Cloned Motherboards

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Gigacore

Dreamweaver
Source: *www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/65

There are several motherboards that are not manufactured, rather they are bought from another manufacturer and have their tag sticked to them, as it happens to those from Amptron, Alton, Aristo and Matsonic. Matsonic used to sell their board under the brand "Eurone. All those "manufacturers" buy boards from ECS (EliteGroup Systems), which is one of the largest motherboard manufacturers in the world and is also the owner of the brand PCChips, one of the most popular motherboard manufacturer in developing countries because of their low prices.

ECS says they use the brand PCChips for their boards for the low-end PC market, while the boards sold under the brand ECS have better quality control. However, several ECS and PCChips motherboards are simply identical.

For example, if you buy an ECS K7SOM+ motherboard in the belief you are making a better deal than buying one from PCChips you are mistaken, for that motherboard is actually the M810DLU from PCChips. Similarly, if you an MS9138E from Matsonic you will be really taking home an M925 from PCChips.

We compiled two tables showing the correspondence of the most popular cloned motherboards on the market today. Notice that that table is far from being thorough, being just a fast guide to be used when buying a low cost motherboard.

Socket 478 (Intel Processors)

ECS
PCChips
Matsonic
Amptron
Chipset

P4IBASD V3.X
M902LU v3.0
MS9047C
Intel 845D

P4S5A
M930LMR
SiS 645

P4S5A/DX
M930ALU v5.x
SiS 645DX

P4S5MG/651+
M935ALU v5.1B
SiS 651

P4S5MG/GL
M935LU v5.1B (M935DELR)
SiS 650GL

P4S5MG/GL+
M935MLU5
SiS 650GL

P4S8AG
M947
SiS 648

P4VMM2
MS9138D
VIA P4M266

P4VMM2 v3.1
M925 ALMU (M925LU v3.x)
MS9138E
XP4-925ALU
VIA P4M266

P4VXAS2 v2.X
MS9107C
VIA P4X266A

P4VXASD2 v5.X
M922 v5.0
VIA P4X333

P4VXASD2+
M922LU v5.0
MS9147C
XP4-922LU
VIA P4X333




Socket A (AMD Processors)


ECS
PCChips
Matsonic
Amptron
Chipset

M825LU v3.x
K7-825LU v.3.1
VIA KM266

K7S7AG
M847
SiS 746

K7SEM v3.0
M810L v7.1C
K7-810CLM4
SiS 730S

K7SOM+
M810DLU
K7-810DLM4
SiS 730D

K7VMM
M825LMU
VIA KM266

K7VTA3 V2.X
MS8137C+
KT266A

K7VTA3 V7.0
MS8167C
K
 

infra_red_dude

Wire muncher!
looks like an age old post! all those chipsets mentioned are obsolete now!!

btw, i had a pcchips m810lr board.... and flashed the bios of a k7s5a ECS board for some tweaking.. and its still working flawlessly at my uncles place! actually we'd be interested if more recent chipset board ripoffs are posted!
 
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