Gigabyte are best known in enthusiast circles for producing some of the finest motherboards and graphics cards on the market.  We have tested countless quality products from Gigabyte in the past couple of years and we’ve generally been very impressed by what they have to offer.

You might not be aware but Gigabyte also produce a range of peripherals. Today we are going to take a look at the Gigabyte Force M9 Ice Mouse which is designed for the mainstream market.

The Gigabyte Force M9 ICE Mouse has a number of quality features including DPI switching and a high performance laser sensor.  However, the most interesting aspect of this mouse is Gigabyte’s ‘ICE’ technology which allows the laser sensor to track on clear surfaces such as glass.

Specification

• Colour: Icy Black
• FPS: 3200 fps
• Dimensions: 126 x 73 x 43 mm (LxWxH)
• Interface: USB
• Weight: 100 g (excluding batteries)
• Resolution: 800 / 1200 / 1600 / 2000 DPI
• Tracking system: Laser
• Battery type: 2x AA
• Report Rate: 125 reports per second
• OS Support: Windows XP / Vista / 7
• Warranty: 2 years

Last month we saw some of Gigabyte’s upcoming Z77 motherboards at Computex which feature their latest Ultra Durable 5 technology.  We have been very impressed by all the existing Gigabyte Z77 motherboards we’ve tested so we are quite excited to see what the new range has to offer.

Today we are going to look at the Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH which is aimed at the mainstream market.  It boasts an impressive feature set which includes dual thunderbolt connectors and Gigabyte’s latest Ultra Durable 5 technology.  The ‘P’ in the model number tells us that it features the Ultra Durable 5 technology which differs from the ‘D’ used for Ultra Durable 4.

Other interesting features include a full complement of USB 3.0 ports, PCI Express 3.0 and various overclocking technologies that should let us squeeze a lot more power out of the i7-3770K that we’ll be using for testing today.

Features

• Supports Intel 3rd Generation CPU’s – Socket 1155
• Ultra Durable 5 - Super high rated Ferrite Core Chokes (60A). 2x Copper PCB and IR3550 IC’s in the CPU power zone for the coolest temperatures ever.
• Lucid Virtu MVP – Producing faster frame rates, with sharper visuals and reduced tearing.
• nVidia SLI and AMD CrossfireX - For multi display or ultimate performance gaming.
• UEFI DualBIOS – A superior graphical BIOS interface, based on the trusted and secure GIGABYTE Dual BIOS technology.
• Onboard mSATA Connector - Mount a low capacity mSATA SSD onto your motherboard to take advantage of INTEL SRT and RAPID START.
• USB 3x Power Boost – Delivering greater device compatibility and faster charge times
• Super Speed USB3.0 – Super fast transfer rates of up to 5 Gbps, 10x faster than USB2.0
• Super SATA3 Native Support – Supporting super fast 6 Gbps link speeds
• PCIe GEN 3 – Designed to take full advantage of the next generation high bandwidth graphic card solutions
• ON/OFF Charge Technology – Allows you to charge your iPad, iPHone, or iPod even if your PC is off
• Dual Thunderbolt – Dasiy chain up to 12 devices + 2 display monitors and transfer 1 TB of data in just 5 minutes!

It was almost a year ago that the world’s weather patterns combined to cause the tragedy of the Thailand floods. Alongside the loss of life, Western Digital’s hard drive production was knocked for six and the world suffered huge increases in price. As KitGuru predicted, summer 2012 saw prices return to pre-tragedy levels, but now they are going further.
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KitGuru sees the cuts at Aria and gets the urge to back up vital files.

While some high street stores would have been significantly more expensive, the majority of the retailers that a KitGuru reader is likely to consider managed to keep their pricing for a 1TB drive below £120 as 2011 drew to a close.

Now that all seems like a dim and distant memory. While Seasonic and Hitachi enjoyed a sudden surge in the price of smaller drives, the underlying market pressure has been on the move to much bigger capacities. Plants that will produce large volumes of 3TB and 4TB drives, have been in the pipeline for a long time and, small price hike to one side, their time has come.

All things considered, hard drive capacities really come down to the packing density of the surface material and how many discs you can spin at 7,200rpm without a data-corrupting wobble setting in. The disks do not really change that much, neither does the idea of a read/write head flickering across the surface. Only the density with which data is packed on a platter – and how many platters are spinning – are really relevant.

Hitachi’s Deskstar 7k4000 for example, uses 5 platters to offer you 4TB of storage. When it first arrived on our shelves around the end of March, some UK stores wanted close to £300 for this monster drive. Today, you can pick up this high-capacity drive for just over £203 from Aria.

If you’re not sure about that 4th terabyte, you can opt for a 3TB Seagate Barracuda for just over £108.

We did a quick check with Gigabyte's Mainboard Guru, Andrew Ditchburn, and he confirmed that all Gigabyte mainboards manufactured inside the past 2 years will handle 3TB & 4TB drives with ease

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KitGuru says: The scary part is that the 4TB will carry on dropping for a while yet. Aria seems to have taken the price lead right now, but even if other stores have been slower to implement price cuts – that doesn’t mean they are not coming. We’re still expecting to see a 4TB around the £150 mark by the end of the year. Fancy a PC with 8GB of RAM and 8TB of HDD?

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

With Multiplay’s i46 gaming extravaganza about to kick off in the Telford International Centre, loads of sponsors will be vying for the attention of the thousands of hardcore gamers who attend. KitGuru takes a look at one of the sponsors and their ‘large event’ pedigree.

While hands-on gaming stands with the latest, unreleased, triple-A titles were certainly the centre of attention over at GamesCom 2012 in Cologne, few hardware stands managed to attract as many visitors as CaseKing. In a second, we’ll show you just how CaseKing operates and the level of fevered response they manage to induce in crowds. Let’s just say that Overclockers’ parent company are well-schooled in the art of crowd-pleasing.

Data from a big Multiplay survey a couple of years ago, showed clearly that almost half the attendees for any given Insomnia LAN gaming event (of which i46 is the latest) is an Overclockers.co.uk customer. On that basis, it only seems right that the crowd’s favourite should be in attendance to let the other half find out what they might have been missing.

Enough ado about gaming things, let’s roll on with the CaseKing gallery from GamesCom 2012.

CaseKing marketing guru, Vahid, tests the props for his big give-away competition at GamesCom 2012

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Once fully up and running, the CaseKing stand had a series of competitions where any of the hundreds of people surrounding the stage had a chance of winning. Lucking contestants, like this 15 year old chap, were crowned on the throne and thoroughly pampered by the CaseKing Ladies-in-Waiting. Hard life.

When not engaged on the mainstage with winners, the CaseKing ladies would make the products on display look a lot more attractive. But does such a simple tactic work?  Judge for yourselves.

In the following pics, we reckon that the CaseKing ladies like one or two of the technologies they are presenting, MORE than others. But which are their favourites?

Are you feeling the girls' love for Akasa?

Is a Bit of Fenix just what the ladies ordered?

Are they stimulate by nVidia's top end?

Does the Gigabyte range stimulate passion?

Are they ready to go IN for the WIN?

Perhaps hands-on for a little KingMod-ding themselves - like the cheeky monkeys in the background?

What about the smooth-silent type from Lian Li?

Quick check on Xigmatek

Does the VTX3D stand render them speechless?

Do the ladies get flushed for pink chassis?

KitGuru says: It’s a toughy, but if we were forced to answer, it does seem that both girls like a little pink. Specifically, the ‘Ladies Phantom’ from NZXT. But what do we know?  If you’re heading to Telford for Multiplay’s i46, then you can check out the Overclockers.co.uk booth babes, Team-GB style, and see if they’re a match for the Germans.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

DinoPC offers a wide variety of pre-built systems that can be tailored to your specific needs. It’s the turn of their Predator Extreme 3570K OC gaming system to be put through its paces at KitGuru labs. Can the 3570K and GTX 670-based system prove its worth in such a heavily-contested market?

One of DinoPC’s heaviest-hitting gaming systems, the £1,249 Predator Extreme sports a 4.5GHz overlocked i5 3570K processor, 16GB of Corsair Vengeance memory, a Gigabyte GTX 670 OC WindForce graphics card and 64GB Crucial M4 SSD. Housed in the critically-acclaimed Arctic White Carbide 500R case from Corsair, the Predator Extreme certainly has a delectable specification sheet.

Can this professionally-overclocked, gaming-orientated beast rip, shred and tear its way to a KitGuru award?

Specifications:

• Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K @ 4.5GHz (Our sample is overclocked to 4.7GHz using a 1.400V VCore)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H
• Memory: 16GB (2x 8GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz
• Graphics Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 OC WindForce 3x
• SSD: 64GB Crucial M4 (OS)
• Hard Disk Drive: 2TB Seagate Barracuda Green (ST2000DL003)
• CPU Cooler: Corsair H100
• Case: Corsair Carbide 500R Arctic White
• Power Supply: Xigmatek Centauro 700W Modular
• Optical Drive: 22x Samsung SH-222BB DVD RW
• Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

No, it has nothing to do with Arnie and the search for John Conner. Back in the day, T1 lines were the stuff of legend, with so much bandwidth that you’d be running an enterprise and a half on the throughput. But how does it stack up today? KitGuru downloads Adobe’s DNG Converter 7.2 and experiences a little historical whimsy.

Four hours and thirty seven minutes.

That’s almost long enough to fly to Dubai.

It’s enough to watch 4.5 complete football matches.

In the good old days, that was how long it would take to download Adobe’s DNG Converter on a 56k fax/modem.

All good fun and we love to reminisce, but that wasn’t the figure that caught KitGuru’s eye this morning during an update to one of our systems. It was the estimated time that would be needed to transfer the 101MB file using a T1 line.

In the late 1950s, AT&T developed the T1 system to carry lots of calls over long distances. The devices required for this began to arrive in the 1960s and, in its final iteration, the system was updated and improved to the point where it could carry almost 100 voice conversations at the same time (1970s). With standards of the day, the data flow was round the 6Mb/sec mark.

If you’re in a big city, then you have every chance of getting 4x that speed on a modern broadband connection – higher if you’re prepared to pay a little more.

Services like Infinity can deliver 4x the old T1 speeds

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While we’re now able to enjoy 4x T1 speeds in the home at sensible money, you have to wonder what the future will look like.  Today’s T4 lines move data around the planet at somewhere close to 256Mbps. surely it’s only a matter of time before that will be the standard offer from service providers. You can see the adverts now, “For regular users, we still maintain a traditional 24Mbps download option, but for serious users and professionals, why not opt for our latest bi-directional 256Mbps offer”.

There was a time when downloads that measured themselves in MB would require a late night trip to one of the 'Easy Cafe' stores in central London, just to download it fast and burn it to a CD (remember those?)

KitGuru Says: It’s quite incredible the way that we’ve exchanged Kb for Mb and GB for TB, but the really amazing stuff has yet to happen. Terabytes will be rebranded with the Peta prefix, you’ll carry a TB on a £20 stick and download speeds will become almost instantaneous for small files like films. You can now get a good gigabit ethernet switch for about £15 and there’s much more to come. On a side note, we’re still not sure why Adobe (a) quotes download speeds for carrier systems that no longer exist in its target markets and (b) insists on installing every camera option on the planet – instead of just asking you what you own.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

Cyberpower has always tended to the needs of every gamer with its pre-configured systems. Targeting mid-range gamers with a tighter budget, does the Cyberpower Gaming Battalion 502 PC have what it takes to become a competitor in today’s ever-growing system market?

Cyberpower has chosen the Gaming Battalion 502 PC’s hardware to offer good gaming performance at a modest price. Coupling the 4.2GHz, quad core AMD FX 4170 CPU with an MSI Radeon HD 7770 1GB graphics card has allowed Cyberpower to create the foundations for a competitively-priced mid-range gaming system.

Add a 2TB HDD, Gigabyte USB 3.0 motherboard, 8GB of Kingston RAM and Cooler Master’s Elite 310 into the mix and the Gaming Battalion 502 starts to look even more appealing to gamers on a budget.

Specifications:

• Processor: AMD FX 4170 4.2GHz
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3
• Memory: 8GB Kingston DDR3 1333MHz
• Graphics Card: MSI Radeon HD 7770 1GB (R7770-PMD1GD5)
• Hard Disk Drive: 2TB Seagate 7200.14 ST2000DM001
• CPU Cooler: Reference AMD FX 4170 heatsink
• Case: Cooler Master Elite 310 w/ Side Panel Window
• Power Supply: Artic MPS550 550W
• Optical Drive: 24x Optiarc AD-7280S
• Operating System: Windows 8 64-bit

While the UK is still looking forward to the credit card bills that will accompany a record breaking Boxing Day push of £2.6 billion, online retailers are not giving up hope that us consumers will consider one last wafer-thin-mint. KitGuru says ‘Better. Better get a bucket’.

Shakespeare wrote of Cleopatra, Other women cloy the appetites they feed, but she makes hungry where most she satisfies”. Essentially, there are a lot of things in the world that will make you feel phat/stuffed/totally uninterested in more – but there is also a rare subset of products/people where the more you get, the more you want.

Welcome to technology.

While we may well have spent ourselves silly before, during and after Xmas – that doesn’t mean that we won’t stop looking.

To help feed the addiction, British reseller Aria has engaged in some cut-price temptation therapy and – among the scrolling screen of offers – there are some that really do grab your eye. See if your opinion matches ours for these four:-

24″ Dell Professional Panel down from £191 to £167 – but it’s actually listed at £238 on Dell’s own site. Apparently it’s also arsenic free, which is good to know

Cooler Master Elite 343 Micro-ATX chassis down to £25 – while even the wily coyotes at Amazon are asking for more than £36. We’re not going to ask about arsenic this time – we’re just going to assume that it’s not present

When KitGuru first considered reviewing the latest A10 APU from AMD, the mainboard supplied cost around £110. You can now get a high-quality alternative from Gigabyte for less than half that price, at just £49.

Not to be left out, if you wanted to hit the high end with an Asus P8Z77-V LE board, then Aria has cancelled the old £125 price point and gone with a much more palatable £109. Which was nice.

Naturally, you don’t need to hit Aria for all your kit – most of the UK’s online retail champions will be running deals through to January and – from what we can tell – there may never have been a better time for you to build/upgrade/augment.

The actual price cuts run across Aria’s full range – and even include overclocked MSI GTX660 Ti cards.

Dell has a reputation for high quality TFTs and low pricing. When you see just how much cheaper Aria is than Dell, we think you'll be (pleasantly) surprised. The other prices are nice too, so 'Why spend more?'

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KitGuru says: Right now, hardcore KitGuru readers will be looking around their box and thinking, “OK, so I have 2x spare sticks of memory, an old 120GB SSD, a 500w PSU and a spare CPU. Do I really feel like making ANOTHER system?”   To which we already know the answer. It’s an addiction and it demands to be fed.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

The most powerful chip that most of us will consider buying is the Intel Core i7 3770k. It’s fast, powerful and lives at the top end of affordable. Similarly, the Z77 is a great chipset. But, between them, there is one area where that kind of combination needs to bow down: Memory. Aria has a new solution to the problem. KitGuru brushes up on X79′s features, advantages and benefits – just for you.

Borrowing a description from a Rolling Stones song, Intel has been around a good long year and it has delivered an interesting mix of brilliant and bland processors. Somewhere in there is a set of ‘unsung heroes’. Not the Q6660 D-Zero Stepping champions, but ones that offer a significant advantage in just one or two areas – which might be enough for you.

The Core i7 3820 takes us back to a Britain covered in thick snow at the start of 2012. KitGuru took an in-depth look at the 32nm X79 chip on an Asrock Extreme4-M board. Performance was impressive, but the pricing for the overall solution was against it.  At launch, you could easily pay £200 for an X79 mainboard and £260 for the processor itself. That’s close to £500 and all you have is a board and chip. Now it’s around £340. Interesting?  Read on.

In a pure fire fight, you will find Intel chips that can beat the Core i7 3820, but if you wanted to push a serious amount of data through some hardcore processing – for example serious video – then this set up is very powerful. Here are the results we achieved at the time:-

Simply put, this chip is a little more badass than the name leads you to believe. We're thinking 'Honda Civic Type R'.

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Head to head, put alongside the Core i7 3770k, Intel’s 3820′s extra cache and improved memory throughput, means it can hold its own in the right kind of tests.

Right now, Aria is offering the Intel Core i7 3820 at £212 with the Gigabyte X79-UD3 at just £119. That’s a full X79 overclocking platform for less than the price of some X77 board.

OK. You’re gonna ask. Why no ‘K’ in the name ?  One of KitGuru’s operatives spoke with an Intel guru and we were told that ‘K’ only applies to ‘Multiplier Unlocked’ – but you can get the juice from a 3820 using dark arts. Nuff said. Click on the pick for more details on the offer itself.

If you want to put 32GB into an overclocked X79 machine without breaking the (memory) bank - here's an idea

KitGuru Says: If you are a Digital Content Creator looking for a new system, this Core i7 3820 offer has to be on your short list. One of the few programs to eat whatever memory you have on offer is Adobe After Effects – with X79 you can double the amount of RAM in your machine AND double the theoretical bandwidth.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

Today we are going to look at the Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H motherboard which supports AMD’s latest Trinity APUs and occupies a Micro-ATX form factor.  We will also be looking briefly at the performance of the AMD A8-5600K APU as we haven’t had a chance to test it previously.  This processor and motherboard combination isn’t top-of-the-range, but should offer users a healthy balance between price and performance.

Gigabyte is renowned for producing a wide range of quality motherboards which encompass both Intel and AMD platforms.  Additionally they have a comprehensive range of models supporting the latest AMD FM2 socket, spanning from those based on the low-end A55 chipset to the more feature-filled A85X that resides on this particular model.

The F2A85XM-D3H fits in the range below the F2A85X-D3H and F2A85X-UP4 which are both full size models.  The Micro-ATX form factor of the F2A85XM-D3H makes it ideal for those looking to build a compact tower PC or a large HTPC.  We look forward to seeing how it performs in our tests.

Features

• GIGABYTE 3D BIOS technology with Dual UEFI BIOS design.
• GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™4 Classic technology.
• Supports socket FM2 AMD A-series/ Athlon-series processors.
• Enhanced AMD Radeon HD 7000-series graphics (DX11) integrated with the APU.
• 2 PCI-E 2.0 x16 interfaces with AMD Dual Graphics, Eyefinity and CrossFire support.
• Features HDMI/ Dual-link DVI/ D-sub ports for Triple-Monitor support.
• 4 native USB 3.0 ports with transfer rates of up to 5Gbps.
• 8 native SATA3 ports with up to 6Gbps link speed and RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 support.
• GIGABYTE On/Off Charge technology with 3x USB power design.

One of the most discussed topics at KitGuru HQ is ‘Just how much do you need to spend in order to get a decent gaming experience?’ – with opinions varying wildly. It really comes down to the image quality and resolution you want to enjoy Vs the size of your wallet. Aria has lined up a new range of affordable gaming rigs – sparking the debate again.

While we always try to keep an open mind about components, there’s no doubt that AMD is extremely strong at the budget end of the gaming rig scale.

If you are able to budget at least £800 for a gaming PC, then we’re prepared to bet that a standard Core i7 3770 or overclocked Core i5 3570k will be at the heart of it.

However, data from IDC suggests that the VAST majority of desktop systems sold in the UK will actually go for less than £600.

Remember: Hardcore KitGuru readers with a strong knowledge of PC hardware are unlikely to buy a ready made rig, when you can create the ideal spec for yourself. But for many people, companies like Aria, MESH and PC Specialist are able to create custom build PCs at a competitive rate – and will provide a support line just in case you run in to issues. On that basis, it’s an easy option.

So, back to the ‘pre-built-buying masses’: What price points and specifications are most interesting to us within Aria’s new line-up?

£319 Gladiator 5800K
With an auto-turbo boost to 4.2GHz built in, this APU-based system has a Radeon HD 7660 built in. That graphics core might be ~twice as powerful as the Intel HD4000 found in the Core i7 3770k, but you’ll still have to drop down to 720p if you want sensible frame rates. Within reason, for console money – you’re going to get a console level experience – but obviously a PC is upgradeable. This is a complete PC – all you need to add is the OS. Full spec here.

£519 Gladiator 6300
Stretch just a little further and your world definitely becomes a better place. The AMD FX-6300 Black Edition was a clear winner when KitGuru readers voted for the ‘BEST CPU UNDER £100′. It will automatically turbo charge itself to 4.1GHz for suitable applications and, in this system, it is paired with the game-changing 2GB Radeon HD 7870 ‘XT’ (Tahiti LE) card. Confirm this for yourself over here.

Both of these come with a Gigabyte mainboard, 8GB DDR3 and a 500GB hard drive. In other words, 100% of the available spend has been focused on frame rate.

As predicted, if you hit the top system in the line-up, you will be spending £829, but will end up with an Intel rig, based around the Core i7 3770 with a Radeon HD 7970. Expect the more budget Radeons to come under some serious pressure if (a) nVidia does a price cut on existing 650 products and/or (b) launches something new on 26th March.

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KitGuru says: If you bought a PC when they first started to be popular, then even a discount store like Morgan in Central London would have charged you over £2,000 for a 16MHz processor on a machine where resolution was measured in CHARACTERS rather than pixels. Too much price aggression is a bad thing, but we like the levels that Aria has pitched these rigs for gamers on a budget.

Comment below, in the KitGuru forums or join us over on Facebook.

Gigabyte is one of the oldest and most famous technology brands, with a huge fan base and reputation for challenging at the top end of the market for mainboards, graphic cards etc.

With multiple new sexy product lines launching, Gigabyte HQ sent a team of presenters over to tell the world what is in store from Gigabyte for 2013.

On a warm spring evening, KitGuru made its way down to the Sanderson Hotel in Central London. Once the production centre for one of the world’s leading wallpaper brands, it is now of the world’s snazziest hotels and, for one evening, home to Gigabyte’s top tech representatives.

Each of the various products on show will have its own launch into the market – this event was more about showing the breadth of what Gigabyte has to offer in the coming months.

So what was on show?

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Well, for starters, there was ‘Brix’ – claiming to be the world’s first ‘full tower power micro PC’. It follows the standards that Intel has developed for tiny PCs (think 4×4) and can pack a full Core i7 punch into a unit that’s about as wide/long as your average smartphone (although a little deeper). It is expected to launch by the start of May – and KitGuru will be waiting to see Haswell versions on show at Computex.

Keen to assault all of your senses, Gigabyte had the Brix sitting close by the worlds first 3.0 USB desktop speakers. Why USB 3?  Well the increased power delivery along the cable means that you can drive louder sound at the woofing/tweeting end. Apparently. We were given a quick demo, from the back of the large presentation room and we have to say that the audio level was impressive.

Next we spotted a pair of fully-loaded 15” and 17” Gigabyte Notebooks. Ben Berraondo from nVidia spent time on stage explaining how his organisation had worked alongside Gigabyte to produce a high-spec graphics engine to compliment a mobile 1080p screen.

As well as fantastic visuals, did we mention that there’s an inbuilt 5.1 speaker setup. Yep, that’s right, Gigabyte’s notebook engineers have managed to integrate a subwoofer into the chassis. Nice.

KitGuru hopes that Gigabyte’s new ideas will be driven into the market with a sustained effort. These are some good ideas and should be opened to a wider audience – but the notebook market is tough enough to put anyone off.

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Despite all of the cool products, for KitGuru, the highlight of the evening happened when Gigabyte’s Marketing Guru, Eva Chang, swooped in and gave us the scoop on her company’s latest mouse, the Aivia Neon.

We say it’s just a mouse, but that’s like saying that Jennifer Lawrence is just a woman.

This is actually a Touch-Charging, Air-Presenting, Remote-Control-Substituting Mini Mega Mouse.

It does the whole wireless, playing games thing. It has an integrated laser, which allows you to do all the clever pointing stuff in important meetings. You can switch to ‘air mouse’ mode and control presentations/HTPCs etc at the touch of a button and – very cleverly – it has 2 ‘charging contact points’ which allow you to put the mouse next to the USB receiver on your laptop and get a 3 hour charge in just 10 minutes. Very cool.

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Last, but by no means least, we got ear to ear with Gigabyte’s futuristic, lightweight headphones branded Fly.

At just 79 grams, with a stylish design, they are pretty Fly for an IT guy. They look something like a prop from the move Fifth Element – and we love Fifth Element. Again, this product comes kitted with what you’d expect from high quality trending headphones selling in today’s market, such as background noise cancelling and consistent all round audio quality. However, Gigabyte have exceeded this territory adding minimalistic simplicity and ingenuity to their designs. We even prefer Fly headphones to market-favourite brands like ‘Skull-Candy’. When Gigabyte’s Eva says that her Fly headphones are ‘sophisticated, lightweight and incredibly comfortable’ – sh ain’t wrong.

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KitGuru says: This was an unexpected and, overall, positive event from a company that does not spend much time with the UK press.  Gigabyte have not just piqued our curiosity, it also has our attention for something more than mainboards. It was nice to see an array of affordable technology presented so well. Most of the products are patented/innovative designs and – when wearable – extremely comfortable. Each product also had a nice ‘forward looking’ aspect in terms of design and functionality. Can’t wait to grill some of this stuff in the KitGuru Lab.

Comment below, in the KitGuru forums or join us online at Facebook.

Today we are going to take a look at the Gigabyte F2A85XN-WIFI, a mid-range mini-ITX motherboard, aimed at those who are looking to build a basic compact gaming system or a compact media centre PC.

The Gigabyte F2A85XN-WIFI features the AMD A85X chipset and supports all of the latest ‘Richland’ APUs, as well as the previous generation models. Despite the compact dimensions of the mini-ITX form factor, Gigabyte has managed to achieve an impressive specification for this model which includes on-board Wi-Fi and even dual HDMI ports.

While we never expect to achieve massive overclocks on mini-ITX motherboards due to the generally less beefy power regulation circuitry, we are excited to see if we can squeeze a few extra MHz out of the 6800K in our tests.

Features

• GIGABYTE Digital Power design with GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 4 Plus technology
• Supports socket FM2 AMD A-series/ Athlon-series processors
• Enhanced AMD Radeon HD 8000/7000-series graphics (DX11) integrated with the APU
• 1 PCI-E 2.0 x16 interfaces with AMD Dual Graphics, Eyefinity support
• Features dual HDMI/ Dual-link DVI ports for Full HD 1080 and HDCP support
• Features Atheros Dual Band 802.11 a/b/g/n 300Mbps + BLUTETOOTH 4.0 wireless solution
• 4 USB 3.0 ports with transfer rates of up to 5Gbps
• 4 SATA3 ports with up to 6Gbps link speed and RAID 0,1,5,10 support
• GIGABYTE On/Off Charge technology with 3x USB power design

Situated towards the entry-level end of Gigabyte’s Ultra Durable series of Z87 motherboards, the Z87-D3HP aims to provide a cheap-and-cheerful way for budget-conscious users to make the switch to Haswell.

Featuring six SATA 6Gb/s ports, CrossFire capabilities, Intel LAN, and up to ten USB 3.0 ports, Gigabyte’s Z87-D3HP offers a good amount of features that will allure the budget-conscious gamer wanting to invest in an LGA1150 system.

With digital voltage control, dual BIOS chips, and Gigabyte’s Ultra Durable 5 Plus technology, can the Z87-D3HP prove that it’s worth a circa-£100 price tag?

Features:

• GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 5 Plus Technology
• IR Digital Power Design
• GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS™
• 15µ gold plated CPU socket
• Multi-GPU Support
• All solid capacitors
• GIGABYTE On/Off Charge™ for USB devices
• Intel^® LAN with high ESD Protection
• 10 USB 3.0 ports

Gigabyte has announced the release of a new gaming motherboard, specifically designed with AMD users in mind. Known as the G1 Sniper A88X and therefore part of the G1-Killer range of gaming motherboards, it comes packing all the standard features you’d expect of a high end Gigabyte product, with the inclusion some exclusive audio features too.

This mobo supports both current-gen FM2 Trinity and Richland APUs, as well as the upcoming FM2+ Keveri chips and comes packing all of the features from the existing range of G1-Killer boards. However, the big focus with this motherboard was audio, with several specific features designed to keep users at the cutting edge of PC sound. Some of these include:

• Gold plated USB connectors and isolated power sources, for noise-free power delivery
• Gain boost switches, allowing on the fly amplification
• Upgradable operational amplifier (OP-Amp), meaning unique customisation of sound scape
• Electrostatic shield between all analogue audio components
• High quality Nichion MUSE ES audio capacitors used throughout
• Realtek ALC898 audio processor also shielded by gold-plated cover

While all the gold might be a bit much, it does provide a durability for ports and covers over the more traditional nickel plating – though expect the extra material value to feature in the cost.

Gotta admit, I like the rave-look of it

For a full range of features, you can see the Gigabyte release here, though there’s no specific web-page for this board yet.

KitGuru Says: With a board like this, focused so much on audio, you’d think it would be marketed at semi-professionals, or bedroom DJs, instead of the quite obvious gamer centric styling with all the references to killing and sniping. 

Today we are going to look at one of the first Socket FM2+ motherboards designed for gaming, the Gigabyte G1 Sniper A88X.  This has similar characteristics as the other products in Gigabyte’s gaming range, including the trademark green and black colour scheme.

As its name suggests, the Gigabyte G1 Sniper A88X features the AMD A88X chipset and supports all of the latest ‘Richland’ APUs, as well as the previous generation models. This is a fully-featured ATX motherboard which has a number of high end capabilities such as LED-lighting and CrossFire support.

We are excited to see how well the G1 Sniper A88X overclocks, as we have achieved some impressive results from more mainstream-focused Gigabyte motherboards in the past.

Features

• Socket FM2+ supports AMD FM2+/FM2 A-series APU
• GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 4 Plus Technology
• GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS™
• GIGABYTE AMP-UP Audio technology
• Exclusive Upgradable OP-AMP
• Exclusive Gain Boost
• Audio Noise Guard with LED path lighting
• Nichicon High End Audio Capacitors
• Noise-less USB DAC-UP port
• 2way CrossFire™ Support
• HDMI, Dual-link DVI, D-sub ports for Triple-Monitor support
• High ESD Protection on GbE LAN and USB ports
• Realtek ALC898 with High Quality 110dB SNR HD audio
• Bundle CFOS Speed Internet Accelerator Software

With modern computer components continuing the trend of shrinking in size while also increasing in performance, the small form-factor (SFF) market is big business. Taking size reductions to the extreme, can Gigabyte’s BRIX prove its worth to downsizing system builders?

Housed in a chassis measuring 10.5cm by 11cm, the biggest selling point for Gigabyte’s BRIX barebones mini-PC is clearly its size. Having the ability to mount your computer to the back of a monitor frees up desk space and helps to mimic a costly all-in-one alternative. But it’s not just a petite design that the BRIX offers. Utilising a range of powerful and versatile low power CPUs, Gigabyte wants its BRIX to prove itself as a fully-fledged desktop replacement.

Powered by a dual-core, hyper-threading Core i7-4500U CPU which utilises a nominal clock speed of 1.8GHz and turbo boosts up to 3.0GHz, the BRIX i7-4500 version has a number of clear usage scenarios. General computing power is supported by the ability to access up to 16GB of DDR3-1600 memory and a 6Gb/s mSATA SSD. 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth provide the wireless connectivity options, while a Gigabit LAN controller extends networking capabilities.

With a solid set of base features and the possibility of squeezing a system comparable to a mid-range laptop into a 10.5cm by 11cm chassis, does Gigabyte’s BRIX i7-4500 show off when it comes to performance and usage testing?

Features:

• Compact PC.
• Dual display outputs.
• Four USB 3.0 ports.
• VESA support.
• WiFi module included.
• Supports mSATA SSDs.
• Supports SO-DIMM memory modules.

Introducing itself to the low-cost gaming motherboard scene, can Gigabyte’s G1.Sniper Z87 retain the features that makes its higher-priced siblings attractive purchases?

Targeting mid-range gamers Gigabyte’s G1.Sniper Z87 features a Killer E2201 NIC, support for 2-way SLI and CrossFire, and an eye-catching green and black colour scheme. Further enhancements are provided in the form of a unique audio system centred around Nichicon high-end audio capacitors, interchangeable operational amplifiers, and Creative’s Sound Core 3D audio processor.

With gaming-orientated components and a durable power delivery system bonded into an attractive design, can Gigabyte’s G1.Sniper Z87 compete in the vicious sub-£120 motherboard market?

Features:

• Creative Sound Core 3D audio processor.
• Upgradeable OP-AMPS.
• Killer E2200 series NIC.
• High-end audio components.
• 2-way graphics support.
• Gold plated connectors.
• Onboard buttons.

When Dino PC told us that it was holding a LAN party with StarCraft II and Grid 2 tournaments, in association with Gigabyte, Nvidia and The Last Resort, KitGuru grabbed the camera and headed out to London.

Held at the Meltdown Bar in London, Dino PC’s gaming extravaganza gave excited gamers a chance to try out the system builder’s latest Gigabyte- and Nvidia-based gaming powerhouses.

Dino PC and Gigabyte set up a StarCraft II tournament with the winner taking home a high-end Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H motherboard.

But that wasn’t all; eager gamers were given a chance to compete at Grid 2 on a 4K screen, powered by Dino PC’s Battlebox Lite system – a powerhouse equipped with a 4770K, Gigabyte Z87X-OC, and SLI Nvidia GTX 780 Ti cards built professionally into the Corsair Carbide Air 540 chassis.

Lucky Jamie Nicholls used his Grid 2 skills to set a 1 minute 57 second lap time which bagged him a combination of premium gaming peripherals from Gigabyte.

Perhaps it was the precision of Gigabyte’s Force K7 gaming keyboard which helped push him to victory.

Also out on show was Dino PC’s SFF Hadron system. Cramming a 4670K, Gigabyte Z87N-WiFi, and Nvidia’s GTX 760 into the m-ITX EVGA Hadron chassis, Dino PC’s Hadron system was tearing through Crysis 3.

Gigabyte was keen to show off its gaming-orientated Force K7 keyboard and M8000X mouse. The gamers seemed pleased with the performance of Gigabyte’s gaming peripherals.

Oculus Rift made an appearance, wowing enthused gamers with its unique, albeit nausea-inducing (for me at least), rollercoaster demo.

We spoke to Dino PC who said they were keen to hold more events in the future. In the mean time, get enhancing those gaming skills so that next time round, you are the one going home with a set of impressive prizes.

Discuss on our FACEBOOK page, over HERE.

KitGuru says: Well done to Dino PC for putting on a fun event, with the assistance of Gigabyte and Nvidia. Keep tuned for information on Dino PC’s next LAN party.

The be quiet! and Kitguru advent calendar competition has been running for a few weeks now offering up great prizes from PSUs, to t-shirts, but now we’re in the last week so that means it’s your last chance to enter and get yourself a new SLI enabled motherboard, a high power PSU and a lot more.

Same as before, to enter you need to make sure you like both the be quiet! and Gigabyte Facebook pages, but I don’t need to tell you how to do that. What I do need to tell you is what’s up for grabs and it’s an impressive bundle. Instead of multiple prize packs, this time it’s just a single big one, so the lucky winner is going have a good Christmas indeed. The bundle includes:

GA-Z87X-SLI Mainboard + Power Zone 1000W + Shadow Rock Slim + 2 x Silent Wings 2 120mm + Power Zone T-Shirt

If you were looking to put together a new gaming PC in the new year, this would be a pretty good start.

You don’t even need to answer a question this time, just head here, like the pages and hit “win now,” and you’ll be entered into the competition.

KitGuru Says: Good luck everyone. That’s quite a prize pack. Here’s hoping one of you can grab it.