ECS GeForce6100SM-M Motherboard Review

[mybigmac]

Does anyone know if this motherboard uses a 3 pin or a 4 pin connection for the cpu cooling fan?

[Gabriel Torres]

Hi and welcome to our forums.

This motherboard uses a 4-pin connector for its CPU cooler. You can check this out on the motherboard manual, page 4, item 23.

Cheers,
Gabriel

[Bachy]

Hi there Folks..

I just buyed this motherboard, just had to have sometihng cheap top start up with, since i sold my old computer a couple of moths ago.

I tried putting 2 x 1 GB PC2 667 noname modules onto it, but by windows keep crashing. Then i took one of the modules out, and tried booting up again .. no luck .. windows stille freeze with the famous Blue Screen of death
I even tried running memtest86+, but after a couple of seconds, the errors just keeps rolling in

So .. I tried buying a single PC2 800 module, but now the computer just refuses to start. I comes with the 3 beep tones, so i guess it's a RAM problem.

Now I'm wondering .. should this mainboard not be able to handle PC2 800 modules?

Any one in for any good ideas ?

Chears,
Bachy

[Gabriel Torres]

Hi there,

This is a motherboard for AMD processors. On AMD processors the memory controller is inside the CPU, not on the motherboard. So memory compatibility on this motherboard has nothing to do with the motherboard, but with the CPU. AM2 CPUs support DDR2-800, no problem with that.

So I would try some things:

1. Enter the motherboard setup and leave memory timings at "auto".

2. Test your memory modules on another computer.

3. If your modules work fine on another computer, replace the CPU.

Cheers,
Gabriel.

[suspect]

Does this motherboard allow hot-swapping of SATAII hard drives?
I installed a new WD 160GB Caviar SE SATAII hd. I noticed that there was a safely remove status for the drive. Does that mean the motherboard ECS GeForce6100SM-M can handle that?

[dumy2344]

Originally Posted by mr_fnord

There is a vCore adjustment buried in the other BIOS menus on the GEforce6100SM-M, it's the same screen as the Cool n Quiet on/off and the multiplier options. Max voltage is 1.35 or something pretty low, but it might help a little.

The review didn't really mention how horrible this thing is to overclock with the onboard video enabled. I was getting unstable behavior at 203Mhz with the PCI-e set to 100, and could only push it to 204 stably with PCI-e at 102. Anything more on either bus had a good chance of the 'CPU speed error detected, default settings used' message on boot.

Also, overclocking or not, make sure you set the mem speed! I don't think this MB autodetects, and my DDR2-667 was running at 533 by default, had to turn it off auto onto MaxMemClk and then choose 667 to run at that speed.

I just dropped in an x600 off ebay and now the thing has a little more leeway. Just ran 1 hour SMP FAH at 210 and 1.325v on a brisbane, now I'm going to try 220...

I've got the same problem with this mobo , i can't get past 203Mhz without getting that annoying message on boot ... how did you solve it ???
I can't disable the onboard video , i only have 2 options "enable" or "enable if no ext gpu found" ...
I've got the latest bios from the manufacturer's site ...
Oh , my configuration is: Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.1GHz Brisbane , patriot 2x2gb ddr800 , asus geforce 8500gt top 256mb
Can anyone help me ???

edit :
Problem solved ! I'll post the results later , if anyone's interested ...

For the guys with ram problems ... If you want your modules to work in dual channel try an divisible by 2 multiplier for your prcessor ... that worked for me ...

another edit :
ok , so I updated the bios but it didn't help me too much , I couldn't raise any voltage ... so I was hoping , maybe somebody could help me with some voltmodding ...