ECS Announces Odd A78F2-TI Thin Mini-ITX Motherboard

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

ECS' new FM2+ motherboard has Intel cooler mounting holes.

ECS has unveiled a new Mini-ITX board, though this is not just any Mini-ITX board. What's not surprising is that the board is built on the FM2+ socket, nor is it surprising that it is a thin-Mini-ITX board; no, what's surprising is the combination of those two. ECS has named the board the A78F2-TI.

Aboard users will find two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots, along with a single half-length and a single full-length Mini-PCIe slot. There are also two SATA3 (6 Gb/s) ports, as well as USB 3.0 front panel connectivity.

Something odd you may have noticed while looking at the board, is that it doesn't have the usual AMD mounting bracket. Instead, it features mounting holes for an Intel CPU cooler. It's not clear why this is, though one likely reason is that the AMD cooler is too thick to fit in a thin Mini-ITX chassis, and in order to increase compatibility with coolers that do fit in those cases, ECS has decided to use Intel mounting holes.

Rear I/O connectivity is handled by two HDMI ports, a single DisplayPort connector, as well as two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, along with Gigabit Ethernet and a pair of HD audio jacks. Also present is a power connector, as thin Mini-ITX boards do not sip their power from 24-pin ATX connectors.

At the time of writing, there was no word on pricing or availability.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • rwinches
    Nice, and the FM2+ socket compatible with the Kaveri APU but also offers backwards compatibility with Trinity and Richland

    http://wccftech.com/amd-fm2-socket-kaveri-apu-compatible-trinity-richland/

    http://www.techpowerup.com/199223/ecs-unveils-the-a78f2-ti-thin-mini-itx-motherboard.html
    Reply
  • de5_Roy
    it's not odd. it's perfect for a truly small form factor pc with really integrated soc like kaveri and carrizo. intel cooler mounting bracket was a smart idea from ecs design team. for a first..ish try, not bad. the bad things are that it lacks decent amount of sata, usb, audio ports for additional connectivity.
    Reply
  • rwinches
    Wow! The Comment system reversed the order here lame.
    Reply
  • lp231
    Only has 2 SATA ports?!Besides mPCIe wifi cards, not much else runs on mPCIe.Looks messy, unorganized, and cheap.
    Reply
  • randomstar
    THis is a good thing - it should allow you to use any of many mini ITXS cases that were previously intel only with lower graphics. this can give a much more functional system for HTPC use, although the audio is marginal..
    Reply
  • rwinches
    " not much else runs on mPCIe"
    http://www.ebay.com/bhp/mini-pcie-ssd-128gb

    http://rog.asus.com/technology/republic-of-gamers-motherboard-innovations/mpcie-combo-card/
    Reply
  • lp231
    13003606 said:
    " not much else runs on mPCIe"
    http://www.ebay.com/bhp/mini-pcie-ssd-128gb
    http://rog.asus.com/technology/republic-of-gamers-motherboard-innovations/mpcie-combo-card/

    First of all the description on ebay is wrong, Samsung SSD runs on mSATA not mPCIe and
    the what is point of showing the Asus mPCIe combo card? That thing has two type of slots, a mPCIe for wifi cards and mSATA for SSDs.
    My point still stands that with the mPCIe slots on that ECS boards, not much else runs on mPCIe.
    Here is the Samsung mSATA drive.
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147315
    This is mPCIe (SATA)
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3KX16D4699
    (IDE)
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120%20600038516&IsNodeId=1&name=Mini%20PCIe%20%28PATA%29
    Reply
  • mindless728
    The reason it uses Intel mounting bracket is that Thin Mini ITX is a form factor developed by Intel for AIO PC's, all of the enclosures are designed to fit with the specifications that Intel developed and as such AMD needs to use it.
    Reply
  • Someone Somewhere
    That's the one I linked here. Someone spotted that, did they?
    Reply
  • Thorfkin
    I wrote a letter to them last week asking why I couldn't find this board anywhere. That's why XD Bout time they got this out the door. I need one of these so I can build an Intel Loop AOI with some gaming oomph :)
    Reply