Installation:
The
ECS C19-A SLI motherboard was installed in a system with the following additional components:
» Intel Pentium D840 (3.2 GHz Dual-Core) CPU
» 2x 512MB OCZ GX XTC Gold PC25400 DDR2 EL Dual Channel Memory
» 2x BFG GeForce 6600GT OC 128MB Graphics Cards
» 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB SATA 1.5 Gbps Hard Drives (RAID 0)
» 1x
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 200GB SATA 1.5 Gbps Hard Drive
» 1x
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 500GB SATA 3 Gbps Hard Drive
»
Tuniq Tower 120mm CPU Cooler
»
Ultra Products 2nd Generation X-Finity 600W Power Supply
» Buslink DVD R/RW Optical Drive
» Windows XP Professional SP2 (current with all patches)
» nVidia Forceware 84.21 graphics drivers
» nVidia nForce4 SLI XE 32-Bit 8.22 platform drivers
Physical installation was quite easy, and the software installation was only hampered by an issue I now blame on the memory. It seems that regardless of motherboard, the OCZ DDR2 referenced above can only be used one stick at a time while installing Windows. Once done, two sticks work great, but during installation I received many blue screens, disc read errors, and other hang ups. Remove one stick, and all is well. This condition was repeated on another board, an
ECS RC410L/800-M ATI chipset unit.
Other than that, the only quirk I have noticed is that the system occasionally hangs for a long time before rebooting. It will shut down OK, but before rebooting there may be quite a few seconds before it posts again. Not a big deal, but it does make me nervous that it is having problems or just isn't going to reboot. Cold starts are generally OK, though.
Enabling a RAID 0 array with the two 80GB drives was simple, although it did require the CD to be accessed from another machine in order to extract drivers to a floppy. This is one of my least favorite parts of installing Windows, but it is the norm for just about any bootable RAID array.
The images below show the components installed on the board. Of most interest to me was the clearance between the graphics cards, memory, and various coolers on the board. The Tuniq Tower 120 is by far the largest cooler I have, so it provides the best test for any chance of interference. As you can see, everything fit in well, with room to spare.
Of particular interest is just how far this CPU cooler hangs over the edge of the motherboard. With the socket so close to the edge, this could be an issue in many smaller cases. A smaller cooler, or a larger case, is recommended to avoid interference with the power supply.
The next set of images is intended show the close fit between capacitors on the board, and the cooler base. As you can see, it is rather close, but it did fit well. The stock Intel cooler fit without issue, but many people with an enthusiast board may want an enthusiast cooler, so it is good to know they will work together.
