It is unlikely that today you can meet a person who has not heard of the leader in the production of computer components - Gigabyte. This Taiwanese manufacturer was one of the first to enter the Russian computer market and still does not give up its leading position. Under the Gigabyte brand, on the market you can find video adapters, power supplies, cases, laptops, smartphones, tablets and peripherals. However, the largest share of sales belongs to motherboards. Having taken all the positions in different price classes, this is practically the only brand that is able to satisfy user requests. According to statistics, every fifth personal computer has a Gigabyte motherboard. I would like to understand why the boards of this manufacturer are so valuable. To do this, you need to study the characteristics of the devices, the convenience of settings and connections, as well as examine the manufacturer reviews.
Collection of information before purchase
All IT professionals recommend that before buying any product go to the manufacturer’s official website in order to make sure that not only the hardware is purchased, but also the whole range of services, from drivers and full instructions to utilities and timely technical BIOS updates. After making sure that the drivers for the Gigabyte motherboard on the official website are present for all models released for different markets over the past ten years and finding the latest BIOS updates, we can conclude that the manufacturer constantly monitors the update of its resource and primarily thinks about users. Judging by the numerous reviews on specialized forums, Gigabyte has attracted attention from the first day of its appearance on the market. After all, as you know, at first computer components were purchased second hand, and there were always problems with finding drivers for old Windows. Without software from the official website or installation disc, the system refused to work.
Keeping up with the times
Gigabyte is involved in the development of the latest systems in the IT industry. She has signed contracts with many computer parts manufacturing plants in the world. Therefore, any presentation of the latest chipset at exhibitions and in the media is accompanied by the finished Gigabyte product. An example is the Gigabyte GA-Z170X Gaming G1 motherboard, the existence of which the world community learned on the opening day of the Computex 2015 exhibition, dedicated to transferring 4K Ultra HD images to the screen in games. Oddly enough, but it is the presented product from Gigabyte that copes with the task without problems. All this suggests that the manufacturer keeps up to date and does not allow itself to use old technologies in production, providing the end consumer with maximum opportunities.
First meeting
The first thing that catches the eye of a happy buyer is the instruction of the Gigabyte motherboard. This tutorial is aimed at a user who is far from IT technology. Everything is painted so conveniently and clearly that it will not be difficult for the owner to install the board in the case and completely connect all devices, including control buttons, connecting the front panel and indication, which is sometimes very difficult even for a specialist to do without instructions.
Studying reviews about the manufacturer Gigabyte, in particular about its motherboards, you can meet many questions about the purpose of the available fields for notes in the manual. The answer is simple: the manufacturer offers the user to keep independent records of the installation sequence of the device, in memory. However, this is not necessary, since the instruction does not need additions.
First start
Before connecting the Gigabyte motherboard to power supply, before the first start-up, it is imperative to check the correct connection of hard drives, if there are several of them in the system. The BIOS-integrated intelligent detection and tuning system, for the performance of hard drives, optimizes not only the system startup time, but also power and cooling management. If one of the hard drives was incorrectly connected, the next time it is turned on, the user will take a lot of time to reset the settings and re-optimize, which can improve the performance of the entire system. Judging by the reviews on many IT forums, automatic configuration at connection will be of interest only to novice users, and professionals prefer to configure the system for themselves by hand, starting with increasing the frequency of the central processor and ending with turning off the temperature monitoring system, which sensors are crammed with the entire Gigabyte motherboard .
Decent work with any operating system
Connecting a Gigabyte motherboard using an intelligent system is not the only positive point from the manufacturer. A valuable factor is the full compatibility of the hardware with any existing operating system, which can, without installing drivers, have full access to all technologies on the motherboard. It’s clear that the manufacturer’s recommendations should be taken into account and in order to improve all sorts of characteristics in the system’s operation, it is necessary to install the system drivers that come with the device. In addition to drivers that are intended only for operating systems of the Windows family, on the disk you can find a digital version of the instruction and all kinds of proprietary utilities. Judging by the reviews of owners of motherboards of the Gigabyte family, they would like to see proprietary utilities for other operating systems, such as MacOS and Linux, because from year to year these platforms attract more and more user attention.
A game on two fronts
This is not to say that the basic characteristic of the Gigabyte motherboard is the chipset. In one hundred percent of cases, this is the combination of all the latest technologies in one device, providing the end user with a full range of opportunities for work and games. Gigabyte, as is customary in the circles of IT professionals, works on two fronts. More precisely, it creates platforms for both Intel and AMD. Recently, a “two-front game” has been practiced by all motherboard manufacturers, with the exception of Intel itself. In terms of compatibility of motherboards and video adapters on different chipsets, Gigabyte never had a problem. You can easily install a video card from nVidia on a board designed to install AMD processors and vice versa. Such interchangeability is only welcomed by users, judging by their numerous reviews.
Frequent user errors
Judging by statistics, every third user, trying to improve the characteristics of their equipment, downloads drivers for all their devices from open file exchangers, completely ignoring the official websites of manufacturers. Because of this, infection of the operating system with all kinds of viruses and programs for remote access to personal information is widespread. All owners are strongly recommended to download utilities and drivers for the Gigabyte motherboard only from the manufacturer’s official website. The problem is that most utilities and drivers work directly with the electronics of the board, and harmful interference with the hardware can cause physical harm to the hardware of the device. For example, the banal shutdown of temperature sensors and an increase in voltage on all buses can, in the literal sense, burn all installed devices.
New device features
It's no secret that motherboard manufacturers are constantly looking for opportunities to improve the technical characteristics of devices already sold. Updating the BIOS firmware version can fix compatibility issues with some devices, add support for new processors, or change the control menu. Before updating the Gigabyte motherboard, you need to visit the official website of the developer, find your device using the search system and make sure there is a new BIOS update. If we turn to the numerous reviews of the owners, we can conclude that in the absence of any problems in the operation of the motherboard, updating the device is highly not recommended. There is no sense in improving what is working perfectly.
The best cooling system in the world
Each motherboard manufacturer can boast of proprietary technologies, integrated video, the presence of various connectors and interfaces. But any Gigabyte motherboard, unlike its competitors, has an efficient cooling system for components and chips. All microcircuits, connectors and capacitors are placed so as not to impede air circulation inside the system unit. This is a truly unique architecture that actually works, and not just described in the instructions. Good cooling, as you know, improves the performance characteristics of the entire system.
Finally
Let the appearance of most motherboards from Gigabyte do not bother the potential owner. The absence of colorful stickers and aggressive coloring will never help to quickly connect and configure the device. Accordingly, beauty has nothing to do with cooling the system. The Gigabyte motherboard is focused on user convenience during assembly. The absence of unnecessary components only facilitates the installation of components and provides the conditions for maximum cooling of all devices. A 36-month warranty period from the manufacturer is a pretty serious indicator that Gigabyte is supplying decent devices to the market.