ECS' flagship Z77H2-AX is the only board in today’s comparison to include the 48-lane PCIe 3.0 bridge needed to enable three-way SLI. At the time it was delivered, it was also one of only two sub-$280 Z77 Express-based boards equipped with this extremely exclusive features.
Naming issues still plague ECS though, as each step up in model number brings with it a reduction in price and features. Heck, the firm even replaces the word Budget with Deluxe in several models, adding the word Black to the packaging of boards that aren’t part of its Black Edition high-end line. The Golden Board label still represents its top-end parts, but those words only show up on the company's box, and not in the model number.
And so, the least-impressive name denotes the firm's most expensive products, from gold-plated connector shells and pins to the previously-mentioned PCIe bridge, integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and dual eSATA ports.
ECS adds a CLR_CMOS button to the Z77H2-AX's rear I/O panel, but does not give it a second gigabit network controller. Stranger still, the company puts VGA output on a board purchased by enthusiasts who'd much rather see DVI or DisplayPort.
Note that the 48-lane PEX 8747 chip is divided up into 16 lanes on the controller side and 32 lanes on the device side. A row of four two-lane switches above the platform's second 16-lane slot allows the third 16-lane slot to borrow eight lanes whenever a card is installed there, taking the board from x16/x16/x0 to x16/x8/x8 mode. Moreover, not wasting any of the chipset’s eight PCIe 2.0 lanes on a x16 slot gives ECS the opportunity to design its Z77H2-AX without the need to switch off certain devices to enable others. We count seven slots or devices connected to the Z77 chipset's eight PCIe 2.0 lanes.
Most of ECS' boards have an empty spot where the Port 80-style diagnostics display should have gone, but the Z77H2-AX actually has the real thing for reporting system status. That’s especially handy for troubleshooting an open test bench, as are the on-board power and reset buttons, and voltage detection points along the motherboard’s top edge.
Four of the Z77H2-AX’s internal SATA connectors are rated for 6 Gb/s data rates, since two of them employ a third-party controller. One of the Z77’s missing SATA 3Gb/s ports is re-assigned to an mSATA slot, while the other remains missing in action.
The Z77H2-AX’s layout is almost as good as its features, with three spaces separating the first and second graphics card slots. But USB 3.0 header placement is the elephant in ECS' design room. Because it's so close to the third graphics slot, front-panel USB 3.0 and three-way SLI or CrossFire are mutually-exclusive features.

The Z77H2-AX includes four black and two red SATA cables, a USB 3.0-to-3.5” bay adapter, three SLI bridges, and a front-panel Wi-Fi antenna.
- Intel's Mainstream Z77 Express Goes High-End
- Panther Point's Thunderbolt Connection
- ASRock Z77 OC Formula
- Z77 OC Formula Software
- Z77 OC Formula Firmware
- Asus Sabertooth Z77
- Sabertooth Z77 Software
- Sabertooth Z77 Firmware
- ECS "Golden Board" Z77H2-AX
- Z77H2-AX Software
- Z77H2-AX Firmware
- Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5 TH
- GA-Z77X-UP5 TH Software
- GA-Z77X-UP5 TH Firmware
- Intel DZ77RE-75K
- DZ77RE-75K Software And Firmware
- MSI Z77A-GD80
- Z77A-GD80 Software
- Z77A-GD80 Firmware
- Test Settings And Compatibility
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark 11
- Benchmark Results: PCMark And SiSoftware Sandra
- Power And Heat
- Overclocking
- Picking The Right High-End Z77 Board


"Six $220-280 Z77 Express-Based Motherboards, Reviewed"
Also, the time taken to show the windows loading screen/ BIOS page..
you really liked the black/grey dimms and PCI slots of the gigabyte better than the blue/black of the MSI!
Andrew Ku tests drive controllers. I'm trying to get him to "write the book" on controller performance, since dozens of boards use only a few different controllers. As for testing things like Z77 controller performance on board A vs Z77 controller performance on board B, it's a waste of time unless something is broken. So the article looked for "broken stuff". See the red bar on the first chart:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77x-up5-th-z77a-gd80-z77-oc-formula,3305-22.html
With nothing broken, there's no excuse to test the Z77 controller six times. Back to me begging Andrew Ku for a comprehensive comparison of every SATA controller currently available on mainstream-brand enthusiast boards.
This allows ocer's to achieve higher overclocks while still retaining the power saving functions, instead of being forced to either reduce the overclock, or be forced to run high voltage 24/7.
MSI doesn't have this key feature.
Overclocking the BLCK is very unlikely to cause any damage, it's just likely to not give much of a stable overclock.
And as much as I like ASRock, I realy wish they'd put more PWM headers on their boards.
On a side note, in a future I would love to see a comparison including boards like the Z77X-UP7 from Gigabyte, haven't got a chance to see that one in action
The problem isn't the review, the problem is that only two people didn't realize that the performance is supposed to be identical. Those two people are you, and the person who gave you the "thumbs up".