ECS P67 and H67 Motherboard Preview

Testing out different USB 3 chipsets

On the USB 3 front, ECS appears to be using this and its H67 board to test a range USB 3 chipsets. The P67H2-A currently includes three USB 3 chips, but we expect only space for two in the retail model, as ECS appears to be trying out a VIA Labs (VLI) four-port USB3 chipset for the rear I/O.


At the moment, the second space uses the NEC chipset we're all familiar with, although it's exclusively for the front I/O ports. We're still checking if this pin-out fits the same specification as ASRock's front panel pin-out for USB 3, and we're still waiting for PC chassis or maybe a 3.5in bay adapter to actually make an internal USB 3 header usable. (ASRock's motherboard may come with one, but we have yet to see one in the shops).


In contrast to the more premium P67H2-A, the H67 board uses an EtronTech controller to give two rear USB 3 ports, along with a single Realtek Gigabit Ethernet controller and Realtek HD audio. At the moment, the board features D-Sub and DVI, but there's space for a HDMI port as well.


Despite the quite appealing orange and black design, the power hardware on the ECS H67 board appears minimal, although we've yet to see whether this really makes a difference with Sandy Bridge.

What do you think of ECS' prototype boards? Let us know what you think, in the forums.

Addendum 4th October 2010: ECS dropped us some pictures of its latest P67 and H67 motherboards with their final colour and specification: