And not everyone wants to have a budget z97 either. If you want to go cheap and OC, you can always buy one of the H81 boards, that support overclocking via bios "hacks".
A different era that was. In those days if you wanted a different textolite color for a given ECS mobo, you could just cross-reference the equivalent PCCHIPS version.
I hope this motherboard turns out well. My only criticism is that 4.7 GHz is going to require an aftermarket cooler. The aftermarket cooler, of course, take away from the value aspect of overclocking the Pentium G3258.
Why someone would spend money on such a crappy solution is completely beyond me. Either you want cheap and don't care about the speed then you'd go for the cheapest possible Pentium or you want reliable performance then you'd go for a Core-i3 or i5, potentially even without paying more than for a special board, the AE and the cooler...
Haswell OCing currently is incredibly overrated. I see people blindly recommending the 4690K all the time with expensive mobo/cooling when they can just simply use the same money for a 4790K and a cheaper mobo that already runs 4.2GHz minimum at stock speeds. You be lucky if you can make a 10% 4690K OC over the 4790K and you still don't get hyperthreading to boot.
Well, I see the i5-46x0K usually around 100 to 300MHz faster at lower or similar voltages compared to corresponding i7-47x0K CPUs. And if all you do is gaming and you know you aren't playing any games that benefit from HT (I think there are only a handful, some strategy titles mostly), why bother with the ~70-80€ extra for the i7? And that the i5 needs better cooling compared to the i7 with the conditions I listed above is something I haven't heard, yet, either.
This board and the processor combo is cheaper than the cheapest i3, but is capable of performance beyond the rest of the Pentium line. I don't see a lot of uses for it, but I think there are a few. One that comes to mind for me is a Plex server with no more than two streams at a time. This will do that for much cheaper than an i3, but it is a task beyond the rest of the Pentium line. The Athlons at the Pentium AEs price point don't have integrated graphics, so you have to add a graphics card's cost into it, which is something people not playing games on it wouldn't need with the Pentium.
"Ultimately I would have preferred a physical button due to the low number of home users who actually enter the BIOS or install the bundled software."
I'd expect the number of home users likely to enter the BIOS in order to overclock neatly intersects the number of home users willing to open the chassis and hunt down a button on the motherboard.
Maybe he refers to an actual TURBO button like the 468's and Pentiums 20 years ago. Considering that ECS is probably selling to an OEM anyway, a modern PC chassis with a TURBO button (and green MHz LCD) would be amazing, a real tribute to the Pentium.
The article update changes your numbers to $125 for the ECS kit + decent HSF.
Given that I would never use a stock Intel HSF for anything ever, that makes the ECS proposition 2/3 the cost of yours. Not bad for the basis of an overclocked 1080p gaming system.
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hojnikb - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Brown PCB ?What is this, the 90' ?
nissefar - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Not everybody wants a window in their case you know.hojnikb - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
And not everyone wants to have a budget z97 either.If you want to go cheap and OC, you can always buy one of the H81 boards, that support overclocking via bios "hacks".
Samus - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
They had some old inventory brown circuit boards to use up...piroroadkill - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
If it's cheaper in any way, it's worth it.hojnikb - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Green PCB would probobly be the cheapest one, so..willis936 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
I don't think silk screen color actually affects cost at all. Green is just the most common because it stands out.willis936 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
*solder maskFlunk - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Be glad it's not purple. ECS used to to purple for everything. It was their signature color.anonymous_user - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
I think purple would at least look better than brown.xrror - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - link
A different era that was. In those days if you wanted a different textolite color for a given ECS mobo, you could just cross-reference the equivalent PCCHIPS version.Computer Bottleneck - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
I hope this motherboard turns out well. My only criticism is that 4.7 GHz is going to require an aftermarket cooler. The aftermarket cooler, of course, take away from the value aspect of overclocking the Pentium G3258.Daniel Egger - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Why someone would spend money on such a crappy solution is completely beyond me. Either you want cheap and don't care about the speed then you'd go for the cheapest possible Pentium or you want reliable performance then you'd go for a Core-i3 or i5, potentially even without paying more than for a special board, the AE and the cooler...hojnikb - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Exactly. PentiumK beyond overclocking for fun makes little sense. And "expensive" boards also.Just shell a few bucks more and get i3. Or fx6300.
StrangerGuy - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - link
Haswell OCing currently is incredibly overrated. I see people blindly recommending the 4690K all the time with expensive mobo/cooling when they can just simply use the same money for a 4790K and a cheaper mobo that already runs 4.2GHz minimum at stock speeds. You be lucky if you can make a 10% 4690K OC over the 4790K and you still don't get hyperthreading to boot.Death666Angel - Friday, August 22, 2014 - link
Well, I see the i5-46x0K usually around 100 to 300MHz faster at lower or similar voltages compared to corresponding i7-47x0K CPUs. And if all you do is gaming and you know you aren't playing any games that benefit from HT (I think there are only a handful, some strategy titles mostly), why bother with the ~70-80€ extra for the i7? And that the i5 needs better cooling compared to the i7 with the conditions I listed above is something I haven't heard, yet, either.jrdroid - Sunday, September 6, 2015 - link
This board and the processor combo is cheaper than the cheapest i3, but is capable of performance beyond the rest of the Pentium line. I don't see a lot of uses for it, but I think there are a few. One that comes to mind for me is a Plex server with no more than two streams at a time. This will do that for much cheaper than an i3, but it is a task beyond the rest of the Pentium line. The Athlons at the Pentium AEs price point don't have integrated graphics, so you have to add a graphics card's cost into it, which is something people not playing games on it wouldn't need with the Pentium.edzieba - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
"Ultimately I would have preferred a physical button due to the low number of home users who actually enter the BIOS or install the bundled software."I'd expect the number of home users likely to enter the BIOS in order to overclock neatly intersects the number of home users willing to open the chassis and hunt down a button on the motherboard.
know of fence - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Maybe he refers to an actual TURBO button like the 468's and Pentiums 20 years ago. Considering that ECS is probably selling to an OEM anyway, a modern PC chassis with a TURBO button (and green MHz LCD) would be amazing, a real tribute to the Pentium.colinstu - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
No mention of price besides that it'll be "cheap"?flyingpants1 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
i3 ($125) + MSI H81 ($40) = $165PK ($70) + HSF ($25) + ECS Z97 ($50??) = $145
Absolutely no point in getting this. Ever.
Spunjji - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - link
The article update changes your numbers to $125 for the ECS kit + decent HSF.Given that I would never use a stock Intel HSF for anything ever, that makes the ECS proposition 2/3 the cost of yours. Not bad for the basis of an overclocked 1080p gaming system.