Introduction and Specs

ECS is hitting the market with their very first enthusiast product. The package boasts some great accessories and an awesome price, but is the performance there?

ECS isn’t a company new to PC Perspective. Back in November 2004, we reviewed the ECS 755-A2 motherboard and then the ECS 760GX in April 2005 as part of a 3-way SiS 760GX motherboard round-up.

In those two ECS reviews I was very impressed with the value of the product though their packages were very plain – there wasn’t much in terms of accessories, nor were there many features to entice a PC enthusiast.

ECS has broken from their mold and is venturing into the high-profit, high-performance realm of Geekdom. Their KN1 Extreme nForce 4 Ultra motherboard has all the trappings that will lure a high-end consumer, while keeping a price that’s well below similar competition. ECS has thrown in a lot of features and attention into their new product and they want you to take notice. So let’s get on with the review!

Specifications

ECS KN1 Extreme

Chipset

NVIDIA nForce 4 Ultra

Socket Type

AMD Socket 939

Memory

4x DDR400 DIMMs, 4GB max., Dual-channel

Drive Connectivity

2x ATA133 IDE
4x SATA II (RAID 0, 1, 0+1, JBOD)

Auxiliary Drive Connectivity

1x ATA133 IDE
2x SATA (RAID 0, 1, 0+1, JBOD)

Audio

Realtek ALC655 5.1 channel audio

Analog Audio Connectivity

3x (jack-sensing)

Digital Audio Connectivity

Coax and Optical SPDIF output

Network

Marvell 88E1111 10/100/1000 MB
Realtek RTL8100C 10/100 MB

USB 2.0

4 ports on rear panel
3 headers onboard
(includes 2-port bracket)

Firewire IEEE1394

2 headers onboard
(includes 2-port bracket)

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