ECS H67H2-M Black Deluxe and H67H2-I (Mini-ITX) - H67 Motherboard Review

Since the turn of the year we have spent a considerable amount of time looking at Intel's new Sandy Bridge platform which consists of their P67/H67 chipsets and second generation Core CPUs. The majority of that time has been spent on P67 based models with the i7-2600K CPU with less on the H67/2500K.

Today that changes as we have two H67 based boards on our test bench. The subjects of our review today are the H67H2-M Black Deluxe and H67H2-I which are two boards from the m-ATX and mini ITX product families at ECS. We will be running each through a selection of synthetic and real world tests, including Blu-Ray 3D and GPU computing to see how they compare to the reference Intel board.

ECS H67H2-M Black Deluxe Motherboard

 

 

ECS package their H67H2-M board in a holographic box which features numerous logos about the product features. Inside there is a decent bundle which includes plenty of SATA cables, an IO shield, product documentation and a software disc.

 The H67H2-M is a micro-ATX motherboard based on the Socket 1155 platform. Dominating the board, which has a black, white and grey colour scheme is a large passive heatsink with copper heatpipes which cool some of the power circuitry. All of the socket 1155 CPUs are supported by this board and it is capable of holding 32GB of DDR3 and as with other H67 based boards we use 1333MHz memory on this product.

Down at the bottom left of the board we find our add-in card slots which run from PCIe 16x through two PCIe 1x to a standard PCI connector. To the right of the slots is a LED display which assists us with fault finding should any problems occur and beneath the slots are our Clear CMOS jumper, audio connectors and USB headers.

On the right of the board are five SATA ports with the white signifying SATA 3GB/s with red meaning 6GB/s and these sit beside the on-board power and reset buttons. RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 are supported by this board.

 

There is nothing out of the ordinary in terms of power connectors on this H67 board, a standard 24/4-pin configuration is present and alongside the 24-pin socket are our dual channel memory slots.

On the IO panel we find four display outputs (VGA, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort) and a Clear CMOS button. There are also four USB 2.0, two USB 3.0 (Etrontech), eSATA, DUAL Realtek GB LAN (with teaming) and Realtek 7.1 audio connectors, including optical out. ECS have also added EZ Charger to their features which provides products such as iDevices with 3x more current than standard USB connectors for quick charging.

ECS H67H2-M

ECS H67H2-I Mini-ITX Motherboard

 

 

ECS go with a reflective design for this boards packaging and the compact box features a number of product feature logos on the front. Inside we find a standard bundle with IO shield, software disc, SATA cables and some product documentation. The board also arrives with brackets for SPDIF in/out connectors however our review sample did not have the wiring.

 

The H67H2-I is a mini ITX board measuring 17x17cm and close to the centre is our socket 1155 CPU location. This sits below the Southbridge which is passively cooled. All of the current socket 1155 CPUs are supported by this board and it is capable of holding 16GB of DDR3 with 1333MHz supported without issue.

There are two power connectors on this board, a standard 24-pin socket and a 4-pin connector also. The main power input sits alongside two, dual channel memory slots and at the edge of the board we can also see the two fan headers.

Round on the IO panel we find three display outputs (HDMI, DVI and VGA) as well as six USB 2.0, eSATA, Realtek GB LAN, two Etrontech USB 3.0 ports, a Bluetooth module and Realtek 7.1 audio with optical out.

Conclusion
Looking first at build quality and design, ECS have delivered two boards which impress. Each uses solid capacitors and proven components such as Realtek GB LAN controllers and the H67H2-M goes a little further by adding a good quality heatsink and heatpipe design. We would have liked to see NEC USB 3.0 controllers rather than Etrontech as NEC have proven they can delivery frequent driver updates and compatibility but the performance of the controller ECS have used is not in question.

Speaking of performance, the two ECS H67 boards delivery on that front too. The use of SATA 6GB/s and USB 3.0 means our devices have the ability to run at their full potential and ECS also allow us to take advantage of full speed PCIe x16 cards, even on the H67H2-I board which means we can install any recent discrete graphics card and maximise gaming performance.

At the time of writing we are still waiting for prices from ECS however past experience tells us that they will be very competitive on that front. An update will be provided as soon as we have pricing.

Summary
The ECSSATA 3 and USB 3 are fully supported and performance is in line with Intel's own motherboards. The H67H2-I is particularly impressive as it gives us full desktop performance in a mini ITX form factor.

ECS H67H2-I

 

 Source : hardwareheaven.com