Gigabyte Claim World's First Overclocking Mobo

GIGABYTE is now claiming "world's first" with the upcoming launch of its X58A-OC, the first motherboard "designed by overclockers, for overclockers." At first glance the motherboard is reminiscent of Halloween sporting a spooky ornage and black theme. But the hardware behind the X58A-OC is far from frightening, featuring a design based on the Intel X58 chipset (Tylersburg) and supporting LGA 1366 socket CPUs like the Core i7 990X Extreme Edition.

"The GIGABYTE X58A-OC introduces some really exciting and unique overclocking technologies like the PWM frequency switcher, a full range of on-board 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.

Overall the board's highlights include six DDR3 memory slots (two per channel), six-core twelve-thread CPU support, and "enough PCI Express Gen 2.0 bandwidth to support 4-way AMD CrossfireX and 3-way Nvidia SLI for the best graphics performance in the world." It also features a new VRM design called OC-VRM, which includes a combination of highly conductive POScaps, 50A rated MPFC (Max Power Ferrite Core) Chokes, and Driver-MOSFETs.

"OC-VRM also allows users to overclock the PWM frequency via an onboard switch, for real-time adjustment," the company said. "When the CPU needs maximum power, users can raise the PWM frequency in order to deliver more current through this unique POScap and MPFC Choke design. In addition, GIGABYTE has specially chosen unobtrusive components and carefully designed their layout to make it easier and quicker than ever for extreme overclockers to insulate their boards."

Other overclock-specific features include on-board OC-Touch buttons for manually raising and lowering the CPU ratio, changing BCLK settings, and changing BCLK stepping to either 1 MHz or 0.3 MHz. OC-PEG provides two on-board SATA power connectors for more stable PCIe power when using 3-way and 4-way graphics configurations. OC-Cool features a new LED lit thermal design and 7x 4-pin Smart Fan connectors for controlling system-wide temperatures. There's also OC-DualBIOS which offers an on-board BIOS switcher and LED indicator, allowing users to select one BIOS for normal use, and another one for overclocking.

Currently pricing and availability is unknown, so stay tuned.