Computex 2011: ECS HQ Tour, Q&A and Booth
by Ian Cutress on June 11, 2011 1:55 AM EST- Posted in
- Computex 2011
- ECS
- Trade Shows
I’m fairly critical of every motherboard that passes through my fingers – it has to be perfect. The BIOS has to work flawlessly, the performance has to be in the upper echelons, the design choices have to be right, it has to offer a good warranty and a good package, and be priced aggressively for the consumer. After having the opportunity to look at the ECS HQ and talk to a VP, this will not change. I will keep reviewing ECS with the same rigor as before.
However, since my tour, I feel it is important for a reviewer who works on a product to see how it is made. How the design process is thought out and realized for something that will eventually come to market. I will be aggressively questioning all and sundry behind design choices and product representations of market segments – it is important to question how these companies think, in order to predict what will happen in the future, so we can possibly steer them into what you, the readers, want.
What David Chien said about how people only remember the top few companies in terms of electronic products, in my opinion, is true – if ECS want more sales, they will need to push their products beyond current designs and performance. They need to breach the top slots held by ASUS, Gigabyte, ASRock, and to a certain extent MSI (in terms of motherboards). This is wholly dependant on the design team, the market research and the markets themselves into how ECS position and design their products. ECS will never steer away from the OEM market – it’s their core business. But here’s hoping they devote more time and money to the consumer market.
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wwswimming - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
Right there in the picture - you can see what ECS can do to improve their process (trying to state this diplomatically).Do layout of a 15 to 20 layer board with multiple power & ground planes, about 6 mil traces & 6 mil spaces - ON A 17" or 15" monitor ?
THAT'S NUTS.
It's possible the photo is deceptive. Maybe that's a 24" Samsung, or equivalent.
It don't matter. You need a big monitor to do that kind of layout.
It's a testament to the work ethic of ECS engineering staff that they can crank out anything that works - under these conditions.
Maybe Anandtech can take up a Bake Sale type drive to buy decent monitors for ECS staff. They deserve it !
FragKrag - Sunday, June 12, 2011 - link
If you look closely you see a 13" MBP you can use for reference.Definitely not 15" or 17" panels.
LordanSS - Sunday, June 12, 2011 - link
The guy with the 13" MBP is a sales/marketing person, as you can see he's tweaking a logo and specs page.The computer doing the power routing is an Acer-branded desktop, hooked up to a Phillips 5:4 display. I'd have to agree, that monitor looks like either a 17" or 19", probably topping at 1280x1024.
Einy0 - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
My experience with ECS was been a mixed bag, but very limited. Some products where just fine nothing special but get the job done, others where complete failures. I've never dealt with their support or rma so I can't comment on that. The one thing I notice over and over is they love to stack their boards with legacy I/O. I haven't used a serial or parallel port in years and I don't plan on it either. I avoid any motherboard that has either port on it's rear panel. As a rule I want 6+ USB ports right on that I/O shield. Motherboard headers for another 4 to 6 are required too. The more USB ports the better. eSata is a nice addition too. While they are at it let's scrap the PCI connectors too. It's time to let PCI die. Firewire is neither a pro nor a con. Personally I want to see PS/2, parallel, serial, PATA, floppy and PCI all just go away for good. Time to move on.Oh and how about making sure every usb port has enough juice to supply the standard 500mA or more and while they are at it, notebooks need more usb ports, 4 should be the absolute minimum. 6 or more would be nice.
Rant complete...
Chillin1248 - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
For the near future at least, motherboards should retain at least one PCI slot. There are many perfectly good PCI audio and NIC cards that don't need replacement.Etern205 - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
ACER desktop?!Traitor! :P
mdloops - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
To the writer of the article, you spelled realize incorrectly. Realise is not correct. I am tired of reading information from credible sites with misspellings that a high-school student should never even make. Could somebody please start writing professionally.JarredWalton - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
FYI, Ian lives in the UK, which should be pretty obvious by several other "misspellings".chubbyfatazn - Sunday, June 12, 2011 - link
How ignorant are you? Not everyone who reads this site lives, or was raised in, the US.AssBall - Monday, June 13, 2011 - link
Your tired of reading them but apparently not tired of complaining about them. Go away, kkthx.