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With Intel's new Z68 overclocking platform close to launch, Gigabyte's team took time out of their busy schedules to discuss with KitGuru the changes that are happening in the market, the way that Gigabyte is pushing hard on R&D and the value of long term customer support.
KitGuru's recent article on Gigabyte's early movement toward the improved Intel Z68 chipset seems to have sparked debate in forums across the globe. Must be great for any brand to know that so many people care so much about their products.
Andrew Borkowski from Gigabyte's UK office discussed the movement, “First let me say that Gigabyte will have P67 products in the market through to the end of 2011 and support for the platform will continue after that. But it is true that we will be moving aggressively to the new Intel 6-series platform”.
Borkowski continued, “While Gigabyte sells a broad cross section of mainboard products, from entry level upwards, the thing that we are best known for is serious, pro-class gaming boards like the G1 Assassin and overclocking boards like the X58A-OC”.
On that basis, an early move to the slightly more expensive, but ‘better on paper' Z68 makes perfect sense. KitGuru is hearing from other sources that the chipset price difference might only be a fiver to the end user ($8 or less), which – if it is that much better – would easily be absorbed in enthusiast products.
“Enthusiasts always demand more. They want improved features, better overclocks and all of the other good things that come with next generation technology”, said Borkowski. “Our engineers have been working closely with Intel and we're ready for the move to the new chipset”.
“We believe that this platform will be hugely popular with enthusiasts and overclockers”, said Borkowski. “The pricing for this new platform should also be very attractive in that context”. That last statement about pricing, seems to indicate that Gigabyte believes Z68 can also make a strong impact in the mainstream user/system integration markets.
We asked Borkowski about the rest of the Gigabyte Sandy Bridge range, “With the H-series products, we're expecting those to be in the production still in 2012”.
KitGuru says: Overall, it looks like 2011 will be a busy year for the Gigabyte mainboard teams – as they work hard to ensure not only are they leading the delivery of new platforms to market, but also ensuring that existing products have suitable on-going support. We can't wait to see Gigabyte's quad-channel memory offers for Xmas 2011.
Comments below or in the KitGuru forum.
Dont know what the fuss was all about. P67 is tainted anyway, best ditching it for a better product. simple as that.
I MAY be in the minority here, but after the P67 issues, I lost complete faith in the platform as a whole. when I saw Kitgurus story a few days ago I thought it was a great move to be seen to focus on upcoming, improved ‘and apparently only slightly more expensive’ technology. Glad to hear its a focus and I hope the other guys are taking note, such as ASUS and MSI
Nice move. normally asus lead the way, so gigabyte seem right on the ball here.
Bad move, third price raise of Gigabyte motherboards this year. And since they’re lacking video output we’re only paying more for Intel’s SSD caching. Gigabyte already had poor featureless boards on P67 with bad price/performance and with Z68 they seem even more lackluster. it’s Asus or MSI for me, Gigabyte has lost it for quite some time already.
Will they be making an assassin style board for Z68? loved that product.
@ Paul, I can’t say im fully loaded with info on Gigabytes P67 boards, but I thought they were just as good as Asus boards. The X58 Assassin was pretty sexy.
I have to agree with Paul, their P67 boards weren’t as good as the leaders, but I dont think its such a big deal, the platform has been plagued for months. consumers IMO have lost faith in it.
@Ned exactly, their X58 platform is nice, but P67/Z68 seems to lack everything. UD7 is bland compared to the Maximus Extreme IV or Big Bang Marshal. and releasing X58 now that it is on it’s death bed sounds like being a little late to the party.
Let’s see what X79 brings.
@ Paul. Maybe they will release a high end Z68 Assassin style board, I think they might do it.
Followed this on a blog claiming to belong to Gigabyte and they denied it outright but this bloke must be media trained. He hasn’t denied the original story so it must be true, right? Don’t think it affects anyone’s life but the denial is a non denial.
Well what I get from reading between the lines is that they are basically not going to be concentrating on P67 at all in the coming months but will obviously support their customers who have P67 boards.
Makes sense to me, but im sure other people will go off on rants, as always.