ECS X79R-AX Motherboard

Conclusions

ECS is working hard to improve the quality of its products, and this is clear by seeing the voltage regulator circuit of the X79R-AX, which uses a high-end design, on par with tier one manufacturers. ECS also hit the bull’s eye on the color selection and use of different colors on the PCI Express x16 slots in order to identify their speed.

The company was able to add several additional features to the X79R-AX, to make a fully-loaded motherboard at a very competitive price: four PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots working at x16/x8/x16/x8 supporting SLI and CrossFireX, eight SATA-600 ports (four of them compatible with SAS-600 devices), two eSATA-600 ports, six USB 3.0 ports, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g/n, and thermometer strips for the chipset and voltage regulator.

The negative points for the X79R-AX are “the usual” for ECS products in general: poorly written manual, color code for the SATA ports uses the opposite scheme from all other manufacturers, SATA ports could use different colors depending to which controller they are connected, and the use of a mainstream audio codec with low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for its analog input instead of a high-end one. Also, it only has four memory sockets, which may be a drawback for users thinking of adding more memory in the future.

By the way, we had a hard time setting up this motherboard. With a USB keyboard installed, you simply can’t enter the motherboard setup; you will need a PS/2 keyboard.

If these drawbacks don’t scare you, the ECS X79R-AX is a good option if you want all the extra features it brings.