GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-OC Motherboard Review

Motherboard reviews, NT IT Reviews

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This is a review for the GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-OC motherboard. It’s made by Gigabyte Technology and supports Intel processors. The GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-OC is made for PC gaming and high end professional use.

Gigabyte Technology Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.  is a Taiwan-based manufacturer of computer hardware products best known for its motherboards. The company is publicly held and traded on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Established in 1986, its major customers include custom boutique PC manufacturers such as Alienware and Falcon Northwest. Mr. Pei-Cheng Yeh founded GigaByte Technology Co. Ltd. in 1986 and has been its Chairman since 1986. (Gigabyte Wikipedia) 
You can find more information about Gigabyte at the company’s website.

Gigabyte
The GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-OC is a gaming motherboard made by Gigabyte, which was officially released on June 4, 2013. It supports Intel processors, specifically the fourth generation Intel processors. It has an ATX Form Factor of 30.5cm x 24.4cm and supports Windows 7. It has 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets which supports up to 32 GB of system memory. (Gigabyte.com)
This motherboard has many Integrated Components, including:

  • 1 PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
  • 2 HDMI ports
  • 1 Display Port
  • 2 USB 2.0
  • 6 USB 3.0
  • 1 S/PDIF Out
  • 6 Audio Ports

 
This motherboard makes for a great gaming motherboard. It offers support for 4-Way/3-Way/2-Way AMD CrossFire, and 2-Way NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology graphics cards. It also offers many expansion slots, including:

  • 4 PCI Express 3.0 x16
  • 1 PCI Express x1
  • 2 PCI Slots

This PC motherboard is great for gaming. On Newegg.com, 52% of the people who reviewed this motherboard gave it five stars. Many described it as looking “Great” and said it had an “Awesome overclocker”.  You can find this motherboard at websites like Newegg and Tigerdirect for about $199.99. Overall this seems to be a high quality, dependable motherboard that’s pretty affordable.
 
 

Works Cited

“GIGABYTE – About GIGABYTE – At a Glance.” GIGABYTE – About GIGABYTE – At a Glance. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.
  “GIGABYTE – Motherboard – Socket 1150 – GA-Z87X-OC (rev. 1.x).” GIGABYTE – Motherboard – Socket 1150 – GA-Z87X-OC (rev. 1.x). N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.
 “GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-OC LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-OC LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS.”Newegg.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.
  “Gigabyte Technology.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Jan. 2014. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.

 
 
 
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Intel DG33FBC Review – Home PC Use

Motherboard reviews, NT IT Reviews

<![CDATA[This review is of the Intel DG33FBC motherboard.  This motherboard is for typical home use.  It is in not an option for high end (or gamer) use.  While it could make a low end gaming machine, it is not for this purpose that it is being reviewed.
This motherboard is made by Intel Corporation (Intel.) Intel is an American multinational semiconductor chip maker corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.  Known primarily to engineers and technologists, its "Intel Inside" advertising campaign of the 1990s made it a household name.  (Intel Wikipedia)
Intel1
The DG33FBC was originally released in 2007 and uses older memory and CPUs than current motherboards.  It is a ATX formfactor motherboard measuring 11.60 inches by 9.60 inches and supports the following:

  • CPU:  LGA775 CPU socket set supporting the Core™2 Quad, Core™2 Duo, Dual-Core, Celeron processors.
  • Memory:  Four DDR2 banks supporting 667 and 800 Mhz (Max 8Gb RAM with Max 2Gb each slot)

In addition it has the following on-board components:

  • Intel Graphics 3100 onboard graphics with VGA port
  • 6-channel (5.1) audio subsystem using the Realtek* ALC888 audio codec
  • 12 USB 2.0 ports
  • Four Serial ATA interfaces
  • One Parallel ATA IDE interface with UDMA 33, ATA-66/100/133 support
  • One diskette drive interface
  • One IEEE 1394a port
  • PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports
  • One serial port header
  • Gigabit (10/100/1000 Mbits/sec) 82566DC LAN

Expansion Slots on the Board

  • Three PCI Conventional bus connectors
  • Three PCI Express x1 bus add-in card connector
  • One PCI Express x16 bus add-in card connector

A TigerDirect Review initially lead me to the board as I was looking into older Home PC Motherboards.  The review from users supported this product as it has 4 stars with Newegg. Customers and the specifications were great for a lower end product.  While neither carries it currently several refurbishers have it for sale including this one which includes a Dual Core CPU.  A great deal for a low end system at $60.  I would not recommend this board for a gaming system, but for a home PC being used for most applications and internet browsing, a definite plus for the cost.
References:
Newegg.com. <http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121100>.
Intel® <http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/dsktpboards/dg33fb>.
TigerDirect.<http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3042178>.
Intel.<http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/history/historic-timeline.html>.
Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel>.]]>