11 - The Verdict

The Verdict

It's very amusing, ECS always starts to shine with the somewhat more affordable mainboards. The ECS Elitegroup A790GXM-A mainboard is not different in that matter at all. The good thing though is that is is slightly penetrating the enthusiast market. If ECS can deliver this kind of quality level on Intel mainboards, then I'd be a very satisfied customer. A Phenom X4 processors however remains a Phenom, and though the overclocking results will yield to be pretty good ones, the power consumption when overclocked is really ghastly. So please keep that in mind.

Other then that fact I think we have ECS most refined mainboard that money can buy right now. If they can get the price down to 125 USD then this mainboard is golden, seriously. The product is extremely feature rich for pretty much any situation.

Some examples:

• Would you need a work / desktop PC ? Pop in some memory and a CPU and you are good to go.
• Would you like to build a HTPC, the integrated GPU will help you enormously, it even decodes 1080P Bly-ray movies really well and you can even drive two monitors.
• Would you like to go more enthusiast as a gamer, get a fast Phenom X4, pop in two Radeon HD 4870 cards and you'll receive a tremendous amount of Crossfire gaming performance.

So no-matter how you look at it, this mainboard will for full every requirement you need in a PC. The fastest Phenom processors at this moment of writing is the Phenom X4 9950. That processor would be a perfect match for high-end Crossfire and it sells for anywhere near 150 USD !! I guarantee you you'd absolutely adore a PC based on such a setup.

Looking at the mainboard from a more general level, we see good performance with this mainboard in combo with the processor we used. Do not expect a heap of performance increment over the last-gen products, but here and there we did spot some better results. One of the key features of the mainboard has to be the excellent GPU built into the mainboard. It allows for excellent 2D, High-definition playback and you even get to manage and play a game or two with it. This mainboard integrated GPU is second to none compared against the competition, but for 3D rendering obviously remains really low-end. But sure, the 790GX proves to have a very interesting IGP.

Just like the Foxxcon 790GX mainboard we tested, what I found really interesting was the overall power consumption. AMD has been working hard on it and it shows. Without a secondary VGA card installed we remain under 100 Watts in idle, which is quite something to achieve these days with a modern PC. So I like that very much.

The ECS 790GX mainboard will cost you roughly 139 USD, at least that's the MSRP. For the money you get a very decent set of options and features, the performance is quite interesting as well. It's very recommended if you do not plan to do anything crazy tweaking wise. Baseline performance is just really good. The performance is and feels snazzy fast and speedy and everything ran absolutely stable.

Our final words then. I really tend to have a soft spot for this mainboard. It's all about value, and fact is that for 139 USD you'll receive an extraordinary amount of features and performance. Though the pricing would be far better at 125 USD, which we'll believe it'll be in e-tial. The Black series from ECS will guarantee you a mainboard with good looks and additionally some niche extra's. The extra's being dual GigE Ethernet, microswitches, dual PCIe x16 graphics ports, integrated HDMI, good dark aesthetics, 8-channel sound .. and so on. And I'll let you in on a secret, ever since last week my main work PC is now based on a 790GX mother-board with Phenom X4 9950 (review soon), due to the sheer speed and features versus amazing power efficiency.

So yeah, though not the most extreme cheapo mainboard money can buy you, it does offer heaps of value. And I respect that very much.

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