ECS Golden Board Z77H2-AX LGA 1155 Preview

cadaveca · Mar 29, 2012

The eagerly anticipated Intel Z77 Express Chipset is finally here. As always, ECS is first out the gate here at TPU, with none other than their first and only "Golden Board" Z77H2-AX. Built with unmatched quality and funtionality as its main focus, the Z77H2-AX is ECS's latest weapon against the twin overclocking Dragons of AMD and Intel.

Show full review

Imhoteps · Apr 9, 2012

Thx for review! So what`s the final score?

Athlon2K15 · Apr 9, 2012

I dont get it?

The main reason we have Z77 is native USB 3, yet you dont test it?

brandonwh64 · Apr 9, 2012

AthlonX2 said:
I dont get it?

The main reason we have Z77 is native USB 3, yet you dont test it?

This is just a preview, When he gets a Ivy bridge chip is when all the full testing begins.

Athlon2K15 · Apr 9, 2012

That doesnt matter current 1155 chips work in these boards

brandonwh64 · Apr 9, 2012

AthlonX2 said:
That doesnt matter current 1155 chips work in these boards

Well thats true. I have a feeling he didn't want to do two full testes with SB then IB but thats just a guess. Maybe dave can chime in and answer.

Athlon2K15 · Apr 9, 2012

brandonwh64 said:
Well thats true. I have a feeling he didn't want to do two full testes with SB then IB but thats just a guess. Maybe dave can chime in and answer.

you said testes :laugh:

brandonwh64 · Apr 9, 2012

AthlonX2 said:
you said testes

I sure did, I don't think and edit can save that from a laugh. I will leave it HAHAH

radrok · Apr 9, 2012

Thanks Dave :toast:

TheMailMan78 · Apr 9, 2012

AthlonX2 said:
That doesnt matter current 1155 chips work in these boards

Because its called a preview. Not a review.

cadaveca · Apr 9, 2012

AthlonX2 said:
I dont get it?

The main reason we have Z77 is native USB 3, yet you dont test it?

Previews do not contain performance compares. Plus, USB 3.0 performance varies from product to product, so covering just that would not actually relate USB 3.0 performance for the chipset, but merely for the individual product.

Full Performance reviews will come after IVB launches.

EarthDog · Apr 9, 2012

I hope this board works better than it looks. BLEH.

cadaveca · Apr 9, 2012

EarthDog said:
I hope this board works better than it looks. BLEH.

It is going to be tough to everyone to like, but since it's limited to 200 peices of each model in the "Golden Board" series, i think it's been a good experiment.

As I'm sure you know, Z77 products seem to clock SB CPUS a bit better than P67/Z68, and this board does as well, and I haven't noticed any oddities yet. I just got a new BIOS, too.

EarthDog · Apr 9, 2012

Indeed, looks are subjective. This just screams "Goldmember" however. :rofl:

Ive read that.. and that is good. Similar o/c's for less voltage - win for all.

I cant help but think those (gaudy) crown like golden heatsinks around the CPU wont bump in to some coolers... and most people thought that ram would be the issue. I see the 'left' sink is angled a bit, so hopefully that helps.

cadaveca · Apr 9, 2012

Yeah, I guess that that is possible, but at the same time i've noticed that they are not much taller than most regular DIMMs would be in the DIMM slots, so I think they are nearly 100% safe from that being an issue. Of course one or two heatsinks might have a problem. The Noctua NH-D14 has probably been the largest cooler I've used, and it would fit no problem.

EarthDog · Apr 9, 2012

It appears as tall as a ramstick without any sinks, so should be good. They are cutting it close however.

cadaveca · Apr 9, 2012

EarthDog said:
It appears as tall as a ramstick without any sinks, so should be good. They are cutting it close however.

+1.

Major_A · Apr 9, 2012

ECS could include a mPCIe SSD in the box at no additional cost and I'd still pass. ECS was my bane for a few early builds when I didn't know any better. I don't care if they made the best boards at the lowest prices I'd still look elsewhere.

EarthDog · Apr 9, 2012

cadaveca said:
+1.

..it looked WAY taller in that first image of it on the PREview.

theJesus · Apr 9, 2012

I'm still disappointed about the lack of solid gold and/or platinum and diamonds.

Bullly · Apr 9, 2012

Why they are using a third party USB 3.0 controller when Z77 has that feature natively?

cadaveca · Apr 9, 2012

Bullly said:
Why they are using a third party USB 3.0 controller when Z77 has that feature natively?

The Intel Z77 Express PCH only supports 4 USB 3.0 ports natively. This is intended to be used for two at the front panel, and 2 at the rear panel. Most OEMs are using USB 3.0 controller hubs to add additional ports. I've seen a few that support 4 on the front panel alone, while this one has six ports(4 rear, 2 front). It seems that at most, OEMs are enabling just 2 of the Intel Z77 Epxress onboard USB 3.0 ports, and I'm not sure why. I am not provided with review guides, and have to figure this stuff out myself, or ask questions that aren't always answered by the time things are published.

SonDa5 · Apr 9, 2012

I like the heat sink design.

Looking forward to the performance review with an IB. Also I'd like to see SB performance compared to IB in it.

cadaveca · Apr 9, 2012

SonDa5 said:
I like the heat sink design.

Looking forward to the performance review with an IB. Also I'd like to see SB performance compared to IB in it.

I'd like 3 PCIe 3.0 VGAs to compare the PCIe switch's offered bandwidth vs X79.

TheLostSwede · Apr 9, 2012

What you've labelled as the ASM1081 USB 3.0 controller is an ASM1061 SATA 6Gbps controller...

Processor	Intel Core i9 11900K
Motherboard	MSI Z590 Carbon EK X
Cooling	Custom Water
Memory	Team DDR4 4000MHz
Video Card(s)	ASUS TUF RTX 3080 OC
Storage	WD WN850 1TB
Display(s)	43" LG NanoCell 4K 120Hz
Power Supply	Asus Thor 1200w
Mouse	Asus Strix Evolve
Keyboard	Asus Strix Claymore

Processor	Intel Core i9 11900K
Motherboard	MSI Z590 Carbon EK X
Cooling	Custom Water
Memory	Team DDR4 4000MHz
Video Card(s)	ASUS TUF RTX 3080 OC
Storage	WD WN850 1TB
Display(s)	43" LG NanoCell 4K 120Hz
Power Supply	Asus Thor 1200w
Mouse	Asus Strix Evolve
Keyboard	Asus Strix Claymore

Processor	Intel Core i9 11900K
Motherboard	MSI Z590 Carbon EK X
Cooling	Custom Water
Memory	Team DDR4 4000MHz
Video Card(s)	ASUS TUF RTX 3080 OC
Storage	WD WN850 1TB
Display(s)	43" LG NanoCell 4K 120Hz
Power Supply	Asus Thor 1200w
Mouse	Asus Strix Evolve
Keyboard	Asus Strix Claymore

Processor	8700k Intel
Motherboard	z370 MSI Godlike Gaming
Cooling	Triple Aquacomputer AMS Copper 840 with D5
Memory	TridentZ RGB G.Skill C16 3600MHz
Video Card(s)	GTX 1080 Ti
Storage	Crucial MX SSDs
Display(s)	Dell U3011 2560x1600 + Dell 2408WFP 1200x1920 (Portrait)
Case	Core P5 Thermaltake
Audio Device(s)	Essence STX
Power Supply	AX 1500i
Mouse	Logitech
Keyboard	Corsair
Software	Win10

System Name	TheMailbox 5.0 / The Mailbox 4.5
Processor	RYZEN 1700X / Intel i7 2600k @ 4.2GHz
Motherboard	Fatal1ty X370 Gaming K4 / Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH Intel LGA 1155
Cooling	MasterLiquid PRO 280 / Scythe Katana 4
Memory	ADATA RGB 16GB DDR4 2666 16-16-16-39 / G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB DDR3 1866: 9-9-9-24
Video Card(s)	MSI 1080 "Duke" with 8Gb of RAM. Boost Clock 1847 MHz / ASUS 780ti
Storage	256Gb M4 SSD / 128Gb Agelity 4 SSD , 500Gb WD (7200)
Display(s)	LG 29" Class 21:9 UltraWide® IPS LED Monitor 2560 x 1080 / Dell 27"
Case	Cooler Master MASTERBOX 5t / Cooler Master 922 HAF
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec / SupremeFX X-Fi with Bose Companion 2 speakers.
Power Supply	Seasonic FOCUS Plus Series SSR-750PX 750W Platinum / SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold
Mouse	SteelSeries Sensei (RAW) / Logitech G5
Keyboard	Razer BlackWidow / Logitech (Unknown)
Software	Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Benchmark Scores	Benching is for bitches.

System Name	2600k
Processor	i7 2600K
Motherboard	ASUS P8Z77-V PRO
Cooling	Phanteks PH-TC14PE_BK
Memory	16GB
Video Card(s)	ASUS GTX 760 OC
Storage	120GB Agility 3/2TB WD Caviar Black x 2/Intel 311 (Cache Drive)
Display(s)	Dell S2340M
Case	Lian Li PC-8FIR (Silver)
Audio Device(s)	X-Fi Titanium Fata1ity
Power Supply	Cooler Master Silent Pro M 1000W
Software	Win 7 Pro x64 SP1
Benchmark Scores	Logitech G500 \| Razer Lycosa Mirror \| Logitech Z-5300

System Name	Desktop\|\| Virtual Host 0
Processor	Intel Core i5 2500-K @ 4.3ghz \|\| 2x Xeon L5630 (total 8 cores, 16 threads)
Motherboard	ASUS P8Z68-V \|\| Dell PowerEdge R710 (Intel 5520 chipset)
Cooling	Corsair Hydro H100 \|\| Stock hotplug fans and passive heatsinks
Memory	4x4gb Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 \|\| 12x4gb Hynix DDR3 1066 FB-DIMMs
Video Card(s)	MSI GTX 760 Gaming Twin Frozr 4GB OC \|\| Don't know, don't care
Storage	Hitachi 7K3000 2TB \|\| 6x300gb 15k rpm SAS internal hotswap, 12x3tb Seagate NAS drives in enclosure
Display(s)	ViewSonic VA2349S \|\| remote iDRAC KVM console
Case	Antec P280 \|\| Dell PowerEdge R710
Audio Device(s)	HRT MusicStreamer II+ and Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 \|\| Don't know, don't care
Power Supply	SeaSonic X650 Gold \|\| 2x870w hot-swappable
Mouse	Logitech G500 \|\| remote iDRAC KVM console
Keyboard	Logitech G510 \|\| remote iDRAC KVM console
Software	Win7 Ultimate x64 \|\| VMware vSphere 6.0 with vCenter Server 6.0
Benchmark Scores	Over 9000 on the scouter

System Name	Black Killing Machine
Processor	Delidded NO IHS mount Intel i7-4770k
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z87X-OC
Cooling	Swiftech DIR655 pump, Watercool HEATKILLER® GPU-X³ 79X0 Ni-Bl gpu, DT SNIPER CPU block, UT60 420 RAD
Memory	Gskill Trident 2400mhz CL9 Samsung IC9
Video Card(s)	SAPPHIRE HD7950 OC 950mhz Edition, VaporX HD7950
Storage	2xM4 Crucial 64GB RAID 0, 1 OCZ AGILILITY 3 60GB, WDCB 500GB x2RAID0, WD Green, Hitachi 1TB
Display(s)	Samsung SyncMaster 226BW and 24" 120hz BenQ gamer
Case	SilverStone Raven rv-02
Audio Device(s)	Audio Technica ATH-AD900 headphones, Topping D2 DAC/Headphone AMP
Power Supply	Seasonic Platinum 860
Software	Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Benchmark Scores	http://hwbot.org/user/sonda5/ Delidding is magic. http://valid.canardpc.com/2878462

System Name	Overlord Mk MLI
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard	Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 SE with offsets
Memory	32GB Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz @ CL30-34-34-68
Video Card(s)	Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom GS
Storage	1TB Solidigm P44 Pro, 2 TB Corsair MP600 Pro, 2TB Kingston KC3000
Display(s)	Acer XV272K LVbmiipruzx 4K@160Hz
Case	Fractal Design Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s)	Corsair Virtuoso SE
Power Supply	be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W
Mouse	Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard	Corsair K70 Max
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores	https://valid.x86.fr/yfsd9w

ECS Golden Board Z77H2-AX LGA 1155 Preview

My name is Dave

HyperVtX™

Addicted to Bacon and StarCrunches!!!

HyperVtX™

Addicted to Bacon and StarCrunches!!!

HyperVtX™

Addicted to Bacon and StarCrunches!!!

Big Member

My name is Dave

My name is Dave

My name is Dave

My name is Dave

New Member

My name is Dave

My name is Dave

News Editor