Like the Asus ROG series, Gigabyte started his own Gaming series. The Killer series, which is meant to be used only for high end gaming rigs features a huge bundle, an awesome gaming design, high quality components and much more. Their latest model, the G1.Sniper 3, comes with some changes. On this board you'll even find some extreme overclocking features. Has this OC + Killer motherboard been able to convince us? Let's find out in this Preview!
On the following pages we're going to show you if Gigabyte succeeding in convincing us with their brand new G1.Sniper 3 regarding layout and design.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Conclusion |
| Page 3 - Layout |
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Specifications / Delivery
| CPU | Intel Socket 1155 |
| Chipset | Intel Z77 |
| Memory | 4 x DIMM max 32 GB, DDR3 2666 (OC) / 1600 / 1333 /
1066 MHz Dual Channel |
| Multi-GPU | NVIDIA 4-Way (8x, 8x, 8x, 8x), 3-Way
(16x, 8x, 8x), 2-Way (16x, 16x) SLI AMD 4-Way (8x, 8x, 8x, 8x), 3-Way (16x, 8x, 8x), 2-Way (16x, 16x) CorssFireX |
| Slots | 2 x PCI-Express 3.0/2.0 x16 @ x16 2 x PCI-Express 3.0/2.0 x16 @ x8 2 x PCI-Express 2.0 x1 1 x PCI |
| Audio | Creative CA00132 Chip (Creative Recon3D) |
| Storage | 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s (Intel Chipset, RAID 0, 1, 5, 0+1) 4 x SATA2 3.0 Gb/s (Intel Chipset, RAID 0, 1, 5, 0+1, JBOD) 1 x mSATA2 3.0 Gb/s (The fifth SATA2 connector will become unavailable when a mSATA device is installed) 4 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s (2x Marvell 88SE9172, RAID 0, 1) |
| LAN | 1 x Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2201 LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN1) 1 x Intel GbE LAN phy (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN2) |
| I/O internal | |
| I/O Back Panel | |
| Bundle | |
| Formfactor | E-ATX (30.5cm x 26.4 cm) |
| Warranty | 5 years |
| On Manufacturer's Website | Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 |
| BIOS | 2 x Bios (64 Mbit flash ROM, EFI AMI BIOS) |
Uboxing the G1.Sniper 3 shows an awful lot of accessories. Next to a complete set of SATA (6x SATA and 2x eSATA) cables one will find a quad SLI bridge, a triple SLI bridge, a CrossFire bridge, an SLI bridge as well as a 3.5 inch front mount panel with two USB 3.0 ports and a Molex out and two eSATA ports with appropriate cables that belongs to this set. Furhtermore there are the different manuals, the wireless LAN and bluetooth expansion card as well as software and drivers on DVD.
Features
| 3D Power | Meanwhile Gigabyte also makes use of digital power designs on their motherboards. What it does is that it controls the flow of power to both CPU and memory. Gigabyte in this case promises maximum stability. |
| 3D BIOS | With their X79 motherboards Gigabyte introduced their interpretation of a UEFI-BIOS. With the Z77 boards you get the same 3D BIOS. Using a new Gigabyte board you can choose from a 3D Mode or the Advanced Mode. In 3D Mode one can see a picture of the board in BIOS. If you hover over the different areas you can select them and afterwards change the related settings. On the other hand there is the more standard advanced mode which come with a well-known tab based user interface. |
| PCI Epxress 3.0 | The G1.Sniper 3 already has PCI-Express 3.0 Support onboard. Therefore this board is ready for upcoming GPU generations that need even more bandwidth. |
| Bluetooth 4.0 and WiFi | The motherboard also includes an exclusive PCIe expansion card that offers support for the latest Bluetooth 4.0 and IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity. The Bluetooth 4.0 standard includes Smart Ready technology that is debuting on mobile devices including the Apple iPhone 4s. This means that transferring important content from your smart phone or tablet is easier and faster than ever. |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Conclusion |
| Page 3 - Layout |
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Layout
At a first glance we noticed two things with the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 2: the southbridge cooler as well as the power design cooler don't have any weapon like design anymore. Finally we would say. The second thing concerns the colour scheme of their Killer series. It come on a black PCB with the grenn expansion slots. The layout itself has been well thought and there is for example plenty of space around the CPU socket to install even todays largest CPU coolers. Also there is one slot space between each green PCIe 16x to make 4-Way SLI/CrossFireX possible. Furthermore you'll find a PLX PEX 8747 bridge switch chip that basically takes sixteen lanes from the CPU and is able to split them into x16/x16 or x16/x8/x8 or x8/x8/x8/x8. Meanwhile the last PCI 16x slot is close to the connectors at the bottom of the motherboard which will make them inaccessible, if you choose to put a dual slot GPU in there. We also noticed that there is three centimeters of space between the CPU socket and the first memory, which is a bit more than other boards.
Gigabyte equipped the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 with a 15 (6x2 + 2 + 1) phase power design for the processor. In fact there are six times two phases for vcore, two phases for IGP (Integrated Graphic Processor) and finally one phase for IMC (Integrated Memory Controller)/VTT. As for the other components, the memory benefits power from two phases, the PCH - also known as southbridge - is powered by one single phase. Futhermore there is the additional PLX chip which gets another phase and the last phase in charge of the power deliviery to the I/O components.
Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3. Officially supported are the following clock speeds: 2666 (OC) / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 MHz. There is also enough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you won't encounter compatibility issues with tower coolers even when you choose to install RAM with big heatspreaders. Meanwhile with a double tower cooler you may find some incompatibility issues with high end memory that ships with huge heatspreaders.
This time Gigabyte didn't equip their gamer board with coolers shaped like weapons. On this board you will find the same coolers like on the Gigabyte Z77 motherboards, but of course in a different colour. As you can see in the pictures bellow, the heatpipe cooling loop has got one more cooler than the other boards. There is the PLX chip with its eight watts dissipation power that has been integrated too.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Conclusion |
| Page 3 - Layout |
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Connectors and I/O
Totally Gigabyte equipped the G1.Sniper 3 with ten angled SATA ports,
which is enough for every office PC, gaming rig or overclocking setup. On the
fourth picture you can see the audio area, which has been separated from the the main PCB to avoid
noise signals. Gigayte chose to place an audio chip from Creative on the
G1.Sniper 3. In this case it is a C00132. Regarding the LAN chip there is a
Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2201.
At the top right corner of the motherboard we were happy to find a useful clear
CMOS button as well as a reset and power button. Also located in the
same area you will find the LED debug display that is very practical if you
experience any hardware issues. There are even voltage reading points in this
area, which are useful
for us extreme overclockers. As for the bottom part of the motherboard you will
be able to find additional connectors and a bios switch as
well.
Totally you'll find five fan headers on the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 which is more than enough to provide an overclocking rig or even a high-end gaming machine with plenty of fresh air. The fan headers are located around the CPU and their also spread over the entire board which makes them easily to access from any position in an enclosure.
Looking at the external connectors directly at the back-panel Gigabyte equipped the G1.Sniper 3 with one PS2 mouse/keyboard connector, no less than six USB 3.0 ports, two RJ45 connectors, an optical out as well as an analogue audio panel. Furhtermore there are also video out connectors like the VGA, DVI and both HDMI, DisplayPort connectors.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Conclusion |
| Page 3 - Layout |
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[pagebreak]
Conclusion
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| The G1.Sniper 3 is Gigabytes interpretation of a high end Intel Z77 based gaming motherboard. The first thing you'll notice are the coolers which aren't looking like guns/weapons anymore. We really happy to see a more mature design with a black and green colour scheme. As a byline: it reminds us a bit of the old DFI motherboard days. On the I/O panel you will only find USB3 ports making USB2 already EOL. Really convincing, that's what the delivery was. Indeed, there is so much stuff provided in the bundle of this motherboard that you don't need to buy anything else. | - Layout - Bundle - Design - No more gun/weapon coolers - Only USB3 |
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| Layout | + | - | |
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Generally the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3's layout has been very well thought. You will find everything that is practical and useful like for example reset/power/clear_cmos buttons as well as a BIOS switch, voltage reading points, a Debug LED Post Code display and once more practical are the angled SATA connectors and finally one legacy PCI slot which can still be very useful nowadays. We really like the fact that Gigabyte put a PLX chip on this board. Like this you can even create a four way SLI/CrossFireX setup. On the other hand we really didn't like the fact that they used cheaper and worse audio and LAN contollers them on all previous Killer and Sniper motherboards. |
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4-Way SLI/CrossFireX - Onboard buttons - Debug LED Post Code - Voltage reading points - Legacy PCI |
- Worse audio and LAN chips than the other Killer boards | |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Conclusion |
| Page 3 - Layout |
Discuss this article in the forums
Author: Christian Ney c.ney@ocaholic.ch