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The folks at GIGABYTE have released a set of pictures showcasing their upcoming Intel X58 Express chipset-based overclocking motherboard, the GA-X58A-OC. There are quite a number of cool features on the board, so we shall take a quick look at them. Join us!

It appears that both GIGABYTE and us at VR-Zone.com share the same thought: the Intel X58 Express platform is far from dead. During a period where Intel's new 'Sandy Bridge' seemingly rules the roost, the motherboard maker is about to officially introduce its GA-X58A-OC motherboard, based on the Intel X58 Express chipset and supporting Intel Socket LGA 1366 processors. A decent Gulftown will have a Core i7-2600K for breakfast, lunch and dinner under the same extreme overclocking conditions, which is why the 'ageing' platform is still the fastest… at least till the end of this year.

GIGABYTE has released some photos of the new board and we shall take a quick look at its five main overclocking features:

OC-VRM,

OC-Touch,

OC-PEG,

OC-Cool, and

OC-Dual BIOS

OC-VRM

The GA-X58A-OC motherboard has dual 8-pin CPU power connectors for input up to 720A. A variety of Intersil power management ICs handles power delivery on the new board. PWM frequency can be adjusted to 300KHz, 600KHz and 800KHz according to the information we have on hand.

The processor voltage regulation module (VRM) is a 12-phase 'dual power' design supporting up to 600A output, while the Uncore portion is a 3-phase design, and the memory a 2-phase.

Surface mount POSCAP tantalum capacitors are used as they are not only reliable, but save space as well. The low height clearance and added space means enthusiasts no longer need to worry if their larger cooling solutions will be obstructed. In fact, on the GA-X58A-OC, GIGABYTE has completely done away with the can-type solid capacitors.

OC-Touch

To make things a little more convenient for overclockers, the GA-X58A-OC has voltage measurement points for:

VCORE,

CPU PLL,

DDR,

DDR VTT,

QPI VTT,

QPI PLL, and

IOH

There is also a debug LED that will flash BIOS POST codes. Debug LEDs almost became extinct the past few years, before making a return starting with higher end Intel P67 Express motherboards.

The red power switch is um, self-explanatory I guess…

The '4G' button will help 'newbies to reach 4GHz'. Man, what a way to put it in the material! Anyway, this button will simply tell the motherboard to automatically overclock the processor to 4GHz on the next boot.

Overclockers can then use the two sets of buttons to adjust CPU ratio (the set on the left) and BCLK (the set on the right) on-the-fly. The 'Gear' button changes the adjustment step of the BCLK back and forth between 0.3MHz and 1MHz.