​ECS Durathon 2 A320AM4-M3: Variant of a Budget Motherboard

Introduction
So many motherboards have been appeared year after year. Today, the focus of our review is a motherboard with a complicated name - ECS Durathon 2 A320AM4-M3. The ECS Company is widely known for its small and compact PCs, let’s see what about its motherboards. ECS has released several models of the microATX form factor, which are designed to create PCs with AMD Ryzen processors. Among them - A320AM4-M3 based on the set of system logic AMD A320.
 
Specifications
Socket - AM4
Chipset - AMD A320
Form Factor - MicroATX
Voltage Regulator - 3+2 Phases
Video Plugs - (1) HDMI 1.4, (1) DVI-D, (1) D-Sub
USB Ports - 5Gb/s: (4) Type A, (2) USB 2.0
Network Slots - (1) Gigabit Ethernet
Audio Slots - (3) Analog
Legacy Slots - (2) PS/2
PCIe x16 - (1) v3.0 (x16)
PCIe x1 - (1) v2.0
DIMM Slots - (2) DDR4
M.2 Slots - (1) PCIe v3 x4/SATA3
SATA Ports - (4) 6Gb/s
USB Headers - (1) 5 Gbps, (2) USB2.0
Fan Headers - (2) 4-Pin
Other Interfaces - Clear CMOS, Serial, TPM
SATA/RAID Controllers - Integrated (0/1/10)
Ethernet Controllers - (1) Realtek 8111H Gigabit LAN
HD Audio Codec - ALC662
Warranty - 3 Years
Price - $50
 
Packaging and Design
Being the most fashionable color of the 2018, intense purple in the design of the motherboard’s box is already the fresh solution. On the front side you will find a fantastic purple creature (a tortoise?) on the black background. Also there is the name of the company, the series of the product and the logo that says: Quality, Stability, and Convenience. On the back side there are some main points about the given device.

The filling of the box is just as we could expect from a lower-end board. Two SATA cables, a driver CD, and a manual and that’s all. Maybe this is one of the simplest sets that the customers can find. Of course, an average buyer will not make use of additional disks and a bundle of cables, but still there are some advanced users, who need them. The user’s manual is quite short so for more information you should turn to the original site.
 
The ECS A320AM4-M3 is not among the most stylish motherboards – it has a brown PCB. But we shouldn’t forget that it is a budget version device, so we are not to demand much.
 
Closer View
On the back panel you will find VGA, DVI, and HDMI 1.4 ports for creators who want to utilize an APU, which would fit well with this target market. Two PS/2, four USB 3.0, and two USB 2.0 ports are available.
 
A single PCIe x16 Gen3 slot destined for the graphics card that you may wish to install is also here in MicroATX board. For cards’ securing there is a small PCIe x1 Gen2 port for use with a myriad of options from COM cards.

The M.2 port that is situated between two slots is routed out for PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe on Ryzen chips and a lessened lane count and speed for Athlon-branded processors.
 
The user will not find any overclocking but still nothing prevent the customer from making use of four RAM sticks.

Also there are no heatsinks on the voltage regulators. The design with 3+2 phase allows to control the temperature with a Ryzen CPU. Being the system without overclocking the board got four-pin 12V connector.
 
The board supports Windows 10 Workable and can work with 3 different displays simultaneously. It supports HDMI 1.4a Technology (resolution up to 1920X1200) and HDCP function Supports AMD Dual Graphics Technology. To increase the life duration there is ESD Protection and the ECS Durathon Technology provides the work efficiency. It works with ECS EZ BIOS and GUI UEFI for tweaking BIOS in Graphical interface within a multi language environment.
 
The audio components are situated separately, so it seems to have a good work with noise affairs. The ordinary headers are down the motherboard together with the 3rd fan header.