GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, VGA cards and other computing hardware solutions, today introduced GIGABYTE i-Cool, the intelligent CPU performance and fan noise control utility! In today's environment, PC's thermal and acoustic performance is becoming more and more important. A desirable PC should be cool and quiet; GIGABYTE i-Cool utility allows users to reduce heat generated by CPU through reducing the CPU clock speed and enabling CPU fan to run slower and quieter. The GIGABYTE i-Cool utility achieves this through 5 CPU power usage settings targeting applications that require different performance levels. Additionally, it also reduces the CPU fan speed to achieve best thermal and acoustic performance ratio!

Level 1 is most suitable for internet browsing or productivity applications such as word processing, where CPU performance is set to 12.5% of its maximum value. Level 2 sets the CPU performance to 25% and is well suited for playing DVD movie and music where reduced unwanted noise drastically improves the user experience. Level 3 sets the CPU performance to 50% and is well suited for applications such as file copying and disk defragmenting. More demanding applications such as virus scanning and music or photo editing are well suited to level 4 where sets the CPU performance to 75%, while the most demanding applications such as gaming or 3D editing require level 5 where sets the CPU performance to 100%.

Targeting technical and mainstream users a like, i-Cool provides a simple indication of current status of CPU by indicating estimated power usage, fan noise and performance in each level when selected. An intelligent auto mode can be selected so that CPU performance is dynamically adjusted to cater for user's requirements as applications are opened or closed.

The GIGABYTE i-Cool utility will initially support GIGABYTE Intel 945 series chipset motherboards, and can be downloaded for free from official GIGABYTE website togetherwith full list of supported motherboards at: /support-downloads/support-downloads.aspx