Intel S1150 by stefan @ 2013-09-16
Hardware-wise, the latest Z87H3-AX GOLDEN board from ECS is quite solid, incorporating a 12-phase VRM and high quality LAN and audio interfaces: the dual BigFoot Killer E2201 GbE controllers along with the Creative Sound Core 3D DSP. The UEFI comes with two sections, EZ BIOS and the Advanced area where we can also set the performance parameters.
At first I would like to thank ECS for offering me their GANK Z87H3-AX GOLDEN motherboard for testing and reviewing.
"ECS, the Elitegroup Computer Systems, was established in 1987, and is approaching its 23rd year of business. More than two decades, ECS has overcome a great deal of obstacles facing new businesses and has experienced the joy of significant growth and development. Her main focus has expanded to not only motherboards, but also desktop and notebook computers, graphics cards and other mobile products. ECS is strongly committed to develop cutting-edge technology in order to generate innovative products under environmental friendly designs. ECS comprehensive system of quality control provides our clients with reassurance and fosters long term cooperation.
Green Touch, Good Life
ECS commits to protect the Earth by reducing the global environmental loading as the priority of her corporate sustainable strategy. Confronting more and more global environmental impacts; climate change, natural resources depletion and the crisis of ecological imbalance, ECS devotes the Green Solutions for the Earth sustainable development without compromising customer satisfaction. ECS expects bringing people with more Green Touch for a Good Life.
Starting from 2006, ECS has been implementing the “ECS Green Competitive Advantage and Quality Plan” and introduced Green Products through 4-stages of non-toxic management; including non-toxic suppliers, non-toxic material, non-toxic manufacturing & processing, and, non-toxic quality controls. Besides, ECS is recognized under the IECQQC080000 Certification in her two major manufacturing sites in China; Golden Elite Technology at Shenzhen and ESZ at Suzhou. That empowers ECS desire of providing end users with HSF (Hazardous Substance Free) products to ensure a quality green life.
As a top-down decision, ECS dedicates to offering clean and environmentally friendly computer products for consumers through product design, purchase, production, sale and services to the 3R environmental objectives – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The ECS engineering teams are engaged to create products under a Green concept by size reduction, product longevity, easy disassembly, recycle potential, substance restriction and energy saving. For example, ECS green motherboards apply to the three environmental directives – the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) promoted by the European Union; RoHS (Restriction on Hazardous Substance Directive) and EuP (Eco design of Energy-using Products Directive).
Nowadays, ECS integrates Green concept in her daily operation. From the headquarters on Taiwan to worldwide branches, ECS practices energy saving, water recycling, Green data center, planting and so on to reduce greenhouse gas emission for mitigating the climate change. With continuous efforts to conduct business in a sustainable way, ECS recognizes that we are dependent on the Earth and strive to improve the quality of life for people everywhere!
Global Network
The headquarters of ECS is located in Taipei Neihu Technology Park. We have offices in major cities around the world. We are committed to product development and expanding the scale of our business. With our branches all over the Americas, Europe, and Asia, ECS localizes sales and retail in order to provide immediate and convenient service for our customers.
-Taipei, Taiwan
-Tokyo, Japan
-Seoul, Korea
-Wijchen, Netherlands
-Fremont, USA
-Moscow, Russia
-Sao Paulo, Brazil
Manufacturing Sites
ECS adopts a vertical integration structure of design, component manufacturing, and system assembly. At present, ECS has established two manufacturing locations; well-developed supply chain capabilities, and well-monitored production links; and the capacity to adapt to the needs of the ever-changing market.
-Golden Elite Technology (Shenzhen), China
-ESZ (Suzhou), China"
Intel Thunderbolt Tech Support
Thunderbolt technology dramatically increases the data transfer rate enabling faster backup, editing and file sharing, significantly reducing the time to complete key tasks. Users can add high-performance features to their PC over a cable, daisy chaining one after another, up to a total of 6 devices, including up to 2 high-resolution DisplayPort v1.1a displays.
Key Features
- 10Gbps bi-directional, dual channel data transfer
- Data & Video on single cable with Dual-protocol (PCI Express and DisplayPort)- Daisy chain up to six devices
- Compatible with existing DisplayPort devices
- Low latency with highly accurate time synchronization
- Uses native PCIe and DisplayPort protocol software drivers
- Power over cable for bus-powered devices (electrical cables only)
Ultimate Cooling Solution - QOOLTECH V - ECS’S exclusive QOOLTECH V technology is the choice of winning gamers.
1. Thermochromatic
Thermo chromic technology allows the heatsink to visually show various surface temperature levels allowing users to quickly distinguish between normal and abnormal temperatures and when a motherboard is safe to touch and handle.
2. Active Fansink
ECS’s exclusive optimized active fansink design greatly increases hot air exhaustion as well as overall airflow over the super-heated chipset.
3. U-Shaped Heatpipe
ECS’s U-Shape heatpipe design and Direct heatpipes increases dissipation by a substantial 20% over the competition and simultaneously cools both the chipset and MOSFET.
4K Video Output
Intel Core HD Graphics with 4k display for premium gaming experience with 2.6x graphics improvements.
CREATIVE SOUNDCORE 3D
Audio Cap
Next-level audio experience with SBX Pro Studio, CrystalVoice and EAX Technology all in one audio cap.
EMI Blocking
ECS's Audio Defender design can effectively block EMI interference that often plagues onboard audio.
Digital Signal Processing(DSP)
Creative Labs' 1st integrated audio DSP with integrated codec allows for CPU independent real time media processing of sound and images.
Durathon Technology - Motherboard quality you can trust.
When it comes to the quality and durability of your motherboard, ECS goes above and beyond industry standards to ensure that you have a motherboard that will last long and always continue to outperform the competition. Trust only motherboards built with Durathon Technology. Click " Durathon microsite" for more details.
Extreme Power Module - ECS’S exclusive component design provides the ultimate cooling and efficiency
1) Ice Chokes
1.5X greater stability offering 50? wider temperature range and reduing heat by 13% more than standard ferrite chokes, even under full loading operations.
2) Dual Cooling MOS
ECS’s exclusive new Dual Cooling MOSFETS design allows for extreme heat dissipation with the added benefits of 90% high efficiency power conversion, low impedance and low EMI.
3) Gold Caps
Golden Solid Caps Offer up to 6X longer lifespan than standard electrolytic capacitors. They also offer better heat resistance with up to 200K hours (22 Years) of operation under 65?C.
DUAL COOL MOS
ECS's exclusive new Dual Cooling MOSFETS design allows for extreme heat dissipation with the added benefits of 90% high efficiency power conversion, low impedance and low EMI.
Supports teaming function with failover and load balancing
The dual Gigabit LAN with Teaming allows 2 single connections to act as 1 single connection for double bandwidth. In addition, it prevents network downtime by transferring the workload from a failed port to a working port and balances the network traffic load evenly between 2 CPU cores in order to improve performance.
Motherboard Intelligent BIOS X (M.I.B X - Ultimate BIOS O.C interface)
Providing the most intelligent and convenient way to adjust the clock/ voltage settings of CPU and memory and get the extra performance in advanced.
ECS O.C profile offers 3 sets of O.C values for CPU and DRAM to reach higher performances in a quick, simple and safe way. It keeps users’ preferable BIOS settings to regain your last successful O.C configuration to create the most convenient O.C experience.
ECS have refreshed their gaming series of motherboards with the new “GANK” (which means Gang Kill in MMORPG games. The sample we are going to look upon in this article is the Z87H3-AX model, which was transported in quite a large cardboard box with a shiny texture which makes capturing some of the details while taking photos a little difficult; as we would have imagined, the frontal side of the box comes with multiple logos of the supported technologies:
The frontal cover further opens like a book in order to reveal more details regarding the product:
The rest of the explanations are to be found on the back side of the box:
After removing the top side of the packaging, we will be greeted by another black box in which the mobo along with its accessories is held:
Speaking of the accessories, we will get:
-6 SATA cables
-Wireless LAN antenna + assembly
-User Guide
-Driver/Application DVD
-Quick Installation Guide
-I/O connector protections
-1 SLI Bridge
-I/O Shield
The manual is quite details and it also includes the BIOS codes that we can encounter during boot:
The board comes with a golden/black theme as we have seen at the ECS Z77H2-AX Black Extreme variant which we have reviewed last year:
Near the top side of the VRM we have the Intersil ISL6367H Green Hybrid Digital Dual 6-phase + 1-Phase PWM controller:
Moving further to the left we will meet with the 8-pin ATX power connector:
Between the I/O and the left side of the VRM, we will locate the ASMedia ASM1442K controller, which takes care of the video interfaces:
Nearby we have a smaller ASMedia ASM1466 one-lane Serial-ATA repeater with up to 6Gbps bandwidth:
In a really unusual place we will also find a miniDP port:
On the left side of the PCB we will get to see the Pericom PI7C9X2G404SL 4-port, 4-lane slimline PCIe packet switch:
As the Gigabyte motherboard before it, this board is also equipped with the Creative Sound Core3D DSP, a big improvement versus the previous generations which most used Realtek variants:
On the lower side we will get one F_AUDIO header, COM, two USB 2.0 headers (the grey one supporting charging function) and also another USB 3.0 header:
Surprisingly, we will get to see two additional USB 3.0 headers near the F_PANEL; we think that these headers are placed a little odd since we need a lot of cable length in order to reach them:
The miniPCI-e slot is in the vicinity and here we will also find the ASMedia ASM1074 which holds 4 USB 3.0 ports and the ASM1061 SATA3 controller:
A larger themed golden heatsink covers the PCH:
The single PCI slot is controlled by the ITE IT8893E:
An additional USB 3.0 controller is to be found near the SYS_Fan header:
The board features 4 PCI-Express x16 slots, one PCI-Express x1 and one PCI:
A BIOS Backup button can be found near the PCI slot:
The board is also equipped with a BIOS_SET button for directly booting to the BIOS, the Quick_OC button for performing auto-overclocking and 6 SATA3 ports:
Moving further up we have a 3-digit display, one buzzer and a button which switches the display modes like the current post code, CPU temperature, CPU voltage, CPU power or CPU MOS temperature:
The Power and Reset Buttons can be found near the 24-pin ATX power connector:
The board does also have measuring points and a SuperIO chip near the memory slots:
Here is a closer look on the CPU VRM which looks quite interesting:
On the I/O we have:
-WiFi LAN dongle
-2xUSB 2.0 ports
-eSATA port
-clear CMOS button
-one DisplayPort and one HDMI
-4xUSB 3.0 ports
-2xLAN ports with Teaming provided by the BigFoot E2201 PCIe Gigabit LAN controller
-one Thunderbolt port
-audio ports
Initially, the UEFI interface will greet us with its EZ interface, which looks nice but there aren’t a lot of options that we can set:
By going in to the “Advanced” interface, we will discover the classic menu with the options on top. In the Main section we will be able to select the System Language, but also the date/time:
From the Advanced section we can select between multiple sub-menus:
The LAN Configuration area will allow us to enable/disable the interfaces:
From the PC Health Status area, we are able to configure the Smart Fan Function, but also to see live the current temperatures, fan speeds or voltages:
The Power Management Setup menu displays us the usual Resume options, along with the EuP function or Power LED Type:
The NB PCI Express Configuration menu lets us select the speed for each slot:
The ACPI Settings section only comes with the option to adjust the Sleep State:
The CPU Configuration sub-menu shows us additional details on the installed processor and here we can choose to enable or disable additional functions like the C states, virtualization and more:
The SATA Configuration section allows us to configure options for each available port:
From the USB Configuration menu we can enable/disable the interface, but also the WiFi dongle:
The SuperIO Configuration menu allows us to see the model for the controller and also is provided with a secondary section from which we can configure the Serial Port:
The next two menus will come with only one option, for disabling or enabling the respective services:
Lastly, in this menu we also have a Thunderbolt Configuration option for the respective port:
Moving on to the Chipset section, this one also greets us with some sub-menus. The System Agent Configuration area allows us to set the priority for the video adapter, enable/disable the integrated video adapter from the CPU or the sound interface:
Next we have the PCH Configuration section, from where we can enable or disable the onboard audio, but we can also work with other functions like Case Open or Restore AC Power Loss:
The ME Technology Configuration allows us to disable ME Control:
Moving on to the M.I.B. area which allows us to customize the system performance, we will discover a series of other sub-menus:
The CPU Overclocking Configuration menu lets us set the CPU Ratio, BCLK, enable/disable some other functions like Turbo, Intel SpeedStep, set CPU Core ration limits and more:
The Memory Configuration menu allows us to set the primary, secondary and tertiary timings, but also the frequency:
The Over Voltage Configuration menu permits setting voltages for different components like RAM, PCH, SB, CPU, and other miscellaneous. Some voltages can be set on Adaptive or Override settings. In this same section we would have preferred to have an option to select the LLC levels, not only Vdroop on/off:
The Profile Configuration section allows us to save different profiles and reload them when necessary:
The Boot menu comes with options to enable Fast Boot, select the priorities or enable other usual functions:
The Security menu allows us to set an Administrator password but also to set up Secure Boot:
The final menu is named Exit and from here we can save/discard/reset the settings to default:
CPU: Intel I5 4670K Retail
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
Motherboard: ECS GANK Z87H3-AX GOLDEN
RAM: GeIL Black Dragon 2x4GB DDR2133 (@1600)
Video: HIS 7850 OC 2GB
Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200.11
Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840
Stability at 4.5GHz could be obtained with a voltage value a little higher than the Gigabyte and BIOSTAR boards, at 1.290V; the speed however jumps frequently between 4.3Ghz and 4.5Ghz despite the fact that the power limits were set to max inside the BIOS:
With the latest version of AIDA64 utility, we can reveal more information regarding the motherboard, the CPU IMC and the Z87 chipset:
Motherboard
Haswell IMC
Z87 Chipset
Both online and on the supplied disks we will be able to find a lot of extra software. For the Qualcomm Atheros Killer NIC, we have a Network Manager available which comes with multiple tabs. In the Overview section we will be able to see a summary of system components along with network statistics:
The PC Monitor tab will allow us to see live charts of the system resources occupation:
Traffic shaping for different applications can be enabled from the next tab:
Next, we have the Network and Advanced sections for fine-tuning the connection parameters:
With the coming of the Z87 generation, we have seen much better implementations of the audio interfaces compared to the systems before them. This card comes equipped with the Creative Sound Core3D DSP and along it we have available a nicely designed GUI which carries lots of options. From the SBX Pro Studio we can adjust the Surround, Crystalizer, Bass and Dialog Plus effects, along with the Crossover Frequency:
The CrystalVoice menu allows us to set the Microphone volume and boost, along with adding extra FX effects, enabling Smart Volume or using Noise Reduction and Acoustic Echo Cancellation:
The Core3D DSP supports Scout Mode, which is useful in games:
Depending on which type of setup we are using, we will be able to choose in the Speakers/Headphones tab:
The Mixer menu is available at the next section:
A 10-band EQ with presets can be accessed in the respective tab:
The final “Advanced Features” menu allows us to set one more option:
Some other utilities are present on the installation disk. One of them is eBLU, which is designed to help us update the BIOS to the latest version; however, we have tried to use it while having an older BIOS version and the application reported that no new version is available. Prior to this we have checked on the website for a new version and it was indeed available:
The eDLU utility will show the current system information and will redirect us to the driver page:
The eOC application interface is mostly unchanged compared to the version we have checked some time back; it offers some monitoring information like temperatures and current voltages, but we did not find the options to modify the CPU/RAM frequencies, only some voltages. Surely this application needs a small update:
The eSF application will allow us to modify and set different fan profiles:
By using a KingFast E-Drive 2.5'' SATAIII SLC 120GB SSD, we have performed ATTO runs in order to find the performance differences between the two motherboards:
In our RMAA loopback test, we can see both the BIOSTAR and the Gigabyte board coming on top of the ECS GANK Z87H3-AX GOLDEN; these feature additional isolation on the board and it seems to pay off.
It is finally time to draw some conclusions; the latest offering from ECS is a pretty solid board with a nice design and the height of the VRM heatsink does not create problems when installing beefy CPU coolers. At both BIOSTAR and Gigabyte boards we have seen a lot of fan headers which are useful in many situations; unfortunately, ECS has chosen to offer far less on their Z87H3-AX GOLDEN board. This is not a surprise since we have also seen the same type of design on their Z77 board we have reviewed last year.
ECS has equipped the board with the Creative Sound Core 3D DSP for optimal audio in games and has chosen a dual solution composed by BigFoot Killer E2201 Gigabit Ethernet Controllers in order to deliver better pings in fast paced games; these two solutions are also present on the high-end boards from other manufacturers and are well received. Some other welcome improvements are the extra function buttons on the motherboard, especially the one which switches the functionality of the 3-digit display in order to show UEFI codes, voltages or temperatures.
Talking of the BIOS interface, it has a simple design but some menus could be better organized in order to avoid empty sections. The overclocking area has plenty of options that we can select except the LLC levels which are not selectable; all we get to set is Vdroop enabled/disabled. We think that this is the fact why we were not able to stabilize the CPU at the same voltage as on the previously reviewed boards, but with a step higher. Another issue which we have observed during testing was the fact that when using Prime95, the CPU speed was jumping between the 43x and 45x multipliers, something that did not happen before; we think that this may be linked to the power limits which we cannot set manually inside the UEFI interface (they are implicitly set on Maximum).
Regarding the system performance, this is quite good in both stock and overclocked situations; the audio system scored however lower than the BIOSTAR and Gigabyte boards, the Gigabyte being based upon the same DSP.
We would like to thank again to ECS for making this review possible!