REVIEWS / MOTHERBOARDS / ECS

ECS P67H2-A - Features Abundant

09 May, 2011, 4:45 pm IST | by Aaron Almeida | Motherboards

Motherboards

ECS' first offering of Sandy Bridge

ECS' first offering of Sandy Bridge
Stylishly designed chipset
Massive heatsinks
LGA 1155 socket
PCIe slots with crossfire capabilities
4 RAM slots for memory up to 32 GB

PRICE IN INDIA

15,700

TECH2 RATING

6.5

AVERAGE USER RATING

6.5

How we test

CONTACT

ECS

 response@rptechindia.com

 +91 22 4047 0828

 www.rptechindia.com

Everyone awaited Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors early this year just before the Cougar Point chipset issue. ECS, like all other motherboard manufacturers launched their product based on the chipset. They later rehashed the product and launched three different motherboards – P667H2A-2 (1.0), P67H2-A3 and P67H2-A4. Before these three came out, ECS unleashed a stylish looking motherboard from their Black Extreme series called the P67H2-A (1.1). This high-end P67 board is designed for Sandy Bridge and comes built with the Lucid Hydra support. Let’s take a look at this new ECS P67H2-A and see how it compares to the top boards from other motherboard manufacturers.

ECS' first offering of Sandy Bridge

ECS' first offering of Sandy Bridge

 


Features
The ECS P67H2-A is an ATX form factor motherboard that is built around Intel’s LGA 1155 socket. The LGA 1155 socket has been designed specifically for Intel’s 2nd generation of Intel Core Sandy Bridge processors. This board has supports Lucid’s Hydra Core Technology that’ll allow users to install three graphics under in A/N/X modes, which basically means multiple cards can be coupled together using CrossFire or SLI and between NVIDIA and AMD cards. The board has a pair of heatsinks running between three heatsinks at the top of the board.


Like all other P67 boards these days, SATA3 and USB3 connectivity support is present. We reviewed the somewhat cheaper Gigabyte GA-P67A-UDR3 and we noticed a few features missing on it. One of them was the lack of eSATA ports, which is something present on this board. Besides the eSATA port, there are other features available on this mainboard which we missed on the Gigabyte board. There are dedicated Power and Reset buttons on the board. There’s also an status code indicator that should help in troubleshooting any problems with the board. It also displays system temperatures. There are also two Gigabit Ethernet adapters integrated into the board. Most motherboards offer a single Ethernet port, but the ECS P67H2-A allows can help you achieve twice the bandwidth by teaming up the two adapters.

Stylishly designed chipset

Stylishly designed chipset

 


The P67 also sports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 configurations. ECS has implemented an EZ Charger feature which allows charging of Apple devices such as the iPad.  Overall, this mother board has a vast variety of features that can compete with most other motherboards where features are concerned.


While  most of the features on the board are impressive, the BIOS is extremely limited. There are very few options to play with and overclocking is a nightmare. Apart from the CPU multiplier (which is only handy if you have an unlocked processor) and a few other options, there’s little provision for overclocking.

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Tags:

Motherboards , ECS , ECS P67H2-A , Sandy Bridge , Cougar Point , LGA 1155 , dual LAN adapters , USB 3.0 , eSATA , Lucid Hydra ,

Would you buy it?




 


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The Tech2 Labs receives many products every single week and each of them is tested with the utmost care and highest level of objectivity. There’s a constant effort to reduce and totally eliminate subjectivity. Each product is tested according to set test processes so the same test scenario is used.

Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.


Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

What is the Average User Rating?

We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

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