CES 2012: ECS Unveils Mainstream H77 Black Series Motherboard

Since it dropped by the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, ECS didn't bring just one product, but several, one of which is the mainstream H77 Black Series motherboard.

We have already talked about the Z77H2-AX Black Deluxe motherboard that Elitegroup Computer Systems brought over to CES 2012.

It so happens that, in addition to that admittedly powerful platform, ECS also built a mainboard based on the H77 chipset.

H77, otherwise dubbed Panther Point, is almost identical to the Z77, but lacks overclocking capabilities and also does not offer the Rapid Storage technology.

For those unaware, Rapid Storage is a feature through which a solid state drive and an HDD are viewed by the OS as a single entity, so that the speed of flash memory and the capacity of magnetic platters may be combined.

Back to the ECS product, The H77 Black Series motherboard has the micro-ATX form factor and a 6-phase VRM for the LGA 1155 CPU socket.

Four DDR3 memory slots are present (dual-channel), along with a PCI Express Gen 3.0 x16 slot.

Moving on, ECS tossed in a PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot and two legacy PCI slots as well.

Furthermore, buyers will find a pair of SATA 6.0 Gbps connectors, four SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, a DVI output, D-Sub and HDMI as well.

Other specifications include an ITE-made chip (handles the aforementioned legacy PCI slots), four USB 3.0 ports and electrolytic capacitors for circuits that don't deal with large currents.

That means that only power conditioning circuits have solid-state capacitors, leading to a lower price.

Finally, there should be no problem when trying to outfit the ECS H77 Black Series micro-ATX motherboard with an Ivy Bridge CPU.

Unfortunately, there was no mention of pricing or availability, so prospective customers will just have to wait for more news or keep an eye on their local retailers.