Product Reviews

ECS's G33T-M2 uses Intel's budget G33 chipset, which has integrated GMA3100 graphics - the company's latest 3D graphics chipset. It supports processors with a 1,333MHz frontside bus (FSB), such as the Core 2 Duo E6750 (reviewed left). There are some overclocking options in the BIOS, but they don't have the breadth of those offered by Asus's P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP.

ECS has opted for four DDR2 DIMM slots. This makes sense, as DDR2's performance is similar to the current DDR3 memory and is around a third of the price.

Strangely,

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there's no PATA interface, so you'll need to buy a SATA DVD drive or a PATA-to-SATA convertor. It's the first board we've seen to ditch this popular interface and it's a strange move on a budget motherboard.

Windows Vista's Aero Glass interface worked straight away on the integrated graphics. We ran into problems when we tried to run our Call of Duty 2 test, as it quit with a DirectX error. Installing the latest drivers from ECS and Intel failed to fix the problem.

After installing an INF update we got 3DMark06 to work, although the tests were very jerky and there was no HDR support. We had a little more success with Prey, although the frame rate of 5.8fps at 1,280x1,024 with no AA shows that these graphics aren't really suitable for gaming. Fortunately, there's a PCI-E x16 slot, so you can upgrade to a better card.

We were quite disappointed by the G33T-M2's onboard graphics and the poor driver support, which we hope will improve. However, if you're looking for a cheap motherboard for the latest Intel processors, it's good value; just see this month's Labs for a graphics update.