ECS P35T-A Motherboard Review

Conclusions

We were somewhat impressed by ECS P35T-A performance, on the same level of other fancy (and more expensive) P35-based motherboards. Since usually ECS products cost less than the competition, this motherboard can be a good buy if you are looking for an updated mainstream motherboard for your Intel CPU.

Its main features include support for the new 1,333 MHz external bus, six SATA-300 ports, one eSATA port and two x16 PCI Express slots supporting CrossFire (even though one of them work at x4).

Once again we want to congratulate ECS to be finally using solid aluminum and Japanese capacitors on the voltage regulator circuit from this motherboard. The other caps are from Taiwanese vendors, but at least this is a good start for a manufacturer addicted to low-end components. On P35T-A they also added a passive heatsink on the MOSFET transistors from the voltage regulator, which is great.

This motherboard has some limitations, so it is not recommended to all sort of users.

First, even though this motherboard has six SATA-300 ports it doesn’t support RAID, as it uses ICH9DH south bridge, not ICH9R.

Second, you can’t configure DDR2-1066 memories to run at 1,066 MHz. All other P35- and P965-based motherboards we’ve seen to date support this option.

Third, the on-board audio input quality isn’t good enough for today’s standards. This board provides only 85 dB on its analog audio input and you need at least 95 dB there. For this reason, avoid this motherboard if you want to build a system to capture and edit analog audio (e.g., converting VHS tapes, cassette tapes, LPs, etc to digital format).

In fourth place, this motherboard does not have on-board SPDIF connectors and even though the board provides a header for SPDIF, it doesn’t come with an SPDIF bracket, making it hard for users willing to connect their PCs to their home theater receivers. It should either have SPDIF connectors soldered on the motherboard or come with this bracket. On the other hand this motherboard provides full 7.1 analog outputs on its rear panel, allowing you to hook a 7.1 or 5.1 analog speaker system without killing the mic in and line in inputs.

If the flaws listed above aren’t a problem for you, this motherboard is probably the P35-based motherboard that provides the best cost/benefit ratio around, being recommended to average users that are not looking for a motherboard full of fancy features.