Not to be outdone by the competition, ECS (Elitegroup Computer Systems) has brought with it at CES 2012 a couple of motherboards based on Intel's upcoming 7 Series chipsets - one is a micro ATX model powered by the H77 chip, and the other is an ATX solution boasting the Z77 flagship silicon, the Z77H2-AX.

Part of the ECS' Black Series, the Ivy Bridge-supporting Z77H2-AX features a black PCB, a 12-phase power design, a quad-heatsink cooler, four DDR3-2600 memory slots, six SATA ports (two are surely 6.0 Gbps), and three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots.ECS' motherboard also packs two PCI and two PCIe x1 slots, an mSATA connector, a debug LED, Gigabit Ethernet, four USB 3.0 ports, 7.1 channel audio, Bluetooth, two eSATA ports, D-Sub and HDMI outputs, plus Power, Reset and Clear CMOS buttons. No word on availability but it's likely the Z77H2-AX will ship around the end of Q1.