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.

GIGABYTE introduces a fully modulated AIO PC model to answer any requirements in the most time and cost efficient way. Whether you want a turnkey, a highly customized or only a barebone product, the GB-AEBN solution can answer your needs, as the entire system is broken down into integrated and standardized modules that can be easily and quickly upgraded or replaced. With this modulated concept, the specifications of the GB-AEBN can be calibrated towards the needs of any kind of end user, and therefore it can be suitable for your targets.

Thanks to its modulated concept, we are able to adapt most of the GB-AEBN parts to deliver any kind of end-user advantage, and you can easily modify them afterwards. The GB-AEBN solution supports components from any supplier complying to our product's form factors (Intel's AIO Mini-ITX standard, slim ODD bay, 3.5'' SATA bay, etc.).

Gigabyte rolled out its second factory-overclocked custom-design Radeon HD 6970 graphics card model, the GV-R697OC2-2GD, or the Gigabyte HD 6970 WindForce-3X OC2. The card makes use of the same exact Ultra Durable VGA+ PCB used on the GV-R697OC-2GD, as well as the WindForce-3X cooler, but comes with higher clock speeds of 920 MHz core and 1375 MHz (5.50 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory; compared to 900/1375 (5500) MHz on the GV-R697OC-2GD, and 880/1375 (5500). In all three cases, Gigabyte didn't tinker with memory clock speeds.

The PCB makes use of 2 oz copper layer, and high grade components such as ferrite-core chokes and Japanese capacitors. Its cooler uses a large heat pipe-fed aluminum fin array ventilated by three 80 mm fans. Based on the 40 nm "Cayman" silicon, the Radeon HD 6790 packs 1536 VLIW4 stream processors, and a 256-bit wide high-speed GDDR5 memory interface. Gigabyte did not give out pricing/availability information.

The GS-AH6G3N embeds the new LGA1155 Intel platform for mobile products, with the most powerful and efficient processor and chipset for a reliable and durable business notebook. Designed for professional end users, our product includes all the most important features required by a utilization in a business environment. The GS-AH6G3N is therefore a very versatile business notebook, with the highest standard of performance and quality from GIGABYTE. It is nevertheless a stylish product, with an excellent design and ultra-thin profile, as well as a very light weight and a large power autonomy for the smoothest mobility. With its high value features, the GS-AH6G3N has everything to be the best work tool for your daily business life.

The GS-AH6G3N offers all the important features that e good business notebook should have. Probably the most critical feature, the GS-AH6G3N has a power autonomy of about 7 hours, which can be extended to 10 hours with a second battery docked in the swappable ODD bay (this bay can also dock a second HDD).

Apart from a brand new CPU architecture, Intel's Sandy Bridge LGA1155 platform saw the mass introduction of EFI (extensible firmware interface) to the PC, a new BIOS-replacement component that can eliminate several limitations of BIOS, most notably, the ability to boot from volumes bigger than 3 TB in size. While most motherboard manufacturers have given their LGA1155 models support for UEFI, not everyone has a graphical user interface (GUI) based UEFI setup program that uses mouse as a pointing device, and presents users with UI elements such as radio buttons, drop-lists, and checkboxes to make changes. Gigabyte has been one such manufacturer with its first wave of P67 and H67 based motherboards.

With its newest B3-revision motherboards that include the upcoming Z68 chipset based motherboards, Gigabyte wants to make amends. It has to, being the number two motherboard vendor in terms of volumes. Gigabyte wants to go a step ahead of other vendors, and design a UEFI setup program that not only supports mouse, but also touchscreens, and present a user interface with large icons and design elements that resemble tablets, which are designed to make configuration easier than on mouse-driven UEFI setup programs. The TouchBIOS ("BIOS" here is just used as a verb) from Gigabyte should be available on Gigabyte's upcoming motherboards, as well as in the future, on Gigabyte's all-in-one PCs, tablets, and notebooks.UPDATE: It turns out that TouchBIOS isn't a firmware application, but rather a Windows-based utility that makes BIOS management easily for the people less acquainted with it. Let's hope the "less acquainted" don't touch the wrong colorful button in their "ooh what does this button do? " moments.

Gigabyte is readying a series of more inexpensive variants of PowerRock mainstream PSUs, the PowerRock EX. Available in similar models of 300W, 350W, 400W, 450W and 500W, the PowerRock EX lacks 80 Plus compliance and sleeved cabling found with the original PowerRock series. The new PSUs are ATX v2.0 compliant, use Taiwan-made capacitors, feature dual 12V rail design for the 450W and 500W models, and single 12V rail design for the 300W, 350W, and 400W ones. OVP, OCP, UVP, and short-circuit protections come standard. The PSUs are cooled by a 120 mm fan, and have a rated MTBF of 100,000 hours. Gigabyte did not give out pricing or availability details.

GIGABYTE Technology Co. LTD., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, is pleased to launch the latest GeForce GT 520 series, GV-N520OC-1GI and GV-N520TC-1GI. Built on NVIDIA latest GT 520 GPU, supports DirectX 11 tessellation. GT 520 series graphics cards are bundled with the latest graphic card tuning tool "Easy Boost". GIGABYTE GT 520 series graphics cards also have higher default GPU working frequency, providing users amazing gaming experience.

GV-N520OC-1GI is integrated with industry's best 1 GB DDR3 graphics memory. GV-N520TC-1GI is integrated with high speed 512 MB DDR3 graphics memory, turbo cached to 1 GB. GT 520 series graphics cards supports NVIDIA CUDA, PhysX and Blu-Ray 3D technology. They are designed for both high quality gaming and great home theater solution.

The GIGABYTE GA-6UASL Series of single socket motherboards for server offers the best platform to deliver the new world class performances available through Intel's brand new processor microarchitecture and chipset series.

Designed for small and medium business applications, the GIGABYTE GA-6UASL Series offers a multipurpose product perfect for applications such as web server, file & print server, e-mail server, storage server, and any type of vertical-specific business applications, but it is also absolutely suitable for high performance computing and embedded applications.

Gigabyte unveiled its latest peripheral, the ECO600 wireless laser mouse. The ECO600 runs on two AA batteries, and can run for up to 12 months before needing a battery change. It connects to the USB nano receiver, over a 2.4 GHz wireless connection. It uses laser for tracking, with a adjustable resolutions of 800, 1200, and 1600 dpi, using a resolution switch. Optimized for right-handers, the mouse has two programmable (4th/5th) buttons at the thumb groove. The sides are rubberized to enhance grip. The mouse measures (L)124.5x(W)77.6x(H)41.8 mm, weighing 106 g without batteries. The feather-light receiver can slot into the mouse when not connected to a PC, to prevent misplacing it. Gigabyte didn't give out pricing details.

GIGABYTE INC., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards today announced a new line of 16 "Black Socket" motherboards previously unveiled at CeBIT 2011 that offer support for AMD's next generation , 32nm AM3+ CPUs and are based on current generation AMD 800/700 series chipset-based motherboards.

Wanting to ensure users their motherboard is able to take advantage of all the performance enhancements that AMD's upcoming AM3+ CPUs have to offer, GIGABYTE has equipped their entire line of AM3+ CPU ready motherboards with a new black colored socket, making it easy to spot for AM3+ support. In addition, GIGABYTE "Black Socket" series offer full backwards compatibility with AMD's current generation AM3 socket CPUs, allowing for painless migration to the AM3+ CPUs when they become available. To learn more about the GIGBYTE AM3+ ready "Black Socket" motherboards, please visit this page.

GIGABYTE, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, is proud to extend its Aivia peripheral series with M8600 Wireless Macro Gaming Mouse. The first product from GIGABYTE's highly anticipated Aivia series, Aivia K8100 Gaming Keyboard, has recently received prestigious red dot design award. The second product to be launched under Aivia, M8600 Wireless Macro Gaming Mouse, is the world's first wireless gaming mouse to guarantee 100-hour nonstop gaming experience. Plus, it also consists of a wide range of state-of-the-art features, including two-second quick-swap battery system (patent pending), multi-functional charging dock, twin-eye gaming-grade laser engine, and GHOST macro engine technology.

Gigabyte sneaked in its latest motherboard for SFF (small form-factor) fans, the GA-H67N-USB3-B3. This mini-ITX motherboard supports socket LGA1155 Intel Core processors, and is based on the Intel H67 chipset (B3 revision). The board supports every LGA1155 Core processor released till date, its designers didn't have to worry much about its electricals since you're not going to overclock on H67. Yet, the board packs a 4+2 phase VRM for the CPU, that's compliant with Intel's VRD 12 specification. The socket is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory support, and a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot.

In the storage department, there are two SATA 6 Gb/s ports from the chipset, two SATA 3 Gb/s, and one eSATA 3 Gb/s, also from the chipset. Its display connectivity surprisingly includes two HDMI ports, and one D-Sub. Audio is care of the high-grade Realtek ALC889 HDA CODEC, which can deliver 108 dB signal-to-noise ratio, the board also provides coaxial and optical SPDIF output connectivity. Other connectivity includes two USB 3.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. The board features dual-BIOS with an EFI module that allows you to boot from a 3 TB+ volume. Gigabyte's H67N-USB3-B3 is expected to be priced around the $120 mark. This one for the HTPC.

Gigabyte want to launch its GeForce GTX 590 in a big way. The company prepared a special, probably limited-edition package, which it refers to as "Exclusive Bundle". Packed in an industrial-looking toolbox, Gigabyte is including its reference-design GeForce GTX 590 3072 MB graphics card, a load of cables and accessories, and a Gigabyte GHOST M8000X gaming mouse, in its complete package (including adjustable weights). Gigabyte's package looks very well made, advertising the products inside well. It kind of makes sense to pack a ultra high-end graphics card with a high-end gaming mouse. With this, Gigabyte is looking to project the GTX 590 as more of a premium gamers' product (than something you buy and put under frozen gases right away).

Gigabyte's press deck also included some benchmark results. Testing is completely internal to the company. Gigabyte is a vendor-neutral graphics card partner (it sells both GeForce and Radeon), so these numbers can be taken at face value. According to Gigabyte, the GTX 590 rocks 3DMark Vantage at low resolutions, but the gap between it and Radeon HD 6990 closes at higher resolutions. It admits that Radeon HD 6990 is a faster graphics card overall for 3DMark 11. In game tests, GTX 590 and HD 6990 trade blows with each leading the other in different game tests. If these figures are to go by, it will be a very close and interesting battle for supremacy between the GTX 590 and HD 6990. Gigabyte's GTX 590 Exclusive Bundle is priced in China at a little under US $1,150.

GIGABYTE, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, welcomes a new member to its line of wireless mice, M7800E Wireless Laser Mouse. Designed for men of urban chic style, M7800E is coated with a "matte black" layer.

The ultra sized receiver is 40% smaller than regular receivers, and it highly increases the portability of the mouse. With 800/ 1600 dpi switch, high-precision laser sensor, battery life of 6 months, and software for customizable buttons, the refined M7800E is your best partner at work.

PC gaming just got a lot more fun today with the introduction of the GeForce GTX 550 Ti graphics processing unit (GPU) with an estimated e-tail price of £119. The GTX 550 Ti is the latest in NVIDIA's Fermi line of consumer GPUs, designed to deliver stunning DirectX 11 performance. It brings a new level of price/performance to mainstream PC gaming, while maintaining exceptionally quiet acoustics and requiring minimal power.

Like all NVIDIA "DX11 Done Right" GPUs, the GTX 550 Ti delivers the world's fastest performance in its class for DX11 games. Compared with the closest competitive product, the GTX 550 Ti is up to 50 percent faster in today's newest DX11 tessellated games, and 38 percent fasteri in previous-generation DX9 and DX10 games. And with NVIDIA SLI technology, the industry's most scalable multi-GPU platform, gamers will be able to increase their PC's gaming performance by adding a second GeForce GTX 550 Ti.

Gigabyte unveiled its latest high-end graphics card, the Radeon HD 6970 WindForce 3X. Based entirely on an in-house design, the card uses a Ultra Durable VGA+ PCB that makes use of 2 oz copper layers, and high-grade chokes, MOSFETs, and capacitors. Cooling is care of Gigabyte's workhorse high-end VGA cooler, the WindForce 3X. It makes use of a dense aluminum fin array to which heat is conveyed by several heat pipes, and is ventilated by three fans.

The card is slightly overclocked, 900 MHz core against 880 MHz reference, and 2 GB of memory clocked at 5500 MHz. That apart, the GPU packs 1536 VLIW4 stream processors, and connects to the memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface. Display outputs include two DVI, and one each of full-sized HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2. Gigabyte didn't give out pricing.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards and other computing hardware solutions today announced the launch of the world's first motherboard designed from the ground up for extreme overclockers, the GIGABYTE GA-X58A-OC. Its overclocking specific performance design defines a whole new category of enthusiast focused motherboards that introduces never-seen-before tweaking and insulating features.

"The GIGABYTE X58A-OC introduces some really exciting and unique overclocking technologies like the PWM frequency switcher, a full range of onboard hardware OC buttons, onboard SATA power connectors for stable multiple graphics configurations, and DualBIOS switcher that up until now have just been ideas discussed in private OC forums and messages," commented HiCookie, GIGABYTE In-house Overclocking Expert. "Tweaking features aside, we have also adopted high current components such as POScaps and MPFC (Max Power Ferrite Core) Chokes that allow overclockers to bench more reliably and with more power so they are able to smash more world records. As an avid overclocker myself, having the freedom to help design a board specifically for overclockers has been a dream come true, and I really hope that overclockers enjoy benching on this board as much as we enjoyed making it!"

Gigabyte is releasing a new wireless gaming mouse, part of its Aivia series of gaming peripherals. The Aivia M8600 from Gigabyte lets you game on for 100 hours on full battery, and lets you hotswap it in as low as 2 seconds, thanks to its quick swap battery changing system. The M8600 sports an ambidextrous design with 7 buttons, a two-axis scroll-wheel, high-precision laser-based optical tracking (resolution not known), 32 KB of memory for storing button macro maps, and a dock for charging the battery. Gigabyte will unveil the Aivia M8600 and all other technical details at the upcoming CeBIT event, a little later this week.

Gigabyte released a new GeForce GTX 560 Ti Super Overclock graphics card model. The GV-N560SO-1GI-950 from Gigabyte features an out of the box core clock speed of 950 MHz, 1900 MHz CUDA core speed, and 1145 MHz (4580 MHz effective) GDDR5 memory speed. The new model is slightly slower than the GV-N560SO-1GI the company released last month, which has clock speeds of 1000/2000/1145 MHz. The GTX 560 Ti SOC from Gigabyte is based on a custom design PCB that uses Ultra Durable VGA+ high grade components, and WindForce 2X cooler.

The WindForce 2X cooler makes use of a large aluminum fin array to which heat is conveyed by a number of copper heat pipes that make direct contact with the GPU. The heatsink is ventilated by two 80 fans. Like every other GeForce GTX 560 Ti, the DirectX 11 compliant GPU packs 384 CUDA cores, and makes use of 1 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface. Display outputs include two DVI and one mini-HDMI. Gigabyte did not give out pricing, but one can expect it to be lower than that of the 1000 MHz SOC variant.

GIGABYTE, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, introduces a powerful new addition to its Super Overclock Series: GTX 580 SOC (GV-N580SO-15I). To qualify for Super Overclock Series, a GPU must go through GIGABYTE's innovative GPU Gauntlet Sorting process and it must be equipped with Ultra Durable VGA or VGA+ boards. Designed specifically for overclocking competition and gaming battle, GIGABYTE's secret weapon GTX 580 Super Overclock Edition is built with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPU.

Based on 40nm processor and advanced GDDR5 memory technology, the powerful new GPU consists of ground-breaking features including Microsoft DirectX 11 and NVIDIA PhysX which lead to incredibly immersive HD gaming experience and unrivaled performance. To satisfy hardcore gamers and extreme overclockers, GV-N580SO-15I is especially designed with GIGABYTE Extreme Dual BIOS technology. GV-N580SO-15I also features WINDFORCE 3X, 14 phase PWM design, OC Guru graphic card smart tuner and voltage read point.

Gigabyte released a free software utility that works on any motherboard (of any brand) that uses Intel's defect-prone 6-series chipsets (such as P67, H67), and checks if the installed hard drives are connected to defective SATA ports, or whether the board is prone to defects at all. According to Intel, it's not that every 6-series motherboard out there carries defective ports, and that whatever defects there may be, would only surface over time. Some users, however, are beginning to see signs of defects right away. The 6 Series SATA Check utility from Gigabyte is the company's contribution to resolving what is a chronic market-wide error affecting all motherboard vendors selling socket LGA1155 motherboards. You can grab the tool from here.