Testing Configuration and Benchmarks Used
To verify that the motherboard works as advertised, the board was run through our standard benchmark suite. In most cases, the results are presented for the motherboard under review as well as a different similar-class motherboards for performance comparison purposes. The benchmark tests used should give you a good understanding of the board’s capabilities for both office and gaming use so that you, the reader, can make a more informed purchasing decision.
| Test System Setup | |
| Motherboards | Intel Z170-based systems ECS Z170-Claymore Z170A-XPower Gaming Titanium Edition ASUS Z170-A Intel Z97-based system ASUS Z97-Pro Intel X99-based systems ASUS X99-A |
| CPU | Intel Z170-based system Intel Core i7-6700K (4.0GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 40 x 100MHz Base Clock) Intel Z97-based system Intel Core i7-4770K (3.5GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 35 x 100MHz Base Clock) Intel X99-based systems Intel Core i7-5960X (3.0GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 30 x 100MHz Base Clock) |
| Memory | Intel Z170-based system Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules (2133MHz, 16-18-18-35-1T, 1.225V) Intel Z97-based system Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 modules (1600MHz, 9-10-9-27-1T, 1.525V) Intel X99-based systems Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules (2133MHz, 15-17-17-35-1T, 1.225V) |
| Hard Drive | Intel 730 240GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA III HD |
| Sound Card | On-board sound |
| Video Card | ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB |
| CPU Cooling | XSPC Raystorm D5 Photon RX480 V3 WaterCooling Kit |
| Video Drivers | NVIDIA 353.62 |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX750 |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro x64 |
Test Setup Explanation
The 64-bit Windows 10 based test bench used For Intel Z170 LGA1151 board testing includes an Intel Core i7-6700K processor, 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive. For the Z97-based board testing, an Intel Core i7-4770K CPU, 16GB of DDR3-2400 memory, an ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive were used in the test system. For Intel X99 LGA2011-V3 board testing includes an Intel Core i7-5960X CPU, 32GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive. Using the selected components gives us the ability to demonstrate the motherboard's capabilities rather than that of the components themselves.
Benchmark Tests used for evaluation:
- SoftPerfect Research NetWorx Speed Test v5.41
- LanBench v1.1.0
- ATTO Disk Benchmark v3.05
- SiSoft Sandra 2015 SP2b (v2015.07.21.42)
- Intel Linpack Benchmark v11.3.0.004
- Maxon Cinebench R15
- PCMark 8 v2.5.419
These all black connector
These all black connector mainboards are so sad and inefficient. There should be a color scheme to distinguish each slot at first sight.
Anyone who has close to any
Anyone who has close to any idea of how to build a system can distinguish each slot at first sight.
Don’t be so arrogant! Even
Don’t be so arrogant! Even with a good vision you can’t clearly distinguish black PCI-E from black PCI slot or the wiring of each memory channel slot.
That’s all subjective.
This
That’s all subjective.
This board is clearly aimed to be an enthusiast motherboard not meant to break the bank. So a color coordinate/scheme just adds to the cost.
It can add cost or reduce the
It can add cost or reduce the margin included in the $159.99 price which is for my POV far from being ‘cheap’.
You’re referring to the
You’re referring to the non-existent PCI slots in this case, right? Seeing as there are only PCI-E slots on that board, it makes no difference.
As for the memory, if you’re not sure on the channels, look at the manual..?
I love the look of this board.
I hate that boards have too many colours on them as it screws up a good colour scheme.
I’m pretty sure you looked
I’m pretty sure you looked more than once to check the presence of PCI slots and the majority of users don’t look at manuals.
It seems you are more interested in marketing promotion for a mainboard that almost nobody will look at in a closed case than an handy color scheme to identify clearly the board design.
All PCI-e slots are the same
All PCI-e slots are the same in this board. What should they differentiate?
As I stated before, PCI Slots
As I stated before, PCI Slots aren’t supported by modern chip sets anyways, would be especially hard pressed to even see it on an enthusiast board.
Great review Morry!
Nice to
Great review Morry!
Nice to see a review on something other than Asus/MSI.
It sucks that large air coolers like the noctua will interfered with the primary PCIe slot.
>…integrated DVI and HDMI
>…integrated DVI and HDMI video port…< DP and HDMI?? Also how far have ECS come; what is their reliability like these days?
Fixed, thanks for pointing
Fixed, thanks for pointing that out.
As far as quality, ECS seems to have tried to focus more lately on a single good product for a line rather than the shattershot approach they (and other manufacturers) have done in the past….
All my experience with ECS
All my experience with ECS has been negitive. I have a z97 Machine now and it has been nothing but problems even after hair pulling RMA’s. Turns out their board couldn’t handle the weight of 212 evo over the long term, and the board will just die eventually because of it.
I’m going to wait and see if their new products have improved, but I doubt it.
Yea, premature death has been
Yea, premature death has been the recurring theme with ECS since the late 90s or early 2000s. Things may have changed but it’ll take a lot to win back my trust.
Seriously!!! This story has
Seriously!!! This story has been up for this long and no one has made the “What side of this Claymore do you face towards the enemy?” joke.
Im losing faith in the internet.
Most here haven’t heard of a
Most here haven’t heard of a Claymore mine, but I remember setting them up with tripwires…Airborne All The Way
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck nope.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck nope.
what is the point of PCI-E
what is the point of PCI-E number 4 ? you you keep stacking double slot cards in there that slot is usless.
Can be used with peripheral
Can be used with peripheral (read x1, x2, or x4 type card) if you are not using slot 3 or using a cooler or waterblock that doesn't take up more than 1 slot of space…
Indeed! But it’s sad the
Indeed! But it’s sad the board lacks at least one PCI slot for a good old PCI sound controller.
PCI-E sound card are overpriced and in 2016 we should have an efficient digital sound interface instead instead of the current analogic interface or the expensive S/PDIF hardware.
Intel thinks the next audio interface should be digital, great but I’m afraid USB wouldn’t be an efficient audio interface. We need a dedicated audio interface like DVI (stream oriented transmission) whereas DP (packet oriented transmission) should be better a interface for display but the DVI compatibility makes harder to move forward.
Haven’t seen a PCI slot in
Haven’t seen a PCI slot in ages, especially on any recent chipsets (they’re not supported by any recent of intel ICHs as far as I know).
Sorry, correction…they’re
Sorry, correction…they’re called Platform Controller Hubs now.
Just a question of some
Just a question of some poorly chosen words, specifically about ECS taking ‘out all the stops’ in the second paragraph:
What is the keying of the M.2 port? (manual looks like it’s M) How does an NVMe M.2 drive, or a U.2 Drive with an adapter work with this port (Not M Keyed or not PCIe x4, means that there is a stop, so the hyperbole is already identified.)
No Type-C connector on the back IO panel would be a stop.
I won’t go further on the nit-picks on the examples of stops beyond this. Looks like a good board with some solidly compelling features. ECS has a nearly fully modern MB here with 12 phase power delivery should make this great of CPU OCers.
Now, just for kicks, and because I wanted to find out what the M.2 connector was keyed as, I started looking through the manual.
The chapter that it has specifically for Crossfire is pretty dated now. References to Catalyst Control Center, Crossfire bridges, and images depicting ATI Radeon graphics cards.
‘Twas a nostalgic moment.