One of Intel’s big pushes for the motherboard market at the moment is the VIIV standard. VIIV is the combination of Dual Core CPUs, an Intel motherboard, High Definition Audio and more to present a unified digital home entertainment platform. The ECS board is a decent example of a VIIV board, with everything needed with the exception of a CPU, memory, hard disk drive to have a new system. The integrated GMA950 graphics is barely adequate for playing modern games like Oblivion and Prey.

The m-ATX form factor is perfect for a small gaming machine. Just add a X1900XTX or 7900GTX video card and you can game with the best of them, especially if you pair it with a good fast CPU like a 840 Dual Core, and 2GB of fast low-latency DDR2 memory with a x1900XTX is what I have in one of my primary gaming machines today. The onboard audio is excellent for the average user.

This board does not feature many overclocking options, due to no voltage adjustments available in the BIOS for either the CPU or the memory. But this board is targeted for the mainstream market and overclocking is undertaken mainly by high-end users and enthusiasts. Another negative is the rather austere bundle, but for the price the board and targetted market, the ECS 945G-M3 is a good board.

Features- 9 Expansion- 5 Stability- 10 Performance- 9 Software Bundle- 9 Hardware bundle- 3 Overall Value- 8 Compatibility- 10 Support- 10 Ergonomics- 9 Total: 82