FOR A VERY long time now, Asus has been the only company with so called “gaming” motherboards, although we’re still not quite sure what this term really implies, as most of its R.O.G. boards have been favoured by overclockers and general enthusiasts as much as gamers. However, it seems like Gigabyte is getting ready go head to head with Asus with a range of new gaming motherboards that the company will unveil at CES.
We don’t have much in terms of details of the new range, but a blog posts on Gigabyte’s un/official blog gives us a few hints as to what to expect. In fact, the entire blog posts consist of a headline that reads “Get Ready for a Showdown at CES” and a promotional ad for a new motherboard. Now we’re presuming there will be multiple boards, as below the board name one can read “Gaming Motherboards” as in multiple products, rather than a one off product.
The first board appears to be called G1-Killer and how appropriate this name is can be argued. The picture of the board is blacked out and it’s tiny, so it’s near enough impossible to make out any details. We doubt this is the final version of the ad for the new board as well, as we’d swear that the CPU logo is the Core i 7 Extreme Edition logo, but it really is hard to make out from the picture, but either which way, it’s not the new Intel Core isomethingmeaningless logo. If this is indeed a picture of the G1-Killer motherboard, then expect it to be for Sandy Bridge, as it’s possible to make out two sets of two memory slots. The board also appears to have a heatpipe cooling solution on the power regulation circuitry, but that’s all that really can be seen.
Interestingly, Gigabyte has supplied a starting from price which is $299 and this places the G1-Killer squarely in the same territory as Asus’ R.O.G. series of boards. It also suggests that we’re looking at something that should hopefully have a lot of extraordinary features to command such a high price tag, especially as this is the starting price point for the entire range. There’s no doubt that there’s a demand for such products, but hopefully Gigabyte will offer some more affordable alternatives in the future as well, since not everyone can afford to spend $300 on a motherboard, gamer or not.S|A
Editor’s note: Charlie was most exicted by the idea of a Hello Kitty Adventure Islands motherboard as part of this series. However, when contacted by this editor Gigabyte’s response was “ewwww, we don’t comment on unannounced products, but I think I’m going to be sick.”
Lars-Göran Nilsson
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