Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), the major mainboard maker, used to lack popularity among power users as most of its products were targeted at the low price category. ECS solutions used to have excellent price/performance ratio but couldn't meet the demands of PC enthusiasts because of their rather limited functionality.

To be honest, some products from ECS did win recognition among the enthusiasts ?take its mainboards for the Athlon 64 on SiS chipsets, for example. But that was mostly because other manufacturers didn't use chipsets from SiS at all, so ECS's mainboards just had no alternatives in the market.

Things are changing of course. Many mainboard makers are trying to enter new markets, and ECS is among them. While some renowned companies are introducing their first budget solutions, encroaching on ECS's traditional grounds, ECS is moving in the opposite direction. Not long ago ECS began to produce midrange and top-end mainboards for enthusiasts that were intended to become competitors to mainboards from such giants as ASUS, ABIT, MSI and others.

That's how the Extreme series of ECS mainboards was introduced. ECS positions this series for demanding users; these mainboards aren't expected to be low-cost but shouldn't be inferior in functionality to products of the same price from other manufacturers.

Today we’ll get to know one of the most promising models from ECS Extreme series. The ECS KN1 Extreme supports Socket 939 processors from the Athlon 64 family and is based on the NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra chipset that PC enthusiasts have come to like so much.