GIGABYTE rolls up a 962 ‘Gold Cup’ submissions at HWBOT in 2012

So just out out curiosity, I went and had look at exactly how many overclockers are winning awards, specifically Gold Cup awards at HWBOT using our motherboards. Let’s just say the results were pretty damn impressive. In 2012, which of course isn’t quite over yet, exactly 962 1st place ranking hardware submissions – i.e. Gold Cup awards - on HWBOT.org were made by from people using GIGABYTE motherboards. That’s not a total submissions number, nope. That’s just Gold Cup submissions! Unbelievable!

Here’s the permalink so you can check it out for yourself: http://url.hwbot.org/VBtJJK

Gold Cups are awarded at HWBOT when a submission beats an existing highest score on a particular piece of hardware and a particular benchmark. Gold Cups are also league-agnostic, so Pros, enthusiasts and amateurs compete side by side.

As we move into 2013, we are seriously considering having monthly prize draws for these Gold Cup submissions that use GIGABYTE motherboards. I reckon it’d be a great way to give recognition to the hundreds of overclockers who might not be contenders for the heavyweight world records, but nonetheless, deserve recognition for their efforts. If you have any opinions on this, feel free to chime in below with comments.

Image source – Tony McCoy…. real Gold Cup legend in his own right. Not sure he can overclock hardware too well though.

GIGABYTE launch ‘Winter OC Whiteout’ competition at HWBOT

That’s right folks. GIGABYTE is launching a brand new month-long overclocking competition at HWBOT, and this time we’ve invited Cooler Master to chip in with prizes too, making sure it’s a real temptation for overclockers everywhere during this festive period. The winner of each of the three stages will win a GIGABYTE Z77X-UD4H motherboard plus a Cooler Master Seidon 120M liquid cooling kit.

As well as three benchmark stages (outlined below) we’ve also added a bit of festive cheer in the form of a bonus prize for the most wintery and festive submission photo. So crack out the LN2 and let the snow and ice collect on your pot! We’ll post the ten best photos on our Facebook ten days before the competition concludes, the one with most ‘Likes’ gets a GIGABYTE Z77-HD4 motherboard, plus a Cooler Master Sirus S-5.1 gaming headset.

‘Winter OC Whiteout’ Stages:

Stage 1: 3DMark11 "No 2011"- Any Non-Socket 2011 Intel CPU; Single GPU only

Stage 2: 3DMark Vantage “Dual core” - Dual or Single core Intel CPUs only; Single GPU

Stage 3: Heaven DX11 “Full Out” – Any Intel CPU; Single GPU only

GIGABYTE Z77X-UD4H

Competition Rules

Entrants must use the official competition background (available on the HWBOT competition page). Verification screenshots are required and must include; benchmark score plus CPU-Z CPU/Memory/Mainboard tab. Entrants must include a picture of the rig used. All submission photos will be considered for the bonus prize. Usual HWBOT submission and verification rules apply.

For full contest rules, scoring and more details, please visit the contest page hosted at HWBOT

http://hwbot.org/competition/gbt_winter_whiteout

Handy tool to disable/enable ULPS (Ultra Low Power State) by youngpro22

James from the Australian Xtreme Overclocking team called TeamAU (www.teamau.net) is feeling the Xmas spirit and gave away one of the tools he made for TeamAU boys to control power state for ATI graphics cards. Basically the tool disables power throttling and forces the graphics cards not to fall asleep. It also lowers frequency and voltage on GPUs to save power.

This tool is handy to both gamers and overclockers as it helps with some stuttering issues in games and instability in AMD/ATI Crossfire (Xfire) that some experience while it also helps overclockers disable power state which can affect score efficiency. Downside is that you will have a warmer PC and use more power if you are a gamer so make sure you have adequate case cooling. Overclockers don’t normally have to be too concerned about this as they test on open platforms generally. You can try and see if it helps and revert back to original state by enabling ULPS with the same tool however. Worth a try!

This tool basically does what some of us had to do manually and it’s hard work I’ll tell ya as I've found out during my 7970 Xfire testing with hundreds of registry entries that need to be changed manually.

Here is what the tool looks like and you can find more information about how it works on James’ blog http://blog.metasplo.it/2012/12/amd-ulps-ultra-low-power-state-disable.html.

Give it up for James and TeamAU!

A Sin0822 guide to CPU and memory overclocking on the GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7

 

Power user Sin0822 has been busy once again, this time he’s written an in depth guide to getting the absolute most out of our flagship Z77X-UP7 motherboard in terms of both CPU and memory. As well as details about how to push an Intel 3770K on air and LN2, plus sound advice on pushing high-end memory kits from Corsair and G.SKILL, Sin also shot a short video that focuses on our UEFI BIOS which you can catch below. He’s even providing a link to download his OC profiles…awesome job.

If you own or are thinking of owning a GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7, then I highly suggest you go take a look at Sin’s guide over on Overclock.net

More info and specs on the GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 can be found here.

I think YouTube is trying to tell me something today!

Got your GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 yet?

Global #3 3DMARK05 by TeamAU today using Z77X-UP7

Team Australia Extreme OC team just put up a new 3DMARK05 (global 3rd fastest) score on HWBOT sporting the GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 and an Intel Core i7 3770K running at a whopping 6.75GHz on liquid nitrogen.
 
CoolerMaster 1500W PSU seems to be a good match with this benching rig and multiple graphics cards. Plenty of power on tap!

TeamAU attend Atomic’s Perfect PC giveaway and do some overclocking, also freeze a Samsung smartphone with LN2

Atomic Magazine in Australia held its last event and gave away a perfect PC with a host of cool hardware including GIGABYTE Sniper 3 gaming board. TeamAU was in attendance with some overclocking and freezing of other stuff, namely some grapes, apples, pizza slices and a Samsung smartphone which was captured on video.

The boys also managed to pickup a global #3 3DMARK06 score with a GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7, 3770K CPU clocked at 6.55GHz and a pair of 5970 GPUs!

Yup, a Samsung smartphone was frozen with liquid nitrogen and torched for good measure, epic!

Dave’s Tech Table specs out some pro rigs using GIGABYTE Dual Thunderbolt motherboards

Dave Helmly is a specialist working for Adobe, specifically working with system integrators and builders creating digital audio and video hardware solutions for Adobe's pro creative applications. Check out his DAV’s Tech Table blog here. So the kind of applications we’re talking about are pretty demanding when it comes to both raw computational performance and storage mediums. Apps like Adobe Premier Pro, After effects and others often need to stream very high def, very heavy video content on the fly, with tons of processing going too, so let’s just say that Dave knows how to spec out a machine that will suit today’s professional content creators.

So here’s a great video that Dave posted which explores a couple of different builds that feature Thunderbolt on Windows. This is a relatively new scenario for content creators as Thunderbolt, prior to few months ago, was an Apple-exclusive feature. So it’s easy to see why Thunderbolt on Windows is clearly something that excites many users of Dave’s ilk.

It’s great to see that Dave has opted for GIGABYTE boards, and in fact has found suitable homes for all there of our TB offerings. Actually, being the only solution on the market featuring two TB ports, it’s easy to see why GIGABYTE got the nod. If you want to check out the details regarding specs etc hit the links below.

• GIGABYTE Z77X-UP5 TH
• GIGABYTE Z77X-UP4 TH
• GIGABYTE Z77MX-D3H TH

Here’s Dave’s blog ‘DAV’s TechTable.

Introducing the ‘The Ultimate OverClockers Dream Giveaway’

Fancy winning some seriously sexy hardware? I’m talking about a pretty damn nice OC setup that includes a GIGABYTE Z77X-UD4H motherboard, an Intel core i7 3770K CPU, a G.SKILL Trident 2600MHz CL10 8GB memory kit and some nice memory cooling gear from KINGPIN. Well, if you d fancy the chance to win all that and more, then pop over to this page:

You’ll be asked to ‘Like’ us (as if you don’t already) and share the event with your buddies. It really is that simple. What are you waiting for?

Ultimate Prize:

· Intel® Core™ i7 3770K Processor

· GIGABYTE Z77X-UD4H Motherboard

· G.SKILL TridentX 2600MHz CL10 8GB Memory Kit

· KINGPIN Memory Cooler

· GIGABYTE Key Chain and G.SKILL Lanyards

Runner-Up Prize 

· GIGABYTE Z77-HD4 Motherboard

· G.SKILL RipjawsX 2133MHz CL9 8GB Memory Kit

· KINGPIN Memory Cooler

· GIGABYTE Key Chain and G.SKILL Lanyards

3^rd, 4^th and 5^th Places

· KINGPIN Memory Cooler

· GIGABYTE Key Chain and G.SKILL Lanyards

Again, the competition page: https://www.facebook.com/kingpincooling?v=app_154581087931912

Good Luck!

windwithme checks out Intel i3-3220 performance on B75 and H77 chipsets

 

windwithme (and his signature wee glass cat) has once again come up with the goods, publishing an in-depth article on the lower power Intel i3-3220 processor. While it might not always be the best choice for overlockers or real high-end gaming systems, the lower 55w TDP and of course, better affordability makes it a great choice or mid-range systems based on Intel’s B75 and H77 platforms.

windwithme puts the entry level Ivy Bridge Core i3 CPU through its paces using a GIGABYTE B75M-D3V and GIGABYTE H77-DS3H, two affordable boards that make good economic sense for a build that might not break world records, but nonetheless still makes a pretty awesome everyday PC.

You can find the full article here on Overclockers.net

More info about the GIGABYTE H77-DS3H and GIGABYTE B75-D3V can be found at their respective product pages.

GIGABYTE UEFI BIOS Survey: Winner announced!

A few weeks ago we launched a new survey hosted on our Facebook page centered around UEFI BIOS; a simple and fun way to help us understand the opinions and thoughts of our loyal Facebook followers when it comes to an important issue such as motherboard BIOS.

All submissions were entered into a prize draw to win  a GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD3 motherboard, and today we are delighted to announce that Mr Peter Bennet from the UK is the official winner. Mr Bennet my old mucker….Enjoy!

We plan to have many more competitions, polls and surveys throughout 2013, so there will be plenty of opportunities in the near future to win fantastic GIGABYTE motherboard prizes. Also a big thanks to all who entered the GIGABYTE BIOS Survey. We had a fantastic response of well over 1,5000 submissions…. giving us unprecedented insight into our customers opinions on BIOS.

Cheers to all who took part.

SniperOZ from TeamAU sets a global Unigine Heaven DX11 world record

I knew SniperOZ, Carl, had a bit more room in his setup sporting a GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 running 4WAY 7970 and sure enough went to global number 1 spot today after a productive bench session overnight. Benchmark in question is Unigine Heaven Xtreme Preset.

Legendary work Carl, keep pushing mate! I’m feeling patriotic today, go Australia!

GIGABYTYE “UP7, strong 4WAY board” he says! Good to know

SniperOz from TeamAU takes #2 Unigine Heaven DX11 on UP7 4WAY

SniperOZ from Australia has been putting together some impressive scores lately. After setting the single card world record in 3D11 he set his heart of something a bit more challenging, 4way Crossfire 7970 on GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7! He took second place overnight with a sky high score of 8248.3 points in the Xtreme Preset, Unigine Heaven. He was a mere 7 points behind MTECH from Ukraine.

Well done Carl, good to see you putting the UP7 through its paces properly mate and keep pushing!

Dino