ECS "Black Series" P45T-A

Rob Williams · 08-15-2008, 03:50 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, 01:46 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, 02:20 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, 03:05 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, 03:43 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, 03:50 AM	#1
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	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 i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

08-15-2008, 01:46 PM	#2
Tech-Daddy Tech Monkey Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Plano, Texas USA Posts: 663	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 \| Lupine \| BOSS:FX-57 \| DSF (Dallas Stars Foundation) \| Deuce \| DST (Dallas Stars Tribute) Currently working on : Sleeper

08-15-2008, 02:20 PM	#3
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	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 i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

08-15-2008, 03:05 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, 03:43 PM	#5
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	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 i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

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