Features

ECS, short for Elitegroup Computer Systems, has been more traditionally known as a major player in the value/entry-level segments, where they build low-cost, no-frills motherboards that ship at the retail level, as well as in OEM systems. ECS is actually quite popular in Asia, and is one of Taiwan’s five largest motherboard manufacturers, trailing only ASUS in volume by most estimates.

With their KN1 Extreme, ECS is trying to recapture some of the luster they once had with enthusiasts who owned K7S5A motherboards. This is their first attempt at recapturing the hearts and minds of gamers and hardware enthusiasts, much like DFI did with their LANPARTY series a few years ago, and based on what we’ve seen today we hope this isn’t their last attempt, as the KN1 Extreme is a pretty impressive motherboard.

ECS starts with NVIDIA’s nForce4 Ultra chipset. We won’t rehash the feature set of the nForce4 Ultra, as we’ve already gone over this chipset’s features in detail in our preview article from last year, but the Cliff’s Notes version concerning the nForce4 Ultra chipset is that it’s an evolution of last year’s nForce3 Ultra chipset, with the key additions being PCI Express as well as improved storage capabilities thanks to 3Gigabytes/second hard drive technology being supported, new RAID capabilities (RAID morphing), and finally, dedicated hardware acceleration for NVIDIA’s firewall solution. Basically, this is the chipset you’re going to want if you’re building a new Athlon 64 system. Of course, that’s assuming you aren’t looking for an integrated solution, or SLI.

LAN controllers

Dual BIOS chips

You can really see the unique look of the board in this profile shot

Networking and audio

Like all high-end nForce4 Ultra boards, the KN1 Extreme features dual LAN controllers. Marvell’s Alaska 88E1111 chip provides Gigabit Ethernet support, acting as the physical layer to the nForce4 Ultra’s networking engine. The Marvell chip has been popular among motherboard manufacturers, as MSI and ASUS use this same chip on their nForce4 Ultra and nForce4 SLI motherboards. Powering the second Ethernet port is Realtek’s RTL8100C.

For audio duties, Realtek’s ALC655 AC’97 CODEC is used. The ALC655 is an older CODEC in Realtek’s lineup, offering six-channel audio support. Realtek has replaced it with the ALC658, and more recently, the ALC850, which is an eight-channel CODEC with jack-sensing technology and offers better performance and is found on some other nForce4 boards. Of course, most gamers shudder at the thought of onboard audio anyways, and will upgrade to a dedicated hardware audio solution, especially since nice audio cards can be easily found for well under $100.