ECS A85F2-A Golden Review: All That Glitters
by Ian Cutress on January 12, 2013 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- ECS
- FM2
- A85X
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly donating hardware for our test bed:
OCZ for donating the 1250W Gold Power Supply and USB testing SSD
Micron for donating our SATA testing SSD
G.Skill for donating our memory kits
ASUS for donating AMD GPUs and some IO Testing kit
ECS for donating NVIDIA GPUs
Test Setup
| Test Setup | |
| Processor |
AMD Trinity A10-4800K APU 2 Modules, 4 Threads, 3.8 GHz (4.2 GHz Turbo) |
| Motherboards |
ASUS F2A85-V Pro ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6 MSI FM2-A85XA-G65 Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 ECS A85F2-A Golden |
| Cooling | ThermalRight Copper TRUE |
| Power Supply |
OCZ 1250W Gold ZX Series Rosewill SilentNight 500W Platinum PSU |
| Memory | G.Skill TridentX 4x4 GB DDR3-2400 9-11-11 Kit |
| Memory Settings | 2133 9-11-11 (or as close to it) |
| Video Cards |
ASUS HD7970 3GB ECS GTX 580 1536MB |
| Video Drivers |
Catalyst 12.3 NVIDIA Drivers 296.10 WHQL |
| Hard Drive | Micron RealSSD C300 256GB |
| Optical Drive | LG GH22NS50 |
| Case | Open Test Bed - DimasTech V2.5 Easy |
| Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit |
| USB 2/3 Testing | OCZ Vertex 3 240GB with SATA->USB Adaptor |
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system as a whole with a wall meter connected to the OCZ 1250W power supply, while in a dual 7970 GPU configuration. This power supply is Gold rated, and as I am in the UK on a 230-240 V supply, leads to ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, which is suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.
In our setup, the ECS board has the lowest power consumption for idle, and is middle of the pack in both OCCT and dual 7970 loading.
Non-Windows 8 POST Time
Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we are now going to look at the POST Boot Time - this is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows 7 starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) These results are subject to human error, so please allow +/- 1 second in these results.
A good result for ECS in POST timing, especially when compared to the previous ECS boards we have tested. The A85F2-A Golden also hits under the 12 second mark.
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IanCutress - Sunday, January 13, 2013 - link
On an open test bed I never get the feeling I'm going to break anything, as long as I have one finger holding the edge of the board. But this size PCB is working its way into quite a few sub-$200 motherboards.CeriseCogburn - Monday, January 14, 2013 - link
That's why you use your fingertips to support under the edge of the board while inserting ram, the 24 pin power, etc.If they're fat, stuff em up against the edge, if you're a thin nerdy geek, they fit under the edge and will get poked by solder points.
Get a clue.
Rather don't assemble any more PC's or use both hands.
The idiotic WHINING is really too much.
" I can't assemble a PC properly, I need more help.... my motherboard will be flexed... I can't handle it ! "
SinxarKnights - Sunday, January 13, 2013 - link
While I have purchased an ECS board in the past, I've always felt there is something inherently wrong with having to Google BIOS options just to see what they are. No help in the BIOS and the manual is the same. It just says the name of the option in the description.brookheather - Sunday, January 13, 2013 - link
This article isn't very well written - there are some typos and strangely worded sentences- some examples:"Annoyingly, there major thing wrong"
"For such a price, I would not be remiss in asking for a good look (check)"
"causing not to POST again"
snarfbot - Sunday, January 13, 2013 - link
its gorgeousibnMuhammad - Sunday, January 13, 2013 - link
Thanks for a great review.Still don't quite understand though, why benchmark various premium FM2 motherboards for a low to mid-range CPU? Surely most people will use AMD's Trinity with mATX and itx boards, particularly as it's perfect for a HTPC?
I'm still awaiting FM2 mATX benchmarks, sadly haven't seen any anywhere - unless anyone else has and can point me to the right place?
IanCutress - Sunday, January 13, 2013 - link
The A10-5800K is the top FM2 CPU.CeriseCogburn - Monday, January 14, 2013 - link
LOLgoodbye amd
mekpro - Wednesday, January 16, 2013 - link
Me too. I don't quite understand the point in using Trinity with FullATX.Trinity should meant to be used for budget gaming system which doesn't had much components. It should also used with HTPC where the size is limited.
I'm not sure why mITX is not as quite popular as it should be. The advantages of small form factor benefits over board features which is more than enough even for mITX ones.
JohnUSA - Sunday, January 13, 2013 - link
To PatrickPenn:May you die and burn in hell for eternity.
Evil assh0les like you do not deserve to live.