ECS Z87H3-A2X Extreme Motherboard

On Board Peripherals

The Intel Z87 chipset is a single-chip solution, which is also known as a PCH (Platform Controller Hub). This chip has six SATA-600 ports, supporting RAID (0, 1, 10, and 5). This motherboard has one additional SATA-600 port. Apparently, from the seven available ports, five are controlled by the chipset and two (labeled “EXSATA”) are controlled by an ASMedia ASM1061 chip. The sixth port available on the chipset is connected to the mSATA interface. However, there is no clarification on the manual or the manufacturer’s website to the actual SATA configuration of this motherboard, and the manufacturer used the same color to identify all SATA ports.

Six of the SATA ports are installed on the motherboard edge and rotated 90°, so the installation of video cards won’t block them, but the seventh SATA port is installed vertically, and the installation of a dual-slot video card in the second PCI Express x16 slot will block this port.

Two eSATA-600 ports are available on the motherboard’s rear panel, and they are controlled by another ASMedia ASM1061 chip.

Figure 5: The seven SATA-600 ports

The Intel Z87 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports and six USB 3.0 ports. The ECS Z87H3-A2X Extreme offers eight USB 2.0 ports, four located on the motherboard’s rear panel and four available through two headers located on the motherboard; and six USB 3.0 ports, four located on the motherboard’s rear panel and two available through one header.

The ECS Z87H3-A2X Extreme doesn’t support FireWire ports.

This motherboard supports 7.1+2 audio format, i.e., eight channels plus two independent channels for audio streaming. On this motherboard, the audio is generated by the chipset using the new Realtek ALC1150 codec, which is the best audio codec available today, providing an impressive 115 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog outputs, 104 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs, and up to 192 kHz sampling rate for both inputs and outputs, with 24-bit resolution. This means you are able to capture and edit analog audio (e.g., converting LPs to CDs or MP3, converting VHS to DVDs or any other digital format, etc.) with this motherboard without adding any background noise.

Additionally, the ECS Z87H3-A2X Extreme uses a Realtek ALC5505 digital signal processor (DSP). The datasheet for this component is not available and ECS doesn’t explain the features provided by this chip, which is simply ridiculous.

The ECS Z87H3-A2X Extreme has a two-channel amplifier for analog headphones, provided by a Texas Instruments NE5532 chip.

The analog audio outputs are independent if you use a 5.1 analog speaker set. If you use an analog 7.1 speaker set, you must use either the “line in” (blue) or the “mic in” (pink) jacks for the two additional speakers.

The motherboard comes with an on-board optical SPDIF output. It also has a three-pin header labeled “SPDIFO,” where you can install an adapter to have a coaxial SPDIF output or to connect a cable to older video cards that required a physical connection to have audio on their HDMI outputs.

The portrayed motherboard has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, controlled by two Realtek RTL8111G chips.

The ECS Z87H3-A2X Extreme comes with an IEEE 802.11n/g/b/a Wi-Fi adapter and a Bluetooth 2.0 module (competing products offer Bluetooth 4.0 adapters).

In Figure 6, you can see the motherboard’s rear panel with the Bluetooth 2.0 adapter, four USB 2.0 ports, two eSATA-600 ports, external clear CMOS button, DisplayPort output, HDMI output, Wi-Fi adapter, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, four USB 3.0 ports, the optical SPDIF output, and the analog audio jacks.

Figure 6: Motherboard’s rear panel