bit-tech.net | Blog - motherboards

What's really happening with the Lucid Hydra?

Posted at 12:22 by Richard Swinburne with 6 comments

The rumour is that Nvidia really really doesn't like Lucid's Hydra chip - you remember, it's load balancing chip which, when present on a motherboard, allows you to mix and match graphics cards in a multi-GPU system.

The reason is obvious: Lucid is making something that could clearly damage Nvidia's SLI business model, so it's within reason that it would be miffed and it's not unlike Nvidia to protect itself with software DriverIDs and whatnot as has been evident from the recent kerfuffle over Batman Arkham Asylum.

Of course there's more than one side to every story, and we've recently spent time trying to find out what's happening with the Hydra chip and whether there's any truth to the rumours that Nvidia is playing a part by causing a stir with motherboard manufacturers.

Written on 16th November 2009
Tags big bang, hydra, lucid, mobo, motherboards, msi, nvidia, sli

Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 4 Winners

Posted at 17:54 by Alex Watson with 90 comments

And so we reach the end... the end of the beginning, at any rate, as we're ready to announce the final five winners of tickets to our Asus Xtreme Global Summit event along with the prizes that entails.

This week's blog post was all about overclocking, and the question we asked was simple: "what single tweak, invention, feature, BIOS option or idea would make overclocking better for you?

Read on to see who the lucky winners are!

Written on 21st August 2009
Tags asus, competition, motherboards, overclocking, xtreme global summit

WIN: Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 4

Posted at 16:18 by Alex Watson with 18 comments

So far we’ve announced 15 of the 20 winners in our Asus Xtreme Global Summit competition, over the course of three previous blogs looking at the various design innovations Asus is introducing in its upcoming P55 boards. It’s now time for the fourth and final giveaway of tickets! Read on to find out how you can get your hands on one.

Written on 19th August 2009
Tags asus, competition, motherboards, overclocking, xtreme global summit

Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 3 Winners

Posted at 16:16 by Alex Watson with 47 comments

So, here we are in the fourth week of the Asus Xtreme Global Summit competition, so we’ve got another five winners to announce. Last week’s post covered Asus’ T.Probe VRM technology and after such a techy post, the question we posed was a fun one:

“The challenge involves coming up with a new name for a Republic of Gamers motherboard - we've seen the Maximus (1, 2 and 3), the Commando, the Crosshair, the Rampage... what should follow this illustrious line-up?”

Read on to see who the winners were after the jump!

Written on 18th August 2009
Tags asus, competition, design, future, motherboards, names, xtreme global summit

WIN: Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 3

Posted at 13:23 by Alex Watson with 40 comments

We’ve previewed one of Asus’ upcoming P55 boards, the P7P55 Deluxe, taking a look at its overall layout, heatsinks and ports. We recently had a chance to catch up with the Asus design team to talk about the board’s power management design.

The P7P55D features a new design – branded ‘hybrid phase’, which adds a ‘T.Probe’ chip to a 16-phase power design to provide increased reliability by actively managing the VRMs to keep temperatures under control.

Written on 12th August 2009
Tags asus, competition, epu, motherboards, power, tprobe, vrms, xtreme global summit

Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 2 Winners

Posted at 08:25 by Alex Watson with 5 comments

We were a little late getting week two’s Asus Xtreme Gaming Summit post up, but it still attracted lots of great comments answering the question: “What’s been the trickiest, most complex or most frustrating problem you’ve had when building a PC?”

We’ve been through the comments and picked our five favourite answers – all five win tickets
to the event on the 28th of August in London, and of course, snagging themselves some choice hardware to boot. As stated in the T&C’s, every winner gets £50 towards travel expenses, too.

Before we announce this week’s winners, a quick shout out to forum users Spiny and ffjason – you both won last week and have been PM’d details which you need to respond to! Get on it or your tickets will go to other people!

Written on 12th August 2009
Tags asus, competition, design, future, motherboards, xtreme global summit

WIN: Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 2

Posted at 10:28 by Alex Watson with 32 comments

Motherboard manufacturers have long published QVL (“Qualified Vendor List”) lists for their motherboards, listing the memory modules the board will work with. It’s a necessary step given the huge number of memory modules, and memory companies who make RAM, but I’m willing to bet I’m not the only PC enthusiast who’s built a PC without taking the time to look at the QVL list.

If PC enthusiasts don’t pay particular attention to the QVL list, you can imagine how much attention it gets from less technical PC builders – about as much as a bog standard Storm Trooper at a Star Wars convention. Using memory that’s not on the QVL doesn’t automatically mean you’ll have problems, but it can result in numerous odd gremlins, or the system failing to boot.

So, what’s a motherboard manufacturer to do? Read on for Asus’ plan to save hasty PC builders from themselves.

Written on 7th August 2009
Tags asus, compatability, competition, memory, motherboards, qvl, xtreme global summit

Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 1 Winners

Posted at 17:54 by Alex Watson with 9 comments

Week one’s Asus Xtreme Gaming Summit post got quite a response, and what’s more, there were some terrific ideas – if you’re interested in motherboards, the entire thread is well worth a read, with some really smart ideas about how motherboard design could be improved.

Both ourselves and Asus have been over the posts, and can announce the first five winners of the competition. Read on to find out which lucky bit-tech readers will be heading to the event on the 28th of August in London, and of course, snagging themselves some choice hardware to boot.

Written on 6th August 2009
Tags asus, competition, design, future, motherboards, xtreme global summit

MSI: Finally hitting the nail on the head

Posted at 12:07 by Richard Swinburne with 11 comments

Where other motherboard manufacturers have fallen by the wayside (DFI, as proved by both the mediocre DK 790FXB-M3H5, and the reader reaction to it), or given up altogether (Abit, Epox), MSI is moving onwards and upwards.

MSI used to consistently languish in a distant third place (compared to Asus and Gigabyte) but this year not only has it really challenged the dominant two, in my opinion, it's successfully achieved a top tier place with many recommendation-worthy products.

For those who know me, writing something so unanimously positive is a difficult objective, being the critical barsteward I am. This reputation seems to have carried more than I've realised, as the conversation below proves after I tweeted that I was writing "a blog about MSI". Thank you for your honesty, my anonymous friend.

Not Doug says (21:50):
Rude blog?
Richard :: bit-tech says (21:51):
Positive
Not Doug says (21:51):
SHOCKMAHORRA!
Richard :: bit-tech says (21:51):
I know
Not Doug says (21:51):
I thought you were meant to be rude to everyone

However the more I write this the more obvious it seems, so, I can be nice when the situation calls for it!

Written on 4th August 2009
Tags competition, motherboards, msi, x58

WIN: Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 1

Posted at 11:14 by Alex Watson with 54 comments

By now you’ve hopefully read all about the Asus Xtreme GlobalSummit competition we’re running, and marvelled at the excellent selection of hardware prizes on offer. Unlike most of the competitions we’ve run in the past, this one adds interesting experience to the mix – firstly, there’s an afternoon in London talking with Asus’ R&D team, playing games and tinkering with the latest hardware.

It’s also about communication. Asus has a great reputation for the design and innovation that goes into its motherboards, and the firm is keen to get the opinions of real enthusiasts (hence the blogging/forum posting part of the competition), and to give you a peek behind the scenes of the design and development process. Read on to find out more, and for your chance to win one of the first five tickets for the event!

Written on 28th July 2009
Tags asus, competition, motherboards, p55, xtreme global summit

Archive for the ‘motherboards’ tag

What's really happening with the Lucid Hydra?

Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 4 Winners

WIN: Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 4

Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 3 Winners

WIN: Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 3

Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 2 Winners

WIN: Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 2

Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 1 Winners

MSI: Finally hitting the nail on the head

WIN: Asus Xtreme Global Summit Competition Week 1

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