At first we would like to thank ECS for offering me their Z97I-DRONE Mini-ITX motherboard for testing and reviewing.

 

About ECS:

"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"

EXCLUSIVE COMPONENT DESIGN FOR ULTIMATE COOLING AND EFFICIENCY

 

1. HYBRID DIGITAL PWM

Hybrid Digital 5-Phase PWM Designed to manage microprocessor core and memory voltage regulator with auto phase shedding for easy setting, high system flexibility and overclocking applications.

 

2. ICY CHOKES

1.5X greater stability offering 50° wider temperature range and reducing heat by 13% more than standard ferrite chokes, even under full loading operations

 

3. Dual Advanced MOSFET

Exclusive Dual Advanced MOSFETs providing up to 90% power efficiency, which allows for extreme heat dissipation with the optimal combination of fast switching, high efficient power conversion and low on-resistance

 

4. EXCLUSIVE HEATSINK DESIGN

L337 heatsink offers extreme cooling and heat dissipation of up to 10% more, and the style design represents the architectural homage of L337 spirit

 

5. SUPERIOR JAPANESE CAPS

Ultra long lifespan Nichicon Japanese Caps delivering the highest standard of stability, reliability and longevity to fulfill hard-core gamers' demand and over-clocking application

 

ULTIMATE GAMING WEAPON: LOW-TO-FULL USB SPEED

 

Low-to-Full USB Speed delivers an optimized 8X Keyboard & Mouse USB report rate from 125Hz to 1000Hz through USB acceleration IC, upgrading your Keyboard/Mouse to the gaming performance level and providing a better gaming experience, especially for FPS (First-Person-Shooting) games.

 

EXTREME NETWORKING

 

Super FAST NETWORKING FOR GAMING, NO LAG, NO HIGH PINGS

 

Intel® I218V Ethernet -No. 1 Intel® networking technology provides the most stable speed for gaming, ultra-low power consumption and lower latency.

 

WORLD-CLASS AUDIO QUALITY, INCREDIBLE DESIGN FOR L337 GAMERS

 

Sound Blaster Cinema 2 delivers an exceptional audio experience with incredibly realistic performance and stunning surround effects.

 

NATIVE 4K ULTRA HD SUPPORT

 

Features advanced onboard 4K Ultra HD graphics, which natively support up to 4096 x 2160 pixels via HDMI. Offering immersive visuals clarity for gaming, multimedia and entertainment.

 

 

M.2 EXPANSION SOCKET FOR NGFF (NEXT GENERATION FORM FACTOR)

 

M.2 (NGFF) Interface

The latest evolution of M.2 Interface, known as NGFF (Next Generation Form Factor), provides a better and faster standard for Wifi/Bluetooth connection and expansion.

 

EXTREME OVERCLOCKING

 

UP TO DDR3 3000+ OVERCLOCKING

 

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 out perform the competition. Trust only motherboards built with Durathon Technology. Click " Durathon microsite" for more details.

 

ECS EZ BIOS

 

ECS EZ BIOS is an exclusive design and the most convenient tool to adjust BIOS in graphical interface. Designed with stunning user-friendly interface and easy-to-use function including Auto OC, boost priority, and security function, EZ BIOS can radically take full advantage of the performance, high-end gaming, multi-tasking and energy efficiency. The latest ECS EZ BIOS allow users to fully satisfy their growing demand with the unique operating designed.

 

DirectX® 11.1 Support

 

The most important new feature of DirectX 11.1 is the stereoscopic 3D support. All of the power of tridimensional contents can be used by video makers and game developers to provide a more immersive and modern experience for the viewer.

 

Applied Solid Capacitor

 

Better conductivity and heat resistance can be expected as well thus the system stability can be assured under critical conditions.

 

eBLU BIOS Live Update Utility

 

Save time and hassle of searching for BIOS online and avoid complicated flashing steps.

 

Anti-Static Design - ESD Protection

 

ESD protection design helps to avoid suffering permanent damage when subjected to momentary high voltages to increase the lifespan of motherboard. All ECS motherboards pass ESD International standard EC/EN 61000-4-2 Test and bring you stability and durability quality.

 

Speedy Storage Interface - SATA 6G

 

Double the transfer speed of SATA 3.0 Gb/s, running at speed up to amazing 6.0Gb/s.

 

Intel® Smart Connect Technology - Always up-to-date

 

Intel® Smart Connect Technology means that your email, favorite apps, and social networks are continually and automatically updated even when the system is asleep. No more waiting for the latest world news or friends’ updates to be delivered—just lift the lid and you’re up-to-date and ready to go.

 

Intel® Smart Response Technology - Better, faster performance

 

Intel® Smart Response Technology accelerates the system response experience by putting frequently-used blocks of disk data on a solid-state drive (SSD), providing dramatically faster access to use data than the hard disk alone can provide.

 

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.

 

PCI Express Gen3 Ready - Double PCIe 2.0 Bandwidth

 

PCIe 3.0, the next generation of 32GB/s transmission speed, doubles the bandwidth of previous generation interconnect. PCIe 3.0 strongly builds up a better gaming platform ready for ultra graphics performance.

 

ECS has recently sent us a mini-ITX version of their latest Z97 chipset motherboards, and to be more precise the Z97I-DRONE. This product is basically meant to be installed in small enclosures, media center PCs, which usually do not require high-powered processors and performance cooling systems. The product is shipped inside a medium-sized cardboard box, with the product logo located in front:

 

 

 

On the back side of the enclosure, we will find a detailed description of the main product features:

 

 

 

After removing the top packaging layer, we will end up with a black box, with the L33T Gaming logo:

 

 

 

The board is located in the middle, also wrapped inside a transparent anti-static bag for protection:

 

 

 

We will also find the accessories on the bottom layer:

 

 

 

Speaking of the bundle, ECS has included four SATA cables, the I/O shield, one general instruction manual but also the User Guide:

 

 

 

 

Inside the User Guide ECS has also included a disk with drivers and applications:

 

 

 

The board is quite well organized, but keep in mind that because the CPU socket is placed quite near to the PCI-Express x16 slot, installing a large CPU cooler will make the installation of a video card impossible:

 

 

 

On a closer look, we have discovered that the audio interface on this board is held by the Realtek ALC1150 CODEC:

 

 

 

On the bottom side of the PCB we have one PCI-Express x16 slot for installing video cards or other expansion cards, which we have mentioned earlier:

 

 

 

Near the CPU socket we have the a 5-phase VRM with ICY chokes, Dual-Advanced MOSFET technology, superior Japanese capacitors and a simple but quite efficient heatsink:

 

 

 

The Hybrid ISL6376 Digital PWM is designed to manage the microprocessor and memory voltages:

 

 

 

Despite the low space available on the card, we have available one M.2 expansion socket for Wi-Fi / Bluetooth solutions:

 

 

 

Two memory slots are available for installing a maximum of 16GB:

 

 

 

The upper side of the board is a little bit more crowded and here we will find the 24-pin ATX power connector, one USB 3.0 header, one USB 2.0 header but also the F_Panel header:

 

 

 

Near the small themed Z97 PCH heatsink, we also have available five SATA3 ports available:

 

 

 

Near the CMOS chip we have some additional fan headers:

 

 

 

As expected, a 4-pin CPU power connector is located near the VRM:

 

 

 

As outputs, we have a full block of USB 2.0 ports (four in total), one DVI-D port, one DisplayPort and one HDMI, four USB 3.0 ports but also the audio jacks and a SPDIF optical solution:

 

 

 

The back side of the board features some additional technology logos:

 

 

 

ECS has also placed there the Intel I218-V Gigabit Fast Ethernet Controller:

 

 

 

With the latest UEFI BIOS releases, ECS has introduced a secondary EZ interface, from where we can choose between two different profiles (Normal and Performance), see the current system temperatures, voltages but also fan speeds, boot devices and information regarding the current date/time and installed CPU/memory:

 

 

The initial EZ model is exactly the same as before:

 

 

Coming back to the “Advanced” interface, we will find the main menus on the top side of the screen: Main, Advanced, Chipset, MIB X, Security, Boot and Exit. The Main menu allows setting the system language, but also the date/time:

 

 

The Advanced section comes with multiple sub-menus like LAN Configuration, PC Health Status, Power Management Setup, ACPI Settings, CPU Configuration, SATA Configuration, USB Configuration, Intel Rapid Start Technology or Intel Ethernet Connection menu:

 

 

Inside the LAN Configuration menu we will only have the option to enable or disable the interface:

 

 

The PC Health Status menu shows us the live temperatures, fan speeds and voltages, but we are also able to adjust the Smart Fan Function:

 

 

The Power Management Setup menu houses the usual options:

 

 

The ACPI Settings menu only offers to adjust the Sleep State:

 

 

Inside the CPU Configuration menu, we will be able to see some of the installed processor supported functions, but also enable or disable available C-states, number of active CPU cores and so on:

 

 

The SATA Configuration menu displays the currently connected storage devices:

 

 

From the USB Configuration menu, we will be able to adjust the controller functionality:

 

 

From the next menu we can enable or disable the Intel Rapid Start Technology:

 

 

The LAN port of the Intel Ethernet controller can be also configured from the next menu:

 

 

We move on to another menu, and this time Chipset, which comes with its own System Agent Configuration, PCH Configuration and ME Configuration sub-menus:

 

 

The SA Configuration menu allows us to select the first Graphic Adapter for initialization, select the quantity of IGD Memory, DVMT Memory, enable the multi-monitor feature or the CPU SA Audio Device:

 

 

The PCH Configuration menu allows working with the integrated audio interface and more:

 

 

Management Engine Technology Configuration sub-menu also features a single option:

 

 

The M.I.B. X menu is the place where overclockers go for altering the system performance; here we have a multitude of sub-menus like CPU OverClocking Configuration, Memory Configuration, North Bridge Configuration, Over Voltage Configuration or Profile Configuration:

 

 

CPU OverClocking Configuration will allow us to alter the current ratio, enable the Intel SpeedStep Technology, Turbo Mode, Internal PLL Overvoltage, ratio limit for each core and many more:

 

 

The memory tuning settings are pretty extensive:

 

 

The North Bridge Configuration sub-menu allows us to alter the Graphics Core Ratio limit:

 

 

The Over Voltage Configuration allows adjustments of the PCH IO Voltage, DIMM Voltage, Processor Input Voltage, CPU Adaptive Voltage Target and many more:

 

 

We can choose to select and save multiple profiles with our settings in the next menu:

 

 

The Security menu allows setting one Administrator password or enabling Secure Boot:

 

 

The Boot menu allows selecting the boot mode, priority for the devices and more:

 

 

Finally, we have the Exit menu, where we can choose to save, discard or load factory defaults:

 

Test Setup

 

CPU: Intel I5 4670K Retail

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

Motherboard: Currently tested board

RAM: GeIL Black Dragon 2x4GB DDR2133 (@1600)

Video: HIS 280X

Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W

SSD: OCZ Vector 150

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840

 

With this board it was not possible to achieve good stability conditions at 4.5GHz with our processor so we have used the 4.4GHz speed instead:

 

 

 

With the latest version of AIDA64 utility, we can reveal more information regarding the motherboard, the CPU IMC and the Z97 chipset:

 

Motherboard

 

 

 

Haswell IMC

 

 

 

Z97 Chipset

 

 

On the installation DVD we will find Sound Blaster Cinema 2 enhancement software, which seems to work well only when installing the Realtek drivers from the same disk. Here we will be able to select different profiles depending on the audio material we are listening to at the current moment:

 

 

We can also configure Advanced Settings and choose between Speakers, headphones etc, calibration or Crossover Frequency, as we have also seen with the Razer Surround software:

 

 

The usual SBX ProStudio effects can be tuned but also turned on or off:

 

 

On the disk we also have eBLU, which simplifies the BIOS update task:

 

 

eDLU will redirect us to the respective driver page:

 

 

eSF is in charge of custom fan profiles:

 

 

eOC software has not been modified a lot since the last iteration and is not as feature-rich as the offerings from other manufacturers:

 

 

Synthetic Benchmarks

 

AIDA64

 

Memory

 

CPU Queen

 

CPU PhotoWorxx

 

CPU Zlib

 

CPU AES

 

CPU Hash

 

FPU VP8

 

FPU Julia

 

FPU Mandel

 

FPU SinJulia

 

Cinebench R11.5

 

Cinebench R15

 

Crystalmark

 

PCMark Vantage

 

PCMark 7

 

PCMark 8

 

SuperPI XS

 

Wprime

 

X264 Benchmark 5.01

 

3DMark 2006

3DMark Vantage

3DMark 11

3DMark 2013

Games

 

Crysis 2

F1 2012

Metro Last Light

 

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:

 

ECS Z87H3-A3X

Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5

BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z97WE

ECS Z97 Machine

Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H

ECS Z97I-DRONE

In our RMAA test, the board scores pretty average results, but better than the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H before it.

ECS GANK Z87H3-A3X 16/44

Gigabyte G1 Sniper M5 16/44

BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z97WE 16/44

ECS Z97 Machine 16/44

Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H 16/44

ECS Z97I-DRONE 16/44

ECS GANK Z87H3-A3X 24/96

Gigabyte G1 Sniper M5 16/44

BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z97WE 24/96

ECS Z97 Machine 24/96

Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H 24/96

ECS Z97I-DRONE 16/44

 

ECS does not disappoint again with the release of the cheap ECS Z97I-Drone which allows installation of a powerful Haswell processor which can be paired with RAM up to 16GB and eventually a potent VGA card inside the provided PCI Express x16 slot; be warned however that using a beefy CPU cooler will likely cover the PCI-Express slot completely so we would recommend either sticking with the stock Intel cooler or adopting an all-in-one water cooling solution, which is so accessible these days.

 

We would not recommend installing the board inside bigger cases because the headers are not placed in the usual spots and we may end up in the situation where the cables won’t reach their destination; ECS have also made available one M.2 slot, which can be used currently only for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cards but probably in the future they will release an UEFI update which will make possible of installing storage devices too.

 

Speaking of the UEFI, we are seeing the exact same layout as on their full-sized offerings, which is great; however, we were not able to reach the same overclocking performance as with the ECS Z97 Machine Motherboard.

 

Availability of this board is not great right now but we should expect values under $100.

 

ECS Z97I-DRONE Mini-ITX Motherboard is Recommended For:

 

 

We would like to thank again to ECS for making this review possible!