Win a Trip to Taipei With GIGABYTE

GIGABYTE wants to send you to Computex 2016 in Taipei, Taiwan!

In collaboration with our partners at Modders-inc and sponsors Intel, Nvidia, Enermax, Kingston, Corsair and Ekwb, we've launched a case mod competition to celebrate our 30th anniversary and the winner gets an all-expenses paid trip to Computex 2016 this June.

The rules are simple: sign up for an account at Modders-inc, and post an introduction in the GIGABYTE 30th Anniversary Worklog thread. You'll need to post frequent worklog updates in that thread as you complete your build. Remember, you need to have either a GIGABYTE 30th anniversary theme or use the specific GIGABYTE Blue. Full contest details are available on our website here. 

Hope to see you in Taipei!

SlipperySkip latest build: SkyVue

We've been publishing so much of his work that by now you guys must be pretty familiar with Jeffrey Stephenson, a professional case modder, also known as SlipperySkip. Jeffrey specializes in making elegant and good looking retro style cases for small HTPCs.

And great news, his latest project has just been finished. We here now present you SkyVue!

The specs for his latest creation are quite impressive as well, using simply what the latest technology has to offer.

From The Verge: "His latest is the art deco-inspired SkyVue, which uses mahogany-like sapele wood and aluminum trim to mimic the look of a 1930s skyscraper... If you owned this mod you'd probably start off thinking it was just a good signature piece for your room, and then a week or so later you'd be scouring eBay for an art deco desk, chair, and hatstand to match, all while humming "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" "

We couldn't agree more, with such a good looking tower, you definitely need the whole room to match!!

Full article from The Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/7/11172576/art-deco-pc-tower-mod-skyvue

For the complete SkyVue build log, click here: http://slipperyskip.com/forum/index.php?topic=16.0

For more pictures of SkyVue, click here: http://slipperyskip.com/page42.html

For more info on the GIGBAYTE Z170N-Wifi mobo, click here: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5518#ov

Here Are Your Winter OC Challenge Winners!

Our Winter OC Challenge has wrapped up and the winners have been announced!

The Winter OC Challenge saw the world's best overclockers compete for some serious hardware prizes: GIGABYTE Z170-X SOC Force motherboards for the category winners and a GIGABYTE Z170X Gaming G1 motherboard for the winner of the lucky draw.

Here are the winners!

• Ambient 2C Winner: Nvidiaforever2 
• Ambient 4C Winner: george.kokovinis 
• Extreme 2C Winner: Dancop 
• Extreme 4C Winner: Alex@ro
• Lucky Draw: RM-akihabara 

Thanks to everyone that participated. We host frequent overclocking challenges on HWBOT. Our next contest, March Madness, kicks off on March 12. 

Microsoft Really Wants You to Upgrade to Windows 10

Have you upgraded to Windows 10 yet? Soon, Microsoft might make it hard to say no.

According to media reports, Microsoft is 'aggressively' pushing out notifications to Windows 7 and 8 users to upgrade to Windows 10. The Windows 10 download will now start in the background automatically, as it will now be considered a "recommended update" in its Windows Update system, but users will still have a choice if they want to make the upgrade.

Here's what a Microsoft spokesperson had to say to The Verge on the issue:

"As we shared in late October on the Windows Blog, we are committed to making it easy for our Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers to upgrade to Windows 10," says a Microsoft spokesperson. "We updated the upgrade experience today to help our customers, who previously reserved their upgrade, schedule a time for their upgrade to take place."

This comes weeks after Microsoft's announcement that next-generation processors from Intel, AMD and Qualcomm would only be compatible with Windows 10 and not earlier versions of the operating system.

What do you guys think? Is this the right move by Microsoft? Let us know on our Facebook page.

Check Out This Interview With GIGABYTE's Very Own Sofos1990

One of GIGABYTE's in-house professional overclockers, Sofos 'Sofos1990' Oikonomou, was recently featured on OCTV's Overclocker in Focus series. Sofos is part of the overclocking team in Taipei, working with HiCookie to make sure GIGABYTE motherboards perform their best under the pressure of overclocking.

During the interview, Sofos discussed how he got into overclocking, his educational background, and where he sees overclocking in the future. 

You can check out his interview with OCTV here:

You can find the rest of OCTV's Overclocker in Focus interviews on their YouTube channel.

Winter is Coming: Keep Warm By Overclocking

Winter is coming, and so is another overclocking competition from GIGABYTE!

Throughout the month of February, we're inviting overclockers to keep warm by pushing their 6th Gen. Intel® processors to their absolute limits on a GIGABYTE 100 series motherboard during our Z170 Winter OC Challenge.

We're giving away a total of 5 GIGABYTE motherboards throughout the contest, with an additional Z170X-Gaming G1 motherboard up for grabs for those users that submit scores to all stages of a round.

You can check out the contest details below. If you head on over to HWBOT you can find out more and submit your scores.

Contest details:

Round 1: Enthusiast, Rookie and Novice Overclockers – 2 Cores
Stage 1: 3DMark11 Physics
- CPU frequency limited to 4503.00 MHz
Stage 2: HWBOT Prime
- CPU frequency limited to 4503.00 MHz
Stage 3: Geekbench Multi Core
- CPU frequency limited to 4503.00 MHZ

Round 2: Enthusiast, Rookie and Novice Overclockers– 4 Cores
Stage 1: XTU
- CPU frequency limited to 4500.00 MHz
Stage 2: HWBOT Prime
- CPU frequency limited to 4503.00 MHz
Stage 3: Geekbench Multi Core
- CPU frequency limited to 4503.00 MHz

Round 3: Elite and Extreme Overclockers – 2 Cores
Stage 1: 3DMark11 Physics
- CPU frequency limited to 5003.00 MHz
Stage 2: HWBOT Prime 
- CPU frequency limited to 5003.00 MHz
Stage 3: Geekbench Multi-Core 
- CPU frequency limited to 5003.00 MHz

Round 4: Elite and Extreme Overclockers– 4 Cores
Stage 1: XTU
- CPU frequency limited to 5000 MHz
Stage 2: HWBOT Prime
- CPU frequency limited to 5003.00 MHz
Stage 3: Geekbench Multi Core
- CPU frequency limited to 5003.00MHz

Contest Rules
- This competition is limited to GIGABYTE Z170 motherboards only.
- Every submission must include the screenshot with the competition background and a picture of the rig.
- To be eligible for the lucky draw, participants must submit in all stages of the round they select.
- A participant is eligible to win in only one round. If he is found to be the winner in multiple rounds, the prize will go to the runner up. If a participant is a round winner, he will not be eligible for the lucky draw.
- In case of a tie, the tie-breaker is the best score in Stage 3. If there’s still a tie, the best score in Stage 2, etc.

Contest Prizes
• Each 1st place winner in a round will be awarded a Z170X-SOC Force Motherboard.
• Users that submit scores to all stages of a round will be eligible to enter the lucky draw for one GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming G1 motherboard.

Time to Upgrade: Microsoft Cuts Support For New CPUs on Windows 7/8.1

Recently Microsoft® announced that Windows 7 and 8.1 will not support future CPUs from Intel®, AMD®, and Qualcomm®.

This means that Windows 10 will be the only platform supported by future CPUs like Intel's upcoming CPU codenamed 'Kaby Lake', Qualcomm's upcoming '8996' silicon, and AMD's upcoming 'Bristol Ridge' silicon. Furthermore, Microsoft will no longer update Windows 7/8.1 for Intel's 6th Gen. Core™ processor (aka 'Sky Lake').

Here's the rationale for the change from Microsoft:

Windows 7 was designed nearly 10 years ago before any x86/x64 SOCs existed. For Windows 7 to run on any modern silicon, device drivers and firmware need to emulate Windows 7’s expectations for interrupt processing, bus support, and power states- which is challenging for WiFi, graphics, security, and more. As partners make customizations to legacy device drivers, services, and firmware settings, customers are likely to see regressions with Windows 7 ongoing servicing.

For many users, upgrading to Windows 10 is free. You can check Microsoft's website for more information.

SlipperySkip new project (In progress)

You guys might remember Jeffrey Stephenson (Slipperyskip) work from his previous project Addison in 2015 or the Flightline in 2013. Jeffrey manages to bring together style and modern PC performance together in a very unique and crafty way! 

Well good news, Slipperyskip is back at it with a new concept in mind and his work is well underway already!His new project SkyVue features one of GIGABYTE most recent motherboard, the Z170N-WIFI, a mini-ITX mobo part of the 100 Series Ultra Durable line up which is packed with great features, such as the new USB3.1 over USB Type C port which is powered by Intel's powerful USB 3.1 solution! Here are some pictures of his progress. you can follow each step of his work over at his blog here: http://slipperyskip.com/forum/index.php?topic=16.0

GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming G1 is Tom’s Hardware 2015 Editor’s Choice

GIGABTYE has put a lot of effort into it’s flagship motherboard and the results are showing. After collecting the Recommended award from Anandtech and the Must Have Editor’s Choice from TweakTown, it is now from non other than Tom’s Hardware that the Gaming G1 receives the 2015 Editor’s Choice!!

Without overlooking the great performance achieved, what convince the reviewer is the shear amount of features this motherboard has to offer: “Solid overclocking, true x16/x16 mode for SLI and CrossFire, 3-way and 4-way SLI and CrossFireX, Thunderbolt 3, Front-panel USB 3.1 bay device, Triple Killer Networks controllers including one 802.11ac MIMO, manually selectable firmware ROMs, generous cable kit.”

The final verdict : “Our current Editor's Choice award replaces our former "Elite" award, where highly-priced products could win simply by being best-in-class. Gigabyte's Z170X-Gaming G1 could have qualified for either of these awards, since it's both elite and this editor's choice. While far from value-priced, an extensive feature set also gives the Z170X-Gaming G1 more features for the money than its lower-cost rival.”

You can read the full review here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gigabyte-z170x-gaming-g1-motherboard,4347.html

TeamAU and GIGABYTE Break World Records!

GIGABYTE overclockers Dino (dinos22) Strkljevic, Sofos1990, and HiCookie were busy last week in Australia pushing CPUs and GIGABYTE motherboards to their absolute limit.

What was the result?

A world record shattered!

Dinos22, who also is GIGABYTE's Australia marketing manager, is currently the top overclocker on  Intel's XTU (more information on the XTU app here) leaderboards after pushing an Intel i7-5960X to 6GHz on LN2 cooling, a 16GB DDR4 RAM kit with timings of 12-14-15-15 all on a GIGABYTE X99-SOC Champion motherboard.

You can check out more information on HWBOT.

If you're new to overclocking and want to learn more about how to do it (and maybe break a world record yourself!) check out our overclocking tutorial livestream here: