Heat would have to be the number one enemy of the overclocker. Not only does heat lead to a potential reduction in overclocking headroom, but it also reduces the life-span of components. Gigabyte are leading the way in dramatically reducing the general CPU zone temperature to ensure better stability and longevity in their motherboards.

This year Gigabyte is setting a new standard with their Ultra Durable 2 Series motherboards, featuring Low RDS(on) MOSFETS, Ferrite Core chokes and All-Solid Capacitors. Low RDS(on) MOSFET's differ from regular MOSFET's in that they are specially designed to produce lower switching resistence and subsequent lower power consumption. As a result you get faster electrical charging and discharging, but with less heat generation.

Instead of using regular Iron Chokes, Gigabyte Ultra Durable 2 Series motherboards feature Ferrite Chokes. Ferrite is a compound of Iron-Oxide and other metal elements, and the properties of this compound means that it holds energy better at higher frequency, resulting in lower power loss.

The humble capcitor's primary role is to store electricity and then deliver it to the component requiring power, such as the CPU. Increasingly we are seeing the move to All-Solid Capcitors, and Gigabyte use quality Japanese manufactured capacitors to deliver maximum stability, reliability and to eliminate the potential problem of leaking electrolytic capacitors that we have seen in the past. Sure the inclusion of these quality parts will add to the cost of the motherboard, but the end results justify the means.

An illustration of the features you can expect on the GA-X38-DQ6, as well as support for 1600 Mhz FSB.

Gigabyte' DDR3 version of the X38-DQ6. All of Gigabyte' X38 motherboards have seen a slight change in the layout due to graphics cards blocking SATA ports on their past P35 based motherboards.

For those who utilise water-cooling or aftermarket CPU heatsinks, the Gigabyte X38-DS5 comes without Crazy Cool on the rear of the motherboard.

Due to the success of All-Solid capacitors on Gigabyte' motherboards, they have decided to include them on all VGA cards as well. Nice touch Gigabyte!

Once again let's reinforce the benefits of Gigabyte' Ultra Durable 2...

Gigabyte are so confident in their Ultra Durable 2 range of motherboards that they are now offering a 3 year warranty.

All things considered I believe that Gigabyte has made a definite step in the right direction regarding the inclusion of quality parts on their Ultra Durable 2 line of motherboards. Sure quality parts cost money, but the added benefits of stability, overclockability and longevity are well worth it in my opinion.

Overclock3D.net would like to thank Tim Handley, Lili Wu and Colin Brix from Gigabyte United Inc, and Ben Mansill from Atomic magazine for making this report possible.