Quick, name 3 motherboard manufacturers!

Chances are that most of you thought of companies like Asus, Abit, MSI, and DFI. The question is, how many of you thought of ECS, or Elitegroup Computer Systems? I bet it's not too many. ECS has been around for many years making motherboards that most would say fall into the “Budget” or “Value” category, which is why most GruntvillE readers haven't heard of them. Well, the folks at ECS are determined to change this perception.

So we will start off with a little bit of information about Elitegroup Computer Systems, or ECS, which was founded in Taiwan in 1987. They were the first company to introduce a 32-bit motherboard in 1988, first to introduce a 64-bit board in 1992, and first motherboard manufacturer to be listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. For a company with so many “firsts” they currently have a very low profile with the retail sector. They have also hit the milestone of being able to produce 2,500,000 motherboards and 200,000 notebooks PER MONTH. It would be interesting to know where they are all going and if ECS supplies other companies, particularly system builders like Dell and Gateway, with boards.

However, they're apparently not satisfied with this low profile. They're breaking out and trying to get noticed with the enthusiasts market. The ECS tool of choice is the new KN1 SLI Extreme, which they were kind enough to send us to review. The only down side is, I had to buy some compatible hardware such as Express video cards. So I decided to give myself a gift for no apparent reason and ordered a pair BFG 7800GT OC cards. Couple this with an Athlon 64 3700+ from GruntmaN we have all the parts needed to setup a pretty kickin system.