Eric Garay

Last week, I was privileged to attend the GIGABYTE P55 launch party. It’s funny that these kinds of events are labeled “launch party” when there’s very little, if any, partying. While there is a bit of food and hanging out lately, we do engage in some serious discussion about upcoming products for the better part of the day. By the days end, we’re usually all well versed in what’s new.

Most PC enthusiasts are well aware of Core i5 which is built on the Lynnfield processor core. There are also some Core i7 processors that are also built on the Lynnfield. These processors are considered the Mainstream series where the Nehalem Core i7 are considered the Extreme series. Make a bit more sense?

The Lynnfield core only needs Dual Channel memory to tap in to its uber, awesome processing power. Nehalem needs Triple Channel memory if you want its best performance. Lynnfield is positioned to offer the best mainstream performance at a more affordable level based on design as well as the supporting P55 motherboards. Exact prices have not been released just yet.

The P55 Chipset should live up to its predecessor and provide some exceptional performance. It’s hard to imagine a better chipset than the P45 and X58, but this could be it. Just from the preliminary look at GIGABYTE’s P55 motherboard line up, there are a total of 11 different models offering different features for every possible user. This includes a very stout Micro-ATX model featuring 12 Phase VRM (voltage regulating management).

The mid-range boards offer a new hybrid eSATA/USB port that can be used for both devices. This helps free up some space in the back and uses less materials. These boards also offer 12 Phase VRM to better ensure the odds of a very healthy overclock. (Hey, they build the boards for it, so why not?)

And the pinnacle of the line up is the model GA-P55-UD6. These powerful, 2 ounce copper monster offers 24 Phase VRM meaning it’s built for overclocking. This is also the very first of its kind which was proudly shown off by Fugger (XtremeSystems.org), who was easily pushing a Lynnfield processor and DDR3 memory in to uncharted territory using just Phase Change cooling instead of LN2.

In the end, the new P55’s look was inspired by racing, as it should be. I mean, these are going to the fastest Dual Channel platforms around, so why not make them look fast? To me, it reminds me of a Shelby GT 500. You can never go wrong when Shelby is involved!

How about winning the 2009 GIGABYTE Overclocking Championship this past weekend. I’ve seen LN2 events take place, but never got up close and personal. These guys put a lot of time and thought in to how they’re going to beat the guy next to them.

I went to LA for the GIGABYTE Open Overclocking Championship 2009 event. Friday night they were still setting up when I managed to sneak in to check out what kind of hardware they would be using ahead of time. There were 13 stations set up with all the hardware needed to build a respectable Intel I7 based system including a Solid State Drive.

Saturday morning, the competition started with numbers being drawn so that the seating would be random. After a little waiting, everyone went in to see what they’d be using. At that point, everyone broke out their special cooling blocks called “pots” which replace the video card and CPU coolers.

During the next couple hours, everyone assembled their systems and made all kinds of preliminary tweaks in hopes of gaining an edge. At that point, everyone started booting up their systems filled with LN2, sending small clouds of evaporation across the tables. It was like being in an overclocker’s mad-house laboratory.

The first two hour contest was to see how high they could overclock their CPU and memory in order to calculate Super Pi the fastest. Fugger (a very well known elite overclocker) managed to tweak his machine enough to produce the quickest time of 30.625 seconds. However, Fugger already has a spot for the World’s Championship in Taiwan. Another elite named Miahallen produced the second fastest time of 30.969 seconds which actually put him in first place.

Part two of the competition was to see who could produce the highest 3DMark scores. This time around, lady luck smiled on two new faces. Sno-Jnc had an exemplary GTX 260 that overclocked nicely securing him second place. Maxi produced a score very close, but was just enough to achieve 3rd place in the final test.

Here you can see Sno.Jnc (left), Miahallen (middle), and Maxi (right) enjoying a little victor’s tonic. Each one received all the components needed to build an elite Intel I7 system. Miahallen just happened to get GIGABYTE’s top of the line EX58-Extreme and Intel I7 965 processor.

Some of the highest overclocked I7 965 3.2GHz processors reached 5.3 GHz by keeping temperatures around -65 Celcius. That’s cold! Not everyone had success. A few participants had processors and video cards that weren’t quite as capable of overclocking as the rest which really comes down to the luck of the draw. The same happens to the rest of us on air and watercooled computers. Rather than just give up, do a little research if you want the best hardware for extreme.

The GIGABYTE Overclocking event was quite interesting and fun all as the same time. If you have a chance to attend any kind of overclocking event in your area, do it. You can learn just about everything needed to ensure your own success by watching and asking questions. Start off with air or water cooled overclocking first till you’re confident you can handle any build. Who knows, you might just win the next fastest computer system in the world.