ECS G31T-M

[W1zzard]

ECS has released the ECS G31T-M as affordable Core 2 Duo motherboard which supports the latest Quad-Core and 1333 FSB CPUs at an affordable price of less than $75. In our testing we saw that performance is on par with much more expensive high-end motherboards. The integrated Intel VGA is also a nice addition because you don't have to buy a video card for your office machine or can use it to play back video in a Media PC.

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[newtekie1]

A damn fine board for $75 it seems, and a damn fine review W1z.

 

[Sasqui]

Superb review - very thorough!!!

 

[Fuse-Wire]

agreed, superb review. Nice one

 

[Laurijan]

Yeah a nice review but i found the board has some minor downsides - eventhough the integrated graphics start certain games (NFS Underground 2, NFS Most wanted) they hang them self up after an hour (NFS U2) or the first level (NFS MW) also the bios has no option for AHCI sata mode (150Mb/s or 300Mb/s mode) - its because of the ICH7 limitation (100Mb/s or maybe 133Mb/s) i was told from the ECS support.

 

[Hunter001]

G31t-m Audio

One clarification though. I have one of the boards. All of the reviews have said that even though its has a 5.1 chip, it doesn't have 5.1 ports on the back. That's not exactly true.

The 3 audio jacks on the back can be reprogrammed to be anything. The pink port doesn't have to be in Mic-In port. You can program it to be Rear-Channel-Out. If you add this to the 2 ports that are on the board, you can get 5.1 and even have a couple ports available for Line-in or other functions.

 

[ranjit_mathews]

One clarification though. I have one of the boards.

If I want to put 4GB on it, can I use cheap generic DDR2-667 RAM? Or is it picky about the kind of RAM it will take?

> All of the reviews have said that even though its has a 5.1 chip, it doesn't have 5.1 ports on the back. That's not exactly true. The 3 audio jacks on the back can be reprogrammed to be anything.

I don't see options to do that on the bios screens shown in the review.

> The pink port doesn't have to be in Mic-In port. You can program it to be Rear-Channel-Out. If you add this to the 2 ports that are on the board
you can get 5.1 and even have a couple ports available for Line-in or other functions.

So, I can use the 2 ports on the board for mic-in and headphone out and still have 5.1 on the back?

 

[Hunter001]

Audio port changes are done through the driver instead of the bios. When you plug something into a port, it senses the impedance change in the circuit and the driver control application will pop up and ask you what you just plugged in, which speaker (if any), mic, or other. You have to install the drivers from the CD though. I have it running XP.

It would make sense that you have the front ports on your case (if you have them) be for stuff you plug in and out (mic + line-in) and all 3 in the back for 5.1. I don't have front ports on my case so I have 4 channel sound + 1 line-in on the back.

I'm not sure about the RAM. I think the memory clock is separate from the CPU clock, and either would work. the one drawback is that even now I have graphics rendering and 3D modeling going that don't max out any of the CPU's. The apps work just as fast as my old computer, and show only 60% CPU usage across all 4 CPU's. I'm assuming that's a memory bottleneck.

 

[tifozif1]

Mine has a 10/100/1000 ethernet adapter and not 10/100 as written in the review. I should check this and get back to you ..

first post here, happy to join you

Edit : It has a Realtek 8111B
RTL8111B
7A582Q1 G742B

Also has 6 sound in/out ports in the back side and the chip writes : ALC883.

The carton box has a big sticker outside "GIGALAN". In their website (ECS) they don't have another revision. Should be 2.

O/C Results : E2180 + ECS G31T-M + Geil Ultra 6400 4-4-4-12 ===> 3.333Mhz, not bad for a 45Euro MoBo.

 

[tifozif1]

I have made a review and a OverClock mini-how-to with board, and also test it with a 8800GTS 512 (G92). The results are excellent !!!

See http://www.thelab.gr/showthread.php?t=48881, its in GREEK but numbers photos and screenshots are "international" and the results exceptional for a 45Euro motherboard.

 

[starvinmarvin]

Hi all. About two months ago I finally got around to building a new computer using ECS G31T-M motherboard.
The rest of the components are:
Antec Sonata 3 case with 500watt psu included, and 3-speed 120mm case fan included
Intel Core 2 Duo e6750 cpu @2.66GHz
2 x 2GB Patriot PC-6400 DDR2-800 RAM in dual-channnel config.
EVGA 8800GTS 512MB (G92) graphics card
1 x Maxtor SATA 160GB 7200rpm hard drive
1 x external USB Maxtor 160GB 7200rpm hard drive
1 x LG 20X dual-layer SATA DVD-burner
1 x I/O Magic 16X IDE DVD-burner
1 x Samsung 226BW 22inch monitor
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer soundcard
Cambridge Soundworks 2000 4.1 speakers
MonsterGecko FPS Pistol Mouse
Saitek Eclipse illuminated keyboard
WindowsXP Home Edition

Performance is terrific. The system handles everything I throw at it so far. Crysis is set to Medium except with Shaders and a couple of other parameters set to High, and the game runs smooth as silk and it looks great. (If I set everything to High then the game runs smooth until I encounter several bad guys attacking me all at once, at which time the game stutters just a little.) Every other game I've tried runs absolutely great on the highest settings so I'm very happy with the gaming performance overall.

Yesterday I was online reading email and cross-checking some information so I had about 7 or 8 webpages open, plus MSN Messenger was going while chatting with a friend, plus Housecall's free online virus-scan was running, plus I was watching some video clips at Youtube or somewhere like that. Again, everything ran smoothly with no glitches or noticeable delays even with that virus-scan running in the background. This such a pleasure to be able to do several things at once and have the computer remain very responsive. And, hey, it's pretty quiet, too, with the case fan and cpu fans controlled by the motherboard, only the 8800GTS fan is a bit louder.

Have not attempted any overclock as it seems unnecessary thus far. The system has proved very stable and reliable. ECS G31 motherboard is undoubtedly a bargain. I got it bundled with the e6750 cpu for only $10 more than the e6750 cost on its own. Previously, I built a system with ECS 755-A2 board and it also was very stable for 3 years.

There are some quirks to the system, of course. For example, I failed to consider carefully the length and thickness of the 8800GTS graphics card in relation to the mini-ATX size of the motherboard. The graphics card, when plugged in, extends across the board and covers three of the four available SATA connectors. Luckily, one of my SATA cables has a smallish plug so I could plug it in and bend the cable over to go underneath the graphics card. It's a tight fit but it works OK.

So, this rig is solid for gaming and more than I need for everything else!

 

[xBtUser]

Hi everyone. I just bought the Fry's deal (Q6600 + ECS G31T-M). When I check with cpuz, w/o overclock, it always show:
Core Speed: 1596.4MHz
Multiplier: x6.0
Bus Speed: 266MHz
Rated FSB: 1064.1MHz

After I overclock it (by changing the speed to 333MHz), the cpuz shows these:
Core Speed: 1987.2MHz
Multiplier: x6.0
Bus Speed: 331.2MHz
Rated FSB: 1324.8MHz

I was thinking that since this is Q6600, which run at 2.4GHz, isn't the default multiplier should be "9" so that "9x266=2.4GHz"? There is no way I can change the multiplier in the BIOS. Anybody here that can give me some help? Thanks.

Thanks for your time and help.

 

[Azazel]

thx thats allot to read

 

[spud107]

its eist or speedstep kicking in, try looking at the speed when the cpu is under load,

 

[xBtUser]

Thanks for the info spud107. I think it is the eist because in the System properties, it shows that the CPU is running at 2.98GHz.

 

[RyoBerlin]

Thx 4 the Review.

So i c the board can connect 5.1 via backsite and front optionally mic+line in or out.

"5.1 Audio but no 5.1 output jacks" <- so this is wrong in the review and should mean
"5.1 Audio but no SPDIF" or so

i need 5.1 if i just read "5.1 Audio but no 5.1 output jacks" i never interestet on this board
But Hunter sayed it wirks so every of the 3 output connectors on the back are used then IT IS 5.1

And it runs wit G92 cards (also a eVGA 8800GS ???) ... this is why i need a new mobo.. my ASRock 4Core dual VSTA cannot run with it

 

[xBtUser]

I don't use the onboard sound, I have a creative x-fi card. My video card is eVGA 8800 GT. It works just fine. The mb works pretty good and stable and it works out of the box, I'm really happy with this mb. The only drawback is the mb only has 2 memory slots.

 

[RyoBerlin]

ok the Board has 5.1 Sound

My 8800GS works.. ok but i think the card is damaged...(take a look in the graphic section )


The OnBoard Grapic from the board can also decode HDTV Signals But not so good.. after a few minutes it stocks sometimes.

If you want to use vista Stand-By you have to set the USB Ports to 5VSB or the system will go back from stand-by if a usb hardware is connectet (like my USB Keyboard and u use in Bios the resume from USB option)

 

[trevorcor]

I've been looking at this board and also the newer G33T-M in a bit of detail, and found my way here...

The lack of a DVI port can be resolved with an sVDO card, which plugs into the PCIe x16 slot and provides a DVI port for the integrated graphics. Compatiblity with Linux/X seems to be (or have been) hit-or-miss, but a well-selected card should work....

Similarly, though the 31T-M lacks an s/PIDIF-out connector, it has a header for one on the board. frontx.com seems to have the bits you'd need to make create an s/PIDIF-out connector for it -- there's a header-to-RCA-jack cable and mount, but the header connector is wrong, you'd need to buy a 1x4 connector from them too and replace the one on the cable to match the correct pin-out in the manual.

I've never done business with frontx.com, but they seem to have a lot of interesting cables that I've never seen elsewhere.

Of course, this stuff adds to the price of a "value" board, but for those of us running Linux and determined to have Intel graphics, rather than nVidia/ATI binary driver crap, the only choice is on-board stuff, so this isn't necessarily a useful board only because it's cheap. I don't need something to play 3D games, just a "decent" 3D accelerator and video playback with a driver that doesn't break with every kernel update.

ECS made a G31T-M3 at one point with four RAM slots that seems to be much the same board; it seems to still be available from a few vendors. Most everything on the web claims that it still supports only 4GB, though.

So I'm probably going to go with the G33M-T -- it's largely the same board but with the newer G33/ICH9, and it'll take 4x2GB RAM. ICH9 doesn't support PATA though, and ECS didn't add it, so it's SATA-only on board. :-/

 

[Tamale]

i stumbled on this thread when trying to find an answer to my problem.. my ECS-G33T-M was keeping my E8400 multiplier at 6.0 even when the CPU usage was 100%.. this guy over at toms hardware was having the same problem and fixed it with a bios update:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/250694-28-e8400-running-speedstep-disabled#bas

just thought it might be helpful in case someone else was encountering this..

 

[AlAl]

Could Not Install Sound Driver

Hi,

I bought the board 3 days ago to upgrade my system, with following configuration :

Core due2 2.4,
2 Gig Patriot Ram 800,
GCard 6600 GT,
40 gig HDD IDE,
HP DVD Writer IDE,
Extra PCI Network card,
A PCI Modem,
PSU : 380 watt Green,
WIN XP sp3 (no fresh install but from previouse hardware config ).

unfourtunatly I could not install sound dirver successfully. with using CD accompany with board i ran installation setup and got no error into end and finaly prompt me to reboot the computer but after that no dirver for sound installed, also when i look into Device Manager it is hint me that one PCI device not installed (with Yellow Icon), so i try to install driver manualy, and use both latest version from ECS site and the version avalible on my CD board but in process I got message told me something like "this Driver does not written for this hardware".
also try to insrall AC97 driver on CD manulay and not nothing happend, i did unistall it from control panel then reinstall it several times but had no chance to activate sound on my machine, i should add that onboard Network device and Vga Device on board (with removing 6600 nvidia) working well without any problem.
if anybody give me a direction about this i will be so much appriciated.

 

[Tamale]

did you get the updated bios, AIAI?

 

[AlAl]

yes i did update bios with latest version from Elitegroup site and its upgrade successfuly bios with no effect on my problem, but someone told me to reinstall win xp, since i have a lot programming environment and settings i should avoid it as much as possible but it seems this the only way left for me.
thanks for your reply.