Shootouts

Intel P67 Roundup - The Mainstream Invasion

By Vincent Chang - 28 Jan 2011

ECS P67H2-A2

ECS P67H2-A2

The ECS P67H2-A2 probably has the most number of features among the six P67 boards in our roundup today. There are numerous indications that it's meant for enthusiasts, from its support for both CrossFireX and SLI, including the all-important x8/x8 lane configuration, to the sheer number of third-party onboard controllers to enhance the existing P67 chipset. Then, there's the EFI BIOS and its host of tweaking options that are as comprehensive as anything we have seen so far on the P67 chipset.

As mentioned, there's no lack of onboard controllers on this ECS. Two USB 3.0 controllers, a Marvell SATA 6Gbps controller (including eSATA), two Gigabit LAN controllers are just some of the features you'll find. Given the heavy feature count, it's commendable that ECS has managed to fit everything nicely without incurring any layout issues. For instance, the graphics slots are dual-slot compatible and the SATA ports face outwards; other onboard headers are shunted to the edges of the board.

 Black and gray, the ECS P67H2-A2 does break the monotony of all the blue color schemes preferred by the board vendors. Despite its mainstream billing, this ECS board probably has the most features among our six boards today.

Dual Gigabit LAN connections, along with eight USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports and even two eSATA ports. If we had any doubts which of the boards in our roundup is a higher-end mainstream P67 boards, they were instantly gone when we inspected this ECS board.

While it's easy to tell that the white SATA ports are SATA 3Gbps, it's harder to tell between the four darker SATA 6Gbps ports. We prefer the Intel chipset's SATA 6Gbps implementation, but it wasn't too clear looking at the color scheme used. ECS should have made an effort to distinguish between the Marvell and Intel SATA 6G. (The two adjacent to the white ports are the Intel ones).

Like the other P67 boards, it's a dual-channel memory architecture, with four DIMM slots on this ECS board. 16GB is its maximum capacity, with a maximum frequency of DDR3 2133MHz.

Unlike the ASUS P8P67, this ECS board has two graphics slots capable of x8/x8 when in CrossFireX mode (x16 when single). It is also certified for NVIDIA SLI, something that the ASUS cannot claim. Dual-slot graphics cards should fit right in too.

ECS is not a brand that's commonly seen locally, so you're more likely to get this board from an online retailer. At around US$195 however, it's the costliest board in our roundup, though one has to say that it does have some features that have undoubtedly increased the cost. It's then a question of whether you require the extra features.

 USB headers galore! A Clear CMOS jumper is sandwiched here, though we obviously will be using the Clear CMOS button at the rear panel.

ECS has also provided for a power and reset button, which tells us that it's aimed more towards the enthusiast, especially if you consider its other features.

EtronTech is the provider for the USB 3.0 controller, there are two such controllers for a total of four USB 3.0 ports, of which two are present as onboard headers.

Perhaps anticipating the enthusiasts who may be overclocking their CPUs with this board, the heatsink looks a bit more heavy duty than the other boards, with a heat-pipe design linking the two.

ECS' EFI BIOS implementation looked similar to an older BIOS, except for the fact that the fonts were much sharper. It had nothing similar to the ASUS version, with its EZ mode. The settings too fit its enthusiast oriented slant with a wide range of values, though a BIOS update was required to clear up some errors in the BIOS display - values were out of range by default, generating an error when we selected it.  

Almost everyone has an EFI BIOS nowadays and ECS too is joining the bandwagon. Note that the frequency is in KHz steps instead of MHz, hence the 10000 figure. This new interface looked cleaner and was responsive.  

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