There’s a reason ECS is the world’s second largest motherboard manufacturer, and boards like this are it. The P4IBMS is small, efficient, easy to use, and most importantly, inexpensive.

It’s difficult to talk about prices for a board such as this, because they’re usually bought not via the standard retail channels, but rather in bulk from top tier dealers. That said, the board is available in retail channels for less than $100, which indicates to us that system builders should be able to purchase it in bulk for around $70-$90.

Paired with 256 MB of extremely cheap PC133 SDRAM, and a lower end Pentium 4, you have the makings of a system that looks particularly attractive, but costs very little. More importantly, ECS boards are generally rugged enough to last for years in OEM systems, so builders can rest assured they won’t be facing an RMA epidemic.

For a DIY or enthusiast system, this definitely isn’t the type of board you should be looking at. But if you’ve just received an order for 200 Pentium 4 systems, this is definitely worth a look.

Dan Mepham