Gigabyte details its X58A-OC motherboard

Highly specialized niche board for overclockers

GIGABYTE IS ABOUT to launch what is the first motherboard that has been specifically designed by an overclocker for overclockers in the shape of the X58A-OC. This board is not intended for your average consumer, nor high-end users that want a lot of features as it has been purely designed to allow overclockers to reach as high clock speeds as possible.

This might sound slightly crazy and it’s something of a gamble on Gigabyte’s side, as this is never going to be a high volume product. On the other hand, it’s a very high-quality board judging by the components used, as Gigabyte has pulled out all the stops on this one. Every single capacitor consists of an SMD mounted tantalum POSCAP and these aren’t cheap. This is done in part due to the advantages that these solid state capacitors offer, but also due to the lower clearance they offer which allows overclockers to more easily fit LN2 pots and what not to the board.

 

However, it doesn’t stop there as Gigabyte has design a new PWM that uses MOS chips rated at 50A each for a total power delivery over the 12 phases of 600A/1200W and there’s a pair of 8-pin 12V power connectors fitted to the board to make sure that enough power can be delivered from the PSU. The PWM frequency can be adjusted on the fly from 400kHz to 600, 800 and 1000kHz with the help of a dip switch block.

Then there’s the power readout points to which a multi-meter can be fitted, the manual bus ratio and frequency adjustment buttons and an instant 4GHz overclock button. To provide extra power to the graphics cards, Gigabyte has fitted a pair of SATA style power connectors next to the SATA data connectors on the board and these are mounted horizontally to reduce obstruction, unlike most MOLEX connectors that are mounted vertically. The X58A-OC does of course feature Gigabyte’s Dual BIOS, but in this case it has a manual switch which allows overclockers to manually switch between the two BIOS chips, just in case.

 

Some less extreme features includes no less than seven 4-pin PWM fan headers, a massive heatsink on the chipset and PWM area, two SATA 6Gbps ports, two USB 3.0 ports, four PCI Express x16 slots (where the first and third slots are full x16 slots when only two slots are used) and a single PCI slot. The rear I/O also sports two PS/2 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port and three audio jacks. Finally the board has a pin header for two additional USB 2.0 ports and of course six SATA 3Gbps ports.

We’ll be getting a closer look at this board on later this week and if you have any questions you’d like to ask Gigabyte about it, please get in touch before noon GMT +8 on Friday and we’ll try and convey your questions to Gigabyte. No word on pricing as yet, but the board should launch before the end of the month.S|A

Editor’s note:  Please direct questions either to Lars, to the editor or ask in the forums.  Questions asked below in the comments will not be used as we do not read the comments.  Thank you.


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