35 replies to this topic

[Nemo]

With the LGA1156 socket Core i5/i7 processors comes the need for new motherboards based off the P55 chipset and OCC checks out the ECS P55H-A - http://www.overclock...iews/ecs_p55ha/

[Timmy94]

Nice Review taco :thumbs-up:

[Waco]

I've always liked those Black Series boards, this one doesn't disappoint.

As for the molex connector - you should definitely plug that in. It's not required but it's meant to help smooth power delivery to the PCIe slots. There's no drawback to plugging it in and you could potentially run into problems without it.

[Crazy_Nate]

When I saw this motherboard for the first time (in this review), I was kinda surprised at how 'DFI lanparty' it looked (even the 4-pin molex is similar - although DFI sometimes uses the 4-pin floppy drive power connector).

[tacohunter52]

It's not required but it's meant to help smooth power delivery to the PCIe slots. There's no drawback to plugging it in and you could potentially run into problems without it.

That's interesting, I guess plug it in then.

[RHKCommander959]

[quote name='Waco' post='1733074' date='Oct 22 2009, 08:08 AM']I've always liked those Black Series boards, this one doesn't disappoint.

As for the molex connector - you should definitely plug that in. It's not required but it's meant to help smooth power delivery to the PCIe slots. There's no drawback to plugging it in and you could potentially run into problems without it.[/quote]
It mainly helps with crossfire as you stated helps in power delivery. Never had a problem running a single card without on the DFI boards, but when I increased wattage on the PCIE slot (because the gpu didn't have extra power from PSU) and/or crossfired video it seemed to work


[quote name='Crazy_Nate' date='Oct 22 2009, 08:51 AM' post='1733085']
When I saw this motherboard for the first time (in this review), I was kinda surprised at how 'DFI lanparty' it looked (even the 4-pin molex is similar - although DFI sometimes uses the 4-pin floppy drive power connector).
[/quote

Same thing I was gonna say when I came in to comment on it. Looks alot like a lanparty

[Stef2]

Hi, sorry to ressurect this old (2-year-old actually) thread but you're literally the only guys on the Internet who managed to overclock this motherboard.

Searching amongst my old boards I found this ECS and I decided to build a machine on it... Now I also have an i3-530 CPU which normally can reach 4.4Ghz if it was not for this mobo's limitation.
So I wish to ask you if I may: how did you manage to reach 205Mhz at the FSB? Is there some special way to change the QPI multiplier?
If it is some modded bios you have please -by all means- do PM it to me, I would really appreciate it.

Again sorry for the ressurection perfomed -above, but I would really appreciate if I was able to put my ECS board in good use.
Thanks for your time and attention.

[Bosco]

Chris did this review, I wonder how good his memory is

[tacohunter52]

Hi, sorry to ressurect this old (2-year-old actually) thread but you're literally the only guys on the Internet who managed to overclock this motherboard.

Searching amongst my old boards I found this ECS and I decided to build a machine on it... Now I also have an i3-530 CPU which normally can reach 4.4Ghz if it was not for this mobo's limitation.
So I wish to ask you if I may: how did you manage to reach 205Mhz at the FSB? Is there some special way to change the QPI multiplier?
If it is some modded bios you have please -by all means- do PM it to me, I would really appreciate it.

Again sorry for the ressurection perfomed -above, but I would really appreciate if I was able to put my ECS board in good use.
Thanks for your time and attention.

It's been a really long time. I remember I had some problem with the board, but I think it was due to drivers, not overclocking. Send me, or post here, your current BIOS settings and ill try and help you out.

[bishop245]

Bosco be nice to the hired help lol

[Stef2]

First of all I have to say that I'm currently using 1333MHz RAM, so *that* may be my bottleneck; even though I clearly remember that I've tried this board with a 1600MHz memory module and I was still bottlenecked....anyhow, here are my settings (I'm using the latest official bios):

I have left everything at default except from the ones I'm going to write in the following lines:

Performance Level: Enhanced (even though Standard seems to be the same)
CPU Overclocking Frequency: 167Mhz (that's the absolute max I can reach)
Spread Spectrum: Disabled
CPU Voltage: +0.13 (that's more than enough for 190-200FSB in any other board for my CPU)
CPU VTT: +0.15 (again I seem to overdo it here, I use far less VTT in any other board)
DIMM Voltage : +0.1
PCH Voltage: auto

As you may see I use the standard settings (compared to any other board), yet I get 20% less performance. Performance that I would most possibly need for the CPU intensive programs I'd use...


By the way thanks for the offer to help and again sorry for the necromancy performed in your boards (I know how it's not a good practice)...

Edited by Stef2, 04 September 2011 - 04:04 PM.

[tacohunter52]

First of all I have to say that I'm currently using 1333MHz RAM, so *that* may be my bottleneck; even though I clearly remember that I've tried this board with a 1600MHz memory module and I was still bottlenecked....anyhow, here are my settings (I'm using the latest official bios):

I have left everything at default except from the ones I'm going to write in the following lines:

Performance Level: Enhanced (even though Standard seems to be the same)
CPU Overclocking Frequency: 167Mhz (that's the absolute max I can reach)
Spread Spectrum: Disabled
CPU Voltage: +0.13 (that's more than enough for 190-200FSB in any other board for my CPU)
CPU VTT: +0.15 (again I seem to overdo it here, I use far less VTT in any other board)
DIMM Voltage : +0.1
PCH Voltage: auto

As you may see I use the standard settings (compared to any other board), yet I get 20% less performance. Performance that I would most possibly need for the CPU intensive programs I'd use...


By the way thanks for the offer to help and again sorry for the necromancy performed in your boards (I know how it's not a good practice)...

I've been looking around and all I've found is that other people are having the same problems as you. I have absolutely no idea why the board I had was able to hit the speeds it did.

I did need 1.5V on the i5 to hit 4.1 (A little more to hit the 4.3, but 4.3 I couldn't get stable). I don't remember what my other voltages were .

What BIOS version are you using? I'm assuming it's a newer version then what I was using. It's a long shot, but maybe try an older revision.