First up the 970M-A Deluxe the entry-level 970 chipset motherboard, Since we see the Deluxe moniker expect to see some high-end stuff here.
First lets take a look at the specification then we will move into the board itself.
| CPU | Supports AMD® AM3+ & AM3 socket for AMD® FX-Series and Phenom™ II processors High Performance AMD HyperTransport 3.0 CPU Interface TDP: 140W 100% Solid capacitor design Supports AMD® 125W 8 Core / 6 Core processors |
| CHIPSET | AMD® 970 AMD® SB950 |
| GRAPHICS | Supports ATI® 2-Way CrossFireX™ |
| MEMORY | Dual-channel DDR3 Memory architecture Supports DDR3 1866/1800/1600/1333/1066 non-ECC, Un-buffered SDRAM Memory Supports up to 2133+(OC) 4 X 240-pin DDR3 DIMM socket Support up to 32 GB* AMD® AMD Memory Profile (AMP) Memory Modules |
| EXPANSION SLOT | 2 X PCI Express X16 Gen 2.0 slot(s) 2 X PCI Express X 1 slot(s) 2 X PCI slot(s) |
| Storage | AMD® SB950 Express Chipset 5 X Serial ATAIII 6Gb/s 1 X eSATAIII 6Gb/s RAID0, RAID1,RAID5, RAID 10 configuration |
| Audio | 8-Channel HD audio CODEC Compliant with HD audio specification Realtek ALC892 ‧Realtek ALC892 8-channel High Definition audio CODEC ‧Compatible with Direct Sound 3D™, A3D™, I3DL2 ‧Smart multiple streaming operation ‧Intuitive Configuration Panel (Realtek Audio Manager) to enhance user experience ‧7.1+2 channel multi-streaming enables concurrent gaming/VoIP |
| LAN | Realtek 8111E Gigabit Fast Ethernet Controller Wake-On-LAN |
| USB | 2 X USB3.0 port(s) up to 5Gb/s 14 X USB2.0 port(s) Up to 480 Mb/s ECS EZ Charger (Gray USB header) |
| REAR PANEL I/O | 1 X PS/2 combo connector 1 X Audio port (Line-in,4x Line-out, SPDIF out) 1 X RJ-45 port 1 X eSATA 6Gb/s port(s) 2 X USB3.0 port(s) 8 X USB2.0 port(s) |
| CONNECTORS & HEADERS | 1 X 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector 1 X 8-pin ATX 12V Power Connector 1 X 4-pin CPU_FAN connector with smart fan 1 X 3-pin SYS_FAN connector 1 X 3-pin PWR_FAN connector 1 X Front panel audio header 1 X Speaker header 3 X USB 2.0 header Support additional 6 USB ports Support EZ charger (gray color) 1 X S/PDIF out header 5 X SATA III 6Gb/s connector(s) 1 X CLR_CMOS header 1 X Serial port header (COM) |
| SYSTEM BIOS | AMI BIOS with 32 MB SPI Flash ROM Supports M.I.B X Utility ACPI & DMI F7 hot key for boot up devices option Support ECS EZ BIOS Plug and Play, STR (S3) / STD (S4) , Hardware monitor, Multi Boot Multi-Language BIOS Audio, LAN, can be disabled in BIOS Supports PgUp clear CMOS Hotkey |
| FORM FACTOR | ATX Form Factor 305mm(W)*220mm(H) |
| OS Support | Windows XP 32-bit Windows XP 64-bit Windows Vista 64-bit Windows 7 32-bit Windows 7 64-bit Windows 8 32-bit Windows 8 64-bit |
| Certifications | CE/FCC Certification ErP/EuP Certification WHQL Certification WHCK Certification |
| Bundled Software | ECS Intelligent EZ Utility : eBLU, eDLU, eOC, eSF Creative Sound Blaster Cinema software |
I would warn you beforehand since my Hard-disk crashed i lost a lot of pictures which included the ECS boards; so the picture quality and quantity maybe less than satisfactory.
I would retake the pictures as soon as i get access to the pictures and a better camera(the one i always use).
The motherboard comes itself in a no frills box with just the motherboard packed inside.
The box has information printed all over if you haven’t noticed.
The board in itself is not as feature laden as its bigger counter parts but out of the box is nicely specced as clear from the above table. Being a part of the “Golden” line up we see golden anodized heat-sink throughout the board.
On e of the So called “innovative” feature is the “Anti Dust Shield” whihc is said to prevent dust accumulation on the board. Quite a good effort on the Designers part,how ever i would have liked the effort in some other area’s.
The board gives you dual PCIe slots. One running at the full x16 lanes, while the second is operating electrically at x4 lanes. Now this may cost you in benchmarking but in real life scenario the performance wont be so harshly affected.
i will end the un boxing here…see you in the performance testing page !
