Intel Z77 Panther Point Chipset and Motherboard Preview – ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, ECS and Biostar
by Ian Cutress on April 8, 2012 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- Biostar
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- Asus
- Ivy Bridge
- ECS
- Z77
ECS Z77H2-AX—Visual Inspection
If all you ever wanted in life was something colored gold, I think ECS have you covered. As part of their Golden Board branding, the ECS Z77H2-AX has been plated with a layer of gold paint. Well, their heatsinks, heatpipes, socket, capacitors, VRMs and IO panel have all had a layer of gold paint added in order to improve aesthetics. When I first took this board out of the wrapper, I was figuratively blinded by just how much of the gold color was in my face.
Initially ECS will be releasing two high-end Z77 boards, with this one being the most expensive we have in for review, at an MSRP of $319. As such, I would expect it to perform near the top in almost every aspect—features, extras, performance and usability. As more than twice the price of the ASRock Z77 Extreme4, it had better be at least twice the board.
For a start, we can see that the socket is closed in, with the heatsinks and the memory slots being right up against Intel's minimum required socket spacing. This means big air coolers may not get a chance to fit, and only stock or water-cooling need apply. If that is the case, then I hope ECS have a robust overclock system in place.
One thing to feel disappointed by the ECS board though is the lack of fan headers. Around the socket you are lucky to have two—one 4-pin between the top VRM heatsink and the memory slots, and a 3-pin just above the 24-pin ATX power connector. A solitary third is on the bottom of the board. In the past ECS fan OS controls have had some of the better software support; however, it does not make sense to have only three headers on this.
Down the right hand side of the board, below the ATX power connector, are a pair of power/reset buttons, the standard six SATA ports from the PCH, and a two-digit debug display. Note we do not have any other SATA controllers for internal ports on the board. Below the two-digit debug display is an mSATA connector, which doubles up as a mini-PCIe if a user want to use a WiFi module (note, there is one on board already) or a TV Tuner.
On the south side of the board we are not given a vast amount of headers to say it is cramped—aside from standard front panel headers, there is a USB 3.0 header, a COM header, and a solitary USB 2.0 header.
This big selling point of this board over the other boards in this preview however is its multi-GPU capabilities. ECS have decided to invest in a PLX PXE 8747 chip, which is akin to the NF200 chips we saw on X58. This chip will expand the 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes on the board to 32, meaning that on the PCIe slots, we can have x16/x16 in dual card mode, or x16/x8/x8 in tri-card mode.
Thus in order we have an x1, an x16, x1, PCI, x16/x8, PCI, x8. So if all three full length PCIe slots are filled, there is still access to an x1 and a PCI, but we lose a lot of the functionality on the south part of the board.
The back panel has a mix and match of capabilities and functionality. From the left, we have a Bluetooth dongle, two USB 2.0 (red), an eSATA, a clear CMOS button, D-Sub, HDMI, a WiFi dongle, two USB 2.0, an eSATA, two USB 3.0, gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0, optical SPDIF and audio jacks. The big selling point for me is the WiFi, which ECS have cunningly added to their top range boards for a few chipsets now.
Board Features
| ECS Z77H2-AX | |
| Size | ATX |
| CPU Interface | LGA-1155 |
| Chipset | Intel Z77 |
| Power Delivery | 12 + 2 |
| Memory Slots |
Four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 32 GB Up to Dual Channel, 1066-2800 MHz |
| Video Outputs | HDMI, D-Sub |
| Onboard LAN | Realtek 8111E |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC892 |
| Expansion Slots |
2 x PCIe x16 Gen3 (x16, x8/8) 1 x PCIe x16 Gen2 (x4) 2 x PCIe x1 Gen2 2 x PCI |
| Onboard SATA/RAID |
2 x SATA 6 Gbps (PCH), Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 4 x SATA 3 Gbps (PCH), Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 2 x eSATA 3 Gbps |
| USB |
6 USB 3.0 ports (4 back panel, 2 from headers) 6 USB 2.0 ports (4 back panel, 2 from headers) |
| Onboard |
2 x SATA 6 Gbps 4 x SATA 3 Gbps 1 x USB 3.0 Header 1 x USB 2.0 Header 3 x Fan Headers 1 x COM Header 1 x SPDIF Output Header 1 x Front Panel Audio Header Power/Reset Buttons Debug LED 1 x mSATA |
| Power Connectors |
1 x 24-pin ATX connector 1 x 8-pin 12V connector |
| Fan Headers |
1 x CPU Fan Header (4-pin) 1 x SYS Fan Header (3-pin) 1 x PWR Fan Header (3-pin) |
| IO Panel |
4 x USB 3.0 Ports 4 x USB 2.0 Ports 1 x HDMI 1 x D-Sub 1 x Gigabit Ethernet 1 x Optical SPDIF Output 1 x Clear CMOS Button 1 x Wifi Connector 1 x Bluetooth 2 x eSATA 3 Gbps Audio Ports |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years from date of Purchase (3yr parts, 2yr labor) |
| Product Page | Link |
Despite having WiFi, mSATA and extended PCIe 3.0 lanes, the ECS board is down on audio (Realtek ALC892 rather than ALC898 of others), lacking fan headers and also lacking video outputs, with a lot of people requiring DVI to D-Sub or DVI to HDMI connectors.
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Springf - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Quote: Native USB 3.0The other long awaited addition found on Panther Point is the native implementation of USB 3.0 that comes directly from the chipset. The chipset will only provide two USB 3.0 ports,
------- end quote
I think Z77 natively support 4 USB 3.0 ports
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/...
C'DaleRider - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
When you write sentences like this:"ASUS have a lot to live up to with its Ivy Bridge Pro board."
You do realize that you're mixing a plural verb and singular pronoun for the same damn thing...Asus in this case. First, you use a plural verb talking about Asus and then use a singular pronoun for Asus in the same sentence. You cannot do both; well, I guess you can, but you show you have no clue about English grammar and look like you dropped out of third grade.
Get a copy editor! How can anyone take this site a professional when the writing borders on illiterate?
sausagestrike - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
You should higher a sand removal specialist to take a look at you're twat.Arbie - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
@C'DaleRider -You do realize that... you're the illiterate one, don't you?
"ASUS have" is perfectly legitimate English, and is in fact what you will hear in England itself. "ASUS" is a company of people and can be taken as singular or plural.
For me, the AT editors just made major points right in this set of comments by correcting another ignoramus, who was misusing "begs the question".
Now, can we get back to fan headers?
Iketh - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
no, there are errors STILL all over the place in this article... it's horrid... when your site is 99% words, please make them as easy as possible to comprehend...PLEASE LEARN TO WRITE LIKE ANAND, THX!
Anand, for the love of god, pay a little more to hire a little more education (SEE WHAT I DID THAR??)
nz_nails - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
"Biostar have unfortunately put much effort in here, with only three to play with..."Should be a "not" in there I suppose.
s1lencerman - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
I do not understand why non express PCI slots are still on boards. The only one to see the light is MSI, and if they had a bit better performance I would switch from ASUS for my next mobo in a heartbeat. Also, why do these boards have a VGA connector (D-sub)? Intel HD graphics can only support 2 displays max, and if you have more than you should get a dedicated graphics card anyway, and probably already have. I don't see the point.Another thing, when will OEMs start putting the USB hub at the bottom of the board facing down and not away from the board. If you have multiple cards on the board then you can get really cramped really fast when you are trying to use those.
I'm sorely tempted to just wait another year or so till there is a board with these features and over 50% SATA 6G/s, but we'll see if that even comes out in that short of time.
DanNeely - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
1) Some customers are asking for them. Customer demand was why a few boards started sporting floppy controllers again last summer. Legacy PCI demand is almost certainly much higher.2) Intel doesn't have enough PCIe lanes on the southbridge for well featured ATX boards.
2.1) This means a bridge chip of some sort.
2.2) PCIe devices are used to being able to count on the full 250/500MBps bandwidth.
2.3) Legacy PCI devices are used to sharing their bandwidth (133MBps).
2.4) 2.2 and 2.3 combined mean there's less risk of compatibility problems in filling out a few slots with legacy PCI slots.
This is probably going to remain an issue until either:
A) Intel increases the number of lanes they offer on their boards by a half dozen or so (bridges are also used for on board devices).
B) Intel integrates a lot more stuff into the southbridge so it doesn't need PCIe lanes: More USB3, Sata6GB, audio, ethernet.
C) A new version of PCIe allows sizes other than powers of two. Fitting everything on would be much easier if a board maker could fall back on just offering 13/1x or 7/7x on the main gfx slots.
jfelano - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
GReat to see Asrock finally stepping up with the warranty, great products.James5mith - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
Something I realized by reading this roundup:Almost all of the current motherboards are using PCI connected Firewire chips. Even the ones that have PCIe connected firewire use TI chips, which in turn are still PCI firewire, with an internal PCI to PCIe translator.
After some research the only native PCIe firewire controller I've found is from LSI. Does anyone else know of another solution? This is an interesting "dirty secret" that I never really paid any attention to.