Gigabyte was busy showcasing the usual glut of motherboards with value-adding features.
What you see above is a mock-up of the EP55-UD5 - a board based around Intel's upcoming Lynnfield desktop chip and, below it, the EP55-UD4P, coming in at slightly lower in the range but keeping to present nomenclature.
The new features come under the banners of Smart 6, eSATA-USB, and Smart Dual LAN, respectively.
Smart 6 refers to a bunch of features - Smart Dual BIOS; Smart QuickBoot; Smart Recorder; Smart Quickboost; Smart Recovery, and Smart TimeLock .
The Dual BIOS is interesting insofar as it enables the storing of passwords and important dates in a password-protected part of the BIOS. Unfortunately, it's not encrypted.
Smart TimeLock, as the name infers, enables the administrator/owner to schedule usage of the computer, thereby enabling the times at which, say, children can access it.
See them funny-looking ports? The eSATA-USB combo is cool, as it's a proprietary technology that enables the use of the ports as either USB2.0 or eSATA. Gigabyte hopes to flesh this feature out with USB power for eSATA devices, and thus removing the Molex plug from fly-brackets.
And here's another AMD 785G motherboard, GA-MA785G-UD3H, this time laden down with the now-familiar two ounces of copper.
