Gigabyte X58A-OC Sub Zero Review

The Board Itself

Damn it’s a looker. This board, clad in black and orange, is so gorgeous that we had to keep VB locked in a cage to stop him slavering over it too much, being the orange and black lover that he is. He isn’t alone. If red and black apes the classical hot-rods it’s something we’ve grown used to. We can only recall one other black and orange board, and by god does the X58A-OC look the absolute Daddy.

      

Many manufacturers claim they have a good overclocking motherboard, or even that theirs is specifically designed for overclockers. Gigabyte have stolen a march with the X58A-OC though, as it’s specifically designed for extreme overclockers. Rather than simply give an extra couple of power phases, the whole CPU area has been designed to be as flat as possible to ensure that the important protective putty is easy to apply, and also that even enormous pots for DICE or LN2 can be accommodated without any fuss at all.

Here we see the overclock buttons and voltage monitoring points in all their glory.

      

It is such a beautiful board that we really can’t stop ogling it. Everywhere you look there is something to catch your eye from the clever heatsink design to the placement of the CMOS battery well away from any potential sub-zero covering.

      

Even the PCIe slots have an extra large space between them to ensure either great airflow, or easy application of the board-saving putty.

Just take a look at the CPU area one more time. When you compare it to any similar socket area you can really get an appreciation for the thought behind the X58A-OC.