Motherboard and graphic card manufacturer, GIGABYTE Technology Co., has launched its new X99 motherboard lineup based on the Intel X99 chipset with support for Intel’s new Core i7 Extreme Edition (LGA 2011-v3 socket) processors and latest DDR4 memory support. The new lineup features 3 main categories of motherboards including G1 gaming, SOC overclocking, and signature GIGABYTE Ultra Durable.
“Given this incredibly powerful platform from Intel, GIGABYTE wanted to make sure each one of our X99 series motherboards delivered that ‘WOW’ factor for our enthusiast customers,” says Henry Kao, vice president of GIGABYTE, motherboard business unit. “In addition to being the first motherboards to support the latest Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition CPUs and recently released DDR4 memory, GIGABYTE X99 motherboards offer an extensive range of unique GIGABYTE features that truly unlock the full potential of the platform.”
GIGABYTE X99 series motherboard features include:
- IR Digital PWN and IR PowIRstage ICs – This new generation of IR digital power controllers and PowIRstage ICs feature Isense technology, which offers a more precise current sensing accuracy to help evenly distribute the thermal loading between the PowerIRstage ICs, preventing the overheating of each individual PowIRstage.
- Server Level Chokes by Cooper Bussmann – GIGABYTE X99 series motherboards feature Cooper Bussmann Chokes, which provide server level reliability, high current capacity, and a new design to help reduce heat created by power loss and provides efficient power delivery to CPU VRM area.
- Lifespan Durable Black Solid Caps and POSCAPS – The GIGABYTE X99-SOC Force include POSCAPs for the CPU power delivery. POSCAPs (Polymerized Organic Semiconductor Capacitor) are a recently introduced capacitor boasting a better ripple current and dissipation properties. In addition, POSCAPs are able to maintain low impedance characteristics, no matter what operating frequency, making them suitable for systems using high-frequency switching power supplies.
- 3-Way / 4-Way Graphics with Premium PCIe x16 Lane for Up to 320Gb/s Bandwidth – The new motherboards feature a PCI Express design that utilizes 100% of all 40 lanes from the CPU when in a 4-Way or 3-Way graphics configuration. With the onboard external clock generator, combined with the direct connection of one of the x16 lanes to the CPU (switchless design), GIGABYTE X99 motherboards can unlock a bandwidth up to 320Gb/s.
- Dual M.2 Technology with Onboard WIFI and Bluetooth 4.0/Fast Data Transfer and Advanced WIFI Networking – Dual M.2 technology provides users PCI-Express connectivity for SSD devices and onboard 11AC WIFI + Bluetooth 4.0. Delivering up to 10 Gb/s data transfer speeds, M.2 offers faster storage performance than current mSATA and SATA Revision 3 (6Gb/s) storage devices.
- Turbo M.2 Technology – X99 SOC motherboards features a Turbo M.2 socket to provide compact connectivity for SSD devices. Four PCIe (Gen.2) lanes can be allocated to the M.2 socket, unlocking up to 20 Gb/s of bandwidth.
- Next Generation SATA Express Connector – An onboard SATA Express connector provides data transfer rates of up to 10Gb/s, higher than SATA Revision 3 (6Gb/s). SATA Express combines the benefits of PCI-Express and SATA to provide a higher bandwidth, allowing SATA Express based drives to perform at similar speeds as PCI-Express based drives.
- 6x (30μ) Gold Plating РThe motherboards come equipped with a 30 micron thick gold plating for the CPU socket, 4 PCIe slots, and over the 8 DIMM slots.
- Safer Design Around Screw Mounting Holes Standard – X99 motherboards all feature a wider copper ground pad and onboard components free area around the PCB screw mounting holes. This design helps reduce the chance of damaging any surrounding onboard components during the PC assembly process. Bigger copper ground pads also provide the added benefit of lower EMI disturbance for reduced noise interference across your system.
- 2x Copper PCB Design (2 oz Copper PCB) provides sufficient power trace paths between components to handle power loads and to remove heat from the critical CPU power delivery area.
- Creative Sound Core3D Quad-Core Audio Processor plus Creative SBX Pro Studio Audio Suite
- Realtek ALC 1150 115dB SNR HD Audio with Built-In Reat Audio Amplifier – Realtek ALC1150 is a multi-channel High Definition Audio Codec that delivers up to 115dB SNR. The ALC1150 provides ten DAC channels that simultaneously support 7.1-channel sound playback, plus two channels of independent stereo sound output (multiple streaming) through the front panel stereo outputs. Two stereo ADCs are integrated and can support a microphone array with Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC), Beam Forming (BF), and Noise Suppression (NS) technologies. The ALC1150 incorporates Realtek proprietary converter technology to achieve front differential output, 115dB Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) playback (DAC) quality, and 104dB SNR recording (ADC) quality.
- All New Heat Sink with LED Design – New motherboards offer cooling support of the PWM area.
- Ambient LED – Programmable LED lighting for the audio guard light path and the back panel LED allows users to set lighting to beat to the rhythm of the music or to pulse at a pace to enhance the environment of a game, movie, or music.
- Q-Flash Plus allows users to update to the latest BIOS using a thumb drive without the CPU or memory needing to be installed. Utilizing the ITE EC 8951E controller, GIGABYTE X99 motherboard BIOS can be updated even if the system is unable to boot.
- Killer Networking – Select GIGABYTE X99 series motherboards feature the Killer E2200from Qualcomm Atheros, a gigabit Ethernet controller with Advanced Stream Detect technology, which identifies and prioritizes all network traffic to ensure important applications that require high-speed connectivity are prioritized over less important traffic.
- Intel GbE LAN with cFos Internet Accelerator Software – cFos Speed is a network traffic management application, which helps to improve network latency, maintaining low ping times to deliver better responsiveness in a crowded LAN environment. cFos Speed works in a similar way to an OS driver, monitoring network traffic packets at the application layer, allowing optimization and improved network performance for specific applications.
- Thunderbolt Ready – GIGABYTE X99 motherboards include an onboard pin header to accommodate the addition of a GIGABYTE Thunderbolt add-in card. The Thunderbolt controller can provide bandwidth of up to 20 Gb/s. It also supports daisy-chaining of up to 12 devices and triple digital display support.
- Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition CPUs (Codename: Haswell-E) – New Intel Core i7 Processors on LGA 2011-v3 socket are Intel’s first 8 core desktop CPUs and support DDR4 memory. These next generation 22nm CPUs delivers greater performance and energy efficiency by sporting 40 PCIe Gen.3 lanes delivering bandwidth totaling 320 Gb/s. Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition CPUs deliver 8 core (16 threaded) multitask processing, higher frequencies, as well as larger cache size. Additionally, GIGABYTE X99 users can draw even more performance out of their Extreme Edition CPUs, as they are fully unlocked for overclocking.
- 4 Channel DDR4 – With stock frequencies starting at 2133 MHz, DDR4 memory offers up to 20% less energy consumption and twice as much density as the previous generation DDR3.
GIGABYTE X99 Series Motherboard Models include: GA-X99-Gaming G1 WIFI, GA-X99-Gaming 5, GA-X99-SOC Force, GA-X99-UD5 WIFI, GA-X99-UD4, and GA-X99-UD3. Features may vary by model. For more details on GIGABYTE’s X99 series motherboards, visit: http://www.gigabyte.us/microsite/372/x99.html.
