ECS AM3+ 970 Motherboard - $14.99 after MIR

Jeffredo · Mar 24, 2014

Been running it for about two weeks now - pretty decent for an el cheapo motheboard (have it paired with an old Phenom II X4). I got it for $5 more than the price they currently have it, but I still consider it a good deal for a budget build.

ECS A970M-A Deluxe

Nordic · Mar 24, 2014

Such a good price but I don't have a need for it.

Vario · Mar 24, 2014

Dayum. When combined with a used PhenomII it would be the ultimate budget system.

dank1983man420 · Mar 24, 2014

Excellent deal as I did purchase one myself to possibly build a nice little system to mess with. I did have an issue with 1 of 2 ECS rebates I have dealt with in the past. Luckily it was only a $10 rebate I was shorted and not the $40.

Jeffredo · Mar 24, 2014

Yeah, I sent off my rebate last week - hopefully I'll have done all the minutia they insist on correctly and get my $30 (its in the form of an actual check too, not a "rebate card"). As far as the poor reviews on Newegg - it looks like two or three people posted multiple 1 star reviews. All I can say is that it fired up for me with no issues and I've been gaming on it heavily since. Pretty solid. I haven't OC'd the processor at all though.

McSteel · Mar 24, 2014

Wow, an ECS I'd actually consider buying... I was ready to diss it, but then I took a look, and those heatsinks seem reassuring.

However, that Anti-Dust Shield gimmick is beyond ridiculous. I actually thought for a second that it's a weak attempt at very basic EMI shielding via screening, but this is even worse.

suraswami · Mar 24, 2014

Ordered one. Had good luck with ECS, I have used several and only one board died mysteriously. 2 Black series boards are still working and in good shape.

Hopefully this one should serve well.

Jeffredo · Mar 24, 2014

Sold out!!!

suraswami · Mar 25, 2014

Its back in stock!!!

Nordic · Mar 25, 2014

Out of stock...

Shou Miko · Mar 25, 2014

WHY ONLY THE USA

suraswami · Mar 25, 2014

lol, somebody must have cancelled the order and another vulture snatched it!!

suraswami · Mar 26, 2014

Got the ECS 970M-A board today, newegg super saver shipping is fast too. I will try to install tonight and post some pics.

suraswami · Mar 26, 2014

got held up with work, will do the build tomorrow.

suraswami · Mar 27, 2014

Got my new board, build complete, so far good. Very fast and very stable board. Gigabyte FXA-UD3 was throwing errors with OCZ 1600 memory even at stock clocks, this board runs it perfectly.
Testing with PII X3 720 BE until I get a FX.
Will create a build log soon.

Seems like its back in stock.

suraswami · Mar 27, 2014

like somebody mentioned on egg, the board doesn't allow for cpu multiplier change for a Black Edition PII 720.

Jeffredo · Mar 27, 2014

suraswami said:
like somebody mentioned on egg, the board doesn't allow for cpu multiplier change for a Black Edition PII 720.

That's odd. Changed the multiplier on my X4 980 BE to 19.5 and Windows 7 shows it at 3.9 Ghz while CPUZ shows it at 3.7 Ghz.

itsakjt · Mar 27, 2014

I am using a similar board and a 955BE with my primary and only rig. I use it for gaming and it does the job. I am pretty sure that it will do an awesome job once I upgrade the GPU to something like the R9 270x.

System specs on profile.

suraswami · Mar 27, 2014

Jeffredo said:
That's odd. Changed the multiplier on my X4 980 BE to 19.5 and Windows 7 shows it at 3.9 Ghz while CPUZ shows it at 3.7 Ghz.

Thats the thing, it allows to change in bios but no effect. Let me change it and see what windows shows me.

Jeffredo · Mar 27, 2014

Its not a major problem - I can always leave the BIOS settings at stock/optimal and OC it via AMD Overdrive in Windows. Just tried it and it does work there. I was never intending to go off the deep end OCing anyway - a few hundred Mhz is enough. It is weird though when I right click on the My Computer icon Win 7 does show it at 3.9 Ghz after changing the setting in the BIOS (but not in Overdrive or CPU-Z).

suraswami · Mar 27, 2014

Jeffredo said:
Its not a major problem - I can always leave the BIOS settings at stock/optimal and OC it via AMD Overdrive in Windows. Just tried it and it does work there. I was never intending to go off the deep end OCing anyway - a few hundred Mhz is enough. It is weird though when I right click on the My Computer icon Win 7 does show it at 3.9 Ghz after changing the setting in the BIOS (but not in Overdrive or CPU-Z).

I went back to earlier bios and there is no option to change the multiplier, so I guess they added the option without any testing and released it, morons!

itsakjt · Mar 27, 2014

Overclock the NB and set it to 2600 MHz - 2800 MHz in BIOS. That is the thing that increases performance in a Phenom II system. The memory bandwidth is not that good at stock since the IMC is made backward compatible with DDR2 RAMs. Use AIDA 64 cache and memory benchmark and watch the memory scores increase as you increase the NB clock. You will need around 1.275V in the NB which if you research is nothing for a Phenom II IMC.

suraswami · Mar 27, 2014

itsakjt said:
Overclock the NB and set it to 2600 MHz - 2800 MHz in BIOS. That is the thing that increases performance in a Phenom II system. The memory bandwidth is not that good at stock since the IMC is made backward compatible with DDR2 RAMs. Use AIDA 64 cache and memory benchmark and watch the memory scores increase as you increase the NB clock. You will need around 1.275V in the NB which if you research is nothing for a Phenom II IMC.

I am hoping you really know what you are talking about!

We are talking about missing/broken OC options on a FREAKING ECS board, not trying to know how to OC it!

itsakjt · Mar 27, 2014

suraswami said:
I am hoping you really know what you are talking about!

We are talking about missing/broken OC options on a FREAKING ECS board, not trying to know how to OC it!

Yes I have followed it and that's why I have said to try increasing the NB clock since it increases a lot of memory bandwidth.

Jeffredo · Mar 27, 2014

I was able to OC my X4 980 with just a FSB adjustment in the BIOS. Set it to a conservative 211 to get a couple hundred more Mhz (3.9 Ghz) and perk up the memory and NB a bit.

System Name	Modest Box
Processor	i5-4690K @ 4.7 Ghz
Motherboard	ASUS Z97-C
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15
Memory	G.Skill Ares DDR3-2400 16GB
Video Card(s)	Colorful GTX 950
Storage	OCZ Vertex 460A 480GB
Display(s)	HP w2558hc
Case	Cooler Master Stacker 830
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Realtek
Power Supply	Gigabyte 750W Gold
Mouse	Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer
Software	Windows 10 64 Bit

Processor	7800x3d
Motherboard	Gigabyte B650 Auros Elite AX
Cooling	Custom Water
Memory	GSKILL 2x16gb 6000mhz Cas 30 with custom timings
Video Card(s)	MSI RX 6750 XT MECH 2X 12G OC
Storage	Adata SX8200 1tb with Windows, Samsung 990 Pro 2tb with games
Display(s)	HP Omen 27q QHD 165hz
Case	ThermalTake P3
Power Supply	SuperFlower Leadex Titanium
Software	Windows 11 64 Bit
Benchmark Scores	CB23: 1811 / 19424 CB24: 1136 / 7687

System Name	Computer of Theseus
Processor	Intel i9-12900KS: 50x Pcore multi @ 1.18Vcore (target 1.275V -100mv offset)
Motherboard	EVGA Z690 Classified
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15S, 2xThermalRight TY-143, 4xNoctua NF-A12x25,3xNF-A12x15, 2xAquacomputer Splitty9Active
Memory	G-Skill Trident Z5 (32GB) DDR5-6000 C36 F5-6000J3636F16GX2-TZ5RK
Video Card(s)	EVGA Geforce 3060 XC Black Gaming 12GB
Storage	1x Samsung 970 Pro 512GB NVMe (OS), 2x Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB (data 1 and 2), ASUS BW-16D1HT
Display(s)	Dell S3220DGF 32" 2560x1440 165Hz Primary, Dell P2017H 19.5" 1600x900 Secondary, Ergotron LX arms.
Case	Lian Li O11 Air Mini
Audio Device(s)	Audiotechnica ATR2100X-USB, El Gato Wave XLR Mic Preamp, ATH M50X Headphones, Behringer 302USB Mixer
Power Supply	Super Flower Leadex Platinum SE 1000W 80+ Platinum White
Mouse	Zowie EC3-C
Keyboard	Vortex Multix 87 Winter TKL (Gateron G Pro Yellow)
Software	Win 10 LTSC 21H2

System Name	Modest Box
Processor	i5-4690K @ 4.7 Ghz
Motherboard	ASUS Z97-C
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15
Memory	G.Skill Ares DDR3-2400 16GB
Video Card(s)	Colorful GTX 950
Storage	OCZ Vertex 460A 480GB
Display(s)	HP w2558hc
Case	Cooler Master Stacker 830
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Realtek
Power Supply	Gigabyte 750W Gold
Mouse	Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer
Software	Windows 10 64 Bit

System Name	Chaos
Processor	Intel Core i5 4590K @ 4.0 GHz
Motherboard	MSI Z97 MPower MAX AC
Cooling	Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 + MX4
Memory	4x4 GB Kingston HyperX Beast 2400 GT/s CL11
Video Card(s)	Palit GTX 1070 Dual @ stock
Storage	256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD + 1 TB WD Green (Idle timer off) + 320 GB WD Blue
Display(s)	Dell U2515H
Case	Fractal Design Define R3
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair HX750 Platinum
Mouse	CM Storm Recon
Keyboard	CM Storm Quickfire Pro (MX Red)

System Name	---
Processor	FX 8350 @ 4.00 Ghz with 1.28v
Motherboard	Gigabyte 990FX-UD3 v4.0, Hacked Bios F4.x
Cooling	Silenx 4 pipe Tower cooler + 2 x Cougar 120mm fan, 3 x 120mm, 1 x 200 mm Red LED fan
Memory	Kingston HyperX DDR3 1866 16GB + Patriot Memory DDR3 1866 16GB
Video Card(s)	Asus R9 290 OC @ GPU - 1050, MEM - 1300
Storage	Inland 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD for OS, WDC Black - 2TB + 1TB Storage, Inland 480GB SSD - Games
Display(s)	3 x 1080P LCDs - Acer 25" + Acer 23" + HP 23"
Case	AeroCool XPredator X3
Audio Device(s)	Built-in Realtek
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000 Modular
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

System Name	Lynni PS \ Lenowo TwinkPad T480
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Raphael \ i7-8550U Kaby Lake-R
Motherboard	ASRock B650M PG Riptide Bios v. 2.02 AMD AGESA 1.1.0.0 \ Lenowo 20L60036MX Bios 1.47
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 Chromax.Black (Only middle fan) \ Lenowo WN-2
Memory	G.Skill Flare X5 2x16GB DDR5 6000MHZ CL36-36-36-96 AMD EXPO \ Willk Elektronik 2x16GB 2666MHZ CL17
Video Card(s)	Asus GeForce RTX™ 4070 Dual OC GPU: 2325-2355 MEM: 1462\| Nvidia GeForce MX™ 150 2GB GDDR5 Micron
Storage	Gigabyte M30 1TB\|Sabrent Rocket 2TB\| HDD: 10TB\|1TB \ SKHynix 256GB 2242 3x2
Display(s)	LG UltraGear 27GP850-B 1440p@165Hz \| LG 48CX OLED 4K HDR \| AUO 14" 1440p IPS
Case	Asus Prime AP201 White Mesh \| Lenowo T480 chassis
Audio Device(s)	Steelseries Arctis Pro Wireless
Power Supply	Be Quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750W Goldie \| 65W
Mouse	Logitech G305 Lightspeedy Wireless \| Lenowo TouchPad & Logitech G305
Keyboard	Akko 3108 DS Horizon V2 Cream Yellow \| T480 UK Lumi
Software	Win11 Pro 23H2 UK
Benchmark Scores	3DMARK: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/89434432? GPU-Z: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/details/v3zbr

System Name	Coffee \| Maximus
Processor	Intel Core i7 9700K @ 5.2 GHz with AVX, 4.8 GHz cache clock \| i7 9700KF @ 5.0 GHz/4.7 GHz cache
Motherboard	ASUS Maximus X Formula \| ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger (modded BIOS for Coffee Lake)+TPM2.0 module
Cooling	Cooler Master ML240 Illusion \| Cooler Master ML120L RGB
Memory	216 GB (32 GB) Kingston Fury Beast @3600 MHz CL17 \| 48 GB (32 GB) HyperX Fury @3200 MHz CL14
Video Card(s)	Zotac RTX 3070 8 GB Twin Edge \| Galax RTX 2060 Super 8 GB
Storage	Samsung PM981a 1TB NVMe+480GB SATA SSD+2 TB HDD \| Crucial P5 1TB, Crucial P1 500GB+2.5TB HDDs
Display(s)	LG OLED 55 G3, 4K 120 Hz, VRR, ALLM, GSync, FreeSync \| Samsung 43AU9070 4K TV, VRR, ALLM
Case	Corsair Crystal 460X RGB \| Lianli Lancool 215
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster Z SE \| Realtek ALC1150 (Supreme FX)
Power Supply	ASUS ROG Strix 750G (80+ Gold) \| Cooler Master MWE 650 V2 (80+ Bronze)
Mouse	Cooler Master MM731 19000 DPI gaming mouse
Keyboard	Cooler Master CK721 65% mechanical gaming keyboard (tactile)
Software	Windows 11 Pro x64 \|Windows 11 Pro x64
Benchmark Scores	Cinebench R20 MT 4200,ST 547 CPU-Z MT 4871, ST 620 \| R20 MT - 4158, ST - 534, CPU-Z MT 4798, ST 603