Gigabyte launches dual-purpose Aivia Xenon mouse

Gigabyte has introduced the world’s first dual-purpose mouse, serving as a traditional pointing device with multi-touch gesture support as well as a touchpad like you would find on a notebook. The Aivia Xenon is able to switch between the two functions by pressing a button on the side of the mouse.

Aesthetically, the Aivia Xenon resembles the Speedlink Cue Wireless Multitouch mouse that we reviewed as part of our three-way touch mouse roundup last year. Unfortunately we found that the Cue was too small and oddly shaped to be comfortable for daily use, but don’t let that deter you from the Xenon.

Gigabyte’s dual-purpose mouse uses a standard optical sensor with a maximum resolution of 1000 DPI and can also be used as a presentation tool at a distance of up to 10 meters away in conjunction with the Aivia Painter software. The company famous for motherboards also includes software that allows the user to personalize the multi-touch experience by creating custom gestures.

When in touchpad mode, the mouse is intended to be turned sideways into landscape mode. Here, the majority of the top surface works as the touchpad zone while a small vertical strip on the right side acts as the scrolling zone.

Gigabyte’s dual-purpose mouse uses two AA batteries for power but with a price tag of roughly $40, it’s on the expensive side for a desktop mouse. Granted the touchpad idea is pretty novel, I’m not entirely sure someone using a desktop would have the need to revert to notebook-style controls.

Gigabyte issues BIOS update for fire-prone motherboards

Overclocking isn't the game of Russian roulette it used to be. Component makers have embraced the practice by enhancing quality control, designing simple interfaces, implementing failsafes, expanding warranties and more. Although you're less likely to experience catastrophic failure, disaster can and does strike occasionally as one Taiwanese enthusiast recently learned.

Last week, YouTube user "japan0827" uploaded a video of his overclocked testbed releasing a plume of smoke (skip to 3:45 or so). Mourning his loss, the overclocker shared his experience around various Asian message boardswith detailed pictures identifying his Gigabyte motherboard as the culprit. More specifically, a MOSFET in his Gigabyte X79-UD3's CPU VRM.

Unfortunately, this isn't an isolated incident. Gigabyte released a press release this week acknowledging that it has received similar complaints from other overclockers who own the GA-X79-UD3, GA-X79-UD5 and G1.Assassin 2 -- the company's main LGA2011 products. Gigabyte blames the issue on a combination of poor quality PWM components and bad firmware.

To solve the problem, the manufacturer has released a BIOS update (version F7) that throttles the CPU during extreme loads. This should protect your VRM from going haywire, but it will also foil your attempts to overclock. You can update your BIOS with the package provided in the download section of your motherboard's product page (UD3, UD5, G1.Assassin 2).

If you're afraid to flash your own BIOS, Gigabyte will do it for you. The company is also offering an unconditional return policy if you'd rather replace your board. The press release mentions a lifetime warranty for the above-mentioned motherboards, but we imagine it's not all-encompassing and only covers this specific PWM issue (Google Translate isn't crystal clear).

Gigabyte unveils 3-in-1 convertible Booktop T1132N

Gigabyte has unveiled a new convertible system that perfectly exemplifies the saying "jack of all trades, master of none." The Booktop T1132N can quickly shift form factors to serve as a laptop, tablet or desktop depending on your situation. It comes in a familiar 11.6-inch notebook form factor that's outfitted with a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-2467M processor, 2 to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 320 to 720GB of storage, as well as an Nvidia GeForce GT 520M with 1GB of VRAM and support for Nvidia's Optimus graphics switching technology.

The 1366x768 LED-backlit multitouch display is mounted on a rotating hinge, so you can convert the system into a tablet for tasks that don't require a hardware keyboard. Conversely, when you're ready for a heavy productivity session, the T1132N can be seated in docking station that offers more connectivity and a DVD burner. The dock is rotatable by 90-degrees and when attached, the T1132N's display seems to act as a secondary monitor. We haven't seen this in writing, but it's implied by an image halfway down the product page.

The system itself carries one USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 port, an eSATA/USB combo, HDMI and VGA-out, a 4-in-1 card reader, wired and wireless network connectivity along with Bluetooth 3.0 and an optional WWAN module. The docking station adds two USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports as well as the aforementioned ODD. Naturally, because you leave the dock behind, it remains hooked up to your peripherals so there's very little to fiddle with when you sit down at the desk. We haven't seen any information regarding pricing or availability.

Gigabyte G1.Sniper2 Motherboard Review

By Steven Walton

Although Intel rendered its mainstream LGA1156 platform (Socket H) obsolete by launching the Sandy Bridge processors in January, LGA1366 (X58) has remained the company's flagship platform since its consumer debut in November 2008. There's no denying that the Z68 chipset has knocked some wind out of X58's sails, but the near-antiquated socket is still the only way for enthusiasts to get their hands on a six-core Core i7 processor.

Not only does X58 have exclusive support for hexa-core processors, but it's better equipped to handle multi-GPU configurations. Without the aid of Nvidia's NF200 chip, Intel's new Z68 and P67 motherboards can only run two graphics cards in an x8/x8 setup. Because of those reasons, Gigabyte originally released its elite G1.Killer boards (the G1.Guerrilla, G1.Sniper and G1.Assasin) for LGA1366.

Naturally, this prompted requests for LGA1155 versions of Gigabyte's premium boards because the newer platform supports Sandy Bridge, namely the Core i5-2600K and i7-2600K CPUs. Answering to that demand, Gigabyte has unleashed the G1.Sniper2, an enthusiast-minded board based on the Z68 chipset, an amalgamation of Intel's H67 and P67 chipsets with the company's SRT hybrid storage technology.

Priced at $360, the G1.Sniper 2 is $50 cheaper than the original G1.Sniper. Nonetheless, it's a lonely territory in the Z68 market as few products can demand such a high price. The Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z is among the few boards that reside in this price range, fetching $360 on Newegg, while Gigabyte's own Z68X-UD7-B3 is $350 and stands as one of the most feature-packed boards available.

Like Asus' ROG motherboards, Gigabyte's G1.Killer series targets hardcore users by including additional hardware on-board such as a dedicated sound chip by Creative and a network controller from Bigfoot Networks. Those extras are backed by a fierce matte-black military theme (note the magazine-style heatsink) that is sure to attract gamers. Those niceties make the G1.Sniper2 one of the most expensive Z68 motherboards available, which begs the question: are you getting your money's worth?

Features & Specifications

It's hard to know where to start with a motherboard that seems to have it all. The Gigabyte G1.Sniper2 is a system within itself, removing the need to upgrade anything including the audio and network devices. It's only intended to be outfitted with a graphics cards -- two of them to be exact.

The board offers support for 2-way CrossFireX or 2-way SLI depending on your preference. With such a configuration, however, many gamers find that there minimal (if any) room left to upgrade a motherboard's onboard audio codec with a discrete sound card from Creative or elsewhere.

This won't be an issue for G1.Sniper2 owners, as the board incorporates a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Digital Audio Processor (20K2) supporting X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity and EAX Advanced HD 5.0 technologies.

Additionally, Gigabyte as included a high capacity amplifier, which is able to drive 150Ω loads, allowing gamers to enjoy a fuller range of dynamic sound with crisper details and less distortion when using high quality headphones. The amplifier also features wide bandwidth, low noise, high slew rate and low distortion, making it ideal for professional audio usage. Gigabyte has also equipped the G1.Sniper2 with four additional amplifiers onboard for the center/sub-woofer, rear speaker, side surround and line out.

For those concerned about network lag mucking up their gameplay, Gigabyte has included Bigfoot Networks' Killer E2100 NIC, which is featured on all G1.Killer motherboards. Gigabyte is the only motherboard manufacturer to have implemented the Killer E2100 Gigabit network controller onboard.

Utilizing a unique combination of dedicated Network Processing Unit (NPU) and exclusive Game Networking DNA technology, the Bigfoot Networks Killer E2100 is designed to give the best online gaming experience possible. The Dedicated NPU features its own 1GB DDR2 memory buffer which helps offload network traffic from the CPU, freeing it up to do other important computing tasks.

While Gigabyte has included some very impressive audio and network controllers, the company hasn't forgotten about storage support. Apart from the six SATA 3Gb/s ports attached to the Intel Z68 chip, an additional two SATA ports have been included.

Unfortunately, the Marvell 88SE9172 controller has been embedded rather than the newer and faster 88SE9182. The included chip provides an additional two onboard SATA ports that support 6Gb/s speeds as well as RAID0 and RAID1 arrays.

The G1.Sniper2 is brimming with USB connectivity, exceeding the dozen standard USB 2.0 ports courtesy of two Etron EJ168 controllers that supply four USB 3.0 ports -- two at the rear and another two using a bundled 3.5" front mounted bracket.

Gigabyte has infused the G1.Sniper2 with many of its own technologies as well, such as its DualBIOS feature. With two physical BIOS ROMs onboard, DualBIOS enables quick and seamless recovery from BIOS damage or failure due to viruses or improper updating. It also supports booting from 3TB+ hard drives without requiring you to create partitions.

Gigabyte's On/Off Charge technology is also worth mentioning as it lets you charge devices regardless of whether your PC is on, in standby or even off. What's more impressive is that it allows devices to draw more current than standard USB ports allow, boosting the recharge time over similar "sleep and charge" implementations.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti Roundup: ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte & MSI

A few weeks ago, NVIDIA released the GTX 560 Ti; a graphics card that has proven to be just the right fit for a large cross-section of the current market. AMD did their best to rain on the parade with their own HD 6950 1GB and did succeed to a certain extent even though availability has been a bit spotty and selection is limited. Nonetheless, NVIDIA’s own board partners have forged ahead with a long line of GTX 560 derivatives. 

The GTX 560 Ti follows very much in the GTX 460’s overclocking footsteps since it has the ability to increase both core and memory clock speeds to some incredible levels. This has allowed several companies like EVGA, Gigabyte, ASUS and MSI to release some higher end products which feature increased clock speeds, custom cooling and some excellent software which can be used to push things even further. 

For this roundup, we have chosen four of the more popular GTX 560 Ti cards currently on the market: the ASUS DirectCu II TOP, MSI Twin Frozr II OC, Gigabyte Super Overclock and the EVGA Superclocked. Their clock speeds and feature lists run the gamut so by seeing what they offer, we should be able to get a good indication what the GTX 560 market will look like in the coming months. 

In previous generations, it wasn’t unusual to see $30 or more tacked onto a GPU’s price simply because it carried a minimal speed increase. Times have changed as the market has become more competitive and every one of the cards featured in this roundup carries no more than a $20 premium over reference-based products while clock speeds get significant bumps. Indeed, the MSI Twin Frozr II OC model features a $249 price; the same cost as a standard GTX 560. 

We have already see that the GTX 560 Ti has what it takes to compete with the previous generation’s flagship products and even gives current GPUs a run for their money. It should be interesting to see how this translates into a lineup of pre-overclocked and custom cooled AiB cards. 

Gigabyte on Verge of Introducing first mSATA Capable Motherboard

Gigabyte introduced it new line of Z68 motherboards capable of ssd caching with Intels Smart Response technology but their upcoming release in June will be of particular interest.

It seems that Gigabyte is pushing to be the first to release a motherboard with mSATA capabilities to take advantage of Intels Larson Creek slc SSDs.

We have to wonder whether this integrated mSATA interface is capable of allowing us to hook up an mSATA drive up as a boot drive as well. Now that would be particularly interesting! Heres the release!

Taipei, Taiwan, May 11^th 2011 – GIGABYTE INC., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today launched their highly anticipated Z68 series motherboards, based on the Intel^® Z68 Express Chipset and supporting the new 2^nd generation Intel^® Core™ processors.

Delivering the very best that Intel^® 6 series chipsets have to offer, including a significant performance boost with Intel^® Smart Response Technology, the first ever mSATA drive connectors on a standard desktop PC motherboard,and GIGABYTE’s proprietary Touch BIOS™ technology, GIGABYTE Z68 series motherboards put users in the driver seat, allowing them to take total control over how their system operates and performs to best match their individual computing needs.

11 models are available now, with more than 9 additional models, including at least 4 mSATA versions, to be introduced in June, 2011.

“GIGABYTE is excited to introduce a complete range of Z68 Express Chipset enabled motherboards that deliver exceptional performance and a multitude of unique features like Touch BIOS and onboard mSATA that help them stand out from the crowd,” commented Richard Chen, VP of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at GIGABYTE. ” Intel has really raised the bar with the performance potential and rich feature set of the Z68 chipset, and as such, we fully expect the Z68 chipset to be the number one choice for users wanting to build their next Intel 6 series-based system.”

“We are very pleased to see the exciting new lineup of GIGABYTE motherboards based on the Intel^®Z68 Express Chipset,” said Zane Ball, Intel General Manager of Desktop Platforms. “These high quality boards will enable users to unleash the full performance and features of our 2nd generation Intel^® Core™ Processors.”

Integrated Graphics Options with onboard mSATA – coming soon
Z68XP-UD3	Z68XP-D3	Z68AP-D3	Z68P-DS3

The Battle of the P67 Boards - ASUS vs. Gigabyte

In the world of motherboards and manufacturer competition, the idea is to beat your competitor. To develop the product, with more features, more fancy gadgets, and perform better than your competitor at every price point. Today, we pit arguably the two most popular motherboard vendors at a price point that will see a significant number of sales from consumers and enthusiasts alike – the ASUS P8P67 Pro and theGigabyte P67A-UD4, which were both released during the Sandy Bridge week for $190. Forget all the marketing fluff; this is a showdown!

When a new platform is released, a myriad of motherboards hit the shelves at the same time. Each vendor will usually come out with a few products, targeting their prospective markets. Big motherboard players, like ASUS and Gigabyte, will release motherboards ranging from the cheap low end, to that high-end halo product. They will bombard you with data, ideas, concepts, and reasons why their high-end products are better than their low end – in terms of numbers, features, or what is in the box. Whether you can really trust what each manufacturer says on the box depends on the interpretations of the benchmarks and analyses by review sites like AnandTech.

At the time of writing, Newegg has 56 Sandy Bridge motherboards available – 22 for H67 and 34 for P67. Of those in the P67 range, you can pick up an Intel motherboard for as little as $115, or an ASUS as expensive as $320. So what makes that expensive motherboard worth almost three times as much as the low-end board? What makes a $200 board better than a $150 board? Features? Warranty? Overclockability? Price? All of these points, while valid, carry different weight with every different consumer.

I reviewed the ASRock P67 Extreme4 at the Sandy Bridge release, and they offered a great product that is available online for $153. Today, we have two boards released at $190 by two of the biggest motherboard manufacturers – the ASUS P8P67 Pro, and the Gigabyte P67A-UD4. Firstly, the question is: if you had $190, which one would you buy? Then secondly, we have to ask: are these boards worth the ~$40 difference to the P67 Extreme4? Luckily, at least in my opinion, after using all three of the boards, the answers to both of these questions were self-evident.

Firstly, let us tackle the ASUS P8P67 Pro.

Gigabyte releases Sandy Bridge SATA checker utility

The past few days have seen some of the world's biggest companies in the computer industry announce replacement and repair programs to deal with Intel's 6-Series chipset flaw. PC makers including Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Toshiba have pulled systems from their online and retail stores, while motherboard makers Asus, Gigabyte and MSI have pledged to offer customers hassle-free solutions in what is expected to be a costly recall for the chip giant.

For now a simple workaround is to plug any hard drives or optical drives into the unaffected SATA III 6Gbps ports on your motherboard. But Gigabyte is aware not everyone knows how to do that and has come up with a simple utility to guide less tech-savvy users. Interestingly, it seems the utility isn't tied solely to Gigabyte motherboards either.

Essentially the Gigabyte 6 Series SATA Check tool will detect any devices hooked up to the SATA II 3Gbps ports and provide guidance as to which ports to use instead. Needless to say the utility does not fix the problem with the chipset, but merely makes it super-easy to identify whether you're using the affected ports or not. In case you are using three or more SATA devices the company reasonably advises users to prioritize important devices on the SATA III ports (e.g. the hard drive with your operating system on it), and the less important devices on the SATA II ports (e.g. a DVD ROM).

Revised P67 and H67 boards are expected to begin appearing in April and manufacturers should start offering replacements accordingly. In the meantime, if you are already stuck with one of the faulty ones and need some help with your SATA ports -- or know someone who does -- you can get Gigabyte's 6 Series SATA Check tool here.

Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 Motherboard Review

The new Intel P67 chipset lies at the heart of the Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4, and Gigabyte has utilized it to great advantage with full support for Intel's SandyBridge Processors. While the GA-P67A-UD4 sits in the middle of Gigabyte's P67 lineup, there is no shortage of innovation and design. As part of the Ultra Durable 3 series, the GA-P67A-UD4 uses 50,000 hour solid capacitors and a 2oz copper circuit board used in conjunction with 12 phase power design for cooler board temperatures and longer life. Gigabyte's 333 design incorporates USB 3.0, 6Gbs SATA 3 and 3X typical USB power, now adding Turbo XHD to its SATA 3.0 options. Turbo XHD offers automatic setup for RAID 0, offering 4X the speed of a conventional SATA 2.0 HDD. The 3X USB power incorporated in the GA-P67A-UD4 offers 1500mA to USB 2.0 ports and 2700mA to USB 3.0 ports. This means faster charging for peripherals (such as cell phones and mp3 players) and many times relieves the need for external power or USB Y-connectors for higher powered USB devices. Power to the USB ports is always present on the GA-P67A-UD4 regardless of the computers boot state making USB charging always readily available.

Overview

With the release of the new 32nm Intel Sandy Bridge processors, including the Core i3, i5 and i7, many users are interested in finding out more about the new P67 Express Chipset motherboards, which can push the latest K series processors to unbeliveable frequencies. The GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD7 motherboard we just reviewed was designed for Extreme Gamers, Film and Video Editors and Overclocking Enthusiasts, providing the users with features that only a smaller percentage of users actually need, though the ones that do are sure to appreciate them. In this review, we'll take a look at the GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD4 motherboard, which is more suitable for enthusiast users who don't want to push their hardware to stratospheric levels.

While the UD7 will be the most reliable and stable motherboard of GIGABYTE's P67 lineup, the GA-P67A-UD4 will fit perfectly for those looking at upgrading their older Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad or even recent Nehalem-based i3, i5, and i7 processors. It will also be a good board for users transitioning from AMD based motherboards. The P67A-UD4 motherboard offers plenty of features that enthusiasts and gamers are looking for, like USB 3.0, SATA III, SLI and CrossFire X support, as well as excellent high-quality PCB and component design with overclocking features that will make applications fly using the latest Core i5 and i7 LGA1155 socket Sandy Bridge processors. The Sandy Bridge K-series processors combined with high end P67 motherboards like the GIGABYTE P67A-UD4 provide excellent overclocking features while maintaining a low power consumption and low temeprature output.

GIGABYTE still continues to include the same features that brought their products such acclaim, like the Ultra Durable 3 design, ON/OFF Charge and 333 Onboard Acceleration. With the new P67 Chipset Motherboards, GIGABYTE has also upgraded their VRM design by using Driver MOSFET packages over regular MOSFETs. These Driver MOSFETs deliver higher power transfer rate and increase efficiency at higher switching frequencies. The Driver MOSFET's also provide lower power loss, lower temperatures, and a smaller footprint over regular MOSFETs

Current Intel chipsets support PCI-Express 2.0 at a lower 2.5GT/s, which limits each direction of a lane to a maximum of 250MB/s. With USB 3.0 and 6Gbps SATA interfaces connected to PCI-Express x1 slots, devices connected to these interfaces will be limited to the 250MB/s speeds. A nice change on the P67 lineup of motherboards allow the PCI-Express slots to operate at a stunning 5GT/s, providing up to 500MB/s of bandwidth in each direction. This adds up to 1GB/s bidirectional bandwidth.

Another very nice improvement on the P67 Express Chipset with the proper BIOS allows users to take advantage of 3TB hard drives in their systems, as opposed to the 2TB-2.2TB limitation from X58 based motherboards. The GIGABYTE P67A-UD4 motherboard updated to the latest BIOS supports 3TB hard drives.

Also, some manufacturers like ASUS are slowly making the move to the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) BIOS instead of the traditional 32-bit BIOS on their P67 motherboards. The UEFI provides a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for the BIOS, making it possible to not only use the keyboard, but also the mouse to adjust system settings. This is also easier on the eyes, especially for users not used to the DOS like systems. Unfortunately, at the moment GIGABYTE does not offer support for UEFI.

The P67A-UD4 has full overclocking potential when paired with the appropriate unlocked K-Series processor, including an unlocked memory multiplier. The H67 architecture motherboards unfortunately have a locked memory multiplier, but can take advantage of Intel's integrated graphics that are built into all Sandy Bridge CPUs, whereas the P67 boards cannot. This is why there are several video outputs on the H67 lineup of motherboards and none on the P67. Right now it seems that there will not be a hybrid solution for the Intel Sandy Bridge built-in GPU to work together with dedicated video cards, but this is not definite and could change in the future.

The GIGABYTE P67A-UD4 will be running for an affordable MSRP of $199.99, not the $239.99 MSRP that we first expected. While it is not the cheapest motherboard on the market, it sounds like a fair price for its features and quality.

Thank you for AcousticPC.com for providing us with a quiet, jet powerful water cooling setup to test out the overclocking portion of the board.