Motherboards - Page 25

The X99 chipset tease continues, with GIGABYTE now offering its X99 Gaming G1 Wi-Fi motherboard up to gander at. GIGABYTE has used a truly gorgeous black-and-red theme on its X99-powered motherboard. There's also some hints of white, grey and green across the board.

The company is using a full 4-way PCIe layout, with 8 DIMM slots, 10 SATA 6Gbps ports, two of the SATA feature SATA Express capabilities, which goes hand-in-hand with the M.2 slot smack bang in the middle of hte PCIe slots. There's also a mini-PCIe slot which looks like it contains the Wi-Fi module, with an antenna that is connected through the rear panel near the audio ports.

At the bottom of the motherboard, it looks like there are two USB 3.0 headers, two USB 2.0 headers and a Thunderbolt header. The X99 Gaming G1 Wi-Fi also looks like it has a Sound Core 3D audio chip with filter caps, PCB separation, an EMI shield on the codec, an audio gain switch and switchable op-amp. Up in the top right, we have multiple buttons and switches for the usual dual BIOS/selectable BIOS functionality, and much more. We should expect the GIGABYTE G1 Gaming Wi-Fi motherboard to be higher up on the X99 food chain for GIGABYTE, with more boards to be unveiled in the coming weeks.

GIGABYTE is already breaking various records with its LN2-only motherboard, the Z97X-SOC Force LN2. Today, the company has announced that the new SOC Force LN2 motherboard has broken the DDR3 memory world record, not once, but twice.

Once at launch, hitting 4.5GHz, and then just three days later, the motherboard was used for another world record. The second time was at the Kingston HyperX OC Takeover World Finals, where a team of overclockers breached the massive 4.56GHz speed. If you thought this was the end, you were wrong. After a bunch of reports hitting the Internet of suspicious memory overclocks, GIGABYTE took it upon itself to pull out the big guns with its Z97X-SOC Force LN2 motherboard.

Using this motherboard, the GIGABYTE overclocking team smashed the DDR3 memory world record once again, reaching a gigantic 4.62GHz. This was achieved using Kingston's HyperX Predator DDR3 RAM. It looks like these days, posting a score with clear pictures of your work on HWBOT.org isn't enough for these super overclocks. To make sure nothing was left out, and that the public could see the overclocker's work, they uploaded everything onto YouTube.

Computex 2014 - USB 3.1 isn't something we've heard a ton about yet but with its eye clearly set on destroying Thunderbolt MSI has jumped to the party early showing off a motherboard utilizing the upcoming technology. While we don't have much in the way of the model or anything like that, putting the pieces together we can see this upcoming Z97 motherboard which will fall under the GD series offers us USB 3.1 technology via the ASMedia ASM1142 controller.

Looking above you can see the next generation USB connectivity will offer up to 10Gbps; twice as much as the current generation USB 3.0 connectivity. Along with the massive boost in performance the technology will continue to support USB 3.0 devices with no issue.

As for the actual board you can see we've got all the standard Z97 features with an M.2 slot sitting in the middle along with SATA Express support towards the bottom right of the board alongside two SATA III connectors. We're not quite sure when we'll see this board as USB 3.1 devices aren't something that are being promoted too heavily at the moment.

Computex 2014 - While being spoken about a little; the upcoming X99 platform continues to be quiet around the show with few companies showing it off. Over at the MSI booth, though, we got a chance to take a look one of their upcoming boards based on the chipset. The blue and black color scheme is fairly common and we'll indeed see it fall under the GD naming scheme.

Taking a look at the specification sheet next to the board you can see a number of the main features including support for HSW-E or Haswell-E 8-Core Extreme Edition processors utilizing the 2011 socket design. 8 DIMM slots give us support for up to 64GB of DDR4 at speeds going too 2666MHz DDR via overclocking.

You can also see that we've got four PCIe x16 slots, two PCIe x4 slots, M.2, SATA Express and SATA III slots along with 12 USB 3.0 ports and Gigabit networking via the I218-V chip. As for MSI specific features you can see Military Class 4 and OC Genie 4 is being offered on the model.

Computex 2014 - ASUS had a huge section dedicated to the Republic of Gamers line at Computex this year; a series that has become extremely popular over the last few years combining quality and performance. Sitting at the top of we have the Maximus VII Formula for people wanting something that truly stands out.

Moving through the rest of the boards we've got the Hero and Ranger version of the boards for people wanting an ATX motherboard but don't quite need the features that are associated with the Formula. It was towards the middle of the cabinet that our attention was drawn, though, with two smaller boards being shown.

In the middle and to the left we have the mean looking GENE version of the Maximus VII which of course translates into a mATX motherboard. If that's still too big for you, though, the mean looking Impact version might be just what you're after. Keep an eye for reviews of some of these ROG boards in the coming weeks and months as ASUS sample us.

Computex 2014 - Taking the elevator up to the 36th floor of the beautiful Taipei 101 building we headed to the GIGABYTE suite to see what was being offered by the company. Inside we were greeted with an absolute wealth of motherboards with a large amount of the focus being on the new Z97 chipset from Intel.

Split into three sections we had the Gaming series showing off boards based on the Intel Z97 and H97 chipset along with an AMD A88X based motherboard. Looking at the huge line up of motherboards we can't deny that two particular boards stole our focus. The first based on the H97 chipset. The MATX designed H97M-Gaming 3 looked great with its small foot print. With a strong lineup of features including Killer E2200 networking and support for both SLI and CrossFire this board is no doubt going to be an attractive option for people wanting something that's not too big.

Scanning the rest of the boards the awesome looking MITX Z79N-Gaming 5 was a board I knew instantly I must have. Organizing a sample on the spots the Z97 based motherboard carries with it Killer E2200 networking along with Bluetooth 4.0 and Wireless networking up to 802.11 AC. Keep an eye out for this board as GIGABYTE shoot it over to us after Computex.

Computex 2014 - With everything continuing to be under wraps on the upcoming X99 chipset from Intel due out later this year. The folks over at EVGA where showing off a motherboard with no name what so over. Asking if it was the upcoming X99 the "We're not allowed to mention anything about it" was more than enough to let us know just what was in front of us.

While we don't have any official information we can simply only work off what is in front of us. Looking at the board below you can see we've got eight DIMM slots across the top of the board which will house DDR4. On the right side you can see we have a power and reset button, LED Debug and our main 24-Pin ATX power connector to the right.

Across the bottom of the board you can see we've got five PCIe x16 slots along with a single PCIe x4 slot. The bottom right hand corner also shows off 10 SATA slots; six of which we can assume run off the X99 chipset. While EVGA couldn't confirm; based on the color design and the naming scheme, it's safe to say that this will be the EVGA X99 FTW Motherboard. They did let us know that it hasn't been finalized yet, though, so we could see some changes. Keep an eye out for more on X99 as we draw closer to its late Q3 / early Q4 launch.

Intel's Devil's Canyon CPUs are the next thing to be excited about, but most thought they would require an upgraded motherboard for the new CPUs to work - an upgrade to Z97. Well, that isn't the case for ASUS at least.

ASUS has pushed back at Intel, providing support for Devil's Canyon-based CPUs on its Z87 motherboards - something that was posted on the XtremeSystems forums. The post says: "Most, if not all of their Z87 boards have received a BIOS update allowing the use of Intel's devil canyon processors. This is also backed up on their Cpu support lists".

This is a good thing for owners of Z87-based motherboards who were waiting on the new CPUs, or would like to upgrade to the new CPUs, without having to upgrade to a new motherboard, too. Especially when you may have plunked down $400+ on a high-end board.

ASRock has just unveiled its new Ultra M.2 PCIe Gen3 x4 connection interface that is said to double its transfer speed bandwidth, and blow SATA 3 6GB/s out of the water. The new Ulra M.2 interface is much faster due to a direct connection to the CPU, whereas older M.2 interfaces passed through the chipset before being routed to the CPU. This means that the latency is much lower and faster transfer speeds are the result.

"The theoretical speed of Ultra M.2 is 32Gb/s, which is 6X faster than PCIe x1 M.2, and 3X faster than PCIe x2 M.2. As for Ultra M.2 vs. normal M.2 comparison, we tested the read speed of Samsung XP941 PCIe x4 M.2 SSD on Ultra M.2 socket and reached 1.16GB/s, 46% faster than PCIe x2 M.2 socket. We also tested a PCIe x2 M.2 SSD on Ultra M.2 socket. Benefited from the direct linkage between Ultra M.2 interface and CPU, the PCIe x2 M.2 SSD read speed on Ultra M.2 socket is 8.8% faster than on normal M.2 socket. As shown in Chart 3, the lower latency of Ultra M.2 design does matter," ASRock said in a release.

ASRock says that for now, the new Ultra M.2 interface will only be available on the new ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 motherboard which features other high-end features such as; ASRock Super Alloy technology, 12 Phase Power Design, Purity Sound 2, Dual LAN, SATA Express interface, and ASRock Cloud.

During the last week we've seen a variety of motherboards launched using Intel's new Z97 chipset, all before Computex kicks off for another year in June. MSI broke out of the gate with some delicious motherboards, launching its new OC Series of motherboards.

MSI has snapped its Z97 Express-based motherboards into two lines of boards, the Gaming Series and OC Series. The new Gaming Series is priced between $100-$220, offering features that are aimed at gamers with decent overclocks. The OC Series however, is priced at $200-$400 and is geared toward professional and competitive overclockers.

MSI's new OC Series includes the Z97 MPower, Z97 MPower MAX AC, and the Z97 XPower AC. Starting with MSI's flagship motherboard, the Z97 XPower AC, which is made for seriously high-end builds. It features strong CPU and RAM overclocking capabilities, as well as 3- and 4-way GPU setups. We have the PEX8747 bridge chip from the folks at PLX, allowing you to drive four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, an an overriding single PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. When this slot is used, it wires the add-on card directly to the CPU's root complex, bypassing the PLX chip.

ASRock has quickly grown to be one of the foremost motherboard manufacturers in the custom PC world and with Intel's pending release of its new 5th Generation Haswell Processors for 2014, the company has prepared an entire line of Z97-based motherboards for 2014. While we are sure that ASRock will be showing them all of at Computex 2014, TweakTown has been given a special look into the line in the form of 19 photos.

No information was given on each specific motherboard except that they are Z97 based, and will accept Intel's 5th Generation Haswell Processors. Some of the boards will feature the new M.2 SSD connector and will allow the use of M.2 SSD drives with the boards. "M.2, formerly called "Next Generation Form Factor" (NGFF), is the latest I/O solution of replacing Mini-SATA (abbreviated as mSATA) and breaking through the speed limit of the current SATA3 6Gb/s. Leading by Intel Inc., M.2 technology is based on the PCI Express interface and also compatible with the SATA interface," ASRock said in a release.

Information about ASUS motherboard with upcoming Intel Z97 Chipset was leaked in a China based website. According to the information, ASUS is preparing to release six new motherboards with LGA 1150 socket.

The motherboard models are Maximus VII Hero, Maximus VII Gene, Z97 Sabertooth Mark 1, Z97 Deluxe, Z97-WS and Maximus VII Ranger.

The information also provides the specifications and features that ASUS have implemented on the respected models of the motherboards. As one would expect, the enthusiast class motherboards will be with an array of overclocking features.

GIGABYTE has just taken the wraps off of its new high performance server motherboard, the GA-6PXSVT, the company's first single Socket 2011-based workstation motherboard that features 10GbE.

The GA-6PXSVT supports the Intel Xeon E5-1600 V2 and E5-2600 V2 processors, up to 256GB of ECC memory, and all of the usual features you would find on a high-end workstation motherboard. First we have the single SFP+ 10GbE port that is coupled with two additional GbE ports, making the GA-6PXSVT quite the networking performance powerhouse.

The GA-6PXSVT features Intel's third generation 82599EN 10GbE controller with a low latency SFP+ interface, which means that users benefit from an on-board package which delivers higher bandwidth, lower thermals and footprint, and cost performance compared to the traditional method of adding 10GbE capacity through a PCI-Express expansion card.

ASUS and GIGABYTE Technology made plans to ship over five millon DIY motherboards by first quarter of this year. Both companies have been competing head-to-head in China's DIY PC market for entry-level, mid-end and even high-end models.

Though ASUS' 2014 shipments haven't changed, GIGABYTE has noticed a significant increase, mainly due to increase of demand in towns and cities. ASUS shipped about twenty million seven hundred thousand motherboards during 2013 witnessing a 6.8% decrease compared to the previous year, whereas GIGABYTE shipped twenty million motherboards, a 5.3% bump.

At the same time, sources reported that MSI International, ASRock, Elitegroup, Biostar & Colorful Technology and Development may have its shipments dropped by 10% at the very least.

CES 2014 - GIGABYTE's marketing director, Colin Brix, took a few moments to walk us through the company's new Brix devices. Up first is the new Brix Pro which features Intel's new Iris Pro Integrated Graphics, and is powerful enough to even run Battlefield 4. The Brix Pro is also Gigabytes official entry into the Steam Machine arena and is Valve approved.

We were also shown a Brix device that is coming out this year that features discrete graphics for more GPU processing power. The unnamed device features both Intel Haswell and AMD processors and will have support for NVIDIA GPUs at a later date. GIGABYTE says that the unnamed device will be perfect for LAN parties, or anywhere you need desktop performance in a small, ultra-portable package.

The last Brix device we got a chance to check out is the new Brix NAS device which is code named Brix MAXX. The device has room for up to four 2.5-inch HDDs or SSDs, and is being billed as a home-sized personal cloud storage device. The Brix NAS supports SMBA, DLNA, as well as other server configurations, and features several RAID features. The Brix NAS is the first Brix device to run Android as its main OS, and features apps for your mobile devices for quick file syncing.

Today MSI launched a new variant of its Z87 MPower MAX, the company's flagship LGA1150 motherboard. The new Z87 MPower MAX AC includes an 802.11 ac Wi-Fi interface courtesy of a daughter board that features an Intel communications processor that brings dual-band 802.11 AC Wi-Fi to the popular motherboard.

MSI says that the new Z87 MPower MAX is capable of Wi-Fi speeds up to 867 Mb/s on the 5GHz channel when connected to a compatible router running 802.11 ac. Bluetooth 4.0 is also featured in the new Intel-based daughter board which allows for connectivity of Bluetooth enabled peripherals, accessories and mobile devices. The Z87 MPower MAX AC is a standard ATX form factor motherboard and features all of the same configurations and features of its predecessor, the MSI Z87 MPower MAX which we reviewed last year.

Today BIOSTAR unveiled two new motherboards that it says are the ideal solution for mining Bitcoins. The first board is based on an Intel H81 chipset and supports Intel's socket 1150 CPUs, while the second features an H61B chipset and socket 1155 support. This allows Bitcoin mining using Intel 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation Core processors.

Both of the boards feature PCI-E 3.0 support and include a single 16x slot and 5 PCI-E 1x slots. The Hi-Fi H81S2 V.6.X supports two DDR3 DIMM modules, and connectivity is handled via 2x SATA 3 connectors and 2x SATA 2 connectors. USB 3.0 is featured on two ports while two other ports as well as the USB headers are version 2.0. Gigabit Ethernet is present as well.

The H61B v 6.1 supports socket LGA 1155, and can house up to two DDR3 DIMMs. Four SATA 2 ports are available while all of the on-board USB is version 2.0. Gigabit Ethernet is present as well as on-board VGA graphics and serial out. Load either of these boards up with several AMD Radeon or NVIDIA GeForce GPUs and enjoy all of the bitcoins you can mine!

We're over in chilly Beijing, China at the moment checking out the 2013 Beat It Grand Finals being hosted by MSI. Between CS:GO games, we went down and hit the floor to see what was going on in the few booths that have been set up by the sponsors of the event.

Two items that really got our attention are the new mITX weapons that MSI are showing off that are due to hit in the first week of December. One is the upcoming Z87I Gaming AC motherboard. As the name suggests it's based on the Z87 chipset.

Alongside that we've also got GTX 760 Gaming ITX, a smaller GTX 760 designed to be installed in a MITX case that you can see above. We've got samples of both products already so keep an eye out for a review in early December. We always love those mITX products and we can't wait to see how they perform.

ASRock make some truly killer motherboards, so it's about time that they used the word 'killer' in one of its motherboards. Introducing the new ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Killer motherboard, the company's newest motherboard in its Z87 range of motherboards.

The new Fatal1ty Z87 Killer motherboard features a Killer E2200 Intelligent Networking Platform, which should be something online gamers will be interested in, as it reduces the latency in online gaming. ASRock ran some in-house testing, where it saw a reduction in latency in League of Legends, Diablo 3 and DoTA2 by 136%, 60% and 47%, respectively.

ASRock's Fatal1ty Z87 Killer motherboard also features some of the usual high-end features we have come to expect from the motherboard maker, which come in the form of Hi-Density Power Connectors that "reduces 23% power loss and decreases the power connector's temperature." ASRock has also baked in Purity Sound, which is an on-board audio solution and HDMI-in for those who want to use their PC as a video-in device, plugging in their console for example.

Early this morning GIGABYTE unveiled the latest addition to its 8 series motherboards. The GIGABYTE H81.AMP-UP supports the latest 4th generation Intel Core processors and is aimed at appeasing audiophiles who enjoy the ability to tune the audio output to fit their personal taste.

The motherboard features and upgradable operational amplifier (OP-Amp), A small chip that users can replace with varying models. This is something that GIGABYTE says has never been seen before on a mainstream platform motherboard. The board's audio circuit is designed around GIGABYTE's exclusive USB DAC-UP circuitry which is said to provide a noise-less USB power to the digital two-to analog converters, and slide switches to boost overall game levels. Additionally high-end Nichicon capacitors are used to help smooth out the audio signals.

"The GIGABYTE H81.AMP-UP is like no other motherboard currently available, addressing the important market of audio enthusiasts that don't necessarily require high-end PC gaming features," commented Henry Kao, Vice President of GIGABYTE Motherboard Business Unit. "Delivering a potent combination of our exclusive audio technologies, and backed by our signature Ultra Durable design philosophy, the GIGABYTE H81.AMP-UP has certainly upped the ante in terms of must have features for mainstream H81 motherboards."