ECS Elitegroup Z77H2-A2X (V1.0) Ultimate Golden Edition Extreme Pro Reviews

I have to admit that we have mixed feelings about ECS Z77H2-A2X (v1.0) mainboard. We loved the packaging, could say a lot of good things about the bundled accessories, but have a few comments about the design and functionality. We wish its performance were somewhat higher and power consumption somewhat lower. Although the performance difference is not dramatic at all compared with other mainboards, it is undeniable. As for the power consumption, it is on good level in idle mode, but is excessively high under heavy operational loads. It seems that the processor voltage regulator circuitry may have been designed not in the most optimal way and that is something you cannot fix that easily. The board works fine with the default settings, but overclocking and meticulous system fine-tuning pose certain challenges. Of course, the BIOS version we worked with has been improved a lot compared with the previous versions. It has become more user-friendly, but there are still quite a few things that could be changed for the better, and could use additional flexibility. We often hope that some of the concerns we express in our reviews could be eventually addressed in the new BIOS versions, but it looks like it isn’t the case for ECS Z77H2-A2X (v1.0). Some of the Elitegroup mainboard models received BIOS updates in October of 2012, but the last beta-BIOS for ECS Z77H2-A2X (v1.0) is the one from mid-summer, to our great regret. Hopefully they will do something about it and won’t leave the board to the mercy of fate, because when you buy a board you need to know that the manufacturer stands behind the product and will provide you the support you need.

Ultimately, the ECS Z77H2-A2X motherboard is a pretty good, but slightly price-premium Intel Z77 platform for new computer builders assembling a system around an 'ivy bridge' processor. The ECS Z77H2-A2X is priced at a small premium, $219 USD/CDN, but for that investment you get a well featured platform and a visual style unto itself. All that makes the ECS Z77H2-A2X a great motherboard to consider.