GIGABYTE Gets 4 Recommendations in The Tech Report’s March System Guide

The Tech Report just published their March 2010 system guide with GIGABYTE motherboards earning 4 of the coveted top recommendations.

Double Stuff Workstation – GA-X58A-UD3R

The Sweet Spot – GA-P55A-UD4P

The Utility Player – GA-P55A-UD3

Econobox – GA-770TA-UD3

The Sweeter Spot
Indulgence without excess

“Why not pick an Asus motherboard? In this price range, too, Asus has a more expensive offering with little going for it besides the brand name. The $190 P7P55D-E Pro has similar functionality to the Gigabyte board, but with just one eSATA port, one FireWire port, and one Gigabit Ethernet controller, we don't think the Asus is worth the extra scratch.”

To read the full March 2010 System Guide, please visit: TR's March 2010 system guide

GIGABYTE HD 5870 SOC Graphics card pushed to insane overclock by hicookie

Gigabyte recently announced its latest monster overclocking graphics card called 5870SOC (Super Overclock) Edition. All of the GPUs in this new range of high-end graphics cards have been cherry-picked for top performance, efficiency & reliability. Looks great! Check out the video posted by hicookie clocking the GFX to 1400/1410MHz using a Gigabyte P55A-UD7 motherboard: youtube video

WD My Book 3.0 Compatible with GIGABYTE USB 3.0 Boards

The Western Digital My Book 3.0 just passed our compatibility testing and has been added to the USB3motherboard.com list. Stay tuned for more USB 3.0 devices – it looks like March 2010 is going to see hoards of new USB 3.0 devices hitting the shelves.

New Buffalo Compact USB 3.0 Drive

Buffalo Japan have announced a stylish compact USB 3.0 drive. It appears to be a 2.5” drive slated for availability in mid March. Come to thin of it, there are quite a few USB 3.0 devices that should be available in March – just after the CeBIT trade show in Hannover.

Keep an eye on the USB-IF’s website for the CeBIT press kit to find out more about USB 3.0 devices on display at the show.

Tom’s Hardware Recommends GIGABYTE H55M-USB3 as “Best for Media Center”

Thinking about building your own media center PC? Now is a great time, especially considering the exceptional integrated graphics performance of the newly introduced Intel Core™ i5/i3 (Clarkdale) processors. As the first CPU to feature the GPU processor directly on-die, Intel Core™ i5/i3 processors deliver some amazing graphics performance (Core i5 661 can reach a 3DMark Vantage score of E8000 or higher).

So which H55/H57 motherboard should you use for the ultimate home theater PC? Thomas Soderstrom from Tom’s Hardware recently tested 9 budget H55/H57 motherboards and recommends the GA-H55M-USB3 motherboard as the best choice for media centers.

“Asus’ P7H55D-M EVO and Gigabyte’s H55M-USB3 support the premium feature of USB 3.0 and also have HDMI outputs. Gigabyte offers the better value with its lower price.

The H55M-USB3 also beats Asus for use with graphics riser cards, since its PCIe x16 slot aligns perfectly with the riser card location of many low-profile cases.”

To read the full review, please visit Tom’s Hardware Budget Computing: Nine H55 And H57 Motherboards Compared.

Hackintosh How-to

For those of you out there wanting to try Apple’s latest Snow Leopard OS without actually owning a Mac, Lars-Göran Nilsson from SemiAccurate.com may have just the thing you’re looking for. Lars has compiled a fairly easy step-by-step guide to get your P55 motherboard system running OS X. However, keep in mind not all P55 motherboards are up to the task.

“For whatever reason it seems like Gigabyte’s range of P55 motherboards have the highest success rate.”

Check out SemiAccurate’s “How to build a P55 Snow Leopard Hackintosh” HERE

GIGABYTE USB 3.0 Boards Pass USB-IF Testing

We just received word that the GA-P55A-UD7 and GA-P55A-UD5 have passed USB 3.0 compatibility testing from the USB Implementer's Forum (USB-IF) and have been listed on their website. The GA-P55A-UD3 was listed at the end of 2009 so that there is now a high-end, mainstream and low-end option for PC upgraders looking for USB 3.0 in their new rigs (that is P55A-UD7, P55A-UD5 and P55A-UD3 respectively). Testing is very thorough and only 4 motherboards have passed at this stage – 3 of which are Gigabyte of course… 

We hope to announce the listing of the other 22 USB 3.0 motherboards from Gigabyte on the USB-IF website in the next few days.