Friday, June 2nd 2017

ECS Showcases Eight Different Motherboards at Computex 2017

ECS took to Computex to showcase seven different motherboards from both AMD and Intel. First up we have the Z270 Lightsaber, which is great at deflecting laser blaster shots. It's an LGA 1151 socket motherboard, features 8-channel audio courtesy of a Realtek ALC 1150 audio chip, a Killer E2500 Gigabit controller, 1x M.2 slot with support for SATA, NVMe, and Intel Optane. There are 3x PCIe x16 slots, which work at x8 x8 x4 when all slots are populated, as is usual with Z270 motherboards.
Next up, and in a whole other league, we have the H110S-2P, which leverages the H110 chipset in a small, mini-ITX sized package. It features only two DDR4 slots, no expansion slots whatsoever, and Realtek supplied both the network and audio chops. You can count on a total of 3x USB 3.0 ports, 1x USB 3.0 Type-A, and 1x Type-C. It includes a single SATA port, paired with 1x M.2 (2280) slot and a M.2 (2230) slot which supports a combo Bluetooth, Wifi Card.
Moving up a little in the motherboard scale, we have the Z270H4-I, a mATX motherboard which still only has two DIMM slots (supporting 3200 MT/s + DDR4). There's also a single PCIe x16 slot, And Realtek's ALC 1150 is in charge of sound again. Intel and Realtek share the network controller realm, there's support for Intel Optane technology, and other worthwhile features include a USB accelerator for mouse and keyboard, NIHICON audio capacitors, an expansion card for Wi-FI ac and Bluetooth capabilities.
Still on Intel, we now move on to the B250 chipset, with the B250H4-M8 and M8S motherboards, which has 2x DIMM slots, 1x PCIe x16, 2x PCIe x1, 1x PCI port, and a single M.2 slot, which supports only SATA on the M8S, but NVMe and Intel Optane on the M8. USB-wise there are 6x USB 3.0 and 6x USB 2.0 ports.
Moving on to the AMD side of the field, we find the B350-based B350AM4-M and B350AM4-MA motherboards, a socket AM4 motherboard with Ryzen and AMD 7th-GEN APU support. There are 4x DIMM slots, 2x PCIe x16 slots ((x16 and x4), 1x PCIe x1, and 1x PCI. Audio is taken care of Realtek's ALC 662 codec, where the MA version of the motherboard also includes an amplifier speaker header.
Last, but not least, ECS showed its A320AM4-M3 motherboard, which presents only 2x DIMM slots, 1x PCIe x16, 1x PCIe x1, and a slot for one M.2 NVMe drive in the 2242/2260/2280 formats. A Realtek ALC 662 codec handles audio, another Realtek chip handles netwroking in the vein of the RTL8111H Gigabit controller, and there's a total of 4x SATA 3 ports for your storage needs. USN options include 4x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0.
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11 Comments on ECS Showcases Eight Different Motherboards at Computex 2017

#1
neko77025
Why does everything they make look cheap ? ....
Would never buy any of their products.
Posted on Reply
#2
P4-630
neko77025Why does everything they make look cheap ? ....
Would never buy any of their products.
They are also used by OEMS, I bought a prebuilt Acer once and it came with ECS motherboard.
Posted on Reply
#3
silentbogo
I want ECS X370AM4 Drone!
neko77025Why does everything they make look cheap ? ....
Would never buy any of their products.
Because they are cheap.

To be honest, besides various BIOS hiccups, their boards are much better designed than some of the MSI and AsRock in the same price class.
Also, I like their support. I remember last year I had a dead B85 board, which needed to be fixed. Everything was done, except BIOS: I had a clean SPI flash but no binary dump of the original one, and ECS only had incomplete updates on the website (BIOS but no ME region). All it took is 1 email to tech support and few hours for response. Got my latest binary and then some.


Anyway, I want X370 Drone!!!


EDIT: Also ECS and AsRock are the only ones making STX boards (mostly for OEMs, but also for retail). ASUS joined the party few months too late ))
Posted on Reply
#4
rtwjunkie
PC Gaming Enthusiast
neko77025Why does everything they make look cheap ? ....
Would never buy any of their products.
That Z270 looks nice, though. IIRC, back in the day they made some good enthusiast boards.
Posted on Reply
#5
TheLostSwede
News Editor
neko77025Why does everything they make look cheap ? ....
Would never buy any of their products.
They make a lot of Asus boards these days...
Posted on Reply
#6
Blueberries
neko77025Why does everything they make look cheap ? ....
Would never buy any of their products.
>15 High-grade PQFN Mosfets
>60A Chokes
>14+2 phase
>cheap

I dunno maybe your eyes are broken
Posted on Reply
#7
mcraygsx
This 10 year old ECS NFORCE 570 SLIT-A still works like new. I won this at PDX Lan party and has been thought several different C2D processors during its time. Along with X6800 & Geforce 1060, I am using it for EVE online, Battlefield, WOT and WOW etc.
I broken clip off PCI Express 3.0 clip but other then that it has been a fantastic quality product and it is purple :D.

If you think its cheap looking think again.

Posted on Reply
#8
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
They are considerably better than PCChips. Good as a mass builders board series.
Posted on Reply
#9
cdawall
where the hell are my stars
TheLostSwedeThey make a lot of Asus boards these days...
Do they really? I knew they had dabbled into making tablets and what not, but no idea pegatron was outsourcing motherboard manufacturing.
Posted on Reply
#10
silentbogo
cdawallDo they really? I knew they had dabbled into making tablets and what not, but no idea pegatron was outsourcing motherboard manufacturing.
There was a rumor some years ago. It was neither denied or confirmed, but on its own quite possible and realistic.
www.legitreviews.com/asus-to-outsource-motherboards-and-video-cards-to-ecs_8424
www.techpowerup.com/164412/asus-to-completely-end-manufacturing-of-its-motherboards-notebooks-by-pegatron

I know for sure that at least part of that rumor is 100% true, because lots of ASUS laptop boards are now made by Quanta and Compal.
Foxconn - definitely. They are so big, you never know where foxconn-manufactured product may end up : cases, accessories, peripherals, internals, flimsy LGA115x CPU sockets.
The part about ECS is also more than plausible, because it did happen at least a couple of times in the past, but was either denied or ignored by ASUS.
Posted on Reply
#11
TheLostSwede
News Editor
cdawallDo they really? I knew they had dabbled into making tablets and what not, but no idea pegatron was outsourcing motherboard manufacturing.
Pegatron stopped making most boards for Asus a long time ago, big falling out between C-level executives.
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