Gigabyte brought new top

We got to meet with Gigabyte at Computex 2023 and check out some of the products the company has been working on.

Computex 2023 is the time many companies choose to highlight some of their coolest PC products. Gigabyte is one such company, and I was invited over to check out some of the stuff the company has been working on. Most of the newest announcements were focused on components, especially motherboards, but there was a lot I liked about what Gigabyte showed me at this event.

Starting right off the bat with the big new announcements, Gigabyte brought a couple of new motherboards to the show as it's refreshing its premium Z790 lineup. The new boards Z790 Extreme X and Master X are similar to the non-X counterparts in most ways, featuring the same power phase and many of the same features. One of the key differences is that Gigabyte is using its EZ-Latch mechanism for the cover over the M.2 SSD slots. Basically, that means you can remove the entire cover by simply twisting the latch, so you don't need to use a screwdriver.

The boards already offered EZ-Latch mechanisms to make it easier to remove a graphics card, and the SSD itself, and those features are still here, too. The company also increased the size of the latches around the PCIe slots, so they should be easier to open manually.

Another big new feature with these boards is support for Wi-Fi 7 instead of Wi-Fi 6E. Wi-Fi 7 routers don't really exist yet, and the standard isn't finalized, but it's already promising some big speed improvements, so having this out of the box is definitely great to have. They also come with a new, larger Wi-Fi antenna.

These boards aren't yet available to buy, and Gigabyte didn't say when we can expect them. As the name indicates, they're built for the Z790 platform, so they're meant for 12th and 13th-gen Intel Core processors. They should also support future generations, assuming Intel keeps using the same socket.

Gigabyte had a few other desktop products on display, with a particularly interesting one being this massive PC built inside the Aorus C700 case. I was drawn by the sheer size of it, but there's also plenty of RGB going on in the case itself, including the Aorus logo, the glass panel on the side, and the rear exhaust fans. Obviously, this can fit almost any component you could want, including Gigabyte's own massive RTX 4090, which includes a small display capable of displaying animations.

Another cool desktop concept was hiding the cables inside the PC by changing the way the motherboard is built. It's not exclusive to Gigabyte, and it seems to be one of the trends at Computex. This is done by putting all the power connectors on the back of the motherboard and even the GPU, so you can't see the cables anywhere on the "front" side of the case, making for a totally clean build. Gigabyte is still trying to figure out if there's a big enough audience for something like this, considering there's a lot more money and time that needs to be put into ensuring a product like this is functional. Having a clean setup is definitely nice, but if it comes at an increased cost, it may be hard to justify.

Probably one of the coolest-looking builds at the show was this PC that didn't really have a case, but it was sort of enclosed inside some rings with inscriptions on them. I did ask if I could take it home, but I didn't get very lucky with that.

There weren't any brand-new laptops at the show, but I did get to take a look at the cooling system for the Aorus 17X laptop, which is definitely impressive. The company is using a quad fan cooling system and a large vapor chamber that covers both the CPU and GPU to help keep temperatures down.

The Gigabyte Aero 16 was also there, and the company has actually added more ports to this model compared to its predecessor. It now has USB Type-A, HDMI, and a microSD card reader built-in, so it no longer needs to come with an adapter in the box as the previous one did.

One other thing I found pretty cool is that Gigabyte is now selling some of its gaming monitors with a mounting arm instead of a typical stand. Using a mounting arm means you get extra flexibility to move your display around in whatever way you like, and I think it's pretty great to have that in the box. It gives you swivel capabilities up to 270 degrees both ways, plus tilt, pivot, and of course, height adjustment. Of course, there are downsides, as this adds quite a bit to the cost, and it's more expensive than buying a mounting arm separately.

However, I'd say there's still value in including it in the box so you can set it up right away instead of making separate purchases and risk having to wait for either product to come in. Plus, this included arm uses an easy locking system so that you can attach it to the monitor right away without any screws. Though that does also mean it probably won't be compatible with other monitors since it's not a proper VESA mount.

These monitors with mounting arms, called Arm Edition, are already available, and they're specifically only on the Gigabyte M32U and M28U models for now, though Gigabyte is considering bringing it to some Quad HD monitors, too. Another cool thing about these M-series monitors is that they have a built-in KVM with a quick switch button on the back, so you can easily switch between devices and keep using the same mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

Gigabyte was also showing off one of its big format OLED displays with a 48-inch unit connected to a PlayStation 5. Again, nothing really new, but having such a large OLED screen for gaming is amazing. It comes with HDMI 2.1 support and 4K resolution as well as a 120Hz refresh rate to make the most of the latest PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

This monitor is also already available to buy, and there are other sizes available, too. This one specifically costs around $800.

I've been covering the tech world since 2018, and I love computers, phones, and - above all that - Nintendo videogames, which I'm always happy to talk about.