Z97 reviews are officially out, check out a detailed Hardware Canucks one out!

There are a lot of reviews out now as the official NDA lifted on 11th May. I’m sure there are plenty of quality reviews out there, I just came across this very detailed review of the new Gigabyte gaming board showing highs and lows of the latest gen board implementation. I think you should check it out here!

9 Series Overclocking official announcement

  

Z97X –SOC Force overclocking motherboard and box Z97X –SOC Force rear I/O panel

From exclusive GIGABYTE overclocking features such as hardware overclocking buttons directly on the motherboard, the OC Brace for extreme multi-GPU configurations, premium graphic support, outstanding hardware quality and a choice of software to take control of the BIOS environment like never before, the new 9 series Overclocking motherboards are what’s best to achieve new records!

More details here in the official announcement link: Press release

GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force smashes all legacy 3D records

Recently TeamAU members SniperOZ, dinos22 and pro joined forces with Hicookie, Sofos1990, Steponz and Vivi (the infant of OC) at the Gigabyte OC lab. The goal was to work on BIOS development, test and smash records on the new Gigabyte OC Z97 platform.

Boards were tested, BIOS was enhanced and records were destroyed... CARNAGE

Everyone had an unbelievable week and were able to snag 3Dmark01, 3DMark03, 3DMark05, 3DMark06 and Heaven overall records. The guys also took 3DMark03 single and Dinos/Sofos broke their foot off in Heaven dual card, absolutely obliterating the existing record with a score of 8XXX points.

In addition to this the boys traveled to New Zealand  to run a GIGABYTE OC workshop with PLAYTECH, AMES IT Acadamy, SteelSeries, AOC and GUNNAR and took the Aquamark 3 world record in setup day with GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force, Patriot PSC fronzen at 1350 CAS7 and a GTX580 with 4770K running at 6.4GHz.

Deanzo, dinos22, SniperOz and youngpro attended the NZ event. Youngpro thinks he's a celebrity!!!

These scores were all achieved on the new Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force board in combination with 4770K CPUs.

Aquamark3 572575 marks

Global record
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6400 MHz
GTX580 @ 1400 MHz
Patriot PSC @ 1356 7-12-7-28
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

3DMark01 190478 marks
Global record, 190K barrier broken
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6600 MHz (downclocked for screenshot)
Matrix 780TI @ 1700 MHz
Corsair 2666C10 "Hicookie" modules
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

3DMark03 301064 marks
Global record, 300K barrier broken
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6500 MHz
3x Matrix 290X @ 1300 MHz
Corsair 2666C10 "Hicookie" modules
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

3DMark03 253737 marks
Single card record, 250K barrier broken
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6450 MHz
Matrix 290X @ 1400 MHz
Corsair 2666C10 "Hicookie" module
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

3DMark05 74192 marks
Global record
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6550 MHz
EVGA K|NGP|N 780TI @ 1700 MHz
Corsair 2666C10 "Hicookie" modules
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

3DMark06 57085 marks
Global record
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6451 MHz
EVGA K|NGP|N 780TI @ 1700 MHz
Corsair 2666C10 "Hicookie" modules
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

Heaven 9192 points
Global record
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6500 MHz
3x Gigabyte 290X 3x Windforce cards @ 1350 MHz
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

Heaven 8513 points
Global record
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6300 MHz
2x Gigabyte 290X 3x Windforce cards @ 1400 MHz
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

We had a competition atmosphere in the lab, with 3 rigs running and multiple scores pumping out. In 3DMark01, 3DMark03 and Heaven we were able to secure 1st and 2nd spot. Vivi also chimed in with a number of his own records, including FS-E single card and strong results in AM3, 3DMark03 and 3DMark01,

Hicookie and Sofos snapped up Aquamark3 and Steponz nearly took Heaven single on a number of occasions with only a handful of points separating him from first spot.

As it stands at this point in time, TeamAU currently holds 3DMark01, 3DMark03, 3DMark05, 3DMark06, Heaven, Catzilla 720P & 1440P, 3DMark 11, Firestrike and Firestrike-E global records. OPA!

I'll leave you with this pleasing image of our initial targets all vanquished!

Testing in style

What takes one week, needs a whole lot of power and many thousands of cables? Here is another peak at our testing facility in our factory in Nanping, Taiwan.

Aussies going mod crazy to win GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force motherboards

OCAU (Overclockers Australia) forum and GIGABYTE are holding an overclocking contest. The idea is to buy some super low end GPU (Nvidia GT610) and achieve the best results in a number of benchmarks.

Top three prizes are all GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force and there’s also a participation prize for a GIGABYTE Z87X-OC so you can understand the level of excitement as well as some serious punishment for those poor little graphics cards. Punishment you say, wait until you see the photos, I mean some SERIOUS punishment, modification, crazy cooling, etc. One contestant strapped 2x $100 power boards on a $50 cards hahahah.

Craaaaaaaaay-zeeeee ghetto modding incomiiiiiing!

Here is the competition page link.

Check out the crazy artifacting from zeropluszero

hahahahahah LOVE IT

GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force videos, it’s all in the detail!

A couple of cool videos were posted online about the new GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force motherboard by Tiny Tom Logan and Sin0822. Both guys have an interesting look at the boards from different perspectives. Tom talks to mainstream guys while Sin0822 talks to the hardcore hardware geeks. I like the sort of detail sin0822 gets into with the Z87X-OC vs Z97X-SOC Force comparison. Check them both out.

 

Single Card Fire Strike Extreme Record Done By Vivi & Crew

Vivi from South Africa posted a killer single card 3DMARK Fire Strike Extreme record on HWBOT. Vivi and Steponz ran this rig for the whole day, it was a brutal fight for MHz and persistence paid. The guys were pretty happy with a big cheer near the end when the score dropped, check out the video.

Who’s ready for some water cooling action with the new G1 Gaming boards?

Here is something to “wet” your appetite for the new GIGABYTE gaming series of boards being built by Richard Keirsgieter (FB page) who is an absolute genius case modder and probably the best in his field. We had to share another image, this man is ridiculously good at what he does!

SUCH WOW, droolzzzz

 

The Overclocker issue 29 is out, check it out!

Latest The Overclocker issue is out.