Integrated Device Testing
Audio Subsystem Testing
Audio Playback Testing
Using a selection of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal music tracks and Windows Media Player, the audio subsystem playback performance was tested for playback accuracy and fidelity.
Playback using the app-provided test sounds and audio test tracks was clear and distortion free with the 7.1 speaker setup going through the integrated analogue audio ports.
Listening tests using the selected audio tracks were performed with a Kingston HyperX Cloud Gaming audio headset as well as a 5.1 speaker setup to exercise the subsystem's audio fidelity. In both cases, audio reproduction was clear and distortion-free with little quality difference between the different audio setups.
Microphone Port Testing
For testing the board's Microphone input port, the microphone from a Kingston HyperX Cloud Gaming audio headset was used to capture a 30 second spoken phrase with the assistance of the Microsoft Sound Recorder application. The resulting audio file was saved to the desktop and played back using Windows Media Player.
Audio pickup was muted without Microphone Boost enabled with best voice reproduction requiring a minimum recording volume of 75% and Microphone Boost a +30dB. No distortion was evident during playback of record audio, but audibility was muted with lesser settings. With Noise Suppression and Acoustic Audio Cancellation enabled, voice capture was slightly muted with a "tinny" sound apparent during playback.
ATTO Disk Benchmark
To validate that the board’s device ports were functioning correctly, we connected a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SATA III SSD to the system and ran the ATTO Disk Benchmark against the drive. The SSD was directly connected to the native SATA 3 ports, the SATA-Express device ports, the USB 3.0 ports, and USB 3.1 Gen2 ports. NGFF port testing was performed using an M.2 based Samsung 950 Pro PCIe M.2 2280 256GB SSD. The M.2 device was tested using the board's integrated M.2 slot. USB port testing performed using the SSD in a USB 3.1 Gen 2 compatible enclosure. ATTO was configured to test against transfer sizes from 0.5 to 8192 KB with Total Length set to 512 MB and Queue Depth set to 10. The M.2 SSD selected for testing has a maximum read throughput of 2200 MB/s and a write throughput of 900 MB/s over a PCI-Express x4 bus. The selected SSD has a maximum read throughput of 540 MB/s and a write throughput of 520 MB/s on a SATA III controller. The drive tests were repeated three times with the highest repeatable read and write speeds recorded.
For the most part, the SSDs performed well on the Intel-based SATA ports with no performance difference measured between the SATA and SATA-Express ports. However, individual port selection seemed to matter with our sample board with drives on SATA port 4 performing considerably slower than with the same drive attached to SATA port 2. The Samsung 950 Pro drive performed as expected considering the integrated M.2 port is limited to x2 bandwidth. While the USB 3.1 GEN 2 port connected drive outperformed the USB 3.0 device, speeds seemed to sit between 400 – 450 MB/s. The USB 3.0 port attached drive performed as expected with speeds around 350 MB/s.
SoftPerfect Research NetWorx Speed Test
In conjunction with Windows Performance Monitor, SoftPerfect Research NetWorx Speed Meter application was used to measure the upload and download performance of the motherboards integrated network controllers. Speed Meter was used to measure average network throughput in MB/s with Windows Performance Monitor used to measure average CPU utilization during the tests.
The LanBench network benchmarking software was used to generate send and receive traffic between the local and remote systems over a five minute period with packet size set to 4096 and connection count set to 20. A LanBench server was set up on the remote system to generate or receive traffic for the tests performed. The upload and download tests were repeated three times with the highest repeatable average throughput, the lowest repeatable average CPU utilization, and lowest repeatable performance spike percentages recorded.
Note that that theoretical maximum throughput for a Gigabit Ethernet adapter is 125 MB/s (1.0 Gbps).
The integrated network controller performed well within expectations, averaging 115 MB/s for both upload and download runs. The CPU utilization numbers measured equally strong with averages remaining under 5% for the duration of all test runs with some momentary spiking during the download tests of just under 20%.
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.