Cloned Motherboards

by : http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/65/1

Cloned Motherboards

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		KT333CF