ECS has recently sent us a mini-ITX version of their latest Z97 chipset motherboards, and to be more precise the Z97I-DRONE. This product is basically meant to be installed in small enclosures, media center PCs, which usually do not require high-powered processors and performance cooling systems. The product is shipped inside a medium-sized cardboard box, with the product logo located in front:

On the back side of the enclosure, we will find a detailed description of the main product features:

After removing the top packaging layer, we will end up with a black box, with the L33T Gaming logo:

The board is located in the middle, also wrapped inside a transparent anti-static bag for protection:

We will also find the accessories on the bottom layer:

Speaking of the bundle, ECS has included four SATA cables, the I/O shield, one general instruction manual but also the User Guide:

Inside the User Guide ECS has also included a disk with drivers and applications:

The board is quite well organized, but keep in mind that because the CPU socket is placed quite near to the PCI-Express x16 slot, installing a large CPU cooler will make the installation of a video card impossible:

On a closer look, we have discovered that the audio interface on this board is held by the Realtek ALC1150 CODEC:

On the bottom side of the PCB we have one PCI-Express x16 slot for installing video cards or other expansion cards, which we have mentioned earlier: