Bundle and presentation
ECS hasn't skimped on board features or packaging. The PF88 Extreme arrives in an oversized box that's replete with goodies.
ECS bundles in a multi-purpose bracket that adds in 2 USB2.0 and a single 6-pin FireWire port. There's also a foot-long eSATA cable, designed to be used with Silicon Image's 3132 controller, attached to the back of a case, and provide on-the-fly connectivity to external SATA hard drives, usually in enclosures and powered from the mains. 4 orange-coloured SATA cables and black IDE/floppy cables are a nice touch. There's also a custom I/O shield, molex-to-SATA power connectors, and a decent manual, with colour illustrations, written in good English. I also liked the fact that ECS provided a one-touch software installation CD, which took care of many of the board's drivers without the need to install each one manually. On the software front, ECS adds in InterVideo's WinDVD 5, WinDVD Creator, WinRip 2. Pro Magic Plus, a Ghost-like app., ShowShifter, another media-related application, and InTouch, a remote-accessing tool, complete the bundle.
The PF88 Extreme arrives in two flavours. One is the regular bundle, as seen above. The other includes WiFi support through a USB extender and 802.11g dongle; handy for gaining a better signal than having the dongle plugged into the back. Pricing for the standalone PF88 Extreme is £65 including VAT for the regular bundle and around £80 including VAT for the WiFi-equipped version. You could add 50% to those prices if the board had, say, ASUS' name on and not ECS'. A decent bundle to go along with a well-featured board.