i'm setting up a Z77MB - ECS Z77H2-A2X. It's the gold one - gold plating everywhere. Not a bad board.

To save time when i originally set up my Gigabyte MB to test i7-3770K, i used sysprep and everything transferred smoothly over. However, this time it was a fail, so i am doing a clean install of everything. It takes about a full day and it will insure that each MB is tested fairly.

Basically, i am going to compare performance with X58 and especially with Gigabyte Z77 - and i will use less games; maybe 15 to save time. i'll also be looking for my maximum overclock to see if i can beat 4.8GHz and that will tell if it is a good overclocker. And i'll look at USB 2.0 and 3.0 speeds for transferring large files.

The EVGA MB should arrive next week and it will be a separate evaluation. It will compare against the ECS MB. With luck, i will have both evaluations published by next weekend and i'll have my platform established and start to look at vRAM and amounts of RAM comparisons.

Anything you especially want me to test?

You need Nitrogen to crank it up to 8GHZ

So it should be a direct IPC comparison between Nehalem and IB right?I think u can also do a 4GB-8GB comparison along with it.

i'm not really sure. i want to do a formal test of the ECS MB. Logically, i would compare to the Gigabyte z77 MB since i ran a lot of benches on it.

i am not even sure if i want to use this evaluation to compare with x58. There is SO much that can be covered that i want to narrow my focus.

OK so it will be a motherboard review?That's cool too.U can cover the other topics later.

Pretty much. i am just trying not to make it a 3-week review.

It might not be a bad idea to compare with X58, however. i can do some comparisons with the Gigabyte MB in terms of comparing the OC and gaming performance. i don't want to complicate this evaluation or else i would also bring z68Mb into it also

It's an ECS, how much time is needed to write "It sucks!"?

i dunno, it didn't take you any thought to write it neither.

i tested one other ECS MB and it was decent. An AM3 MB that has some nice features, it was stable and overclocked well. Not sure what else i was looking for in a MB as price was decent, and i gave some suggestions for things that could be improved.

This is their latest flagship MB. i'd like to see if ECS has made any progress. It appears that they are trying for the enthusiast market. At first glance, the BIOS is more fully-featured, but appears a bit confusing. i also did a clean install so there is no question about the testing. It has every bell and whistle but you need a jumper to clear the CMOS. And there are only two PCIE full-bandwidth slots, so Tri- or X3 is out of the question. Everything else is laid out OK and the cooling appears adequate for the MB's components but i won't really know until i hit 4.8GHz.

It's set up in my Overseer RX-I full tower case ... and this is a much more conservative looking full tower but set up internally much like the last Tt Chaser MK-I tower that i evaluated. All the testing will be with my Noctual NH-DH14 CPU cooler at 4.2GHz to keep clock for clock with my i7-920 (using the Tt Frio OCK for its 4.2GHz max OC).

i like to keep an open mind while i am doing the testing. Afterward, there will be an EVGA Z77 MB to compare it with next week, so there will be an even better perspective.

With ECS/PC-Chips/whatever other brand they cook up you don't need to think -- you just say NO! and run the opposite direction.

Speaking for yourself, of course.

You also have no recent experience with ECS