L33T

Our recent review of $140 Z97 mini-ITX boards left us wanting more. There is plenty of potential in the mini-ITX form factor even at the low end price points, so when we saw ECS’ planned Z97I-Drone at Computex this year it looked like it would provide an interesting look into the platform. Today the motherboard is unveiled, and should be heading to market shortly. ECS’ design feature of late has centered on the ‘L33T Gaming’ branding, which means giving each of their motherboards names indicative of various gaming concepts. ‘Machine’ and ‘Domination’ have been used previously in conjunction with the ‘Gank’ name for Intel’s mainstream chipsets, whereas ‘Aggro’ is reserved for future AMD motherboards. ‘Drone’ makes a lot of sense in this context, although it...