ECS P43T-A2 Motherboard: A decent base for building a multi-purpose use desktop
Written: Nov 01 '08 (Updated Nov 01 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very stable, supports Windows Vista x64, 16GB RAM support, easily overclocked.
Cons: No legacy support (no floppy controller nor parallel port), No SLI or Crossfire support.
The Bottom Line: It is very stable, works great with Windows Vista x64 and will make a great start to a new PC or for upgrading an older one.
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| Gr8ful's Full Review: Elitegroup P43T-A2 Motherboard |
When you decide to build a new computer (or rebuild an old one) the most important part you have to decide on, aside from the processor, is the motherboard. First you have to decide what platform you want to go with (AMD, Intel, Cyrix, etc…) and then you need to find the right motherboard that offers everything you need to do what you want to do with this new computer. That is why manufacturers makes so many different models of motherboards because what may be my most important compute task may not be yours.
Gaming is not the main thing my wife does with her computer but she does occasionally join my son and I in a CounterStrike: Source fragfest. So I built her new system using the P43T-A2 as the backbone of the computer. In hind sight, it was a really good choice for her and she loves her "awesome new computer".
The P43T-A2 supports all LGA775 Intel processors including the 45nm Core 2 Quad. It supports DDR2 memory up to 16GB with dual channel configuration. It also supports gigabit LAN, 6 channel surround HD audio and PCI-Express graphics using a generation 2 16X PCI-e slot. The board does not support SLI graphics - but with a good graphics card it does not hinder gaming with this board at all.
In the Box
ECS P43T-A2 Motherboard
Users Guide
Driver and application CD
ATA133 ribbon data cable
SATA data cable
Rear I/O panel plate cover
Quick start guide
Bag of screws and stand-off screws and washers
Features
Supports Intel LGA775 processors
4 DIMM slots supporting dual channel up to 16GB DDR2 800MHz
Gigabit LAN
North Bridge – Intel P43
South Bridge – Intel ICH10
6 Channel HD audio
1 PCI-e 16x slot
2 PCI-e 1x slots
2 PCI slots
4 SATA channels supporting 4 3Gb/s drives
RAID controller supporting 2 additional 3Gb/s drives
Support for 2 ATA drives (ATA33, 66, 100, or 133)
Front audio support
Front USB support
2 rear USB ports
1 rear serial port
Supports up to 3 case fans
Uses 24-pin EATX power supply
BIOS/Firmware: AMI
Setup and Installation
I installed an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3 GHz processor along with a EVGA GeForce 8800GT graphics card. I used 4GB of G-Skill PC26400 memory and a Hitachi 500GB SATA 3Gb/s hard drive. I also installed Windows Vista Home Premium x64 for the operating system. The initial boot was extremely fast and it only took about 20 minutes to install Windows Vista. After installing the software and drivers, I ran 3DMark06 on the system for a gamer’s perspective of the system’s power and performance. The results were fairly impressive and I will include the results at the end of this review, but the real test is using real world applications.
While this is not likely an issue for most users, there is no parallel port on this motherboard nor is there support for a traditional floppy drive. Both of those technologies have pretty much been laid to rest these days; however, if you need either you may want to consider a different motherboard. Only USB and LAN printers are supported on this baby (without additional upgrades of course). The only legacy port on this board is a single lonely serial port which most people will have absolutely no use for either. The only other thing to really note about the connectivity is that there are no FireWire or IEEE1394 ports on this system. This isn't really a deal breaker either because it has plenty of expansion slots and you can get a FireWire card for about $10 online these days.
BIOS
The motherboard utilizes AMI BIOS (American Megatrends Inc.) and supports many options including overclocking the processor and PCI bus by 1 MHz increments. You can also set the voltage by increments of 0.01. You can choose the memory bus speed at either 667MHz or 800MHz or have the board auto-detect.
You can have up to six SATA drives installed and choose the boot order in the advanced setup section of the BIOS. This means you can install multiple operating systems on separate drives and easily switch between them by launching the BIOS on boot and setting the drive with the desired operating system as 1st drive. Just keep in mind that some operating systems play nicely with others (ehem… Linux) and some not so much (cough…windows …cough). Even so, with each operating system on its own drive, there shouldn’t be too much problem with multiple operating systems.
In the BIOS you can also check the system health, which means you can check the fan speeds and temperature of the processor. You can set an alarm to sound when the temperature rises above your designated degree and have the computer shut down if it rises higher to the next designated degree. This comes in handy when your processor fan dies unexpectedly because the temperature can rise extremely high in a matter of seconds and if the computer doesn’t shut down, you’ll be buying a new processor (and possibly a motherboard)
Application and Gaming Performance
The machine performs admirably for all media whether it be MP3 music, AVI video, HD Video or streaming from the web. Media Center has no problem finding and playing all media on the system. So, I can say that this is a fantastic media PC. I installed an ASUS 20X DLDVD-RW and the computer plays back DVD without any lag or glitching. It also burns DVD and CD without any errors so far. Burning software tested with was Windows Media Player, Nero Express, Power 2 Go and Adobe Encore. All of the burning programs were able to handle the high speed data burns.
Playing games on the system is highly impressive considering there is no SLI or Crossfire support with the Intel chipset. The motherboard handles the GeForce 8800GT in a single card installation and plays almost as well as another SLI configured PC with the two of the same cards. Games tested were Doom3, Battlefield 2, Half-Life 2, Halo 2 and FlatOut Ultimate Carnage. All the games played with acceptable frame rate (never below 30fps with average 60fps) with no Anti-aliasing and display set to 1280x1024 32-bit resolution.
Just to clarify, on a different system using dual GeForce 8800GT cards in SLI configuration only boosted the performance marginally over the P43T-A2 with the same memory and drive; a far cry from the 2.0X performance that NVIDIA Claims.
OpenOffice.org is the software I installed for productivity. Let just say that if you are only interested in the motherboards productivity capability, there is nothing to worry about. Even with the slowest processor available installed and only 256MB memory, this board will smoke any office application including Microsoft’s Access and PowerPoint.
On a side note, the chipset cooling solution used on this motherboard is very adequate and very quiet. If your goal is to build a silent system, this is a good motherboard to start with. Some new motherboards use a fan/heatsink cobination that can be as loud as some processor fans, but not the ECS P43T-A2. It is a very quiet start to a silent system.
3DMark06 Benchmark
Testing setup:
Operating System: Vista Home Premium x64
Motherboard: ECS P43T-A2
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0GHz
Memory: 4GB G-Skill DDR2 6400
CPU Heatsink: Noctua NH-U12P CPU cooler
Video card: EVGA GeForce 8800 GT
Hard drive: Hitachi 500GB SATA
Processor information
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Processor clock: 3000 MHz
Physical / logical processors: 1 / 2
Multicore: 2 Processor Cores
FSB: 333 MHz
Display information
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
Graphics card vendor: Nvidia Corp
Graphics memory: 512.0
Driver name: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
Driver version: 7.15.11.6906
Driver status: WHQL - Not FM Approved
Linked display adapters: No
Benchmark settings
Program Version: 3DMark06 Revision 1 Build 0
Resolution: 1280x1024
Full Screen Anti-Aliasing : None
Texture Filtering: Optimal
Vertex Shader Profile: 3_0
Pixel Shader Profile: 3_0
Main test results
3DMark Score: 11054 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score: 5102
SM 3.0 Score: 4797
CPU Score: 2755
Test Results
1 - Return to Proxycon: 41.71 FPS
2 - Firefly Forest : 43.33 FPS
CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley: 0.87 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley: 1.4 FPS
HDR Tests
1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0): 45.55 FPS
2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0): 50.4 FPS
Feature Tests
Fill Rate - Single Texturing: 4775.3 MTexels/s
Fill Rate - Multi Texturing: 25014.02 MTexels/s
Pixel Shader: 451.71 FPS
Vertex Shader - Simple: 238.01 MVertices/s
Vertex Shader - Complex: 148.41 MVertices/s
Shader Particles (SM 3.0): 92.15 FPS
Perlin Noise (SM 3.0): 145.39 FPS
Batch Tests
8 Triangles: 24.43 MTriangles/s
32 Triangles: 96.71 MTriangles/s
128 Triangles: 282.12 MTriangles/s
512 Triangles: 294.69 MTriangles/s
2048 Triangles: 297.45 MTriangles/s
32768 Triangles: 298.4 MTriangles/s
Although 3DMark06 is geared toward gaphics and gaming benchmarks, I ran a batch loop overnight and throughout all of the testing the P43T-A2 was stable and reliable, with no system crashes or system hangs. A reliable motherboard is the base of a great computer no matter what you want to use it for and the ECS P43T-A2 is a solid performer in that respect.
Conclusion
Overall, this is a solid well rounded motherboard for any home or office computer system. It isn’t designed for the extreme gamer, the audiophile or professional video studios but it is designed for anyone who just wants a good solid foundation for a well rounded home or office computer. It is very stable, works great with Windows Vista x64 and will make a great start to a new PC or for upgrading an older one.
Thanks for reading,
Gr8ful ;-)
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): N/A gift
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