GIGABYTE P55 & Second-Gen X58 Motherboards Revealed

New AMD Boards

To coincide with AMD's totally reinvigorated budget-to-mainstream processor lineup, the brand new AMD 785G IGP chipset is about to hit the market, and GIGABYTE have two models ready to roll.


The MA785G-UD3H is a Socket AM2+ DDR2 motherboard with full support for all Socket AM3 processors. This model is based on the AMD 785G northbridge and SB710 southbridge. The SB710 is a simpler version of the popular SB750 southbridge, and thankfully it retains the awesome Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC) functionality that allows tweakers to unlock cores and/or L3 cache on Athlon II and Phenom II processors. Overclockers for rejoice over the fact this model support dual-channel DDR2-1333+ support.

Although not a great deal is known about the 785G chipset, we do that the IGP has been upgraded from the Radeon HD 3200 to the Radeon HD 4200, and that it brings with it support for DirectX 10.1 and Universal Video Decoder (UVD) 2. This model lacks onboard SidePort Memory, as a result some system memory will be reserved for the IGP if you enable it.


The GA-MA785GPM-UDH2 is also a Socket AM2+ DDR2 motherboard that uses the AMD 785G northbridge and the new SB710 southbridge. Obviously, this model's big selling point is the Micro ATX form factor, which makes it ideal for a Home Theather PC (HTPC). Another distinguishing factor is that this model features 128MB of built-in DDR3-1333 SidePort Memory, so it will not utilize the available system memory. Pricing should be very competition with current 780G models, but we could not squeeze any more information out of GIGABYTE's staff...yet.

Smart 6 Software

One of the keynote new technologies introduced by GIGABYTE at Computex was Smart 6, which is a collection of six user-friendly system management tools. In their own words, Smart 6 "allows you to speed up system performance, reduce boot-up time, manage a secure platform and recover previous system setting easily with a click of the mouse."


As you can see, Smart 6 has its own dock that allows quick access to the six SMART utilities.


First off is Smart DualBIOS. Now many GIGABYTE motherboards feature two physical BIOS ROMs, but this is the first time that important passwords and dates can be saved directly to the new 16MB BIOS chips (up from the previous 8MB).


Smart QuickBoot, as the name suggests, helps reduce boot-up time. This tool consists of BIOS QuickBoot and OS QuickBoot. BIOS Quick Boot allows your system bypass the time-consuming power-on self test (POST) procedure after three successful boots, if not changes are made to the BIOS or hardware configuration. The OS QuickBoot on the other hand makes the system go into an advanced S3 sleep mode upon exiting the operation system, and it permits a quick resume to full OS functionality.


QuickBoost provides quick and effortless overclocking for novice users. Just click on one of three overclocking presets and the program does the rest of the work for you.


Smart Recovery is kind of like Windows Restore/Apple Time Capsule function, where you can roll-back system settings to a previous working status. Users can select just about any day, week, or month to roll-back from, without having had to manually tell the program to create a backup flag.


Smart Recorder monitors and records system activities, such as when a system was turned on or off, and what data files were accessed or copied.


Smart TimeLock is a feature all kids will despise, as it allows parents the ability to schedule time limits for their children to use the PC. Parents can even make different usage time rules for weekdays and weekends.

GIGABYTE also introduced Dynamic Energy Saver 2 (D.E.S. 2), an improved version of Dynamic Energy Saver Advanced, and the Smart TPM hardware encryption feature that saves a 2048-bit encryption key on your Bluetooth-enabled mobile device and enables or disables access to sensitive files depending on your physical distance from the system, but we will take a closer look at those two technologies in our upcoming reviews.