Motherboard

In terms of launches, audio is generally the poor cousin of the CPU and GPU. While publications across the globe go ape for the latest and greatest in terms of piped lines, cor-inducing cores and giggly hurts – the audio processor tends to stay in the shade. Not today. This …

If you are running on older hardware there is a good chance that your system will be struggling to produce good frame rates with the latest Direct X 11 games. Our competition today will be sure to help cure that problem because we are giving away a stunning P8Z77-V Deluxe …

I spoke to some industry insiders last night in Taipei and 2013 looks to be a tough year for the leading motherboard manufacturers. Asustek are expected to see a slight drop in shipments in 2013, down from 22.2 million in 2012 to 21.5 million in 2013. Gigabyte will be trying …

From the time we first saw the next generation of APUs (codenamed Richland) on AMD roadmaps, back in November, the general consensus among the press community was that ‘nothing much' would be delivered. The announcement from AMD is that things have got measurably better. KitGuru pulls out a stop watch …

The most powerful chip that most of us will consider buying is the Intel Core i7 3770k. It's fast, powerful and lives at the top end of affordable. Similarly, the Z77 is a great chipset. But, between them, there is one area where that kind of combination needs to bow …

Many people will be heading into 2013 with plans of upgrading their system. MSI sent us their capable, but competitively priced Z77A-G45 Z77 motherboard and we are pairing it up with the monster Lightning GTX680 graphics card. We test a system using these components with the latest games and try …

ASUStek, one of the world's largest technology companies have had to reduce their motherboard shipments from the original plan of 25 million units in 2012 to 22.2 million units. CEO Jerry Shen acknowledged the reduction in shipments and the final figure is a reduction from the 23.2 million shipped in …

If you are in the market for a new system based on the Z77 platform then today's review product will be of interest. The Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 motherboard is a flagship product set to target the wealthy high end enthusiast audience who want to accept no compromises. Is this the ultimate …

AMD released their A10 5800K at the beginning of October and we analysed the processor when paired up with Asus F2A85-V Pro and Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 motherboards. Sapphire recently sent us their PURE Platinum A85XT motherboard which incorporates a dual BIOS switch, onboard mSATA slot, 2 way Crossfire support and seven …

In October last year AMD released the FX8150 Black Edition 8 Core processor which met with a mixed reception. While the chip delivered good performance, it was priced too high and couldn't compete against equivalent Intel processors. Today we are looking at the latest AMD Black Edition, the FX8350, which …

ASRock have been aggressively targeting the overclocking audience in the last year and we have reviewed many of their motherboards for the Intel Z77 and X79 platform. Today we are focusing on a rather special design, created by overclocking guru Nick Shih specifically for the hardcore Z77 enthusiast audience. Make …

We reviewed the Asus P8Z77-V LX back in July this year and it earned our Worth Buying award. While we had no concerns with the capabilities and performance of the board the issue we had at the time was that the competing Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H was around £12 cheaper. ASUS have …

We pair the Z9 PE-D8 up with two flagship Intel 8 Core Xeon E5 2687W processors, two Corsair H80 liquid coolers, a Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition graphics card, Seasonic Platinum 1000W power supply and 64GB of Kingston Predator 2,133mhz memory. Is this the ultimate Workstation system?

Today we are going to look at MSI‘s latest mini-ITX offering, the Z77IA-E53 motherboard. It’s designed for users who are looking to build a powerful compact system based around the Intel Z77 platform. This makes it ideal for building a compact LAN gaming system in a case such as the Bitfenix Prodigy.

SAPPHIRE Technology, a leading manufacturer and global supplier of graphics, mainboard and multimedia solutions has just announced a new mainboard developed to support the latest Trinity family of APUs from AMD. The SAPPHIRE Pure Platinum A85XT is a full ATX sized board that supports the latest generation AMD APU A10/A8/A6/A4 …

This is our second of two reviews today, focusing on the official launch of AMD's A10 5800K when paired up with partner motherboards. In our other review we have paired up the new AMD APU with a high end AMD discrete graphics card to see how it compares against a …

Regular readers of Kitguru may remember our review of the AMD E-350 in March 2011. I really enjoyed AMD's Fusion technology but it was never marketed properly and subsequently wasn't quite the success it should have been. AMD's A8 series chips made the headlines shortly afterwards and I particularly liked …

Today we are looking at the Asus Maximus V Formula Motherboard, designed for the latest i7/i5/i3 Intel processors. The Maximus V Formula is a ‘no compromises' Z77 motherboard, aimed at the top 10 percent of enthusiast user who will be using the most expensive components with a focus on overclocking. …

Rumours off the grapevine this morning indicate a big set of changes down at AMD, with the new Chief Sales Officer determined to put the company on the right track in the face of the toughest market conditions the chip specialists have ever faced. KitGuru stands around the mini-kitchenette and …

Today we are looking at the ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion – hot on the heels of our analysis of the X79 Extreme11.  The Fatal1ty X79 Champion seems to be somewhat of a bargain when compared to the £500 X79 Extreme11 … as it only costs £330.  This puts it up …

Today we are looking at the Gigabyte X79S-UP5-WIFI, an X79 motherboard based on the Intel C606 chipset. On paper this looks to be perfect as the foundation for a high end workstation system. Intel have also supplied an Xeon E5 2660 processor, an 8 core chip with hyperthreading support. How …

Without doubt, Multiplay are the masters of multiplayer gaming and the Insomnia series of LAN events is legendary. This weekend, Telford International Centre will be packed, wall to wall, with thousands of gamers – eager to win big prizes, have a laugh and make new friends. Asus will be there …

Over the past couple of years ASRock have really upped their game and are now competing with world renowned motherboard manufacturers such as Asus and Gigabyte.  We have looked at a number of motherboards from ASRock recently and none of them have failed to impress.  So when they offered us …

One of the most successful MSI mainboard ranges of recent times was the Big Bang. While very appealing in terms of pure specification, the boards were priced high and not accessible to everyone. Now MSI's engineers have taken a step back, pulled out the best features from Big Bang and …

Last month we saw some of Gigabyte's upcoming Z77 motherboards at Computex which feature their latest Ultra Durable 5 technology.  We have been very impressed by all the existing Gigabyte Z77 motherboards we've tested so we are quite excited to see what the new range has to offer. Today we …

How do you best demonstrate what 32-phases of power regulation can do? Well, if you’re Gigabyte, you hook up a pair of 1200W power supplies and wire up the board to three DC load testers and pull an insane 2000W through the CPU socket. According to Gigabyte, this is enough …

One month after Asrock captured the hearts and minds with the world's first Windows 8 main board for Intel processors, it's now looking to double up with a fist entry into the AMD space. In the aftermath of AMD's less than stellar financials report for Q2, surely there must be …

Following AMD's early heads-up to the market that it could miss its stated target for 2012, it comes as little surprise that today's numbers are not strong. So what next for AMD and how should it react?  KitGuru leans against a Wall in the Street and ponders whether money ever …

We have tested a number of products from ASRock over the past couple of years and none of them have failed to impress.  It's clear that they are gunning for the longer established brands such as Asus and Gigabyte and they now produce a full range of motherboards targeted at …

Asus produce a comprehensive range of motherboards which spans the performance and budget friendly ends of the market.  We have already looked at some of their high performance Z77 motherboards including the Sabertooth Z77 and Republic of Gamers Maximus V Z77  Gene which are designed for users who want the ultimate …