About a month ago, we were treated to the first pictures of G1.Sniper 2, Gigabyte's first LGA1155 motherboard in its G1.Killer series of motherboards targeting the gamer-overclocker market segment. High resolution pictures showed the prototype of having PCI-Express Gen. 2 slots like most other LGA1155 boards. It turns out, according to a photo-session of a production sample by tech-blog SIN's Hardware, that Gigabyte refined the design with the production version (the one that will be sold in the markets), it features PCI-Express 3.0 (Gen. 3) graphics slots.

For a LGA1155 motherboard to have Gen. 3 PEG slots, it requires Gen. 3 specifications compliant switching circuitry, which wasn't available to motherboard vendors when they were designing their first LGA1155 boards. With availability of those components, motherboard vendors are not wasting any time in rolling out new variants of their LGA1155 boards that feature Gen. 3 PCI-Express slots. Gigabyte placed "PCI-Express 3.0" marking on the board manually using stickers, going on to show that adding Gen. 3 slots indeed may have been a last-minute decision at Gigabyte. The other interesting marking on the G1.Sniper 2 carton is the mention of the board being ready for upcoming 22 nm "Ivy Bridge" Core processors. More pictures, and a preview at the source.

Gigabyte introduced A2 Tiny, a tiny version of the A2 portable hard drive series. Measuring just 78 x 59 x 13 mm (D x W x H), the A2 Tiny houses a 1.8-inch SATA hard drive, the original A2 packed a 2.5-inch drive. Its compact size and its 80 g weight makes it extremely portable. The A2 Tiny comes in just one capacity for now, 160 GB. It uses USB 2.0 interface for power and data transfer. Its enclosure packs a shock-absorbing mechanism to protect the delicate hard drive, although the company didn't give out a shock resistance figure. It is available in just one color option, Charcoal Gray. Along with its USB cable, the package includes a carrying pouch. Gigabyte didn't give out pricing or availability information.

Gigabyte added a new entry-level model to its PoweRock KX line of value PSUs. The new one delivers 320W of continuous power. It bears the same feature-set as other models in the series, which include 370W, 420W and 470W models, with ATX 12V v2.0 compliance, OVP, OCP, UVP, and SCP. With a dual 12V rail design, PoweRock KX 320W is rated by Gigabyte to have efficiency of over 78%, and mean time before failure of 100,000 hours. Unlike many PSUs in the low-wattage segment, this PSU uses a 120 mm fan to cool it. Gigabyte didn't give out a price-tag.

Here is a tasty scoop of benchmark results purported to be those of the AMD FX-8130P, the next high-end processor from the green team. The FX-8130P was paired with Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5 motherboard and 4 GB of dual-channel Kingston HyperX DDR3-2000 MHz memory running at DDR3-1866 MHz. A GeForce GTX 580 handled the graphics department. The chip was clocked at 3.20 GHz (16 x 200 MHz). Testing began with benchmarks that aren't very multi-core intensive, such as Super Pi 1M, where the chip clocked in at 19.5 seconds; AIDA64 Cache and Memory benchmark, where L1 cache seems to be extremely fast, while L2, L3, and memory performance is a slight improvement over the last generation of Phenom II processors.

Gigabyte released pictures of G1.Sniper 2, the company's first socket LGA1155 motherboard in the G1.Killer series of motherboards designed for gamers with overclocker alter-egos (the same market ASUS Republic of Gamers targets). The board is based on the Intel Z68 Express chipset without any additional PCI-E bridge chip such as NVIDIA nForce 200. The board supports 2nd generation Core "Sandy Bridge" LGA1155 processors. The first G1.Sniper was a LGA1366 motherboard based on Intel X58 chipset.

Apart from being yet another high-end 2-way SLI/CrossFire Z68 motherboard, which Gigabyte's mainline Z68X series motherboards already achieve, the G1.Sniper 2 packs two extremely gamer-specific onboard devices: the Bigfoot Killer E2100 low-latency, high-offload PCI-Express network controller with its of dedicated memory; and Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi hardware audio with CA20K2 PCIe processor and 64 MB XRAM, backed by a high-grade Cirrus Logic DAC and OPAMP circuit, driving signal-noise ratio easily above 105 dBA with punchy bass.

Gigabyte is constantly revising designs of its already-launched graphics cards. This time around, it's the Radeon HD 6970 WindForce 3X (GV-R697UD-2GD). This custom design graphics card sticks to AMD's reference clock speeds, but creates some overclocking headroom with its WindForce 3X cooler, and a strong VRM on the PCB. The new revision 2.0 packs an NEC/Tokin Proadlizer, which is a high-grade multiphase capacitor, that helps in conditioning the power to the GPU.

Apart from this small yet important change, everything else is the same. The PCB uses Gigabyte's Ultra Durable VGA+ construction, which includes 2 oz copper PCB, low RDS (on) MOSFETs, ferrite core chokes, hand-picked tier-1 GDDR5 memory chips by Samsung or Hynix, hand-picked GPU, and clock speeds of 880 MHz core and 5.50 GHz GDDR5 effective memory. There is 2 GB of memory. Expect the new revision to cost roughly the same as the original.

CyberPower Inc., a leading manufacturer of custom gaming PCs, today announced a series of desktop gaming PCs based on AMD's new A-series desktop platform featuring all new APUs (Accelerated Processing Units), which integrates the CPU along with the fastest onboard GPU and memory controller into one die to offer low power consumption and high performance at a low cost.

The new A-series APU boasts twice the cache of previous AMD hardware in its class and features integrated the Radeon 6000 series graphics, for a powerful processing unit on a single die. The Radeon HD graphics found on the new APUs are also the first to incorporate Microsoft's DirectX 11 technology for an ultra-realistic gaming experience. Other performance features on the new APUs include the AMD Turbo Core and VISION Engine graphics technology to help digital content like videos, games, and photos look their best, as well as offer native multi-monitor support.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today launched its latest series of motherboards supporting the new AMD A75 series chipsets, and the latest AMD A-Series APUs (codenamed Llano) that are set to take the world by storm with the best graphics performance ever seen on an onboard graphicsprocessor. GIGABYTE A75 based motherboards offer DIY PC builders and integrators a new world of 3D and multimedia performance with the most scalable, and best value upgrade path imaginable.

"At GIGABYTE, we are delighted to bring to market this new and exciting motherboard range, delivering our renowned durability and exceptional feature support to AMD's ground breaking APU technology," commented Henry Kao, VP of Worldwide Service and Marketing at GIGABYTE. "As well as bringing AMD A-Series technology to DIY users who demand excellent gaming and multimedia performance on a budget, these motherboards also offer a compelling upgrade path that includes Dual Graphics configurations."

Gigabyte released a new revision of its GeForce GTX 560 Ti SuperOverclock graphics card. The new revision features a better (quieter) cooler, it retains the clock speeds of the original GTX 560 Ti SOC. The new cooler uses a similar, if not identical heatsink as the one in the original's cooler, with a dense aluminum fin array to which heat is conveyed by copper heat pipes. Unlike the original, the new cooler uses bigger inclined fans that deliver the same air flow at lower speeds, ending up being quieter.

That aside, the Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti SuperOverclock features clock speeds of 950 MHz core, 1900 MHz CUDA cores, and 1002 MHz (4008 MHz effective) GDDR5 memory. There is 1 GB of memory spread over a 256-bit wide memory interface, churning out roughly 128 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Gigabyte's in-house PCB uses Ultra Durable VGA+ construction, with 2 oz copper layer board, power-conditioning NEC Tokin Proadlizer, hand-picked GPU and memory chips, Japanese solid-state capacitors, ferrite core choke, and low RDS (on) MOSFETs. The card takes power from two 6-pin power connectors, display outputs include two DVI and one mini-HDMI. Expect the new revision to carry a similar price tag as the original, around US $260.

While motherboard major Gigabyte Technology saw rather stable motherboard shipments performance in the first half of 2011 compared to rival ASUS, it has noted a shipments decline, and has ordered a rearrangement of two of its executives holding the positions of R&D and sales. The two had been swapped to other positions in January, expecting its executive swap strategy would help further boost its R&D and sales ability, but the result has turned out differently. With the two returned to their original positions, Gigabyte hopes to return to competition with ASUS in the second half of 2011.

Gigabyte today slipped in its latest gaming-grade wireless mouse, the ECO500. The mouse connects to its host over standard 2.4 GHz band, and relies on a micro-dongle (included). Apart from its design its 1,600 dpi optical sensor makes it gaming grade. The mouse is powered by two AA batteries, with typical usage, a pair lasts up to a year. The mouse measures 105 (L) x 59.7 (W) x 40.1 (H) mm, its weight varies depending on the batteries used. The mouse features a total of five buttons, including two buttons on the left side (making it a right-handed mouse, despite its otherwise ambidextrous design). A red glowing shape (probably relaying the sensor's LED,) and a DPI adjustment switch deck up its top.

Armed with a Radeon HD 6550D graphics core that has 400 stream processors, 8 ROPs, and full DirectX 11 support, AMD A-Series "Llano" accelerated processing unit (APU) was tested to be the fastest integrated graphics solution to date. The tests was run by a forum-member of TweakTown community with early access to engineering samples. On the test-bed was AMD A8-3850 APU, which has four x86-64 cores clocked at 2.90 GHz, and the Radeon HD 6550D IGP with engine clock of 600 MHz. Standard dual-channel DDR3-1333 MHz memory was used, even though the APU supports faster DDR3-1866 MHz. To seat the test bed, Gigabyte A75M-UD2H was used. It's important to note here that the CPU cores were overclocked to 3.773 GHz (145.13 MHz x 26.0), with an insane core voltage of 1.52V.

The setup was put though three generations of 3DMark benchmark, covering DirectX 9.0c, DirectX 10, and DirectX 11 performance. In 3DMark 06, the setup scores 10,492 points. In 3DMark Vantage, it scored P6160 (performance preset, validation). In 3DMark 11, it scored P1591 (performance preset, validation). More details can be read in the screenshots.

Intel's Smart Response technology is doing wonders to the low-cost SSD market. The technology lets low-capacity, usually low-cost SSDs to be used as caches for hard drives, improving the system's overall responsiveness. The technology makes these low-cost SSDs more of a component than a product (such as 2.5-inch SATA SSDs), and hence it makes sense to offer them in the mSATA form-factor. Intel made its headstart by launching the Intel 311 "Larson Creek" series 20 GB SSD that comes in both 2.5-inch SATA 3 Gb/s and mSATA form factors. While mSATA makes it easy to deploy the technology into notebooks, desktop motherboard vendors such as Gigabyte thought it would be nice to give their motherboards an mSATA slot.

Capitalizing on this very market is A-Data, with a couple of new low-cost mSATA SSDs in the ISFM series. First is the ISFM-XM13, an mSATA SSD driven by a SandForce SF-1200 series controller. Even with some of the controller's channels unoccupied (due to obvious lack of space to put NAND flash chips), this card doles out decent transfer rates of up to 250 MB/s read and 170 MB/s write. This card comes in capacities of 30 GB (32 GB with 2 GB overprovisioned) and 60 GB (64 GB with 4 GB overprovisioned). This card uses MLC NAND flash. Next up, is the ISFM-IXM01, that looks to be using a JMicron-made controller. The bigger difference here is the use of SLC NAND flash on one of its two variants, which traditionally offers higher rewrite cycles. The other variant uses MLC NAND flash. The SLC variant offers transfer rates of 90 MB/s read and 90 MB/s write, and comes in capacities of 2, 4, 8, and 16 GB. The MLC variant gives you 150 MB/s read, 120 MB/s write; and comes in capacities of 32, 64, and 128 GB.

Here is the first picture of GA-X79A-UD3, the first Gigabyte-branded socket LGA2011 motherboard. Based on the Intel X79 Express chipset, the board supports upcoming Sandy Bridge-E enthusiast processors in the LGA2011 package. Mind you, this is just the cheapest LGA2011 board from Gigabyte, there is a higher-end line of X79 motherboards, so don't let the unspectacular looks of the UD3 get you.

The GA-X79A-UD3 is a standard ATX sized motherboard. Its main VRM is spread all around the large CPU socket, in what appears to be a 6-phase design, with an unknown number of memory and uncore phases. LGA2011 processors feature a large quad-channel DDR3 memory controller, along with a northbridge uncore component with a 40-lane PCI-Express 3.0 controller. Those amount to the socket's insane pin-count of 2,011 pins. Memory slots are located in pairs of two on either sides of the socket. Each slot is its own 64-bit wide memory channel.

Gigabyte has been working on the idea of shipping socket LGA1155 motherboards based on Intel Z68 chipset with mSATA slots, to accommodate Intel 311 Series "Larson Creek" cache SSDs that come in mSATA form-factor. The company did release a number of its latest boards with the slot, including GA-Z68XP-UD3, GA-Z68XP-D3, GA-Z68AP-D3 and GA-Z68P-DS3. Now Gigabyte took the idea to its next logical step, bundling an Intel 311 Series 20 GB SSD with the motherboard (since consumers might find mSATA SSDs at little hard to find in the market). The small SSD serves as a high-speed cache which comes into use when Intel Smart Response acceleration is enabled.

The GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD is a variant of the GA-Z68XP-UD3, with the "-iSSD" suffix denoting the bundled SSD. The board comes with the 20 GB mSATA SSD pre-installed into its slot. That aside, the GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD is a fairly straightforward Z68 implementation, with 7-phase CPU VRM, dual-channel DDR3-2133 MHz memory support by overclocking, two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x8/x8 with both populated) supporting SLI and CrossFireX; four SATA 6 Gb/s, four 3 Gb/s ports; HDMI 1.4a display output, Lucid Virtu support, 8-channel HD audio, four USB 3.0 ports, and FireWire.

Gigabyte's top-tier socket AM3+ motherboard lineup is shaping up in a big way, with a bleeding-edge GA-990FXA-UD7 at the top of the pile. Gigabyte has yet another motherboard to cater to fans of the AM3+ platform, the GA-990FXA-UD5. The UD5 features a more conventional-looking component layout, with the northbridge located where it usually is. You still get the 10-phase VRM from the UD7, the black Ultra Durable 3 PCB, but this board is designed for multi-GPU setups with up to 3 graphics cards: supporting 3-way SLI and CrossFireX.

Expansion slots include five PCI-Express 2.0 x16, of which three (slots 1,3,5) are PCI-Express 2.0 wired to the AMD 990FX northbridge, with electrical configurations of x16/x16/NC or x16/x8/x8. Slots 2 and 4 are electrical x4, wired to the SB950 southbridge. Other slots include a PCI-E x1, and a legacy PCI. Storage connectivity is similar to that of the UD7, with eight SATA 6 Gb/s internal ports, a power-eSATA, and a normal eSATA.

AMD's new Fusion A-Series "Llano" accelerated processing unit (APU) is shaping up to be a credible home and entertainment platform, but it is also carrying the responsibility of making it to office spaces. Part of that initiative would rest with the motherboard manufacturers to come up with inexpensive and durable sub-$100 motherboards that can be bought and deployed in bulk. Enter the Gigabyte A75M-UD2H. This micro-ATX form-factor motherboard relies entirely on the platform's feature-set.

The FM1 APU socket is powered by a simple 4+1 phase VRM, it is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting dual-channel DDR3-1600 MHz memory. Of the four expansion slots, there's one PCI-Express 2.0 x16, a PCI-E x16 that's electrical x4, and one each of PCI-E x1 and legacy PCI. To further make for its business PC outlook, there are headers for legacy ports such as LPT and COM (for dot-matrix printers in banks, etc.).

Like most others, Gigabyte is ready with some of its first motherboards to launch with AMD's new Fusion Llano A-Series APU platform, based the new FM1 socket and AMD A75 chipset. Gigabyte's top socket FM1 motherboard is called GA-A75-UD4H. It's a return to the company's signature blue Ultra Durable 3 PCB. The FM1 socket is powered by a 10-phase VRM, it is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting dual-channel DDR3-1866 MHz memory. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x8/x8 when both are populated), supporting AMD CrossFireX and NVIDIA 2-way SLI; three PCI-Express x1, and two PCI.

The A75 single-chip chipset handles all the storage connectivity on this board, with five SATA 6 Gb/s internal ports, and one eSATA 6 Gb/s. Display connectivity includes DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. Other connectivity includes eight USB 3.0 ports driven by three controllers, including four ports by header, gigabit Ethernet, 8+2 channel HD audio driven by Realtek ALC889 CODEC, and FireWire. Expect this board to be out in mid-June.

After displays of socket AM3+ motherboards based on AMD 990FX chipset, by ASUS, and MSI were pictured by various tech sites, it's quite expected of Gigabyte's offering to somehow make it to the web. Gigabyte is going full guns with its top AM3+ motherboard, with the GA-990FXA-UD7. Based on the same Black+Graphite+Gold color scheme as the socket LGA1155 "UD7" models based on Intel P67 and Z68, the GA-990FXA-UD7 comes with zesty dimensions that almost make it an EATX form-factor board, although it's not. The AM3+ socket is powered by a 10-phase VRM that is cooled by a long heatsink that appears to be contiguous with the northbridge heatsink, which in turn shares heat with the southbridge over a heat pipe. The socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting DDR3 frequencies in excess of 1866 MHz.

Gigabyte utilized each of the seven expansion slots, packing in six PCI-Express 2.0 x16 neatly spaced out to support NVIDIA 4-way SLI and AMD 4-way CrossFireX; two out of six slots two are electrical x4, wired to the southbridge. A legacy PCI slot is thrown in, just in case you hate to throw away that expensive PCI sound card that still sounds great. Storage connectivity includes eight internal SATA 6 Gb/s ports, six from the SB850 southbridge, and two from a third-party controller. There are two eSATA ports, of which one appears to be power-eSATA.

GIGABYTE Technology Co. LTD., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, is pleased to present overclock edition of GeForce GTX 560 graphics card (GV-N56GOC-1GI). With NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 GPU and high speed GDDR5 memory, GIGABYTE GTX 560 Overclock Edition delivers outstanding 1080p gaming experience. What's more, it features GIGABYTE's new WINDFORCE 2X thermal solution with king-size 100mm inclined fans and Direct Heat Pipe Touch technology.

With these innovative technologies, new WINDFORCE 2X runs at only 31 dB within full loading. GIGABYTE GTX 560 Overclock Edition also adapts GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA materials and guarantees best gaming experience. It also features NVIDIA 3D Vision, 3D Vision Surround, SLI, CUDA, PhysX, and Microsoft DirectX 11 technologies.

As Intel's Smart Response technology and 311 Series "Larson Creek" SSD gain market traction along with the Intel Z68 chipset platform jointly released on 10th May, Gigabyte is designing four new motherboards that come with a mSATA slot. Smart Response is a technology that uses SSD to cache large hard drives, improving storage performance and system responsiveness. To propagate it, Intel released an inexpensive low-capacity SSD line, the 311 series, which uses SLC NAND flash that features higher erase cycles.

Intel's Larson Creek SSDs are available both in conventional 2.5-inch SATA form factor, and mSATA module form-factor that makes it easier to deploy in notebooks, alongside bulkier 2.5-inch hard drives. mSATA also gives the "cache SSD" a more compact component feel than a product feel, that helps builders organize their desktop builds better, and stop looking at Larson Creek as a "badly performing, and tiny primary storage," which isn't its purpose to begin with. The GA-Z68XP-UD3, GA-Z68XP-D3, GA-Z68AP-D3 and GA-Z68P-DS3 are four new entry-mainstream segment motherboards featuring an mSATA slot with adequate clearance and retention mechanism to hold the Larson Creek mSATA module.

It is becoming increasingly clear now, that Gigabyte will have two parallel lines of socket LGA1155 motherboards based on the same Intel Z68 B3 chipset, one that does away with display connectivity to make room for other ports and is geared for discrete graphics, while the other has display connectivity at the expense of additional ports on the rear panel, and also gives you everything you'd expect from Z68, including overclocking. In mid-April, pictures of GA-Z68-UD3P-B3 surfaced, which is a motherboard of the first kind explained above. Now, there's deck of pictures of the GA-Z68-UD3H-B3, its counterpart of the second kind.

The GA-Z68-UD3H-B3 features a much lighter CPU VRM, consisting of 7 phases, against 14 on the UD3P. It gives you the same expansion slot layout consisting of two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x8/x8 when both are populated), supporting ATI CrossFire and NVIDIA SLI, three PCI-E x1, and two PCI. Gigabyte made full use of the display connectivity options that come with Sandy Bridge, there is one each of DVI, D-Sub, HDMI, and DisplayPort. Audio is at the helm of Realtek ALC889 8+2 channel HD audio CODEC, with optical SPDIF output.

Among a large selection of new Intel Z68-based socket LGA1155 motherboards taking shape at Gigabyte, is a cracker of a micro-ATX motherboard called GA-Z68MX-UD2H. Based on the Cougar Point B3 Z68 chipset that combines the overclocking capabilities of P67 and integrated display features of H67, the GA-Z68MX-UD2H squeezes in as many features as one can onto the 240x240 mm PCB. The LGA1155 socket is powered by a 7-phase VRM, and is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel DDR3 memory.

Expansion slots include three PCI-Express 2.0 x16. The first and third are wired to the LGA1155 socket, with electrical configurations of x16/NC or x8/x8, depending on if the third slot is populated. A PCI-E x1 and another x16 slot separates the two, creating room for graphics cards with dual-slot coolers on the first slot. The second x16 slot is electrical x4, and is wired to the Z68 PCH along with the x1 slot. Both NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFire are supported.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards and other computing hardware solutions today announced a new partnership with Lucidlogix, the makers of Virtu GPU virtualization technology. The partnership ushers in broad adoption of Virtu on future GIGABYTE 6 series motherboards, and sets the stage for long term cooperation between the two companies.

"We are excited about our new partnership with Lucid because of the huge potential for switchable graphics in the PC DIY market where GIGABYTE motherboards enjoy considerable market share," said Henry Kao, VP of R&D, at GIGABYTE. "We believe that Virtu will add considerable value to GIGABYTE motherboards using Intel's Sandy Bridge graphics and will provide our customers with the flexibility and choice they want from their system."

Gigabyte rolled out its Pure Classic series of portable hard drives. The series includes USB 2.0-only, and USB 3.0 (compatible with USB 2.0) variants. The USB 3.0 variant is called Pure Classic 3.0. Measuring 120 x 81 x 14 mm, and weighing about 150 g, the Pure Classic drives sport a matte black body with a dash of piano black giving it a formal (classic) touch. A white (matte+gloss) variant is also in the works. It comes with a leathery pouch to add to its styling. It is available in 320, 500, 640, and 750 gigabyte capacities, though transfer rates are not known. Gigabyte didn't give out pricing information, either.