in my opinion.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/audio_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/audio.jpg)
More Realtek chips: An ALC655 6-channel audio chip from Realtek gives you a surprisingly high-quality 6-channel audio.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/clockgen_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/clockgen.jpg)
ATI chipsets need a special clock generator to supply clocks to the onboard-VGA. Another specialty of the RS400 chipset is that the memory clocks are completely independant from FSB, so if you set memory clock to 200 MHz, you can freely change FSB without effect on the memory clock. ICS' 951413 clock generator handles these tasks.
[pagE=BIOS]
BIOS
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_bios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_bios.jpg)
ECS uses a Phoenix AwardBios.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_standardcmos_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_standardcmos.jpg)
The first page is called Standard CMOS and offers settings to change date/time, HDD and floppy settings.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_advbios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_advbios.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_advbios2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_advbios2.jpg)
Advanced BIOS has settings to adjust general BIOS settings like typematic rate and additional bootup-delays. One thing that is really annoying, you can not disable the full screen logo. The only way I found to get to the POST screen is by not connecting a keyboard, so that the BIOS stops at "Keyboard not detected. Press F1 to continue".
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_hddpri_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_hddpri.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_cpufeature_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_cpufeature.jpg)
On a subpage you can change the order in which the system will try the available devices to boot from. Several CPU Features can be disabled here as well, an option for enabling/disabling EIST is not available.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_advchipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_advchipset.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_pcie_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_pcie.jpg)
Chipset related options can be found on the Advanced Chipset Page. You can change the TV standard of the on-board TV out here, very important for Media PCs. Other settings of the integrated VGA can be tweaked here as well. On the PCI-E config page you have options which you rarely need, maybe they are useful for fixing bootup problems - I never had any problems with PCI-Express on any board.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_memclock_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_memclock.jpg)
The most important option on this page is "Memory Clock". It is used to change the frequency your memory runs at, the list of options is dependant on whether you run DDR1 or DDR2 and is auto-switched.
On the ATI RS400, the memory clocks are completely independent from any other clock. So if you set 200 MHz here, your memory will always run at 200 MHz, no matter what the FSB or any other clock is. The option "SYNC" always runs your FSB at the same clock as your FSB.
Memory Timings
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_dramtiming_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_dramtiming.jpg)
The ECS RS400-A does not offer any options to change memory timings. I hope the values from the SPD chip on the memory modules are read and used. It could also be possible that some very slow JEDEC standard timings are used. Confirming this was impossible, since there is no software which can read the memory timings the ATI chipset is running at.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_memoc_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_memoc.jpg)
A few lines above, we talked about how the memory clock is independent from the FSB, so how do you overclock the memory now? Use this option. You select a percentage, how much the memory clock should be increased. Available options are 0% to 31% which almost covers the whole spectrum.
200 MHz * 1.31 = 262 MHz - the next "standard" option is 266 MHz. 266 + 31% = 349 MHz, next starts at 333 MHz, and 333 MHz will take you all the way up to 436 MHz.
Integrated Peripherals
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_integrated_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_integrated.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_onchipide_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_onchipide.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_onchippci_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_onchippcie.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_superio_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_superio.jpg)
Integrated Peripherals has options to change, which SATA and IDE ports are activated and to enable/disable USB, Audio, LAN, Floppy. An option to select which video card will be the primary one, if you have multiple installed, can be found here as well.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_power.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_resume_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_resume.jpg)
Under Power Management, you will find the standard options split into two pages, so it looks a bit different than the standard page.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_pnp_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_pnp.jpg)
PNP/PCI Configurations has no useful options. The option "Init Display First" which is used to select whether a PCI-E or PCI VGA card is used as primary device is located on the page Integrated Peripherals.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_monitoring_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_monitoring.jpg)
The Hardware Monitoring page shows the essential temperatures, CPU fan speeds and the usually monitored voltages. Options to dynamically change fan speeds based on temperature are not available.
Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_oc_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_oc.jpg)
ECS puts the overclocking options on a page called "Frequency/Voltage Control". I find this page should be called "Alibi-Overclocking-Page". Basically you have only three useful options to change.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_vcore_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_vcore.jpg)
VCore adjustements are possible in four steps, up to +9%. This comes down to 1.635V maximum for a 1.5V default CPU. Way too little.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_vddr_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_vddr.jpg)
Next we have an option to increase memory voltage. Again, four options (same for DDR2), which give you 2.95V VDDR1 max. This was a good maximum in 2003.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_fsb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/b_fsb.jpg)
And the last option is FSB speed. At least you can key in some direct values and are not limited by some % increase option. The settings range from 200 MHz to 510 MHz. Underclocking would have been nice for some media PC users who dont need all the processing power and are more concerned with heat and noise. 510 MHz max. FSB is completely unrealistic, especially after seeing how this board overclocks. Ah well, at least I can't say "not high enough" here.
[page=Performance: Test systems]
Test Systems
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "KN1 SLI"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ECS KN1 SLI Extreme, Bios 1.11a</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC is 300 FSB x 9 = 2700 MHz, Mem ratio 2:3 -> 200 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "K8SLI"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Albatron K8SLI, Bios 1.07a</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC is 300 FSB x 9 = 2700 MHz, Mem ratio 2:3 -> 200 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "LanParty NF4"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra-D, Bios 5.10-2 Fix</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC is 300 FSB x 9 = 2700 MHz, Mem ratio 2:3 -> 200 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 3.0F"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 3.0F (S775; 2MB; Prescott)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE, Bios 1.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB OCZ PC2-5400 EB 4-2-2-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 4500 is 15x300 FSB, Mem Ratio 1:1 (=300 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 2.4C"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 2.4C (S478; 512KB; Northwood)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT IC7, Bios 2.8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 256MB Generic PC3200 2.5-3-3-6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X800 XT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Antec TrueControl 550W</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 3400 is 15x283 FSB, Mem Ratio 2:3 (=188 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Sandra & Everest]
SiSoftware Sandra
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/sandraint.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/sandrafloat.gif
Strange results here, this mainly CPU dependant benchmark shows absolutely no performance increase from overclocking. Other benchmarks do show improvement, so there must be something fishy going on inside the chipset.
Lavalys Everest
Higher is better. For latency, lower is better.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/everestread.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/everestwrite.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/everestlatency.gif
At least Everest shows a difference in performance, unfortunately not much of an increase, if one at all. I would blame the ATI chipset here again.
[pagE=Performance: SuperPi]
SuperPi
Lower is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/superpi1m.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/superpi32m.gif
SuperPi shows about the right performance improvement, we could not overclock much. But overall the performance here can not really compete with the other systems.
[page=Performance: PCMark04 & 3DMark01]
PCMark 2004
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/pcmark2004.gif
Thanks to the Intel CPU's HyperThreading Technology, the RS400-A is faster than the AMD systems. This suggests that this motherboard might make up a good office system.
3DMark 2001
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/3dmark2001.gif
In 3DMark the board stays competitive, but could not really impress us.
[page=Performance: CineBench & Kribibench]
CineBench
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/cinebench.gif
Both DDR1 and DDR2 showed exactly the same performance on the ECS RS400-A, that's why we show only two graphs, which helps keep it a bit cleaner.
Performance is pretty good in this benchmark, not much of a difference to the twice as expensive ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE.
KribiBench
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/kribibench.gif
KribiBench's software renderer seems to be affected by the same problem as SiSoft Sandra. Performance does not improve when overclocking.
[page=Performance: Comanche 4 & Quake 3]
Comanche 4
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/comanche4.gif
Overclocking makes the RS400-A even slower in Comanche 4. About 54 FPS unoverclocked is ok.
Quake 3 Arena
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/quake3.gif
Quake profits a good amount from overclocking, any FSB change is reflected 1:1 in the score. This shows how CPU/memory limited this benchmark is. ABIT's Fatal1ty board is almost 10% faster at the same clock speed.
[page=Performance: Audio RMAA]
Rightmark Audio Analyzer
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/rmaa.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/loopback_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/loopback.jpg)
We used Rightmark Audio Analyzer together with a loop-back cable to analyze the quality of the on-board audio solution.
Summary
<table width="600" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:</strong></td>
<td>+0.19, -0.60</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Noise level, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>-76.2</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Dynamic range, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>77.9</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>THD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.044</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.061</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Stereo crosstalk, dB:</strong></td>
<td>-78.9</td>
<td>Very good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD at 10 kHz, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.210</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
</table>
General performance: Good
Frequency Response
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/fr.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Frequency range</strong></td>
<td><strong>Response</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-4.61, +0.19</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-0.60, +0.19</td>
</tr>
</table>
Noise Level
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/noise.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power, dB:</td>
<td>-71.7</td>
<td>-73.9</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>-75.5</td>
<td>-76.2</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Peak level, dB FS:</td>
<td>-59.7</td>
<td>-58.8</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>-0.55</td>
<td>0.73</td>
</tr>
</table>
Dynamic Range
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/dynamics.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range, dB:</td>
<td>+73.7</td>
<td>+74.5</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>+77.9</td>
<td>+78.0</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>-0.55</td>
<td>0.73</td>
</tr>
</table>
THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/thd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD, %:</td>
<td>0.0436</td>
<td>0.0440</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0640</td>
<td>0.0693</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0661</td>
<td>0.0665</td>
</tr>
</table>
Intermodulation distortion
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/imd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0606</td>
<td>0.0623</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0508</td>
<td>0.0512</td>
</tr>
</table>
Stereo crosstalk
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/cross.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>L <- R</strong></td>
<td><strong>L -> R</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB:</td>
<td>-74</td>
<td>-76</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 1 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-76</td>
<td>-78</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 10 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-74</td>
<td>-74</td>
</tr>
</table>
IMD (swept tones)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/imdswept.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 5 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.0872</td>
<td>0.0886</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 10 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.1980</td>
<td>0.1986</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 15 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.3442</td>
<td>0.3479</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Audio Games & Sound Levels]
Quake 3
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/q3asound.gif
Comanche 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/c4sound.gif
Sound Levels
Since the board does not use any fans, its total sound level is 0 dbA. Even under heavy load there are no coils or other electronic components that emit sound.
[page=Overclocking]
Overclocking
If you read this review so far, you should probably not expect much when it comes to overclocking.
As in the previous benchmarks, we tested both DDR1 and DDR2 memory to see if there is a recommendation which memory performs best on this board.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/maxperfddr1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/maxperfddr1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/maxperfddr2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/RS400-A/images/maxperfddr2.jpg)
There is no difference. As testing from the previous pages shows, both setups inhibit about the same performance. Overclocking maxxed out at 239 FSB for both. One MHz more and the system would immediately crash/not start doing the POST.
One factor which severely limits overclocking is the sheer number of traces on the PCB. DDR1, DDR2, onboard-VGA, PCI-Express and AGP sure create a lot of interference. Another factor is ATI's chipset which has certainly not been optimized for overclocking at all.
BIOS options for overclocking are very limited as well, which shows that ECS did not emphasize overclocking too much for this board, or maybe they already knew that ATI's chipset didn't offer solid overclocking, so adding the options to the BIOS would have been a waste of time, anyways.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The ECS RS400-A goes for around $70, which is an absolutely incredible price for an LGA775 motherboard.
</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Unbelievably low price
Supports PCI-Express and AGP
Supports DDR1 and DDR2
Quiet - all passively cooled
Integrated RADEON X300 + TV out
Good on-board Audio
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Overclocking is very limited
AGP performance lacks
Not many options in BIOS
Mediocre performance
Only 100 MBit Ethernet
</td></tr>
<tr><th>7.0</th>
<td>Overclockers don't want this board. The BIOS does not offer many options and ATI's chipset seems to have some issues with overclocking.<br />
However, if you are looking to build a cheap Pentium4 LGA775 system, which will not be overclocked and where price is more important than performance, you could use this board.<br />
Since it uses no fan, its quiet operation make it a good candidate for a media PC. This is where the on-board VGA comes in. The integrated VGA has the performance of an X300, certainly not enough for gaming, but good enough for video playback. Composite TV-out is integrated on the motherboard, so no extra hardware is required here either.<br />
Another use could be to use this board as an intermediate motherboard until you make the switch to PCI-Express and DDR2. You can use your old AGP card and your old DDR1 memory, until you have built up more money to get new hardware.<br />
For a low-profile server the lack of a GigE network port could become an issue, a second ethernet port would help here as well.
</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td></td></tr>
</table>