The ECS A885GM-A2 is an excellent board with many great features and one or two not so great ones!
Assuming it enters stores at the price point I\'ve found it will represent great value and is very well specified. Overall I\'d say that it\'s well laid out, well packaged, stable and seems to do everything in a refreshingly straightforward way.
The ECS A885GM-A2 AM3 Motherboard
The bundled programs and utilities whilst not great in number or features are probably all the average user would want. The eBLU BIOS update system should help make what can be a treacherous process quite simple and despite my initial misgivings over the eJIFFY program i can appreciate why some users may want a hassle free and fast loading interface for 5 minute email and web checks. Also, while the eOC utility is very sparse I would say that the BIOS level M.I.B. III clocking section is as comprehensive as anyone could want it to be.
I did mention a negative above but these are really only small issues -
The first and most minor is the lack of an HDMI socket. These days any board with integrated graphics, especially like the HD4250 here, really deserves one in my opinion.
Second is that the board cannot unlock chips with dormant cores - once again, not the end of the world but would have been lovely if the option was there in some form.
Third and last is that crippled PCI-E x16 slot that runs at x4 speed. From what I\'ve read the performance of GPU\'s above something like an HD5770 will be effected. Yes, in the whole scheme of things (and certainly considering the potential price of the board) this is not a major issue it\'s just more of a pity since the prospect of an overclocked 1090T combined with a couple of 5850\'s or better would really have been impressive!
Pros
+ Looks like it will be reasonably priced
+ Nice design and layout
+ Six core ready
+ SATA III 6Gb/s compliant
+ Clocks well and BIOS easy to use
+ Fanless design still runs quite cool
+ Small but useful software package
+ Onboard GPU is a nice feature
Cons
- Core unlock feature and HDMI would have been nice
- Second PCI-E x16 slot is only x4 speed
+ Looks like it will be reasonably priced
+ Nice design and layout
+ Six core ready
+ SATA III 6Gb/s compliant
+ Clocks well and BIOS easy to use
+ Fanless design still runs quite cool
+ Small but useful software package
+ Onboard GPU is a nice feature
Cons
- Core unlock feature and HDMI would have been nice
- Second PCI-E x16 slot is only x4 speed
All in all though I\'ve been immensely impressed. It overclocked very nicely indeed and performed virtually identically to the ASUS boards I tested recently.
To conclude, if you\'re either looking to make the move to AMD or simply upgrading then it\'s worth a look. SATA III and six core support - it\'s a futureproof little gem!
The ECS A885GM-A2 receives the Vortez Hardware \'Gold\' award - well done!
Vortez Hardware would like to thank ECS for supplying the A885GM-A2 for review. Discuss this review on our forums.
