ECS A785GM-M Socket AM3 Motherboard

Final Thoughts
The ECS A785GM-M was looking to be a favorite in our eyes, especially for users wanting decent performance with a low price tag to match. Due to its chipset, you won’t be finding all of the latest and greatest features but will still see figures to rival some of the Intel equivalent boards at the same price point. If you want a board with stability even when slightly overclocked then this will be a worthwhile contender but don’t expect fantastic results when trying to push your processor to the limits, but the onboard switches and Debug LEDs are a massive plus for system configuration errors and changes.

Being an mATX form factor means this board is quite versitle when it comes to housing it inside a chassis and the colour scheme used along with passive cooling system and solid capacitors clearly shows that this board hasn’t been overlooked or skimped on.

Personally we feel this board would be aimed more at the mainstream market or be perfect for HTPC purposes. If you are hoping to buy a cheap processor and clock it to its limits, then take a look at something else.

Pros:

• Black Series
• Support for the latest AM3 processors
• Integrated graphics
• Good passive cooling solution

Cons:

• Not the most heard of brand in the UK
• Close heatsink clearance
• BIOS lacks features
• BIOS showed a lot of problems
  

We would like to thank ECS for supplying this sample.