ECS, purveyor of affordable motherboards and videocards and a favorite of the local PC-buying community, is starting to get serious. With their event at the Teatrino in Promenade, Greenhills, they are staking out a spot on the high-end shopping list of both enthusiasts and the mass-gaming people. We show you what transpired during the event.

The ECS Black Series motherboards made its debut among its greatest potential buyers – dealers and retailers with the clout and forward-looking attitude to adopt a high-end solution for sale to a predominantly budget-conscious market. The Black Series is a new product line by ECS that puts a premium on features, performance, and specifications that will appeal to the enthusiast. Unsurprisingly, all its motherboard models are in black, and the boards exhibited a veneer of quality not previously seen on ECS’ mainstream offerings.

                                             Looking nothing like a usual ECS product, the black series X48 does the "premium" look very well.

                                             The A780GM-A represents AMD in the black series.

Center stage belonged to the ECS X48T-A, featuring Intel’s high end X48 chipset. It supports 1600MHz FSB and the upcoming 45nm Intel processors. Of note is this motherboard’s support for Intel’s XMP technology which enables compatible memory modules to automatically use one of two available overclocked profiles when starting up the computer. CrossFireX is another key draw for this premium motherboard, with two well-separated x16 slots. Dual gigabit LAN, 6 USB 2.0, 6 SATA ports and a multitude of other connections makes this board one of the better equipped models in the ECS stable.

                                             "Family portrait" - with some extra relatives.

The ECS A780GM-A also made an appearance for the AMD side of things. It sports the same black motif, accented by yellow and flame components that really give off a high end feel. It features the latest PCI-E 2.0 expansion slot and ECS ultra I/O rear panel which includs one eSATA port and six USB 2.0 high-speed ports, HDMI connector with HDCP, support for DX10, and ATI’s Hybrid Graphics Technology which gives the user utter flexibility in his or her power saving efforts. Integrated and discrete graphics are both utilized depending on the conditions, with emphasis on energy saving whenever possible.

                                             Dylan Chen, Regional Marketing Manager, expounding on the local market's readiness for the new product line.

                                             David Wu, Senior Sales Manager, describing ECS product lines and the Black Series positioning.

Completing the relatively new Black Series model line, the ECS GF8200A motherboard features Nvidia’s version of hybrid graphics, with the same function of utilizing both discrete and on-board graphics to give good performance while retaining on-board graphics power saving functions. A single PCI-E report for graphics duties, while connectivity options like 5 SATA ports, on-board HDMI, and on-board power and reset buttons fill out its features list.

Other products not included in the Black series were also displayed at the event, led by the 9800 GTX and 9600 GT videocards. As with most dealer events, promotions and incentives were offered to the dealers, with raffle prizes added on to spice up the proceedings.

                                             Other ECS products were also on display, among them this 9600 GT.

While there have been changes to the ECS image with these boards, the targeted audience is still the same, with the price matching previous offerings by ECS. ECS is capitalizing on the upward movement of mainstream buyers now looking to use their increasing purchasing power to buy into higher-end products. With ECS’ name-brand recognition and their lower average price compared to similar competition, they are in good position to perform well with this new, black series of motherboards. More pictures to follow.