Here’s a rundown of the new products we saw over at the lovely Gigabyte motherboard showcase straight from the 36th floor of Taipei 101. With the release of the new Intel HEDT line of Broadwell-E products as well as a refresh of some Z170 and X170 products, GIGABYTE’s got a lot going on for them.
X99 Designare EX
The GIGABYTE X99 DESIGNARE EX is the new flagship motherboard for the LGA2011-3 series of mainstream motherboards featuring a fully modern design adopted from their new line of motherboards. The new GIGABYTE X99 DESIGNARE EX features support for new Broadwell-E HEDT processors from Intel including the 10-core i7-6950X Extreme Edition processor. The board features support for up to 8 modules of DDR4 memory in quad-channel configuration with support for XMP2.0 and high frequency modules up to DDR4-3400 onwards via overclocking. The X99 Designare EX also features integrated dual Intel LAN as well as Intel WIFI with built-in support for U.2 NVME devices. GIGABYTE also includes a high-powered 36W USB3.1 Type C interface for quicker charging of supported devices.
GIGABYTE Z170 UD3 Ultra
The Z170X UD3 Ultra despite its designation looks like really premium. The UD3 designation is usually reserved for the lower tier mainstream offerings but looking at the specs on this thing, its really looking good. The printed design on the PCB as well as the new shroud and colors look better on this board than its gaming counterpart. The metal brace on the DIMM and expansion slots also give it a really robust feel and the weight adds to that feel. Featuring support for U.2, M.2, SLI support and many more, this is a feature-rich mainstream motherboard.
GIGABYTE also expands its Designare series to other chipsets featuring the same design elements and as for the entry level products, they also receive a redesign with the Z170-D3HP and B150M-D3HP get new designs.
Some of the older boards getting re-releases with the X99-Ultra Gaming taking over the GAMING flagship spot and the X99 Phoenix SLI providing the Intel LAN variant of the GAMING model.
GIGABYTE has also unveiled their wide array of Thunderbolt solutions for their motherboards. With Intel Thunderbolt still offering far more bandwidth than anything out there right now, GIGABYTE wants to take the technology further by integrating Thunderbolt into their motherboards as well as support for add-in cards. With this, users will be able to utilize Thunderbolt devices including many products from various vendors that offer ultra fast storage and other solutions. GIGABYTE with Thunderbolt will support DP mini-input from the GPU and will allow daisy-chaining Thunderbolt devices with only a single line of output.
MOD SHOWCASE
GIGABYTE had a few mods featuring their motherboards on display also. Mostly older stuff so let’s just show you the pictures. Lovely detailing on that last one, by the way.
AIO and Complete Systems
On display were a couple of custom AIO systems, first one pictured is this system featuring a full gaming PC in the back of the monitor. That’s a GTX 980 Ti G1 Gaming with a mini-ITX board running the system cooled with a custom AIO watercooling loop.
Another brand on display was HKEPC, with fully customized motherboard with the PCI-e slot angled downwards to fully support their vertical GPU mount. These are custom made motherboards attached to a 1080p Curved screen with a retail price of around $200.
GIGABYTE also displayed a wide array of their new mini PCs including one that isn’t so mini. The GIGABYTE XD7B0 is powered by a Skylake processor running a GTX 970 all of which fits in a unique cylindrical chassis with automated vents that pop-open when the internal temps reach a certain level.
A concept unveiled was GIGABYTE’s new Thunderbolt external GPU chassis allowing smaller systems to run graphics cards without needing a GPU. This allows systems like the GIGABYTE BRIX or such with Thunderbolt connectivity to run high-end graphics cards externally for better gaming performance.
Workstation and HEDT Motherboards
GIGABYTE also shows off their X170 and X150 motherboards featuring official support for Xeon class processor. Pretty much the same as their desktop counterparts as they “unofficially” support Core series processors but we really want those camo designs in more motherboards.
