Gigabyte GA-G1975X G1-Turbo Motherboard Review @ Hot Hardware

Iria · May 18, 2006, 03:41 AM

Review: Hot Hardware
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Trends in PC hardware usually come about for a good reason. As processor and memory speeds continued to rise, many manufacturers responded by producing more elaborate air cooling apparatuses. Some of them worked well, while others offered almost no improvement at all. In either case, lowering temperatures in this way usually resulted in an unwanted side effect: excessive noise. As high-speed fans were placed over this and that chipset, the cacophony of whirring and buzzing machinery became a little more than most users were willing to bear.

So the next trend to come along was to not only cool down a PC, but to do so with more style and less noise. Water-cooling devices serve that purpose well. But less elaborate methods were also employed, starting with larger heatsinks with heat-pipes, such as those seen in Shuttle's I.C.E. technology, or over-sized, quiet fans from companies such as Zalman. These products are less effective than water-cooling, but they are also easier to install and maintain. And they offer better cooling performance than most stock devices.

Gigabyte, however, has decided to stray from the current trend with their line of G1-Turbo branded products. The first product of that line, which we will be evaluating in this article is the GA-G1975X; a motherboard based on Intel's latest chipset fused with large cooling turbines (hence the term 'Turbo'). In doing so, Gigabyte eschews the idea of quiet cooling for over-the-top cooling for the CPU, Northbridge, and surrounding components.

May 18, 2006, 03:41 AM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	Gigabyte GA-G1975X G1-Turbo Motherboard Review @ Hot Hardware Review: Hot Hardware __________ Trends in PC hardware usually come about for a good reason. As processor and memory speeds continued to rise, many manufacturers responded by producing more elaborate air cooling apparatuses. Some of them worked well, while others offered almost no improvement at all. In either case, lowering temperatures in this way usually resulted in an unwanted side effect: excessive noise. As high-speed fans were placed over this and that chipset, the cacophony of whirring and buzzing machinery became a little more than most users were willing to bear. So the next trend to come along was to not only cool down a PC, but to do so with more style and less noise. Water-cooling devices serve that purpose well. But less elaborate methods were also employed, starting with larger heatsinks with heat-pipes, such as those seen in Shuttle's I.C.E. technology, or over-sized, quiet fans from companies such as Zalman. These products are less effective than water-cooling, but they are also easier to install and maintain. And they offer better cooling performance than most stock devices. Gigabyte, however, has decided to stray from the current trend with their line of G1-Turbo branded products. The first product of that line, which we will be evaluating in this article is the GA-G1975X; a motherboard based on Intel's latest chipset fused with large cooling turbines (hence the term 'Turbo'). In doing so, Gigabyte eschews the idea of quiet cooling for over-the-top cooling for the CPU, Northbridge, and surrounding components.