ECS shows exciting all-in-ones, new motherboards, GPUs, and gold gold gold at Computex

Brian Ambrozy 10 Jun, 2012 at 11:05am ET Article published in

Disclosure: Icrontic’s coverage of Computex 2012 was sponsored by ECS.

Another hot and humid day in Taipei brought me to Nangang Exhibition Center and a visit with ECS Marketing Manager James Lleverino, where he was showing off a massive booth full of new products. It became clear that the main thing ECS was focusing on is their Nonstop Technology; as we mentioned before they believe that consumers want ultimate stability over extreme performance, and they’re willing to put their money where their mouth is… They were showcasing a slew of Black Series motherboards featuring the hallmarks of Nonstop: Super Alloy Chokes, gold accents, gold-plated components, and 50c testing before shipping. They showed a heated chamber that was set to 50c, with a sealed glass door. Trade show attendees could walk in to the chamber to feel how hot it was; in the heat chamber was a full running system featuring an ECS Nonstop-certified board.

ECS mATX FM2 lineup

They also showed a couple of exciting FM2 boards featuring the AMD A75 and A85 chipsets, which will bring Trinity to the desktop. Trinity is AMD’s only exciting product right now, so if you want to get on the Trinity bandwagon, the ATX A85F2-AX Deluxe Nonstop board and the A75F2-M micro-ATX board are solid choices. They also showed a compelling demo station showing the Trinity APU combined with an AMD Radeon 7970 playing Dirt Showdown on three monitors, running on the A85F2-AX Deluxe.

Next I saw their new GeForce GTX cards, particularly the GTX 680 with a gold-plated heatsink and shroud. Can you tell someone loooovvveeesss goooooolllllddddd? Gold was everywhere. It’s what they’re doing. It would be interesting to see if someone could build an entirely gold and black or gold and white system.

Besides GPUs and motherboards, ECS was showing off some extremely nice touchscreen AIOs. We some some at CES but they were kind of chunky and bland. The new ones are actually very sexy and come in much more attractive bezel options. They showed one in pink brushed steel with floral designs and bright orange. Both featured an optical bay that could also be a removable SSD tray. They even had built-in TV tuners so they could be a perfect PC/TV for, say, a teenager’s bedroom… With Windows 8 just around the corner, touchscreen desktop computing is going to become more and more ubiquitous.

ECS G24 All-in-one touchscreen PCs at Computex 2012

The ECS G24 all-in-one touchscreen PC

ECS G24 all-in-one touchscreen orange PC at Computex 2012

ECS G24 all-in-one PC in orange

They were also displaying a few new laptops and a tablet that feature enhanced ruggedness; the ideal use case being schoolkids in developing nations.

While most of their motherboard and GPU lineup is on par with their competition, the Nonstop stuff is really exciting to me; particular the length they’re going to focus on stability over performance. The philosophy at ECS is that the majority of consumers are not going to care about a few percentage points in performance differences at the top end, particularly since everything is so fast right now…. but they will remember if a board crashes, freezes their system, or breaks. They want to be the board that just works, reliably, all the time, even in extreme conditions.

I’m not saying this because they sponsored our coverage: I believe that ECS has come a very long way in the last 10 years and they deserve a look from enthusiasts.

Comments

11 Jun 2012 ~ 1:31pm MAGIC Looks good, any FM2 miniITX boards?
11 Jun 2012 ~ 1:55pm BuddyJ Anyone know how ECS's customer service and product support is these days? Like, I know if I buy an ASUS board they'll pretty much dick me around if I need an RMA and I'll have BIOS updates all the time that never really seem to help. What's ECS doing?
11 Jun 2012 ~ 2:16pm primesuspect I have no experience with ECS' RMA process. I think the hope is that you don't ever have to RMA one of the Nonstop boards

I can say this: I've met lots people that work for ECS this week, and they're all really good and really passionate. At the bare minimum, I know who to call if shit goes sour.
11 Jun 2012 ~ 2:21pm mertesn I have some experience. It's been really good. They have a quick turnaround program for users of their Black Series boards (link). They're pretty quick to get things done.
11 Jun 2012 ~ 5:40pm Cliff_Forster I've used several ECS boards and to date one has never failed me or a client. In the past their focus was more about making a mass produced reliable run on the mill cost effective board, which fit the bill for allot of builds I'd do for family and friends. These days I'd use ECS in my own machine, their black line has offered enthusiasts a vast improvement. I also agree with their strategy, I'll sacrifice a BIOS tweak or two for long term stability.