and Mesh frequency between the
various operating systems, from
Windows XP to Windows 10.
As always, the entire point of this
is to give my overall impressions
of the board and my experience
with it. Well, it’s an interesting
board - I’ll give it that. On the one
hand you have a motherboard that’s
pretty much everything right with
the entire GIGABYTE X299 range
distilled into a single product.
However, with that some quirks
come along for the ride as well.
There are things that I miss form
the original X99 SOC Champion
such as the conveniently located
front USB ports for easy BIOS
updates, drivers etc. These are
not performance related, but they
sure did help when overclocking,
negating the need to reach around
the back of the board. I do wish
these were here as well, as that
convenience is still necessary.
With the Champion, you’re looking
at a product that is by all means a
culmination of what the company is
capable of when they are focused on
providing a board for overclockers.
It is likely the same efforts that
had allowed GIGABYTE to benefit
in reputation as the overclocker’s
choice for boards right next to any
ROG product years ago. Over time
though, several boards which were
a representation of this simply didn’t
make it to market for one reason or
another, and as a result ground was
lost in reputation but not in ability.
I’ve no doubt that between the
two competing boards (barring
any second revision boards) the
Champion is as capable as the
APEX when overclocking Skylake-X
CPUs. My ideal board would be
an amalgamation of these two in
some way, but obviously that is
not possible. You could do with the
Champion and not miss much if
anything being offered elsewhere,
but the issue again would be if you
can buy the Champion at all or not.
The latest bit of news seemed to
suggest it will see the light of day
as mentioned earlier. If that is the
case, then we have a true gem on
our hands. If that isn’t the case, well
then this board will serve simply
as a reminder of what GIGABYTE is
capable of producing, but choosing
not to manufacture for any number
of business related reasons outside
the scope of overclocking.
From where I stand, I’m more
impressed by the Champion than
any other offering GIGABYTE has
from the X299 range. Yes, it is
designed squarely for overclockers,
but I’d wager that there isn’t any
other board from the vendor that’s
as focused in its purpose. If the
X299 SOC Champion doesn’t ever go
to production, it’ll be the greatest
board GIGABYTE never made. If it
does, the X299 competition is about
to get even more interesting, as it
really is a champion of a board.
Issue 42 | 2017 The OverClocker 13