Product Listing

ECS P55H-AK - Entering the Big Leagues

By Vincent Chang - 1 Oct 2010

Conclusion

Conclusion

With this latest Black Series motherboard, ECS has shown that it is deserving of a spot among the top brands. Be it the features or its performance, the ECS P55H-AK was definitely competitive with its rivals. In fact, against many of the mainstream P55 boards available, the ECS board emerges as the clear features winner, no thanks to its support for 3-way multi-GPU configurations, full speed USB 3.0/SATA 6Gbps, higher memory frequencies and dual Gigabit Ethernet. Its performance too was highly competitive and it should hold its own against even the bigger brands.

Another point that is easily drowned out by its impressive feature list is the excellent layout. We didn't find anything wrong on this board and the new, improved PCIe 2.0 x16 slots were easier to use. Couple that with the more consistent and stylish color scheme and users should have no qualms about displaying this board in all its glory behind a transparent chassis window.

ECS attempts to get into the big leagues with the P55H-AK and for the most part, it has succeeded with a feature packed board that is well designed and performs pretty good too.

Unfortunately, along with its move up the ranks in terms of features and performance, this ECS board is also significantly more expensive than the usual P55 board. With a recommended retail price of S$399, it's currently more costly than most P55 boards except for the truly extreme high-end offerings like the ASUS Maximus III Formula. Add to that its higher operating temperature and power consumption when compared to the other P55 boards here and one can see the flaws hidden behind its strong feature set.

Finally, if you're sold on its features and performance despite the price, there's a last catch - it's not available yet in Singapore, though our sources indicate that this is just a matter of time.

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8.5
  • Performance 8.5
  • Features 9.5
  • Value 8
The Good
One of the more fully featured P55 board in the market
Excellent layout
Competitive performance
The Bad
Those extra features will cost you
Runs relatively warmer and with a high power draw
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