The appearance of Brix mini-PCs last spring was Gigabyte’s debut in this market segment. The first products were elaborated specifically for Intel Ivy Bridge processors. However, the company decided to update the line of ultra-compact PCs with four new models. Entitled GB-BXCE-2955, GB-BXi7-4500, GB-BXi5-4200, and GB-BXi3-4010, the products are characterized by the support of power-efficient Intel Haswell CPUs.



The most efficient model is Gigabyte GB-BXi7-4500 with the integrated Intel Core i7-4500U processor (1.8/3.0 GHz), whereas the least efficient turns to be Gigabyte GB-BXCE-2955, based on Intel Celeron 2955U (1.4 GHz). At the same time, Gigabyte GB-BXi5-4200 is equipped with Intel Core i5-4200U CPU (1.6/2.6 GHz) and Gigabyte GB-BXi3-4010 comes with Intel Corei3-4010U solution (1.7 GHz).


Except for diverse CPUs, all four Brix mini-PCs feature practically analogous specifications:

— dimensions: 114.4x107.6x29.9 mm;

— memory: two DIMM slots, support for 16 …

Introduction


Overclocking is like sport. Throughout the world, enthusiasts experience the strength of the components and achieve the maximum possible results. When overclocking the processor and memory, much depends on the instances, but you can not drop the importance of the base - the motherboard. After all, it is the motherboard that offers all the functional that is necessary for conquering peaks in certain disciplines. And, of course, every manufacturer wants to see their products in the hands of professionals.

ASUS's ROG division this year presented a very interesting motherboard for the Kaby Lake-X and Skylake-X processors (socket LGA 2066), which is designed specifically for extreme overclocking - and not only in terms of the number of BIOS settings and any switches on the board itself. Today we will talk in details about the board itself and point out those moments that you just might not notice at first glance.


Packaging


The design of the box has …

Galax, the company created due to a merger of Galaxy and KFA2, entered the market with a couple of new graphics solutions: the GeForce GTX 970 HOF and the GeForce GTX980 HOF cards. Both greenhorns are intended for enthusiasts longing for the best overclocking potential. Thus, they offer dual BIOS support for safe modification of key parameters and a pair of advanced utilities: Hyper Boost and Voltage Tool.



Galax GeForce GTX 970 HOF and 980 HOF models are powered by Nvidia GM204 GPU (Maxwell generation) with a striking factory overclocking index. Therewith, GTX 970 HOF runs at 1216 MHz (nominal) and 1380 MHz (dynamic) frequencies instead of etalon 1051 MHz/1178 MHz ones. In its turn, GTX 980 HOF operates at 1304 MHz (nominal) and 1418 MHz (dynamic) frequencies instead of reference 1126 MHz/1216 MHz ones. Moreover, the manufacturer swears that this couple is able to overclock up to 1.5 GHz frequency on air cooling and up to 2.1 GHz frequency on liquid cooling.


The GeForce GTX …