ECS Sandy Bridge Motherboard Roundup - PAGE 5

The ECS P67H2-A comes packaged in a large blue box with a stylistic android on the front and a high gloss finish. The front also uses icons to list what is supported by the motherboard via the new chipset. The back continues the high gloss look, and lists more details of the support and features of the motherboard.

The accessories that come with the motherboard include six SATA cables, the rear I/O cover, quick install guide, manual, drivers disc and covers for the various ports on the rear I/O panel. ECS has also included a USB 3.0 bracket that has two USB ports and is connected via the internal USB 3.0 header. The adapter comes with a 5.25" enclosure attached to it, but ECS has also included a mounting kit that will allow it to be installed into an open rear expansion slot.

The new ECS P67H2-A is part of the Black Extreme series and as such features a very elegant look with a black, gray and white color scheme, paired with large heatpipe coolers. The overall look is exceptional, and the layout is spacious and well designed.

The new socket is the LGA1155, which adds support for the new Sandy Bridge processors. ECS has included a very robust 12-plus-2 phase unit design. This allows 12 of the units to function specifically for the CPU while the additional two are delegated to the memory controller. ECS also uses 15µ gold plating on the CPU and memory pins to reduce oxidation and improve the contact with the installed component. Just behind the Phase units is the voltage regulation modules, which are cooled via a large dual-pipe heatsink and an 8-pin CPU power connector.

The CPU area features four memory DIMMs that support a maximum of 16GB 240-pin DDR3 memory rated up to 2133 (OC). The memory DIMMs are divided into two channels to support dual-channel architecture and are color coded.

The rear expansion options on the ECS P67H2-A maintain the high level of options we have seen throughout most of the board. Starting at the top there is a clear CMOS button, PS2 keyboard/mouse port, six USB 2.0 ports, two eSATA ports, two LAN ports, two USB 3.0 ports and the rear audio ports. The amount of options on the rear panel should be enough for most users, and the inclusion of UBS 3.0 and an easy clear CMOS button are very welcome.

The bottom portion of the motherboard houses the add-on expansion areas which consist of SATA ports, expansion slots and headers. The expansion slots on the ECS P67H2-A appear to be more in-line with enthusiast grade products, as there is ample room for discrete graphics cards and add-on PCI options. In total there are three PCIe x16 slots, two PCIe x1 slots and two Legacy PCI slots. This will make expansion easy, but the most interesting aspect is that the board includes a Lucid Hydra engine chip that allows any GPU combination from any vendor to be supported. This means you can use both AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards together via the PCIe x16 slots. When using dual cards, the PCIe x16 slots will both function at x16/x16, but the bandwidth will be reduced to x16/x8/x8 when three cards are installed. That is still a substantial improvement over the standard x8/x8 bandwidth seen in most P67-based motherboards.

The additional expansion areas are found at the bottom and consist of the standard USB 2.0, Audio and COM options. The USB ports support ECS's EZ Charger technology. What is different is that the ECS board includes a USB 3.0 header, thanks to a second NEC chip. Also near the bottom of the board are the SATA ports. In all there are six ports, of which two support SATA 6Gb/s while the remaining support SATA 3Gb/s. Just above the ports are the on-board power and reset buttons, and below is a diagnostics LED.

With this being a high-end model based on the P67 chipset, ECS has included a few options that are not standard on the majority of motherboards on the market. The first is a row of LEDs that are located just above the processor socket which serve to indicate the load of the CPU. The second feature is six "Easy Measure Points" that are found just above the memory DIMMs. These measure points allow for real-time voltage readings of the add-on components via multi-meter. This is an excellent addition for extreme overclockers.

The P67H2-A uses ECS's latest Qooltech III heatsink design, but instead of having all the heatsinks connected via heatpipes it uses a two part solution. This includes a single low-profile heatsink to cool the chipset, and a large dual heatpipe cooler on the VRM area. This is a very efficient design and should increase the overclocking potential by lowering the total heat output.