Gigabyte’s CES 2014 Overclocking Event: Enthusiasts In Vegas

Hidden Without

In the midst of CES hustle and bustle, Gigabyte organized an out-of-the-way gathering of overclockers and media. The firm issued a public invitation, but only those who confirmed attendance got a shot at the location. A ten-minute walk from the building’s entrance and staged at night, security through obscurity appeared to be the idea.

But No Secrects Within?

Demo systems and exhibit parts from Gigabyte, Enermax, and G.Skill lined three of the walls, while the fourth was set up for hardware sets.

OK, Maybe Slightly Secret...

Among the items on diplay were several prototypes, such as the silent Bay Trail-based system that’s scheduled for production near the end of Q1 2014.

A Look Forward With SATA Express

We’ve seen many companies try their hand at external PCIe connectivity, but most get killed before they go to production due to licensing and driver issues with Thunderbolt. Gigabyte believes it solves the bandwidth issues experienced by those 10 and 20 Gb/s concepts by using SATA Express, which allows eight full-bandwidth PCIe 2.0 lanes to communicate over two cables.

Expanding The Expander

If you think eight PCIe lanes aren't enough, Gigabyte says it can do 16 though four SATA Express cables. In fact, its engineers told us that this “turnkey solution” will probably come first, once manufacturing hurdles are cleared.

If You Build It…

Every event needs people, and free goodies usually draw them in. All four sponsors provided door prizes for participating overclockers that ranged from memory kits to cases.

…And Stock It Well…

Two tanks of LN2 would give these overclockers enough cooling to push the event well past its five-hour schedule. That is, in addition to all the free hardware.

...They'll Overclock It

The mix was roughly half overclockers, one-quarter media, and one-quarter industry insiders.

The Fairer Side Of Overclocking

We all know that female overclockers exist, but few of us have seen one. Gigabyte’s event featured two, but the other one always seemed to have her back turned to the camera.

Fueling Up For The Fight?

Gigabyte timed food delivery to almost perfectly coincide with the time between prepping and testing of overclocked platforms. Enthusiasts who like good food and love free beer were wise to respond to Gigabyte’s invitation.

The Battle Begins

With their systems and their stomachs now prepared, attendees were ready to pour on the cooling and get clocking. This “non-competitive friendly gathering” was still supposed to be an exhibition, but most teams continued to keep their results private.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
  • rantoc
    So where is that 7 ghz processor that will run stable 24/7 and not just a benchmark and its done... kinda useless but so is drag racing so why not!
    Reply
  • bemused_fred
    "We all know that female overclockers exist, but few of us have seen one.""A GIRL! A GIRL! A GIRL! A GIRL!"Oh grow up already. Don't react to girls being at an overclocking competition like a 14-year-old boy having their model train society invaded by one and then wonder why we see so few in the overclocking business.
    Reply
  • SoumyaHD
    WOW
    Reply
  • Novuake
    12405119 said:
    "We all know that female overclockers exist, but few of us have seen one.""A GIRL! A GIRL! A GIRL! A GIRL!"Oh grow up already. Don't react to girls being at an overclocking competition like a 14-year-old boy having their model train society invaded by one and then wonder why we see so few in the overclocking business.

    Its called rhetoric, I am reasonably sure that the author did not go "GIRL GIRL...". The idea behind it is HUMOUR.

    You are reacting like a 14 old boy TRYING very hard to act mature.

    So stop nitpicking.
    Reply
  • bemused_fred
    12405450 said:

    So stop nitpicking.

    I hardly think it's nitpicking to say that something alone the lines of

    The Fairer Side Of Overclocking

    We all know that female overclockers exist, but few of us have seen one. Gigabyte’s event featured two, but the other one always seemed to have her back turned to the camera.

    Is perhaps the creepiest, least mature way of talking about women, ever. It's like the author has heard of women, and maybe even seen a picture or two of them, but can't react to seeing one in real life beyond "WOW, SUCH GIRL. MANY RARE. MUCH FAIRNESS. WHY TURN BACK. WOW". C'mon. If you want more women in the P.C. hardware market maybe try, oh I dunno, treating them like the normal* human beings that they are instead of some kind of freak show to be gawked at.

    Reply
  • expl0itfinder
    ^^When you put it in a quote, it is pretty creepy o_0
    Reply
  • Novuake
    The people saying they are not sexist or racist or whatever are the ones that constantly hold it in their mind and bind it to society, LET IT GO and no one can take offence to it.

    Hell if you were a woman Fred then you would have had all right to complain, but you are not. You may be completely wrong and every woman out there that do overclock finds his insert funny.

    Everyone's an individual, stop talking about equality, if you are not in some backwater country, you should not even be considering it a problem. If I were to treat everyone with that know nothing about the computer industry the same, they would never learn anything.
    Reply
  • bemused_fred
    The people saying they are not sexist or racist or whatever are the ones that constantly hold it in their mind and bind it to society, LET IT GO and no one can take offence to it.Hell if you were a woman Fred then you would have had all right to complain, but you are not. You may be completely wrong and every woman out there that do overclock finds his insert funny. Everyone's an individual, stop talking about equality, if you are not in some backwater country, you should not even be considering it a problem. If I were to treat everyone with that know nothing about the computer industry the same, they would never learn anything.
    All I'm saying is that the author of this piece should talk about women like they're people instead of gasping and fawning over them in an abnormal and frankly scary manner. If that upsets you, you really need to take a good look at yourself and ask why.
    Reply
  • Sykotik
    All I'm saying is that the author of this piece should talk about women like they're people instead of gasping and fawning over them in an abnormal and frankly scary manner. If that upsets you, you really need to take a good look at yourself and ask why.
    All we're saying is that the reader of this piece should read 'with a grain of salt' instead of gasping and trolling over it in an abnormal and frankly annoying manner. If that tiny portion of text upsets you, you really need to take a good look at yourself and ask why.
    Reply
  • Mahisse
    I love how comments for these articles always turn into discussion about a completely unrelated question :D
    Reply