ECS X79R-AX
W
hen we first received
this board, we were not
moved at all. While it looked
adequate aesthetically, it
suffered from many of the
oversights on the INTEL
board which we were willing
to accept on the DX79SI, but
found annoying on a 3rd party
board which should at the
least attempt to produce a
better product. For instance,
while we do appreciate the
POST LED, Reset and Clr
CMOS buttons, can anybody
explain to us why these (save
for the Clr CMOS) are located
south of the board where
they will be rendered useless
should you install a graphics
card on the third slot?
We understand that this is
a standard ATX motherboard,
but for a board with 12 SATA
ports, we’d have appreciated
better placement of these,
especially since it’s as clear
as day how suboptimal the
positioning is of these buttons
34 The OverClocker Issue 18 | 2012
is on the INTEL DX79SI.
Everything else was standard
affair though and for a $289
motherboard we couldn’t
really complain much,
besides this is an ECS board
we are talking about and a
slightly different approach is
in order.
We moved to the BIOS, initially
had some frustrations with the
shipping version as it had some
odd behaviour that made it very
difficult to overclock. By the
time we got around to doing this
round up though many of these
had been ironed out. Sadly we
still had no VDroop setting,
which was a pity because it can
be really big on this board. For
instance 1.428V (Measured)
could go down to 1.356V under
load. Bclk adjustment was
disappointing as well because
you had to go up in 1 MHz an
increment which isn’t ideal
as you can’t tune the exact
memory or CPU clock you need.
Voltage adjustments were
no walk in the park as well as
we really dislike using offsets
when there’s no option of
keying in the desired voltage
directly. It makes tuning an
arduous task unnecessarily.
Add to that this board
has such a high cold bug
temperature, it’s an exercise
in frustration trying to go
sub-zero. However, believe
it or not this is easily ECS’s
best offering to date, and it is
oddly enough a better board
overall than the other budget
board here. The things it does
do, it does very well and once
we’d figured out its preferred
overclocking procedure it was
pretty smooth sailing.
Despite all our complaints,
with enough time spent
with this board and the very
attractive pricing, this board
is easily the Value board of
the lot. Much better than the
INTEL board, but only costing
$10 more.
Verdict: [SUPERIOR]