Gigabyte will also have their GA-6VX7-1394. This Apollo 133 Pro FC-PGA ATX board carries one AGP, five PCI, one shared ISA, and three DIMM slots. Yes, this is all "ho-hum," but at the board's name suggests, there is something more. It comes with three IEEE 1394 connectors. For those with a recent digital camcorder or VCR, the GA-6VX7-1394 should be particularly interesting. Gigabyte may be going out on a limb by including FireWire on a motherboard, but then, we appreciate the innovation. And if you're wondering, the board uses TI's 1394 chips, the best in the business.
Last, but not least on the Gigabyte motherboard front, is the GA-6SMZ7. This microATX FC-PGA board based off of SiS' 630E chipset, carries one AMR, three PCI and two DIMM slots as well as integrated video. Notice, there is no AGP slot. This board is definitely aimed at the sub-$1000 PC OEM market.
Beyond the actual models listed, Gigabyte has some new features to show. The first is their @BIOS, which is a live update application for BIOS. Users can download and update their BIOS with a click without having to muck around with painful DOS applications.
The second feature is for Gigabyte boards with Smart Card readers. Gigabyte will be releasing an application that lets users edit their GSM phonebooks on their telephone smart cards. Those in the US may not be familiar with GSM phone cards. These cards hold all the configuration and memory information for GSM cell phones. If you transfer a card from one phone to another, not only does the phonebook transfer, the actual number of the phone transfers as well. Being able to edit GSM data from a computer will be much quicker and easier than doing it from a few buttons on a cell phone's face.
The third and last feature is called Easy Tune III. This is a soft-overclocking application that also does automatic overclocking, where it finds the fastest speed at which your computer will run stably.
Gigabyte has also begun building bare bones systems. We got a chance to watch their production line in full swing. I thought I was pretty handy at putting a machine together, but after watching one of Gigabyte's workers jet through RAM and CPU installation at warp 9 Mr. Sulu, I realized I've been assembling in the slow lane. The systems were actually being built for a recognizable name brand, but we cannot mention the name.
And last but not least for Gigabyte is their GA-GF2000. It is your standard GeForce2 GTS, with 32MB of DDR SDRAM. For uniqueness, it will come with Gigabyte's cool blue PCB. We like to call it "Gigablue."
All in all, COMPUTEX Taipei 2000 is going to be a big show for Gigabyte.