ECS 755-A2: Performance and Value for the Athlon 64

ECS 755-A2: BIOS and Overclocking

ECS uses the familiar Award (Phoenix) BIOS on the 755-A2. One of the biggest surprises may be the inclusion of "Frequency/Voltage Control" as an option on the main menu page.

Don't get too excited though, because the available options for overclocking the 755-A2 are still rather basic. FSB can only be adjusted in the range of 200-232, vDIMM is 2.5V-2.65V only, and there is not a vCore or vAGP option available. As you will see when we test the overclocking abilities of the 755-A2, a wider FSB range, vCore adjustments, and a much wider vDIMM range would be very useful on this board.

Unlike the A version, the A2 offers a surprisingly full range of memory timing adjustments. These are accessed under "Advanced Chipset Features", "DRAM Configuration". With the memory adjustment options available, a wider vDIMM adjustment range would be welcomed. With faster memory often requiring 2.7V and with some memory companies warranting their memory to 3.0V, more vDIMM options would make this a more attractive choice for the computer enthusiast.

It is nice to see ECS include a PC Health option in the 755-A2 BIOS. Here, you can select automatic shutdown temperatures. However, ECS does not provide any of the smart fan controls seen on competing boards.

FSB Overclocking Results

Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed
Default Voltage
Processor:	Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz
CPU Voltage:	1.5V (default)
Cooling:	AMD Stock Athlon 64 Heatsink/Fan
Power Supply:	Powmax 350W
Maximum OC:	2220MHz (+11%) 222FSB

The above overclocking setup at default voltage, the only voltage option on the 755-A2, allowed us to reach a stable FSB of 222. This matches the highest overclock that we have seen with this early production Athlon 64 3200+, and is really outstanding overclocking performance for a board with very limited overclocking options.

Since the SiS 755 is a new chip, we are not aware of any utilities that allow the end-user to select lower multipliers. They will likely appear soon at places like www.cpuid.com as soon as SiS 755 boards enter the mainstream, but we may have to wait for the Asus 755 for lower multipliers, since Asus has added multipliers to most of their Athlon 64 line. With the FSB adjustment range limited to 232 with the current BIOS, lower multipliers would be of limited use on the 755-A2, unless ECS expands FSB options in a BIOS upgrade.

We found in our review of the SiS 755 Reference Board that while there were no PCI/AGP adjustments, the PCI/AGP frequency appeared to be locked at 33/66 as required for best overclocking. It looks as if that may be a standard feature of the SiS 755 chipset family.

Despite the paucity of OC controls, the ECS 755-A2 is a very fine overclocker among Athlon 64 boards. We can only wonder what we could do with this fine little board with a useful range of vDIMM options, vCore adjustments, and maybe vAGP/chipset voltage adjustments. We recommended to ECS that they consider adding these options in a BIOS upgrade.