GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 2 motherboard officially launches today: Packs Intel Z68 and PCIe Gen.3

The latest addition to our G1-Killer extreme gaming series has now arrived with the launch of the GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 2 motherboard, the first G1-Killer motherboard based on the Intel Z68 chipset, supporting 2nd generation Intel Core ‘Sandy Bridge’ processors.

The GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 2 follows in the footsteps of previous G1-Killer series boards, packing all the additional features that serious gamers are going to want from a motherboard. The G1.Sniper 2 packs a Soundblaster X-Fi Digital audio processor from Creative and dedicated networking in the form of a Killer E2100 chip from Bigfoot networks. But of course, you already knew that.

The G1.Sniper 2 takes it all to the next evolution cycle by including support for both PCI Express Gen.3 and support for forthcoming 22nm processors – making the G1.Sniper 2 about as future-proof as you’re gonna get at this moment in history. The board has two PCIe Gen.3 x16 slots (x16 and x8) which you can use in 2-way Crossfire X and SLI configurations. PCIe Gen.3 means you’ll be able to take advantage of forthcoming graphics cards that support the next level of PCI Express bandwidth.

And of course because this is an Intel Z68 board, we’ve included an onboard HDMI port so that you’ll be able use Virtu Switchable graphics technology; enjoy the full power of your discrete graphics card for serious gaming, then switch to the integrated graphics and video capabilities of your Sandy Bridge processor for less intensive tasks, powering down the discrete GPU, thus saving power. Lets not forget too that the integrated GPU also supports super fast video encoding with Intel’s Quick Sync technology. Want to encode some video? You’ll have it faster than ever before.

The Z68 chipset also offers Intel Smart Response technology so that any games that you install on your system will enjoy faster loading speeds with Intel’s unique disk caching intelligence with a relatively small and affordable SSD. Modern games take up a lot of space, so you may not be able to accommodate more than one or two an SSD boot drive, making Intel Smart Response an attractive way of speeding up your PC.

Oh and did I mention that’s sexy as hell? All in all, we’re really happy with to bring the G1.Sniper 2 to market and we’re confident that upper mainstream system builders will be tempted as well the extreme players. Check local retailers for pricing information in the coming days and weeks.

You find more information about GIGABYTE G1-Killer Series motherboards here. The G1.Sniper 2 product page is here.

Official press release can be found here.

GIGABYTE announces AMD A75 APU overclocking competition

The latest GIGABYTE overclocking competition to be run on HWBot.org has just been announced, and interestingly it’s the first of its kind to be centered around the newly launched AMD A75 Series platform. In a series of stages involving several benchmarks, GIGABYTE invites overclockers to push the new AMD APU chips to the limit, placing heavy focus on getting the most out of the Lynx integrated GPU that you find in these new breed of chips. Here are the five stage outlines:

Stage 1 :3Dmark 11 P (Preset)
Stage 2: 3Dmark Vantage P (Preset)
Stage 3: PCMARK 7
Stage 4: Unigine Heaven DX11
Stage 5: UCBench2011

The competition is between hwbot members and is open to everyone. You must use a GIGABYTE A75 board to compete. The first stage has already begun, the competition lasts until August 31st.

First prize gets a GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD5, second and third place finishers get a GIGABYTE E350N-USB3 board.

Here’s the competition page on hwbot.org

Good luck! 

sin0822 previews the new G1 Sniper2 board

Sin0822 put up some shots of the new GIGABYTE G1 Sniper2 gaming board on XtremeSystems forum, check it out here.

 

CPU Magazine takes a peek at the mSATA bundled Z68XP-UD3-iSSD motherboard

In the latest edition of CPU (Computer Power User) magazine you’ll be pleased to find a page dedicated to the only consumer motherboard that comes bundled with an mSATA SSD; I am of course referring to our own Z68XP-UD3-iSSD motherboard.

Gigabyte’s Z68XP-UD3-iSSD motherboard is built to easily take advantage of the SRT (Smart Response Technology) found on the Z68 chipset. First off the motherboard is bundled with a 20GB Intel SSD (311 Series), and Gigabyte includes its EZ Smart Response utility to automatically set your PC for use with SRT. Thus there’s no need to buy an SSD, enter the BIOS to configure the RAID, reinstall the operating system, install the Intel Rapid Storage utility, or manually configure Intel’s SRT.

 

You can read the the digital edition of CPU magazine here and the Z68XP-UD3-iSSD in article full here.

To learn more about the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD here.

Read this blog in Chinese (中文版) here.

Computer DIY Magazine: GIGABYTE X58A-OC is Born to Overclock!

Taiwan's leading computer magazine, Computer DIY has tested the Gigabyte GA-X58A-OC motherboard, bringing insights regarding the appearance, innovative features, performance and overclocking performance of the board, concluding that the GA-X58A-OC motherboard offers leading overclocking performance making it the perfect choice for hardcore overclockers and gamers alike.

Regarding design, the Computer DIY reviewer said:

Expressing itself straight away as an ultra-running, dominant force of nature, the X58A-OC board uses a deeply contrasting Orange and Black color design which immediately reveals it’s intentions. Welcome to the OC series!

On the subject of materials including capacitors, chokes, ferrite cores and the board’s 12 + 3 phase design:

The whole PCB board is full of solid-state capacitors, all of them high-quality capacitors that provide the best stability and current delivery with minimal leakage or waste. These capacitors can stand high temperatures and offer fast heat dissipation. This makes them ideal in extreme gaming or overclocking situations.  The processor power module also uses 12 + 3-phases, and includes high-quality ferrite core chokes which also offer better heat efficiency and extended board longevity.

Regarding the innovative connectivity options:

The Gigabyte X58-OC offers two PCI-e 2.0 x16 and two PCI-e 2.0 x8, ... and support for CrossFire X and SLI configurations up to 4-way. Usually high-end motherboards supporting up to 4 graphics cards will provide the extra PCIe power supply via large 4Pin connectors  The X58-OC instead offers a unique design with a SATA connector next to the two SATA data sockets which be additionally installed to provide additional power from the power supply to the graphics array. This is a more efficient use of SATA power connectors, of which there are usually plenty. This makes the VGA array much more stable in multi-GPU configurations.

Overclocking as you’d expect was a subject covered in detail:

Smart overclocking, also proved to be quite exciting! You can find 4G, Power and Gear buttons in the corner of the board  ... press the button to 4G, from system boot the CPU will be configured to reach a 4GHz clock frequency. This as you can appreciate, is a key feature for  easy overclocking, even if it is a somewhat conservative approach to true overclocking. The ‘Gear’ overclocking buttons are designed to let the user implement small overclocks at increments of 1MHz or 0.3MHz, so that step by step, you can slowly increase the processor clock. The user can also change the FSB and multiplier settings by adjusting the relative + and – buttons. ... users have never known BIOS setting that can be implemented for overclocking so easily, Oh!

Finally, the Computer DIY editor made ​​the following conclusions:

Orange black color is in full contrast with a strong flavor of ultra-running, capacitor design, but similar to the G1-Killer series boards this GIGABYTE OC motherboard also uses the high-end Intel X58 chipset which is still the performance master in today’s PC market.  It is also easy to overclock this motherboard, so the launch of the GIGABYTE X58-OC with the help of well-known overclockers like HiCookie who jointly developed the product, designed to build the ultimate extreme performance platform!

You can learn more about Gigabyte X58A-OC motherboard, here.

Computer DIY magazine can be found here.

This article was translated from Chinese. You can find the original Chinese version (中文版) here.

windwithme takes on the GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7 motherboard

As always, veteran reviewer ‘windwithme’ has taken a thorough and detailed approach to his latest review project, the top-of-the-range Sandy Bridge offering that we call the Z68X-UD7. As well as a detailing the board and the package, he’s also taken time to explore GIGABYTE-exclusive features like our new EZ Smart Response utility and also our innovative TouchBIOS technology, two features that several reviewers have so far neglected to spend much ink on.

Performance ★★★★★★★★★☆
Components ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Specification ★★★★★★★★★☆
Outlook ★★★★★★★★★☆
C/P Value ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

windwithme reckons this review is the longest he’s done so far this year, spending the best part of two weeks running benchmarks, tuning the BIOS and exploring all available features. Make sure you have a look at the forum post on Extreme Systems which has the entire piece in complete detail. There’s certainly a lot of information there to digest!

Exteme Systems forum post here.

Details about the Z68X-UD7 board here.

Ninja Lane award GIGABYTE X58A-OC a furious five out of five

Writing for NijaLane.com, Dennis Garcia has published his review of our X58A-OC motherboard. I let him do the introductions:

The X58A-OC is specifically designed for overclocking and while the 980X and 990X offer the most performance options that doesn't mean you are limited to just extreme edition processors.  Low end processors like the 920 and 950 can benefit from the power of a X58A-OC especially if you are planning to do 3D benches and simply need a stable platform to bench with. Normally we limit our overclocking tests to whatever we started testing with but in the spirt of extreme overclocking we brought out the Single Stage Phase cooler and started tweaking.

As overclockers and system enthusiasts we all have our ideas on what makes a good motherboard, some of us prefer to have a great set of features with the option to use them or not however for the hardcore overclocker those additional features only get in the way.  Gigabyte has set out to  differentiate between these two enthusiast groups and make specialized products for the gamer/overclocker and the enthusiast/overclocker  The X58A-OC is the board designed for enthusiasts who enjoy overclocking and want to get the most from their system.

It’s really encouraging to see that Dennis appreciates what we tried to do with the X58A-OC, which is certainly not a board that will appeal to everybody. Seeing as this board is targeted specifically at a growing segment of overclocking enthusiasts, it’s brilliant to see that NinjaLane gave it a positive write-up. This hopefully helps validate our efforts and means we’ve hit the nail right on the head!

 

You can find the full review here on NinjaLane.com

You can read this blog in Chinese, (中文版) here.