We just kicked off our GIGABYTE Extreme Overclocking Workshop in Auckland, New Zealand. We’re about to have a live stream at justin.tv so make sure you tune in and watch the action at this link. Live stream will rotate 4 different video feeds throughout the day, hope you like it!
A very enjoyable part of my job is to travel from city to city after a new product announcement evangelizing our new tech. So I’m in the Philippines now and we just saw some cases for sale that have a coin slot where the DVD ROM should be. They are for Internet cafes where 1 Philippine Peso (2-3 US cents or less than 1NT$) will get you 3-5 minutes of time on the PC.
The coin slot device has a little daughter board with a timer on it that cuts power to the keyboard, monitor and mouse when time runs out. So the PC keeps running, you just can’t see or change anything without putting in more money. My first thought was that it must be a waste of time because who could possibly make money at those ridiculously low rates, but then it started to make sense to me because if it was more expensive only vacationers would use the service. With a population of around 95 million people, 1 Peso for 3 minutes means that a vast majority of the population can afford to access the Internet. It’s brilliant!
These coin operated PCs can be found in Internet cafes as well as convenience stores where the shop owner benefits from profit sharing. So if you’re ever in the Philippines and see one of these strange looking systems, toss in a coin because you’d be driving small business that allows under privileged young people to access and experience the wonders of the Internet.
In honor of our illustrious history as one of the world’s foremost motherboard manufacturers, today we’re kicking off the GIGABYTE Hidden Gems competition. The idea is simple; post a video or photo of your old GIGABYTE motherboard (preferably still running) and you could win yourself a new GIGABYTE 7 series motherboard.
And if you don’t have any photos or youtube videos to share, don’t worry, you can still take part by perusing the entrees and voting for the one that tingles your nostalgia glands the most. Feel free to stoke debate by adding your comments too.
To take part, simply head on over to the Hidden Gems competition page.
OCAU (Overclockers Australia) is putting on a show with a serious(ly funny) bust-a-rhymes competition as TeamAU prepares to tour New Zealand and then Melbourne with their highly popular GIGABYTE Extreme OC Workshop.
The real fun started already with forum members bustin’ some serious rhymes to win a motherboard. This is going to be a corker so make sure you visit the thread every day for new posts! I hear some videos will also appear later tonight.
TeamAU is a group of killer overclockers from Austral-Asian region travelling the Australia and New Zealand and sharing their wealth of experience in LN2 benching. This time round they are making two stops with GIGABYTE. First stop is Auckland, New Zealand. Playtech is the host of this show. Monash University in Melbourne’s host. For more details follow this LINK.
Hardware of choice is GIGABYTE’s record breaking Z77 range and Intel 3770K Ivy Bridge CPUs.
This year we are looking at livestreams as well and some interesting competitions to spice things up a bit during the workshop. I will update the blog when the first event kicks off!. In the meantime keep an eye on one of the funniest threads you will read http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=1036929.
Don’t miss it!
Here at GIGABYTE, our motherboards are frequently singled out for awards, be it for best value, performance, features or pure overclocking prowess. However, it is with particular satisfaction and prestige that we accept this ‘Best of Computex 2012’ award from Tom’s Hardware for our recently announced Ultra Durable 5 technology.
GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 5 and our forthcoming ‘UP’ series of motherboards will be pretty revolutionary in terms of motherboard design, pulling together new 60A rated Powerstage ICs from IR, pairing them with high current capable chokes and a 2x copper PCB. This all means that the motherboard can deliver blistering performance without creating as much unwanted heat, greatly aiding stability, longevity and overall performance capability. It’s also a technology that lends itself perfectly to overclocked water cooled systems that don’t always have great airflow in the PWM area.
We’re really pleased too that arguably the most respected PC hardware site out there has recognized our efforts to innovate. Here a what Tom’s had to say:
“Gigabyte is promising that the PowIRstage IR3550, found on all motherboards with Ultra Durable 5 technology (UD5), increases efficiency and improves stability. Naturally, this is particularly important in overclocked systems, where UD5 could benefit systems employing liquid cooling, since they have a tendency to not receive as much airflow through voltage regulation circuitry.
Ultra Durable 5 is a marketing umbrella that covers several different components, such as the IR3550 PowIRstage, additional copper in the PCB, and 60 A high-capacity ferrite core chokes. We plan to test Gigabyte's claims in an upcoming article.”
You can find the ‘Best of Computex’ award page here on Tom’s Hardware.
Craig Simms from CNET Australia recently had a play with one of GIGABYTE’s more popular motherboards, Z77X-UD3H.
I met Craig many years as I made my debut on ABC (Australian national TV) in 2007 featuring overclocking in which Craig was one of the original Atomic magazine writers appearing as a guest commentator in the final episode. Check it out here (cut all the OC segments featured over a few shows)! He knows his stuff and didn’t take him long to get his teeth stuck into some new Z77 gear from GIGABYTE.
Craig had a lot to say about the board but what caught my interest was his take on the naming scheme and subsequent renaming of the board. He calls it “Sergio”. LOL
The UD3H is the perfect all-rounder. It ticks the boxes for gamers, the mainstream, overclockers and with its mSATA slot, maybe even the low-profile crowd or those who need caching drives.
Jump over to CNET Australia and read the full review. Craig is a great writer and looks at motherboards in a slightly different light.
I’m proud to announce GIGABYTE’s first big extreme overclocking event across the pond with TeamAU and PlaytechNZ.
TeamAU crew (youngpro, dinos22 and deanzo) are heading over to Auckland (New Zealand) to put on “High on Ivy” GIGABYTE EXTREME OVERCLOCKING WORKSHOP. We are calling all New Zealanders and anyone in the region who is keen to come to join us and our lovely hosts PLAYTECH NZ for an afternoon of LN2 overclocking on Intel Ivy Bridge platform using GIGABYTE Z77 series of motherboards.
For registrations hit up Playtech’s facebook page!
There will be some livestreams as well. We’ll announce that when we find out more!
