Handy Gigabyte Z97 benching software upload

Hey guys,

I figured I’d put up an upload of some handy sofware/drives/apps for benching the new Gigabyte Z97 platform on Windows XP and Win 7/8.

Here’s what’s uploaded, click on the link to download.

Kids react to old computers! This is brilliant, check it out hahah

OCAU Z97 comp is over, winners announced

I wanted to congratulate all the competition winners from the recent Z97 OC comp on OCAU forum (Overclockers Australia). GIGABYTE sponsored the competition with all top 3 prizes being Z97X-SOC Force and a participation prize (Z87X-OC).

This competition was based on 3 tests:

• Stage 1 Catzilla - 576P - CCC (crap card challenge) GT610 test
• Stage 2 Superpi 8M - 4GHz Cap 
• Stage 3 3dmark01 - CCC (crap card challenge) GT610

The competition was not that straight forward. Contestants had to learn how to solder modifications on a really cheap graphics card (Nvidia GT610) and see if they can extract more MHz out of the GPU via mods and various cooling techniques. The modified card could be used on two different stages and it proved to be more than a handful. In the end, Robbo2 was the overall winner with the first place in Catzilla, while Newlife managed to snag the 3DMark01 round and bullants took the 8M superpi but has not contested the rest of the stages. GT610 GPUs operate at 810Mhz stock core and 600MHz memory. There guys were able to run them at 1400MHz core and over 900MHz memory for good measure!

• Robbo2 @ 26Points - First Place Winner
• Newlife @ 18 Points - Second Place Winner
• T8y @ 16 Points - Third Place Winner

Participation prize (Z87X-OC) went to a new Aussie rookie overclocker Paulie_AU who put a fantastic effort and is one of our future overclocking hopes with some great performances in HWBOT Rookie Rumble cups. Good luck Paulie on the next stage of that competition!

I’ll leave you with some memorable images from the competition itself which you can check out at OCAU forum. 

G.Skill brings another OC show to Computex 2014

Last year G.Skill put a crazy overclocking show for Computex crowds which was very popular, had lots of giveaways and records were broken left right and centre.

TeamAU is joining the show this year as well with youngpro representing G.Skill and dinos22 representing GIGABYTE on the stand. This year there is also a US$10,000 overclocking tournament happening on the stand as well, should be good fun. Here are a couple of videos from this year and last year’s show wrap up, check it out!

Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force Extreme OC bios

Hey guys, here is the extreme OC bios for Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force motherboards we used in most of our recent benching.

Z97X-SOC Force X04 bios link: https://www.mediafire.com/?v23ea3jffju22er

I also got some requests recently for the Gigabyte X58A-UD9 GOOC bios, here it is as well!

X58A-UD9 GOOC bios link: https://www.mediafire.com/?ejcuuy9b64yi138

STAY FROSTY GENTS!

Hardware Asylum podcast #40 is live

The guys over at Hardware Asylum have gone live with the latest podcast, #40. Computex is one of the main topics. Click on the image to go to the podcast:

Show Notes

A look ahead at Computex 2014
Computex is one of the largest technology trade shows in the world and happens to be Dennis's summertime destination.  His trips to Computex started over 10 years ago and has been a great make new contacts and witness firsthand what new bits of computer hardware will be available for the Christmas shopping season.  Over the years the Computex show has grown quite a bit, not only in size but with elaborate booths and cool overclocking demonstrations.

This year Dennis is looking forward to the GSKill OC World Cup which will likely replace the normal overclocking demonstrations at the GSKill booth.  During the week there will likely be two on two overclocking competitions with the finals being held on the Friday of the show.  An open qualifier was hosted on HWBot with the top 6 getting an open invite to the semi-finals and finals. 

Back in 2009 Dennis hosted a small get together in Taiwan to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of NInjalane.com and as luck would have it, HWBOT is celebrating their 10 year anniversary this year after Computex  By the looks of it they are planning a fun filled weekend of overclocking and general mayhem. 

Related Links:
G.Skill OC World Cup 2014 Qualifier

World Records we are close to taking all globals!

During our December 2013 benching meet up we discussed what we needed to do to take our team to the next level. We set our focus on 3D benchmarks, with an ambitious goal of attempting to hold all the global 3D records simultaneously. The term global record is used to describe the biggest score ever produced in a benchmark. This could be with any combination of motherboard, CPU, memory and number of graphics cards.

We are very humbled and proud to say that while we haven't yet achieved this feat, we have been fortunate enough to take 9 out of 11 records, with 2nd place in both benchmarks we are missing. This has been a team effort, with everyone contributing their own skills to make these scores possible.

Thanks to Gigabyte, ASUS, Corsair, G.Skill, EK, EVGA and the countless others that have helped along the way, without your loyal support none of this would be possible.

TeamAU

TeamAU smash the legacy 3D records on GIGABYTE Z97 SOC Force

Recently TeamAU members SniperOZ, dinos22 and pro joined forces with Hicookie, Sofos1990, Steponz and Vivi (the infant of OC) at the Gigabyte OC lab. The goal was to work on BIOS development, test and smash records on the new Gigabyte OC Z97 platform.

Boards were tested, BIOS was enhanced and records were destroyed... CARNAGE

We had an unbelievable week, we were able to snag 3Dmark01, 3DMark03, 3DMark05, 3DMark06 and Heaven overall records. We also took 3DMark03 single and Dinos/Sofos broke their foot off in Heaven dual card, absolutely obliterating the existing record with a score of 8XXX points.

In addition to this the boys traveled to New Zealand  to run a GIGABYTE OC workshop with PLAYTECH, AMES IT Acadamy, SteelSeries, AOC and GUNNAR and took the Aquamark 3 world record in setup day with GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force, Patriot PSC fronzen at 1350 CAS7 and a GTX580 with 4770K running at 6.4GHz.

Deanzo, dinos22, SniperOz and youngpro attended the NZ event. Youngpro thinks he's a celebrity!!!

These scores were all achieved on the new Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force board in combination with 4770K CPUs.

Aquamark3 572575 marks

Global record
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6400 MHz
GTX580 @ 1400 MHz
Patriot PSC @ 1356 7-12-7-28
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

3DMark01 190478 marks
Global record, 190K barrier broken
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6600 MHz (downclocked for screenshot)
Matrix 780TI @ 1700 MHz
Corsair 2666C10 "Hicookie" modules
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

3DMark03 301064 marks
Global record, 300K barrier broken
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6500 MHz
3x Matrix 290X @ 1300 MHz
Corsair 2666C10 "Hicookie" modules
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

3DMark03 253737 marks
Single card record, 250K barrier broken
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6450 MHz
Matrix 290X @ 1400 MHz
Corsair 2666C10 "Hicookie" module
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

3DMark05 74192 marks
Global record
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6550 MHz
EVGA K|NGP|N 780TI @ 1700 MHz
Corsair 2666C10 "Hicookie" modules
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

3DMark06 57085 marks
Global record
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6451 MHz
EVGA K|NGP|N 780TI @ 1700 MHz
Corsair 2666C10 "Hicookie" modules
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

Heaven 9192 points
Global record
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force
Intel 4770K @ 6500 MHz
3x Gigabyte 290X 3x Windforce cards @ 1350 MHz
CORSAIR AX1500i Power Supply

We had a competition atmosphere in the lab, with 3 rigs running and multiple scores pumping out. In 3DMark01, 3DMark03 and Heaven we were able to secure 1st and 2nd spot. Vivi also chimed in with a number of his own records, including FS-E single card and strong results in AM3, 3DMark03 and 3DMark01,

Hicookie and Sofos snapped up Aquamark3 and Steponz nearly took Heaven single on a number of occasions with only a handful of points separating him from first spot.

As it stands at this point in time, TeamAU currently holds 3DMark01, 3DMark03, 3DMark05, 3DMark06, Heaven, Catzilla 720P & 1440P, 3DMark 11, Firestrike and Firestrike-E global records. OPA!

I'll leave you with this pleasing image of our initial targets all vanquished!