Test System

Initial Setup

Setting up the ECS Z77H2-AX went by without any issues, no different than any other motherboard, with the JEDEC 1333 MHz 9-9-9-24 1.5V profile of my G.Skill DIMMs booting right up. The OS install went perfectly, and no issues were noticed at any point during the testing period, even when overclocking. I updated to the most recent BIOS, "03/21/2012", using the software utility inside the BIOS download file, and noticed no issues with that either, even though many users do not like to update BIOS from within the OS. It's worth noting that with this product, the base clock for the CPU is a bit low, at 99.8 MHz. This affects the over CPU frequency as well, so I expect slightly lower performance, something that can be easily fixed with a bit of time spent using Intel's XTU software.


One of the innovations ECS introduced several months ago was a visual indicator of system temps, by the form of a sticker on the heatsinks that changes color based on the temperature it's at. As you can see in the image above, once the system reached a stable idle temperature, the color of the sticker on the PCH cooler changes from black and white, to black, white and orange. Try as I might to get it to transition to the next phase, with the greyish parts inside the orange turning red, I could not, even after removing all airflow from within the case. I did consider grabbing my wife's hairdryer to heat things up, but that seemed a bit too much, and just indicates the cooling is more than adequate. To me, this indicates that ECS's "Non-Stop" technology has paid off, and no matter what environment your PC resides in, the coolers are more than capable of keeping things running, as the temperatures noticed were a full 20 degrees cooler than the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H!

PWM Power Consumption

Since one of our first tasks was to truly verify system stability, while doing so we measure CPU power consumption. We isolate the power coming through the 8-pin ATX connector using an in-line meter that provides voltage and current readings, as well as total wattage passed through it. While this may not prove to isolate the CPU power draw in all instances, it does serve as a good indicator of board efficiency and effective VRM design.


Power consumption is a bit lower here on the ECS Z77H2-AX than I found on the previously tested Intel Z77 Express product from Gigabyte, of course, because there is not a fan header connected to the EPS 8-pin plug. Interestingly enough this kind of indicates that the VRM on the ECS Golden Board Z77H2-AX is just as efficient as the Gigabyte board. Nice job, ECS!

At load, we see the exact same power consumption at 52 Watts. It's overall, technically, a bit higher than it should be, but we can safely say it's just three Watts, nothing worth mentioning.