When Intel introduced its new LGA775 processor socket for the Prescott Pentium 4, it handed its customers a bigger dilemma than usual; should they upgrade their Socket 478 PC with a faster processor that was at the end of one particular road, or should they buy a new Socket 775 motherboard and processor to start at the beginning of a whole new upgrade cycle?
This is the same choice that we've faced many times over the years, but this time Intel raised the stakes with its 915P and 925X chipsets for the Prescott processor. The 915P supports both DDR and DDR2 memory, while 925X only supports DDR2 memory, but both chipsets only support PCI-Express graphics and not AGP. That's right; if you buy a Prescott processor and motherboard, you also have to buy a new graphics card and possibly new memory too.
Enter stage right ECS with its 915P-A motherboard, which uses the 915P chipset. It has both AGP and PCI-Express graphics slots, as well as a pair of DDR memory slots and a pair of DDR2 memory slots.
Of course you can only use one type of graphics card and one type of memory at a time, but the ECS board allows you to upgrade your motherboard and processor to move to the LGA775 form while retaining your old graphics card and memory. Then, at a later date, you can upgrade your memory and graphics as funds permit. You can see why ECS calls the 915P-A a transition product.
The 915P-A uses the ICH6 Southbridge without RAID, so you can connect up to four SATA hard drives, but you can't connect them together in an array. There's only one ATA100 connector, which is quite usual with current Intel motherboards.
The expansion slots are like nothing you have ever seen. You get a PCI-Express 16x, two PCI Express 1x, an AGP 8x and two PCI, and ECS includes all of the integrated features that you would expect in a modern motherboard. There's Gigabit LAN, eight channel Azalia audio with a CMI 9880 codec, four USB 2.0 ports and the usual legacy ports.
Sold as-is.
No RAM or Processors or Hard Drives included
No Warranty, but in working condition at time of sale
This is the cash price, if a VAT invoice is required please add 14% VAT
