I really wanted to like this simple board from ECS when it first arrived for me to play with. It's ready to play for AMD GPU users who want Crossfire, multiple PCIe SSDs, and all that jazz, and it's ready for some simple overclocking by multiplier adjustments, but if you want SLI or want to play with base clock adjustments, you best look elsewhere. I understand that not supporting SLI helps keep costs down, and it doesn't matter if you only plan to use a single video card, but understanding it doesn't mean liking it.

The software package could use some improvement as could the automated overclocking routine I wouldn't suggest using at this point. The Realtek DRAGON LAN controller and matching ALC1150 audio CODEC both perform well and so does the fan control, and the optimized PCIE layout is ready for you to plug in as many devices as the board has slots, including PCIe drives and SATA Express, along with USB 3.1 Type-A devices. Then there is this problem when you turn it on.

It took a whooping 45 seconds from the time I pushed the power button to the time the POST process completed; past boards I have tested took less than a tenth of that time to do what had to be done. This is excessive and I'm not sure why. This is the first board in a while that I've been able to find more than a few things with I didn't like, but it did do everything it's supposed to do. Got one? Let us know in the forums!