At first we would like to thank ECS for sending out a sample of their Z270H4-I LGA1151 Motherboard for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About ECS:

 

“Founded in 1987, ECS, the Elitegroup Computer Systems, is a top-notch manufacturer and supplier of several families of computer products in the industry. With almost 30 years of experience, ECS not only produces high-quality products such as motherboards, desktops, notebook computers, graphics cards and other mobile products, but also provides customized computer programming and hardware/ software design service for a wide variety of customers.

More than two decades, ECS has overcome a great deal of obstacles encountering new businesses and has experienced the joy of significant growth and development. 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.”

 

Product Features:

 

Windows 10 Workable support

6 Phase Power Design

Supports Intel® K Series unlock CPU

Applied 100% Solid capacitor design to maximize component reliability

ECS Durathon Technology ensure the stability, reliability and performance of system.

ESD Protection prevents computers from electrostatic discharge damage to enhance

its durability and lifespan

ECS MIB X - A friendly interface for overclocking, especially for gamer

Dual Gigabit LAN for a flexible network solution

Intel® 14nm 7th generation Multi-Core CPU support

Intel® 14nm 6th generation Multi-Core CPU support

Supports DirectX® 12 to enhance graphical performance

Supports Intel® Optane™ technology

ECS Intelligent EZ Utility : eBLU, eDLU

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

In this article, we will concentrate our view upon another Z270 chipset motherboard from ECS, but this time in a cute Mini ITX size, 170 x 170 mm. The product is shipped inside a Durathon 2 themed cardboard enclosure, which advertises Quality, Convenience and Stability:

 

 

 

On one of the box lateral sides, we will get to see some of the specifications, listed in many languages:

 

 

 

For a more in-depth explanation of the Durathon 2 features and technical specifications, we will have to check out the bottom box layer:

 

 

 

After lifting the top box cover, we will get to see the motherboard, which is surrounded by cardboard material, so it won’t move during transit; additionally, it is wrapped inside an anti-static bag:

 

 

 

As a hardware bundle, we are receiving the I/O shield, two SATA cables, a WiFi 2230 Intel card, but also the antenna mounting kit:

 

 

 

Regarding the documentation, we do receive two user guides (one of one which is simplified), but also an installation disk:

 

 

 

The installation guide describes all the necessary steps in order to get the system up and running in no time!

 

 

 

The H270H4-I does come with a well-organized layout, the VRM is comprised out of six power phases and we can install up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM in a dual-channel configuration:

 

 

 

In the top left PCB area, we can spot a 4-pin ATX 12V power connector:

 

 

 

The VRM phases are covered by tiny black aluminum radiators:

 

 

 

Moving on, we do get to see a Realtek 8118AS PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller:

 

 

 

This board does also come with an external IDT 6V41542NLG clock generator:

 

 

 

The F_Audio header is located right in the back of the I/O audio jack ports:

 

 

 

Regarding audio, we are dealing with an ALC1150 CODEC solution:

 

 

 

Nearby, we will be able to spot an USB 2.0 front panel header:

 

 

 

The bottom left area of the PCB is populated by the filter capacitors, while the CMOS battery can be also spotted here:

 

 

 

The M.2 Socket 1 with A/E key does support 2230 WiFi/BT cards:

 

 

 

The Z270 PCH does also have a small aluminum heatsink attached to it:

 

 

 

The board is also equipped with a PCI Express x16 Gen 3 slot:

 

 

 

Near the CMOS battery connector, we do have two SATA 6Gb/s ports available:

 

 

 

In the bottom right corner of the board, we will spot two additional SATA ports, but also one USB 3.0 frontal header:

 

 

 

The F_PANEL header is located right next to it:

 

 

 

Moving on, we will get to see the 24-pin ATX power connector:

 

 

 

Between the CPU socket and the memory slots, we will be able to spot two fan headers:

 

 

 

In the I/O area, we do have plenty of connectivity options:

 

-PS/2 mouse/keyboard combo connector

-placeholder for mounting the supplied (in some cases optional) antenna assembly

-one DisplayPort port

-one HDMI port

-a Type-C USB 3.0 port

-5x USB 3.0 ports

-2x RJ45 LAN connectors

-audio jack ports including one SPDIF

 

 

 

Let’s also take a look on the back side of the PCB:

 

 

 

Here we’ll find an additional M.2 Socket 3 with M key, that does support 2242/2280 Optane SSD cards:

 

 

 

Nearby, ECS has placed an Intersil ISL69137 PWM controller:

 

 

 

The ITE IT8613E is the SuperIO chip on this board:

 

 

 

We have mentioned before of the included M.2 WiFi card; to be more exact, we are dealing with an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165, which is a really good AC adapter:

 

 

 

As we have seen before with other ECS boards, the Z270H4-I does come with two different UEFI interfaces: EZ Mode and Advanced. The EZ Mode allows the user to select from some pre-defined profiles, adjust the boot priority but also take a look at some of the system monitoring parameters:

 

 

By navigating to the Advanced mode, we can see the main menus on the top area of the screen, while the explanations are available on the right; the Main menu does allow the user to adjust the interface language, adjust the system date/time, but also take a look at the BIOS version:

 

 

The Advanced menu comes with its own sub-sections:

 

 

LAN Configuration menu does allow the user to enable/disable the LAN interfaces (Intel WGI 219V / Realtek RTL8118AS):

 

 

The PC Health area comes with the SuperIO monitoring parameters (temperatures/fan speeds/voltages), but we can also work with the Smart Fan function:

 

 

The Power Management Setup menu does contain the usual PM options:

 

 

ACPI Settings are next:

 

 

The CPU Configuration options menu does show some more details on the installed CPU, but also allows working with some processor-specific options such as the number of active cores, Execute Disable Bit, VMX, C State Limit and so on:

 

 

SATA Configuration menu does allow us to work with the controller:

 

 

From the USB Configuration menu, we can enable/disable the USB interfaces, but also enable Legacy USB Support:

 

 

TPM modules can be also configured from the next menu area:

 

 

The Chipset menu does have its own sub-menus:

 

 

The SA Configuration menu does only show the IGD Multi-Monitor option:

 

 

The PCH Configuration area does allow us to set the behavior when the power is lost, but also enable/disable the audio controller or adjust the Case Open Warning detection feature:

 

 

Management Engine Tech Configuration menu does allow the user to enable/disable ME Control:

 

 

For adjusting the system performance, we do have to navigate to the M.I.B. X area; here we can adjust the CPU multiplier, BCLK, power limits and more:

 

 

Here we do also have the possibility to configure the memory speed/timings or simply choose from one of the XMP pre-programmed profiles:

 

 

The Intel Graphics Configuration area does allow Intel IGP overclocking:

 

 

Moving further, we’ve got the Voltage configuration menu, from where we can adjust the values in order to obtain a fully-stable configuration:

 

 

Overclocking profiles can be saved in slots, for an easier restore during sessions:

 

 

From the Security menu, we can enable/disable the Secure Boot feature:

 

 

The Boot options can be further configured from the next menu; the board does support both Legacy and UEFI boot options:

 

 

Finally, we do have the Exit menu, from where we can save/discard/load factory defaults, as needed:

 

 

Test Setup

 

CPU: Intel I5 7600K Retail

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

Motherboard: ECS Z270H4-I LGA1151

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB 3000MHz @ 2133MHz

Video: KFA2 GeForce GTX 1060 6GB OC

Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W

SSD: OCZ Vector 150

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840

 

With the Z270H4-I motherboard, we have attempted overclocking and succeeded at a maximum of 4.6GHz; the previous boards, we did also obtain full stability at 4.8GHz, but on the ECS board the VDroop was pretty massive, without the possibility to adjust it from inside the UEFI interface:

 

(click to enlarge)

 

Here is also the validation:

 

(click to enlarge)

 

High speed memory is also no problem for this board since we have tested the G.SKILL TridentZ 32GB 3200MHz DDR4 (F4-3200C15D-32GTZ) kit with it; no issues were encountered:

 

 

Here are some other info we have extracted from the system thanks to the AIDA64 utility:

Motherboard

 

IMC

 

PCH

 

 

AIDA64

Memory

CPU Queen

CPU PhotoWorxx

CPU Zlib

CPU AES

CPU Hash

FPU VP8

FPU Julia

FPU Mandel

FPU SinJulia

FP32 Ray-Trace

FP64 Ray-Trace

CineBench R11.5

CineBench R15

Blender Ryzen Render

PCMark Vantage

PCMark 7

PCMark 8

 

SuperPI XS 32M

X265 Benchmark (HWBOT)

1080P 64-bit Normal

3DMark Vantage

3DMark 11

3DMark 2013

Unigine Valley

Ultra AA Off DX11 1920X1080

Ashes of the Singularity DX12

CPU Focused

 

In our RMAA test, the ECS Z270H4-I does come with surprisingly good results for both 16/44 and 24/96 test sequences, thanks to the good filtering stages and the newer ALC1150 CODEC from Realtek:

Supermicro C7Z170-OCE 16/44

GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-SOC FORCE 16/44

GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming K3 16/44

GIGABYTE Z270X-Ultra Gaming 16/44

MSI X370 Xpower Gaming Titanium 16/44

BIOSTAR RACING X370GT7 16/44

BIOSTAR RACING X370GTN 16/44

ECS Z270H4-I 16/44

 

 

 

 

Supermicro C7Z170-OCE 24/96

GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-SOC FORCE 24/96

GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming K3 24/96

GIGABYTE Z270X-Ultra Gaming 24/96

MSI X370 Xpower Gaming Titanium 24/96

BIOSTAR RACING X370GT7 24/96

BIOSTAR RACING X370GTN 24/96

ECS Z270H4-I 24/96

 

ECS Z270H4-I is a pretty solid offering from the manufacturer that does support the Intel’s 6th gen and 7th gen processors and despite the Mini ITX size, we do get quite a bit of expansion options. The board packs no less than four SATA ports, one M.2 slot for Wi-Fi/BT, another one for 2242/2280 SSDs, but also one PCI-Express x16 Gen 3.0 slots. In terms of memory, we can equip it with up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM and at the same time it does not seem to have issues running with higher frequency RAM since it is able to read the XMP profiles properly.

 

The Z270H4-I is equipped with a dual LAN solution (Realtek Dragon 8118AS, Intel I-219V), does come with seven USB 3.0 ports (5 on the I/O, two onboard header), four USB 2.0 ports (two on the I/O, two with the onboard header), HDMI and DisplayPort video output options but also analog/optical audio ports.

 

In terms of the UEFI interface, it is easy to navigate through it, but we do not get any options to adjust the VDroop in order to get higher overclocks at smaller voltages; considering that this is only a Mini ITX form factor board with less cooling capabilities on the VRM, we can surely let this one slide.

 

Performance-wise at stock settings, it falls a little behind of the competitors, but recuperates quite quickly when the platform is overclocked.

 

The board can be found in USA for about 109 USD, which is excellent considering that the board is equipped with the fully-fledged Z270 chipset that allows overclocking on the Intel K SKUs.

ECS Z270H4-I LGA1151 Motherboard is Recommended for:

 

 

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