Gigabyte marketing BS

[Supercharged]

I was searching for a new Motherboard and came across this (see picture). Now is it just me or does a PWM driven LED or even just a LED driven by a switching PSU in the guard track defeat the purpose of a guard track.
Now i know that a guard track like this is not very effective but advertising this shows that most Gamers don't know much about the stuff they buy and take everything manufacturers say as Gospel .

[DimitriP]

You are thinking of the wrong guard track. They must be referring to the sales guard track

[station240]

What the hell, either those are PWM driven, or run off some sort of counter. Either is bad news for an audio circuit.
I'd bet the engineer trying to lay out that board didn't enjoy their additions.

If Gigabyte want to put LEDs into their motherboards, how about starting with the USB ports on the back so we can see the bloody things.

For the record I hate gaming "ricer" motherboards and the like. Especially comical when the entire thing is hidden behind a steel sidepanel as no window was fitted to the case.

[Brumby]

I just don't see the point.

It'd take me 5 minutes to dig my box out and remove the cover to even see my motherboard.

[wraper]

Frankly, putting those LEDs on the digital side won't make much of an effect. There is already so much noise from the high speed digital circuits that PWMing some weak LEDs won't make any difference.
BTW this is not a guard track, there are no tracks in that area, they separate the analog and digital grounds with them connected in one point.

[wraper]

I just don't see the point.

It'd take me 5 minutes to dig my box out and remove the cover to even see my motherboard.

People buying such motherboards often use cases with a transparent side cover. Or almost fully transparent case. BTW I have the same thing on my ASUS motherboard too, though without any brightness regulation. Switched those LEDs off in the bios as they don't do any good for me. And I'm using a separate sound card anyway, not that Realtek codec hidden under the tiny metal shield so nobody can see what it really is, as they call it:
"SupremeFX III built-in 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC"   
Solder a tiny shield on top, supply some obfuscated drivers and call it as you want.

[Xplode]

Haha.  My new motherboard has this feature.   Looks cool, but I was never really believing that it was actually a functional beneft.

My brother's computer i just built has it as well, and you can make it pulse with the audio.   Can't generate any noise from that idea can it?

[MrSlack]

What a load of bollocks.

Not only are LEDs noisy, they are driving them from a PWM source with hard edges which have harmonics galore and it's inside a PC which has the noisiest shittiest switchmodes you can get for your money and crazy fast digital circuits all over the place.

Not that you can hear the difference anyway.

[EEVblog]

 

[ShatteredRAM]

I have this on the ASUS X99-A, it doesn't have the fancy audio control and I don't know if it is switch-mode driven, but you are able to disable it in the BIOS.

But yeah, its inside my case which sits under my desk with no clear side panels.

[sdancer]

At least they didn't put a valve in there.

[Srbel]

That's nothing!



I have a Gigabyte MB that is advertised with dual BIOS safe option (if 1 BIOS chip fails, after reboot, BIOS is read from second chip). And on my MB, both chips failed... At the same time. 

[Tim F]

That's nothing!



I have a Gigabyte MB that is advertised with dual BIOS safe option (if 1 BIOS chip fails, after reboot, BIOS is read from second chip). And on my MB, both chips failed... At the same time. 

Another funny thing about the gigabyte dual bios is that it doesn't protect against the #1 enemy of a bios chip: the user flashing the wrong binary.

[elgonzo]

[irony]
Why is everybody complaining? Gigabyte does not seem to pretend that this MB is delivering Hifi audio. (it would then be called GA-Z170N-HIFI, no?)
It says there right in the product name: GA-Z170N-WIFI. It should be pretty clear from the product name that this MB is only capable of delivering audio in wishy-washy fidelity... 
[/irony]

Also, the LED's cannot sit in or underneath a guard track - which would be made of copper. And to my knowledge, the light from a tiny LED does not shine through a copper trace.
Obviously, the LED's sit somewhere (embedded?) in the PCB substrate, but why are some people here so certain about them sitting in the audio area? By all means and purposes they would in all likelihood sit outside the PCB area dedicated to the analog audio circuitry.
And since the analog audio circuitry has to be shielded from the rest of the MB electronics and (high-speed) digital signal lines anyhow (assuming that GB is somewhat serious with its claims about audio quality), adding two or three PWM-controlled LEDs somewhere outside of the analog audio area should not make much of a difference... i guess...

[MrSlack]

Because a Fiat doesn't need a Flux Capacitor.

[voltlog]

Actually, I think the electronics/technical related marketing used on motherboards is the most advanced and outrageous there is.
Military class written all over, polymer ultra special capacitors, 6 layer ultra reliable 35um copper and the list goes on..

[elgonzo]

Because a Fiat doesn't need a Flux Capacitor.

Are you sure?

[MrSlack]

Hahahaha well played

[AF6LJ]

Give them credit for raising the "Bling Bar"   

[elgonzo]

Give them credit for raising the "Bling Bar"   

I think Asus were the first to add a band of light to "highlight" the audio capabilities of their higher-end gamer motherboards. Apparently this has been perceived by GB as a marketing success, so GB marketing is just aping Asus.
If one has to give credit for raising the "bling bar", then it has to go to MSI -- they offer fully illuminated motherboards for the "enthusiast" gamer with neither taste nor style...

[wraper]

That's nothing!



I have a Gigabyte MB that is advertised with dual BIOS safe option (if 1 BIOS chip fails, after reboot, BIOS is read from second chip). And on my MB, both chips failed... At the same time. 

Did you clear cmos after the update? Or how did you determine that they failed?
If CRC check calculates fine, it won't boot from the second flash chip. There is workaround by temporarily shorting pins 1 and 8 of the first flash IC in the right moment of the boot sequence.

[Srbel]

That's nothing!



I have a Gigabyte MB that is advertised with dual BIOS safe option (if 1 BIOS chip fails, after reboot, BIOS is read from second chip). And on my MB, both chips failed... At the same time. 

Another funny thing about the gigabyte dual bios is that it doesn't protect against the #1 enemy of a bios chip: the user flashing the wrong binary.

That was not the issue in my case. It just failed all of a sudden.

[wraper]

That was not the issue in my case. It just failed all of a sudden.

Did you reprogram it? Or why you decided it was a corrupted bios?

[Srbel]

That's nothing!



I have a Gigabyte MB that is advertised with dual BIOS safe option (if 1 BIOS chip fails, after reboot, BIOS is read from second chip). And on my MB, both chips failed... At the same time. 

Did you clear cmos after the update? Or how did you determine that they failed?
If CRC check calculates fine, it won't boot from the second flash chip. There is workaround by temporarily shorting pins 1 and 8 of the first flash IC in the right moment of the boot sequence.

Nothing to do with upgrade.

I have determined it by not being incompetent.

It was confirmed in the service shop (MB was still under warranty), and they have replaced the whole MB.

[wraper]

Nothing to do with upgrade.

I have determined it by not being incompetent.

It was confirmed in the service shop (MB was still under warranty), and they have replaced the whole MB.

If they just replaced it, they had no way to confirm it. You cannot just look on the motherboard and determine that bios is corrupted. You need to remove the IC and read/reprogram it (or do that pin shorting trick), all of those result in functioning motherboard. There are tons of things than can fail on the motherboard, not just bios.