Wanna know the difference between an ECS 680i and an EVGA 680i ?
Thats about it lol. The packaging is the only difference. Both pieces of hardware are exactly the same as far as I can tell.
The packaging of the EVGA is more 'luxurious' in that the motherboard is better packed (although mine had many bent resistors/capacitors). The packaging of the ECS is a smaller box and wrapped in bubble wrap rather than using the foam packing of the EVGA.
Onto the contents. Both the EVGA and the ECS have an abundance of cabling allowing you to fit everything but the kitchen sink to the motheboard - the EVGA package however provides round IDE cables whereas the ECS are the cheaper ribbon type. This is where I had my doubts regarding the ECS board as the cables seemed a bit of a mis-match in that there were colours galore! Sata cables - orange, IDE cables - black, USB/Firewire - grey, network cable - blue! Why they didn't just have everything black I don't know coz I liked the EVGA cables much better. Worthy of note however is that you get a network cable with the ECS whereas I didn't with the EVGA. Also a front mounted floppy bracket allowing the mounting of USB and firewire through the floppy drive space is a welcome addition.
The manuals are also different. The EVGA manual is bigger in size but smaller in content - if that makes any sense. I havn't had time to thougroughly examine word for word what each says but the ECS deffo looks like it has more info in it.
The motherboard itself. The most important bit here - BOTH MOTHERBOARDS ARE EXACTLY THE SAME. I have compared photos of my old EVGA (now sold) to this ECS and I cannot for the life of me spot any differences save for the EVGA sticker being replaced with an ECS one. To confirm that both boards were the same I decided to flash the bios with the EVGA P21 rather than the ECS P21 as it seems an easier method than the ECS which uses afudos. Worked a charm, no problems whatsoever! So it would seem that apart from the packaging everything between the two is the same....evan the bios's, as they should be because the manufacturers don't write them - NVidia do.
I managed 3.8ghz on my conroe setup with the EVGA and guess what I get with the ECS...3.8ghz. Every setting is the same in both boards and both produce the same results. So for a saving of over £40(when I purchased) I have the same product apart from fancy packaging and black cables...I can live with that tbh.
Note : I am unsure of the warranty difference between the boards tbh. Some say EVGA offer a lifetime warranty, others say 10 years. The ECS comes with a 2 year warranty afaik - something you may want to consider before purchasing. Personally it dosn't bother me as I change hardware frequently enough that nothing stays in my setup for longer than a year anyway
