HiCookie achieves new high CPU frequency with GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7, hits 7.112GHz!

When we said there was more to come from the Z77X-UP7, we were dead serious. Get a load of this. Our in-house overclocking guru HiCookie has just pushed the limits for an Intel Core i7 3770K to an incredible 7.112GHz. Catch the video below.

We see this as great indicator that the torch has now been passed from our first OC board, the X58-OC to the Z77X-UP7. You can learn more about the board and it’s OC features here.

Overclocking comp you shouldn’t miss!

HWBOT is organising an exciting competition for the month of September called GIGABYTE Classic Challenge2.

We’re talking old school benchmarks in this challenge, 32M SuperPi with unlimited cooling or clocks. 3D round has an interesting twist. It’s a low clock challenge in 3DMARK01 with a nature FPS cap and CPU MHz cap. Let’s see the tweakers come out and show off their skills. The MHz cap on nature opens the door for ATI cards to compete as well. Let’s see who’s got the right mix of hardware and tweaks to reign supreme in this test of efficiency and skill.

Main prize is none other than the GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7. That’s right people, UP7 up for grabs, time to put your benching shoes on!

Here is the competition page link!

cFos: Speeds up your downloads

For those of us who download hefty data packages from the the Internet,maybe Online game services like Steam or Origin or shared HD video content, waiting for the download to finish can of course be a real pain. And having a the best Internet connection isn’t always a guarantee that your throughput is optimal. This is where cFos software can make a difference.

cFos is an app currently bundled on our G1.Sniper M3 and Z77X-UD5H boards, and according to the data, it actually does a very good job of speeding up your downloads – in some cases by more than doubling your speed. Essentially working as a network driver, cFos optimizes data traffic by means of Traffic Shaping.

Check out the difference it can make to your download speeds: http://www.cfos.de/en/cfosspeed/rwin-expansion.htm

Here’s a video that show exactly what it can do:

Building an all-rounder PC with GIGABYTE Z77X-UP4 TH!

I build PCs on an odd occasion with some sort of focus on gaming or overclocking. It's not every day I build an all rounder PC so Here is my take on one.

When GIGABYTE first got talking about the new Ultra Durable 5 at Computex 2012 with the sweet new power design and thunderbolt I thought, here we go I'm finally going to get the old box out and put together a new PC which serves as a multimedia machine, work machine and an occasional gamer. Bottom line is I'm putting together the trusty all-rounder. Let's start with the hardware I'm using first.

·        

• GIGABYTE Z77X-UP5 TH
• Intel Core i7 3770K
• Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD + 64GB mSATA
• Western Digital Velociraptor 600GB + 2x2TB WD Green Drives
• GIGABYTE GTX560 Windforce Graphics Card
• Corsair AX750 Power Supply
• Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 2133MHz kit
• Corsair Carbide 400R with H100 water cooler installed
• GIGABYTE Aivia Osmium keyboard and Krypton mouse+pad

There are the parts I chose but they could certainly change on various components to suit a different budget or brand preference.

Let's start with the board. It's the latest of the Z77 boards. It has USB3 ports on the back, dual thunderbolt and some usual connectors you'd expect from a mid to high end GIGABYTE motherboard.

GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 gets officially announced

 

The day has finally arrived, our new top-of-the-line 7 series motherboard has been officially announced; introducing the GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 motherboard. Featuring our new Ultra Durable 5 technology, 32 phase CPU power delivery and exclusive, cool overclocking features including our new LN2 mode switch, the Z77X-UP7 has already proven itself to be a true record breaker – in fact you can watch a video from TweakTown showing the Z77X-UP7 in action hitting 7.102GHz just a few days ago.
Check out the full details including specs and features on our dedicated website here.
The full press release can be found here.

TweakTown catch 7.102GHz Ivy Bridge world record on video

Cameron Wilmot from TweakTown was on hand a few days ago to chat with our resident overclocker HiCookie while he was putting the forthcoming Z77X-UP7 board through its paces. Fortunately, Cam was present as Cookie blasted past the previous world record CPU clock for Ivy Bridge, to hit an astonishing 7.102GHz.
Watch the video below to see Cookie and his record breaking Z77X-UP7 in action.

Watch this space for more on our forthcoming Z77X-UP7 motherboard. This is quite possibly, just the beginning….

Aristidis wins all three Ultra Durable 5 boards in the GIGABYTE ‘Classic Challenge’ OC competition

Earlier today we announced the conclusion of our GIGABYTE Classic Challenge competition hosted on HWBot for the last few weeks. Remarkably, we saw Greek overclocker Aristidis complete the pretty incredible feat of winning both competition stages to win not only the prizes for each stage (an X79S-UP5 WIFI for stage 1 plus a X79-UP4 for stage 2), but also the bonus prize awarded for doing so, a forthcoming GIGABYTE F1A85X-UP4.

Here’s how Aristidis’ scored:

Stage 1 - 3DMark 01 – 160342 marks
Stage 2 – SuperPi 32M – 6 min 55 seconds (CPU Locked at 4.5GHz)

You can check out the full press release with all the details, or visit the HWBot competition page right here.

Congrats to Aristidis!

GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 3: Editor’s Choice at AnandTech

AnandTech chief motherboard reviewer, Ian Cutress, just published an exhaustive appraisal of a several Z77 boards designed with multi-GPU configurations in mind. It’s great to see the GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 3, our flagship Intel Z77 gaming motherboard, pull ahead of the pack with a perfect storm of features, performance and value for money – claiming the prestigious Bronze Editor’s Choice award along the way.Here’s a taste of what Ian had to say;

“It is easy to recommend the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 – for the price it provides the performance, the functionality and the extras in the box that a user needs.  Somehow Gigabyte has been able to undercut the competition to good effect, and passing this good value package onto consumers.

With this in mind, I would like to give the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 the AnandTech Editors Choice Bronze Award.  For price, performance, and the sense of a good value package, the G1.Sniper 3 offers one of the best price competitive PLX PEX 8747 packages available today.”

 

You can catch the full and comprehensive review on Anandtech.com here.

More details about the GIAGBYTE G1.Sniper 3 can be found on our product page here.

GIGABYTE 7 series Mini-ITX board images make Facebook debut

There have a few images of our forthcoming 7 series Mini-ITX boards floating about on the webospheric ether in the last few days, so we thought it was about time we added some official shots to our Facebook page. The new boards will be loyal to the compact 17cm x 17cm Mini-ITX form factor and sport Intel Centrino WiFi.

Catch the full image set here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151000030542120.419514.209090107119&type=1

GIGABYTE: We’re ready for Windows 8

Yesterday we made an official announcement regarding Windows 8 and how our entire range of currently available motherboards are ready to run Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows OS. We’ve worked closely with Microsoft to ensure all our current range will transition smoothly to the new platform with special attention to driver and BIOS compatibility.

Of course, as with any major OS release, it’ll be interesting to see Windows 8 come to market and it’s reception from desktop PC users, especially among DIY builders. And although many commenters perceive the new OS as being Microsoft’s key strategic weapon in the tablet arena, it’s also very encouraging to see that Windows 8 should actually be a really good performer on the desktop PC.

This article from TechSpot compares Windows 7 and Windows 8 (RTM) in a head to head performance shoot out, and it’s very encouraging to see Windows 8 perform or out-perform its predecessor in most stages. Noticeably, TechSpot reported seeing faster boot up, shut times and wake from sleep as well as overall performance improvements in both CPU and 3D benchmarks. Here a few examples:

In conclusion, this is what Tech Spot’s Steven Walton had to say:

“The improvements that have been made to startup and shutdown times are self-evident, and no doubt a major focus on the new OS' development…. Another notable improvement was seen in multimedia performance. This was first observed when running PCMark 7 and later confirmed when we ran x264 HD Benchmark 5.0 and our HandBrake encoding test.”

In fact it’s really encouraging to see Windows 8 excel in pretty much all testing scenarios including browser performance, media encoding, file copying and 3D gaming. Of course the new Windows 8 user interface will be the main talking point when it’s released later this year, but it’s great to see that Microsoft have again been working hard to satisfy those of us who crave better performance above all else.

You can find the press release announcing Windows 8 readiness on GIGABYTE boards here.

A webpage with more info about GIGABYTE boards and Windows 8 can be found here.

Read the full Windows 8 performance review on Tech Spot here.

Above benchmark images courtesy of TechSpot.com

HKEPC crew hit a new world record Ivy Bridge high of 7.09GHz with GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7

GIGABYTE Z77X-OC (I mean UP7) is going to turn heads and stop the traffic very soon as it starts to ship out in your local shop in near future.
HKEPC had the opportunity to take one for a spin with hicookie in Hong Kong and hit the new Ivy Bridge world record frequency. Our readers might be familiar with Mad222 who we’ve mentioned many times in the past, he has recently joined this new team and you can see things skyrocketing to new records in their labs for obvious reason.

Video: Vortez check out the GIGABYTE Z77X-UP5 TH

David Michelson on Vortez.net has a published a great video featuring our new Z77X-UP5 TH motherboard. David details the retail package as well as the aesthetics of the board, before going on to check out all the features we’ve added including our new Ultra Durable 5 technologies and of course the dual Thunderbolt ports.

Once again, we’re really happy to see that David was impressed with our efforts. The full review on Vortez.net reveals another Gold Award!

David - “Z77X-UP5TH is an aesthetic masterpiece and a very impressive motherboard. It will satisfy those seeking high-end performance with Intel Z77 and has the added bonus of being future-proofed with dual Thunderbolt ports. The quality is brilliant, the feature-set is extensive and the overclocking is great can you tell why we are impressed?”

Check out the full review on Vortez.net

More info about the GIGABYTE Z77X-UP5 TH can be found on our website here.

G1-Killer CPU-Z skin available now

A lot of you may have seen the G1-Killer CPU-Z skin in Hicookie and Dino’s posts over the past few weeks, and we’ve even noticed a few pre-launch versions floating around the OC interweb… Well the good news is that the final and approved version is now available form the CPUID website.

You can download it from the right hand column; look for the G1 CPUz logo:

Or you could just download it directly from this link.

There have been some requests for a black and orange version. Like this post if you want a UP7 version.

PC Gaming Fastest Growing Platform!

I came across a couple of interesting articles over at VRZone and Guru3D talking about the state of PC gaming. VRZone had a hilarious image to complement the article LOL.

PC gaming is dead, or so console manufacturers and the gaming media over the last five years would have us believe. Every year it seems like another industry head, game developer or media pundit is announcing the death of PC gaming, despite any and all evidence to the contrary. Now, it seems that at least one publisher has noticed that, to paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated.

In a recent interview with CNBC, the CEO of Electronic Arts, John Riccitiello, said that the PC platform has the fastest-growing software revenues in all of gaming. “Just five years ago, people said that the PC game business was in a radical state of decline because NPD said it was down 10%, 20%, 30% year in and year out,” he said. “The fastest growing platform for video games today is the PC, but it’s growing through subscription, through microtransactions, through downloads.”

Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/pc-gaming-fastest-growing-platform/16749.html#ixzz23ZEe3bT8

Over at Guru3D, Hilbert also had a similar article talking about the fall of console gaming in fact and rise of PC gaming with some sales figures he’s gotten. Here are a couple of interesting quotes.

The gaming world is changing again as according to industry analyst NPD Group, sales of video-game consoles (Xbox, PS3, Wii), software and even accessories fell for a sixth consecutive month in May, tumbling 28% from a year earlier to $517 million. With the release of Diablo III, May saw the first time since July 2010 that the top-selling game was a PC-only title.

That boosted PC video games sales up year-over-year to 230% or $80 million.

Read more: http://www.guru3d.com/news/pc-game-sales-up-230/

Hidden Gems competition winners revealed; prove 20 years of ultra durability

Today we’re announcing the lucky winners of our Hidden Gems competition. Just to jig your memory a moment; we asked all of our fans and followers on Facebook to show us either a photo or video of their old GIGABYTE motherboard, with the emphasis firmly on ‘Old’. We wanted to unearth as many classic GIGABYTE boards as possible, stoke a bit of nostalgia and celebrate our illustrious history as a tier one motherboard manufacturer.

The ‘Grand’ Prize – Victoria Chudinova – GA-586T2 – 1996

If you recall, we had three prize categories. The first, or ‘Grand Prize’ was for the submission which got the most votes from visitors to the Hidden Gems webpage. After several weeks of intense activity, this prize most deservedly goes to Victoria Chudinova of the Ukraine for her fantastically creative video submission which featured a GIGABYTE GA-586T2 from 1996. Victoria walks away with a GIGABYTE G1.Sniper M3 motherboard. Check out the video below.

 

The ‘Team GIGABYTE’ Prize - Sergey Erofeev - GA-7VA-C – 2002

The second prize consisted of a GIGABYTE Z77X-UD3H motherboard, with the winner chosen exclusively by the GIGABYTE marketing team here in Taipei. We selected an incredibly unique chassis build from Sergey Erofeev in Russia who showed us how his GIGABYTE 7VA-C motherboard from 2002 was housed in a chassis entirely out of old motherboards. Pretty slick.

 

The ‘Most Deserving of an Upgrade’ Prize- Dmitriy-Stadnik - GA-386UM – 1991

Last, but not least, we have the ‘Most Deserving of an Upgrade’ Prize which was awarded to a Dmitriy Stadnik also of the Ukraine who submitted the oldest GIGABYTE motherboard with his video featuring a GIAGBYTE 386UM board from 1991. Incredibly, Dmitriy shows the board is still in good working order after all this time. We hope you enjoy your prize – a free upgrade to a GIGABYTE B75M-D3H motherboard. Check the video below.

 

Finally, on behalf of all us here in the GIGABYTE motherboard team, thank you all for taking part and making the competition such great fun. It’s been really interesting to engage with you all on the topic we love most, GIGABYTE motherboards old and new.

If you want to check some real Hidden Gems, you still can by visiting the competition website here: http://event.gigabyte.com/hidden_gems/index.aspx

Josh 'deathdoG' Edwards shows off impressive skill in latest Battlefield 3 comp

Team Immunity, pro gaming team from Australia, are world champions in Battlefield 3 for many good reasons. One of the reasons is one of their star players Josh ‘deathdoG’ Edwards and some incredible aiming skills.

iM put up another amazing Battlefield 3 video from Josh 'deathdoG' Edwards, this time with footage from their teams 4v4 Squad Rush competition games. In many of these clips Josh single-handedly takes down entire enemy teams. Its an astonishing display of Battlefield 3 skill, make sure you check it out!

How good is this guy?!? Good to know he uses GIGABYTE to give him the edge during these insanely fast frag-offs. I hear he’s about to build a new rig with the GIGABYTE G1.Sniper M3. Good choice, good choice!!!

Love ya work Josh, keep snipin’ mate!

Watercooling, everything you need to know about it in a video!

Hey guys,

I wanted to give you a heads up about a really good video about PC watercooling that people at Newegg put together. You wouldn’t normally associate Newegg with WC but they went out of their usual product line stuff to educate their customers in art of watercooling. That’s really cool Newegg, GG!

Newegg invited Lee from PCjunkieMods to talk about how to get into this crazy hobby. Lee is pretty incredible, just check out some of his work on the site I liked to. He’s only really been on the scene for a couple of years guys, this isn’t rocket science by any stretch of the imagination. Check out some of his incredible work and little tips and tricks how to get started!

Thanks to Newegg TV for such a fantastic video! You guys should check out their channel and subscribe I reckon. They’re doing a fantastic job!

Introducing GIGABYTE USB Blocker: Enhanced USB device control

Today we’re launching a new utility for our 7 series motherboards called USB Blocker. It’s a simple yet powerful software app that allows you to very easily block specific types of USB device on your PC. This is useful in a variety of scenarios were you might prefer certain USB devices not to available to the OS.

For example, in a small office were data theft could be a worry, you can block each PCs access to storage devices, making it much harder for anyone to walk out the door with your data. In schools, joysticks and game pads can be blocked, while public PCs in hotels, cafe’s, dormitories, libraries and such, can avoid the risk of viruses and malware by blocking pen drives and other storage media, while still allowing USB connected keyboard and mice to be used.

The GUI (above) is simple to use. You simply select the class of USB device that you would like to block, enter the password, select to block or unblock and you're done. Devices classes that are blocked will subsequently be ignored by the Windows 7 OS.

USB Blocker is available from today on the GIGABYTE Software Utility web page here: http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/Utility.aspx?cg=2

It is currently supported on Intel Z77, H77, B75 and H61 based motherboards using Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit.

Early Z77X-UP7 OC scores make their debut

Earlier today Dino posted a CPU speed of 7.01GHz (7,010.04MHz) on hwbot using his very early UP7 sample motherboard. This is a rev 0.2 board that looks pretty much like the final board will look, but of course the final boards will OC and run a little better. Here’s the CPU-Z submission:

Here’s his hwbot submission page that includes a little video of his result:

Expect more OC scores in the coming days and weeks before UP7 officially makes its appearance.

Aristidis breaks ATI 3DMARK01 world record with Z77X-UP5 TH!

Looks like the Greek champion overclocker Aristidis had some unfinished business yesterday with 3DMARK01 and topped the ATI/AMD GPU rankings with the fastest run in the world using a Radeon HD5870 and GIGABYTE Z77X-UP5 TH motherboard. Result can be seen on HWBOT.
Well done Aristidis!

Vortez review GIGABYTE Z77X-UD5H WIFI, see nothing but pure gold

Respected UK hardware reviewers Vortez, recently got their hands on our GIGABYTE Z77X-UD5H WIFI board. Putting it through their usual rigorous testing procedure, we’re pleased to see our high-end Z77 offering claiming Olympian Gold. Here’s a sample of what they had to say:

“Z77X-UD5H has every conceivable feature for those wanting mid-high end performance with Intel Z77. At stock there is decent performance to be had and overclocking only helps to enhance this. This motherboard is simply one of the best looking offerings out there and I am happy to give Z77X-UD5H WiFi our Gold award.”

Check out the full and detailed review at Vortez.net

Details about the Z77X-UD5H WIFI can be found here.