Sandy Bridge plus Z68 on a budget? eTeknix choose the GIGABYTE Z68AP-D3

Andy Ruffell, writing for UK techies eTeknix, yesterday published his in-depth review of our Z68AP-D3 board, a motherboard that’s aimed squarely at those of us who want to taste the pleasures of Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge CPUs coupled with the latest Z68 chipset, without causing injury to our bank balance. At a smidgen over 80 British Pounds, Andy saw plenty of evidence to warrant a ‘Bang for Buck’ award, however he was actually impressed enough with the board’s overall performance to wheel out the more prestigious ‘Editor’s Choice’ award:

“Having a quick talk about the rating, which we don’t normally delve into, I wanted to clarify why this board earns our prestigious Editor’s Choice Award. It was destined to gain the Bang For Buck Award but the performance results showed us that it can rival some of the bigger, more expensive boards on the market, and the icing on the cake was how well it overclocked. The board really did meet, exceed and literally fly past our expectations, and we have to congratulation Gigabyte on making such a fantastic board.”

High praise from Andy. Cheers. Catch the full review on eTeknix here.

Find out more about the Z68AP-D3 motherboard here.

Get the most from Sandy Bridge E: Introducing the sin0822 Overclocking Guide

Power user sin0822 is back on the overclocking guide trail again and this time he’s talking Sandy Bridge-E. So if you’ve invested in a brand spanking new GIGABYTE X79 series motherboard to go with your new Intel i7 processor, or maybe you’ve been a good boy or girl and Santa dropped one off last weekend - either way make sure you take a look at this guide. It gives you a step by step help with overclocking on both air and liquid cooling, plus a whole lot more including in-depth advice on everything from component choices to voltage reading.

You can find the guide on both xtremesystems.org and overclock.net

Enjoy! Cheers Sin…

Get the most from Sandy Bridge E: Introducing the sin0822 Overclocking Guide

Power user sin0822 is back on the overclocking guide trail again and this time he’s talking Sandy Bridge-E. So if you’ve invested in a brand spanking new GIGABYTE X79 series motherboard to go with your new Intel i7 processor, or maybe you’ve been a good boy or girl and Santa dropped one off last weekend - either way make sure you take a look at this guide. It gives you a step by step help with overclocking on both air and liquid cooling, plus a whole lot more including in-depth advice on everything from component choices to voltage reading.

You can find the guide on both xtremesystems.org and overclock.net

Enjoy! Cheers Sin…

OCZ ZS Series 650W 80PLUS Bronze High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom (Personal Computers)

OCZ ZS Series 650W 80PLUS Bronze High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom (Personal Computers)
By OCZ

Buy new: $89.99
Price after rebate: $64.99
17 used and new from $78.05

First tagged by joshsia
Customer tags: 650, zs650, cpu, sli, crossfire, modular, power supply, 80 plus bronze, computer

Product Images

Review & Description

The OCZ ZS Series PSU is an affordable solution for driving today's value-oriented gaming systems, and can power both NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFireX modes with an array of connectors. With the ideal combination of stability and sleek design, ZS is designed with gamers and modders in mind, sporting a compact form factor for compatibility with a range of case designs. Available in configurations ranging from 550W to 750W and backed with OCZ's 3-year Power Swap warranty, the ZS Series PSU gives you peace of mind to ensure stability, low noise, and efficiency of your home gaming system. Read more

Find out More for the best price at Amazon

OCZ ZS Series 750W 80PLUS Bronze High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom (Personal Computers)

OCZ ZS Series 750W 80PLUS Bronze High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom (Personal Computers)
By OCZ

Buy new: $89.99
Price after rebate: $64.99
16 used and new from $78.05

First tagged by joshsia
Customer tags: 650, zs650, cpu, sli, crossfire, modular, power supply, 80 plus bronze, computer

Product Images

Review & Description

The OCZ ZS Series PSU is an affordable solution for driving today's value-oriented gaming systems, and can power both NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFireX modes with an array of connectors. With the ideal combination of stability and sleek design, ZS is designed with gamers and modders in mind, sporting a compact form factor for compatibility with a range of case designs. Available in configurations ranging from 550W to 750W and backed with OCZ's 3-year Power Swap warranty, the ZS Series PSU gives you peace of mind to ensure stability, low noise, and efficiency of your home gaming system. Read more

Find out More for the best price at Amazon

Intel Sort of Demonstrates Ivy Bridge Graphics at CES 2012

Intel's Mooly Eden just ran through a couple of demos running on Ivy Bridge based Ultrabooks. The first demo was a real time Havok render of a troll. The second was supposed to be a DX11 racing demo, however the demo itself appeared to be a video of gameplay looping rather than a live demo (video player controls briefly popped up during the demo, tisk tisk).

There's not much we can tell about Ivy Bridge graphics based on these two demos (especially not the demo that was just a video), but Intel is apparently weeks away from final silicon of Ivy Bridge. We'll see the first OEM notebooks go into production in late March/early April.

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