ECS' Z77H2-A2X motherboard offers up a full range of CPU and IGP overclocking controls in the BIOS and within Windows 7 via TouchBIOS. Since BCLK overclocking is limited to 105MHz, PCSTATS left memory settings alone and focused on the CPU multiplier.

Starting from the default x33, PCSTATS pushed the CPU multiplier to x34, x38, x40, x44 and x48 where the system crashed. Our Core i5 2500K test CPU is usually good to a multiplier of x47, so that's where our overclocking adventure stopped. This is pretty much the same result PCSTATS has witnessed from this CPU on the last few platforms, so it seems that Intel's Z77 isn't an overclocking game changers.

The UEFI BIOS has swept the industry and motherboard makers are finally starting to get the hang of their GUI's. The ECS Z77H2-A2X has a pretty good graphical BIOS interface, PCSTATS encountered no major problems while configuring the Z77H2-A2X Golden Board.

BOIS used with the ECS Z77H2-A2X

Main Overclocking and Frequency control menu for adjusting the CPU multiplier and BCLK frequency among other options are found in the 'CPU Overclocking Configuration' page.

Quite good overclocking controls on this Golden Board

Voltage controls in MIB X

There are a lot of voltage control options in the ECS Z77H2-A2X board.

Memory channel timing control.

The BIOS has extensive memory control options, timings can be set down to the individual clocks cycle, per channel.

IGP memory controls

Now let's look at how the ECS Z77H2-A2X motherboard handles in the benchmarks!