Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPUs are just around the corner, and motherboard manufacturers have started to roll out previews of their corresponding product lineup.

ECS has five motherboards featuring the Z77 chipset (supports both the Intel IGP and overclocking). Two of those introduce a new top tier at ECS, beyond that of the Black Edition. These new boards carry the “Golden Board” label as well as a couple of extra features (on-board Bluetooth and WiFi) to set them apart from even the Black Edition boards. The two boards that occupy this new tier are the Z77H2-AX and Z77H2-A2X.

Z77H2-AX Z77H2-A2X Socket LGA 1155 LGA 1155 Chipset Intel Z77 Express Intel Z77 Express Memory support 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3-2667(OC)/1600/1333/1066 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3-2667(OC)/1600/1333/1066 Expansion slots PCI Express 3.0 x16: 3 (16/16/0 or 16/8/8)

PCI Express x1: 2

Mini PCI Express x1: 1 (mSATA or mPCIe)

PCI: 2 PCI Express 3.0 x16: 2 (16/0 or 8/8)

PCI Express x1: 2

Mini PCI Express x1: 1 (mSATA or mPCIe)

PCI: 2 Storage Z77: 4x SATA 6.0Gb/s, 2x SATA 3.0GB/s

Asmedia ASM1061: 2x eSATA 3.0GB/s Z77: 2x SATA 6.0Gb/s, 2x SATA 3.0GB/s

Asmedia ASM1061: 2x SATA 6.0GB/s Audio Realtek ALC892 8-channel HD Audio Realtek ALC892 8-channel HD Audio Network Realtek RTL 8111E Gigabit

802.11a/b/g/n

Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR Realtek RTL 8111E Gigabit

802.11a/b/g/n

Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR USB 4x USB 3.0 (rear I/O)

1x USB 3.0 header

4x USB 2.0 (rear I/O)

1x USB 2.0 header 4x USB 3.0 (rear I/O)

1x USB 3.0 header

2x USB 2.0 (rear I/O)

1x USB 2.0 header Video ports HDMI, VGA HDMI, DVI, VGA Fan headers 2×3-pin, 1×4-pin 2×3-pin, 1×4-pin On-board buttons Power, reset, Clear CMOS Power, reset, Clear CMOS Price $319.99 $249.99

The most important difference between the two top-end motherboards is that the Z77H2-AX adds a PLX8747 controller, increasing the total actual PCI Express 3.0 lanes from 16 to 32, and the x16 slot count from two to three. This will allow dual Crossfire or SLI at 16/16 for dual cards or 16/8/8 for triple GPU configurations on the Z77H2-AX, while the Z77H2-A2X is limited to 16/0 or 8/8.

Gold 4 Ever

ECS Golden Edition motherboards feature gold plating on the CPU pins, memory sockets, and PCI Express slots. The heatsinks are gold plated as well, providing a much different appearance from the blue/grey/black colors of the Black Edition motherboards.

Lucid Virtu Universal MVP

The previous generation Intel chipsets (Cougar Point) made the user choose between a discrete GPU and Intel’s on-die graphics. This caused one potentially useful feature, QuickSync, to be completely disabled when a discrete GPU was in place. Now, thanks to Virtu, the system can seamlessly switch between the discrete and integrated graphics when needed.



Smart Response Technology

Intel’s SRT was introduced in the Z68 chipset, and makes a return in the Z77 chipset. This feature allows the use of an SSD to cache frequently used data stored on hard drives for much faster access.

EZ Charger

EZ Charger provides three times the normal current to flow to USB devices for charging. This feature works no matter what power state the PC is in—devices can even charge while the system is powered down.

The Z77H2-A2X is undergoing testing now. We’ll have a full review soon.