ECS Z87H3-A2X Extreme Motherboard

Other Features

The Z87H3-A2X Extreme has several additional features not usually seen on products from ECS. It has two BIOS chips, so if the main BIOS chip is corrupted by a virus or a bad BIOS upgrade, you can still recover the motherboard. This is the first time we’ve seen a motherboard from ECS with this feature.

Figure 7: Two BIOS chips

This motherboard has a three-digit POST diagnostics display, so you can see, through a two-digit code, which component is preventing your computer from turning on. See Figure 8. This display can also be used to indicate the temperature of the CPU, the main voltage of the CPU, the total amount of power drawn by the CPU, and the temperature of the voltage regulator circuit. An LED indicates which parameter is being displayed. This is an outstanding feature.

Figure 8: POST diagnostics display and configuration buttons

Another unique feature of this motherboard is the several configuration buttons you see in Figure 8. The one with two arrows is for you to select the BIOS to be used, the one with an icon of a gear allows you to enter the motherboard setup (same effect as pressing “Del” after turning on the computer), the one with an icon of a person running allows you to do an automatic overclocking, and the last button, which has an icon of an arrow pointing down, is used for selecting the mode of the POST display (see previous paragraph).

The portrayed product has voltage monitoring points, where you can measure, with the use of a voltmeter, the voltage of the CPU (“CPU_CORE”), the memory (“V_DIMM”), the chipset (“PCH_CORE”), and the chipset I/O lanes (“PCH_IO”).

Figure 9: Voltage monitoring points

The motherboard also has a legacy serial port, available through a header labeled “COM,” but it doesn’t come with the necessary adapter.

In Figure 10, you can see all of the accessories that come with the ECS Z87H3-A2X Extreme.

Figure 10: Accessories