ECS going high end with Z77

ECS traditionally went mid to low end with their mobos, I noticed with Z77 they have brought to market a couple of high end baords, will be interesting to see how they do against the big boys ie Asus, EVGA and Gigabyte.

Anyone getting any of these and if you do please share your experience?

From the Egg:

ECS Golden Z77H2-AX(1.0)

Preview

ECS Golden Z77H2-A2X(1.0)

Can't speak for current ECS products, but I had a terrible experience with them regarding a dead mobo some years ago and haven't convinced myself to consider their products since then,,,,, just my thoughts.

Im not sure why, but I cant say the board excites me in any way... I hope its awesome though, and from the looks of it, could be a sleeper!

I had an ECS way back when Via still made Socket A chipsets... The board itself was relatively solid, it had some minor issues.. and the BIOS was relatively limited, but for a $30 board, it got the job done..

For that price, it better perform

exactly, for $30 a board you can't go wrong... but all of a sudden they're at the TOP of the z77 market?? WHAT?? my ECS experiences are replacing blown ECS motherboards out of Dell/HP/emachines... at those price ranges I'd go with a trusted name. ASrock at least added tons of features and a lower price point to get their name in to the $150-250 market; now they're known for making a good board. ECS scares me.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135304

WHAT!?!?!?

edit: and at that price point you get the CHEAP realtek network chip, and the cheap audio realtek chip... scary.
edit1: and crap placement of the 8pin cpu plug, imho.