ECS "Black Series" P45T-A

Rob Williams · 08-15-2008, 04:50 AM

Need to build a new rig on the cheap? Need modest Crossfire support, and a decent feature-set? The ECS P45T-A might be worthy of your consideration, as it packs in a good amount of functionality, solid performance, a cool color scheme and of course, a good price tag, of around $110.

You can read the full review here and discuss it here.

Tech-Daddy · 08-15-2008, 02:46 PM

NIce review Rob...

I did notice something that made my hair (yes, singular... 1 hair.... shaddup Greg!

) stand on end.

The placement of the SATA ports pointing straight up off of the board.

You load up 2 full sized video cards with their double spaced coolers, a majority of those ports are now lost. I ran into the pain while building Deuce, and I am now a HUGE fan of the 90 degree, side edge mounted SATA ports. Seems to make SO much more sense.

I wish more manufacturers would do their sata ports that way...

*shrug*
-=TD

Rob Williams · 08-15-2008, 03:20 PM

It's a huge problem, and one I plan to speak about to ECS when I talk to them in a few weeks time. The S-ATA placement was a little worse on the X48T-A board, but if you do have two large GPUs, say goodbye.

The new 90-degree ports are FAR more sensible, and I agree, I hope to see it more often. Seems to be the feature of an enthusiast board right now though, sadly.

08-15-2008, 04:05 PM

Seems to me it is within a few percentage points of the performance of it's much more expensive brethren. So unless I really want to overclock, the performance at the price point does indeed knock my socks off.

Rob Williams · 08-15-2008, 04:43 PM

Besides the performance factor itself, there is more to the board, like a rich BIOS, good feature-set, non-clunky board layout, overall presentation... none of these were that good on this board.

The performance is good, and as long as you don't mind the downsides, you'll be happy.

08-15-2008, 04:50 AM	#1
Rob Williams Editor in Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 8,921	ECS "Black Series" P45T-A Need to build a new rig on the cheap? Need modest Crossfire support, and a decent feature-set? The ECS P45T-A might be worthy of your consideration, as it packs in a good amount of functionality, solid performance, a cool color scheme and of course, a good price tag, of around $110. You can read the full review here and discuss it here. __________________ Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 @ 3.20GHz, ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, OCZ 8GB PC2-6400, EVGA GTX 285 1024MB Seagate 500GB, 750GB & 1TB, Pioneer 22x ODD, Corsair 1000HX, Thermalright Ultra-120, CM Storm Sniper Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Ultrasone PRO 750, Gentoo Linux (KDE 4.3.2, 2.6.31 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter Profiles: Last.fm \| Xbox Live \| Steam

08-15-2008, 02:46 PM	#2
Tech-Daddy Tech Monkey Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Plano, Texas USA Posts: 532	NIce review Rob... I did notice something that made my hair (yes, singular... 1 hair.... shaddup Greg! ) stand on end. The placement of the SATA ports pointing straight up off of the board. You load up 2 full sized video cards with their double spaced coolers, a majority of those ports are now lost. I ran into the pain while building Deuce, and I am now a HUGE fan of the 90 degree, side edge mounted SATA ports. Seems to make SO much more sense. I wish more manufacturers would do their sata ports that way... shrug -=TD __________________ blingGreen : AMD FX-55 \| Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe \| Leadtek 6600GT \| 1GB (2x512) OCZ PC3200 EL 2-3-2 \| Gigabyte 3D Rocket Cooler Pro Lupine : AMD FX-53 \| Asus A8V \| BFG 6600 \| 1GB (2x512) Corsair PC3200 \| Coolermaster Hyper46 BOSS:FX-57 : AMD FX-57 \| ECS KN1 Extreme SLI \| Gigabyte 6800GT x2 SLI \| 1GB (2x512) Crucial Ballistix Tracer \| Coolermaster Hyper46

08-15-2008, 03:20 PM	#3
Rob Williams Editor in Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 8,921	It's a huge problem, and one I plan to speak about to ECS when I talk to them in a few weeks time. The S-ATA placement was a little worse on the X48T-A board, but if you do have two large GPUs, say goodbye. The new 90-degree ports are FAR more sensible, and I agree, I hope to see it more often. Seems to be the feature of an enthusiast board right now though, sadly. __________________ Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 @ 3.20GHz, ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, OCZ 8GB PC2-6400, EVGA GTX 285 1024MB Seagate 500GB, 750GB & 1TB, Pioneer 22x ODD, Corsair 1000HX, Thermalright Ultra-120, CM Storm Sniper Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Ultrasone PRO 750, Gentoo Linux (KDE 4.3.2, 2.6.31 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter Profiles: Last.fm \| Xbox Live \| Steam

08-15-2008, 04:05 PM	#4
Unregistered Guest Poster Posts: n/a	Not knock your socks off? Seems to me it is within a few percentage points of the performance of it's much more expensive brethren. So unless I really want to overclock, the performance at the price point does indeed knock my socks off.

08-15-2008, 04:43 PM	#5
Rob Williams Editor in Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 8,921	Besides the performance factor itself, there is more to the board, like a rich BIOS, good feature-set, non-clunky board layout, overall presentation... none of these were that good on this board. The performance is good, and as long as you don't mind the downsides, you'll be happy. __________________ Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 @ 3.20GHz, ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, OCZ 8GB PC2-6400, EVGA GTX 285 1024MB Seagate 500GB, 750GB & 1TB, Pioneer 22x ODD, Corsair 1000HX, Thermalright Ultra-120, CM Storm Sniper Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Ultrasone PRO 750, Gentoo Linux (KDE 4.3.2, 2.6.31 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter Profiles: Last.fm \| Xbox Live \| Steam

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