ECS Z77H2-AX

We realize that a motherboard?s appearance is usually only of importance to the most die-hard enthusiasts?you know, the kinds of people who have cases with side-panel windows and work fastidiously to ensure there?s no dust inside?but the ECS Z77H2-AX, designed for Intel?s LGA1155 socket, would be a head-turner for anyone. Adorning the jet-black PCB are shimmering gold-colored accents that make the board?s crucial parts?the socket cover, heat sinks, the resistors, rear-panel ports, and even their associated I/O plate?into 24-karat eye candy. Is that alone enough to justify the Z77H2-AX?s platinum-plated price of $309.99? For most people, probably not. But if you consider aesthetics a make-or-break feature, you won?t find a better motherboard than this.

It?s worth pointing out that, according to ECS, the benefits of all the gold aren?t just visual. The gold plating on the CPU pins, memory sockets, and PCI Express (PCIe) slots reportedly increase stability up to three times, and on the cooling modules speed thermal dissipation; ECS also touts their ?anti-oxidation, anti-rust, and anti-moisture? benefits. Those qualities are difficult for us to test, but there?s no doubt that they up the Z77H2-AX?s luxury factor by an order of magnitude or two.

Because of its socket, the ATX-form-factor Z77H2-AX will work for you whether you want to load it with a processor from the current third-generation Core (aka ?Ivy Bridge?) family or from last year?s Sandy Bridge line. If you want, two video outputs (VGA and HDMI) let you take advantage of the CPU?s integrated graphics system, with LucidLogix?s Virtu Universal MVP GPU Virtualization providing dynamic switching between integrated and discrete graphics. If you don?t want, there are three PCIe x16 slots version 3.0 slots for installing up to three discrete video cards using either AMD?s or Nvidia?s GPUs (though, if you use three cards, the third slot will run at x8 rather than x16, due to limitations with the PCIe bus). The Intel Z77 Express chipset the motherboard uses allows you to overclock the CPU and specify a solid-state drive (SSD) for use in data caching by way of Intel?s Smart Response Technology. (For more about SRT, check out our review of the Intel SSD 311 Series.)

All this suggests a motherboard stuffed to the gills with gaming-friendly features, and a look at the rest of the Z77H2-AX certainly bears this out. Four memory slots support up to 32GB of dual-channel DDR3 1600 RAM (or DDR3 2800 when overclocked). The Intel drive controller lets you connect two 3Gbps SATA II devices and two 6Gbps SATA III devices (with RAID Levels 0, 1, 5, and 10 all options); a secondary ASMedia ASM1061 controller provides two additional SATA III ports. The expansion slot roster is rounded out with two PCIe x1 slots, two regular PCI slots, and even a Mini PCIe x1 slot for connecting an additional device (such as an mSATA card for use with SRT, a feature we previously saw last generation in the Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD).

In addition to the aforementioned VGA and HDMI outputs, on the rear panel you?ll find eight USB ports (four each of USB 3.0 and USB 2.0), two 6Gbps eSATA ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port (RealTek RTL 8111E), an S/PDIF jack, five ports for utilizing the integrated eight-channel audio system (RealTek ALC892), a button to clear the CMOS, and the built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi receivers. Want even more ports on your system? You can add four more USB ports (two each USB 3.0 and USB 2.0) through the use of the onboard headers; ECS has even prepared you for their use by including a USB 3.0 panel designed to fit in one of your case?s external 3.5-inch drive bays.

The Z77H2-AX boasts a number of additional technologies as well. On the proprietary side, ECS Super Alloy Choke promises a 50-percent increase in system stability by increasing energy efficiency, better maintaining operating temperatures, and reducing electromagnetic interference (EMI). EZ Charger provides three times more current through the motherboard?s USB ports than is usually the case, so you can charge your devices more quickly. ECS?s fully graphical UEFI offers an excellent (and mouse-compatible) way to tweak your system settings.

Performance of the Z77H2-AX (when using a Core i7-3770K processor) on our suite of benchmark tests was generally in line with what we?ve seen from other first-wave Ivy Bridge motherboards, if more often than not on the lower end of the spectrum. The one area in which the Z77H2-AX stood out, however, was power usage. We measured the draw of our full test-bed system, which also used an Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 video card, with an Extech Datalogger both at idle and with all the CPU cores pegged. In both cases the Z77H2-AX used the most electricity: 85 watts for the former, and 158.5 watts for the latter. By way of comparison, the lowest-power Ivy Bridge motherboard we?ve tested so far, the Intel Desktop Board DZ77GA-70K drew only 71.2 watts when idle and 136.3 watts under full load.

For most users, a motherboard?s power draw isn?t going to be a deal-breaker?but the ECS EZ77H2-AX is already among the most expensive Ivy Bridge?ready models you can buy. If you?re primarily concerned about in-box extras, you?ll get more of them overall with the Editors? Choice Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe?which also costs less ($284.99 list) and uses less power. Even if the EZ77H2-AX isn?t the all-around champ, it?s a fine LGA1155 motherboard with dazzling beauty that no others on the market can currently match.

More Chipset and Processor Reviews:
??? Intel Desktop Board DZ77GA-70K
??? Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H
??? ECS Z77H2-AX
??? Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe
??? Intel Core i5-3470
?? more

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