VIDEO: Another 10-year old GIGABYTE board still kickin’

Here’s a really interesting entry that I’d like to share with you all from our Hidden Gems competition. As I’m sure you all know, we’ve invited our Facebook fans to share with us their old GIGABYTE motherboard builds, preferably ones that are still humming away. People get to vote for the board that best stokes their nostalgia with three eventual winners walking away with a GIGABYTE 7 series motherboard.

Here one entry that caught our eye; it’s a ten year-old GA-586T2 board submitted by Victoria Chudinova in the Ukraine. What really makes this one stand out however, apart from the the fact that’s it’s a ten year GIGABYTE old board that still kicks, is that Victoria has produced such a brilliantly creative video in which  to showcase the board. Check it out…

And please, please…if you haven’t been to our Hidden Gems page to check out the submissions, then make sure you do. So many great submissions to check out. You’ll love it!

Link: http://event.gigabyte.com/hidden_gems/competition.aspx

Thunderbolt: interview with Intel’s Jason Ziller, Director of Thunderbolt Planning/Marketing

At Computex this year we showed off three new motherboards featuring dual Thunderbolt ports. We were fortunate enough to catch up with Jason Ziller, Intel's head of Thunderbolt Planning and Marketing, for a brief description of what makes Thunderbolt unique, the differences between the dual port and the single port options, as well as how things are progressing with the new top speed connectivity standard.

Brief introduction to Thunderbolt technology from Jason Ziller, Intel's head of Thunderbolt Planning and Marketing

Of course, we have announced Intel Thunderbolt certification for these three models since this video was taken and you can find out more about our Thunderbolt offerings at he following links:

1. GIGABYTE Thunderbolt motherboards micro site: http://www.gigabyte.com/microsite/306/images/thunderbolt.html 

2. Press release: GIGABYTE Launches World’s First Fully Certified Dual Port Thunderbolt™ Motherboards http://www.gigabyte.com/press-center/news-page.aspx?nid=1140 

3. Press release: GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 5 Technology Earns Best of Computex 2012 Award from Tom's Hardware http://www.gigabyte.com/press-center/news-page.aspx?nid=1134 (two of our Thunderbolt boards have GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 5 technology)

4. Press release: GIGABYTE to Unveil New Motherboard Technologies at Computex 2012 http://www.gigabyte.com/press-center/news-page.aspx?nid=1125 

5. Youtube video demo at the GIGABYTE Computex VIP suite:

Introduction to GIGABYTE Thunderbolt motherboards by motherboard product manager, Alex Huang

6. Youtube introduction to the Promise Pegasus R6 Thunderbolt RAID Storage:

Tyler Sander from Promise introduces the new Pegasus R6 super performance external RAID storage device

Multiple 10-12 year old systems entered into the GIGABYTE Hidden Gems competition–gives new meaning to ‘Ultra Durable’!

Just cruising through the Hidden Gems competition entries this morning I came across a number of really old PCs that are still in use today. Have a look at this old 12 year old PC (well, in its 12th year) that is still running the original GIGABYTE GA-6VX7-4X motherboard, and is being used to play old dos games or as a test bed. It apparently used to be a fileserver and CD/DVD sharer. Today it can be found on page 13 of the ‘Detailed List’ in the ‘Competition Voting’ section:

Or check out this old beauty using a GIGABYTE GA-6VTXD motherboard (today it can be found on page 18 of the ‘Detailed List’: 

Here is another dual socket server board from the turn of the century, this time the GA-6VXDC7, that is still running today. It can be found on page 21 of the ‘Detailed List’:

Not to mention this GA-5AA motherboard based system that is also still being used to play older games. The first BIOS for this model was released in January 2000, so it is a real grand daddy in this competition. It can be found on page 22 of the ‘Detailed List’:

By the way, if you’re wondering how to estimate the age of a motherboard we suggest you look at the date of the first BIOS release. This can be found in the downloads section of the motherboard home page. Here’s a screenshot of the BIOS download section for Richard de Kock’s system above:

Keep in mind that the competition is not only about the oldest system; there are also prizes for the system that gets the most votes and the system that is judged to be most worthy of an upgrade. Hope you enjoy this little trip down memory lane, and please cast your vote for the system that impresses you most.

Take the GIGABYTE Summer Survey and Win a G1.Sniper M3 motherboard

GIGABYTE wants to ask you all a few questions. We want to know what wonderful ideas and opinions you have when it comes to motherboards. So in an effort to gain a deeper level of understanding, we’ve put together a quick survey on our Facebook page; introducing the GIGABYTE Summer Survey.

The great things is that we’re offering a GIGABYTE G1.Sniper M3 motherboard as a prize for most inspirational and earth shattering suggestion.

Taking part is simple. Visit the Summer Survey page and start answering those questions. Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/GIGABYTEmotherboards/app_140144849426314

CPU magazine investigates GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 5

Computer Power User magazine in the USA published a white paper about our Ultra Durable™ 5 technology featuring IR’s 3550 PowIRstage ICs, 2x copper PCBs and high current (60A) rated chokes. The power stage ICs are also rated at 60A.  You can read the article on their online e-zine.

GIGABYTE-sponsored Sim Racing Team claim 3rd place

The world Sim or Simulation Racing has a new up and coming team, the GIGABYTE team. In it’s first competitive race on the 24H Ultimate Race Track, drivers Valentino Adams, Joeri Blootacker, Ron Bartsch and Ludo Bleys were unlucky not to clinch 2nd place due to late blown tire, but to be fair a 3rd place finish is not bad at all. Go to http://beracing-fxx.com for the full story.
Check out these awesome rendered images of the GIGABYTE car. Looks great in our signature G1.Killer green!




Our boss, Tim Handley (a regular contributor to these blog pages) did an interesting interview with Beracing-FXX which you can check out here.

Vivi from South Africa does a series of YouTube videos on overclocking (guides), a must watch!

Vivi, a well known overclocker from South Africa, did some cool videos recently to give people an introduction into subzero overclocking. He covered different aspects of testing and seems to have a never ending stream of videos continually updating at his youtube channel. Make sure you subscribe to it!

His weapon of choice is GIGABYTE Z77X-UD5H and 3770K. Check out a few videos he put up overnight. Good stuff Vivi!