How time flies. It's been just a little over an year since Gigabyte unveiled its G1.Killer series of gamer-overclocker oriented motherboards, including the G1.Sniper, and now it's already at G1.Sniper 3. While the original G1.Sniper was based on the X58 chipset supporting LGA1366 processors, the the Sniper 2 based on Z68 chipset, supporting LGA1155 processors, the Sniper 3 stays put on the LGA1155 platform, but makes use of the brand-new Z77 chipset. The motherboard is designed to drive up to four graphics cards in 4-way CrossFire/SLI configurations. It takes advantage of a PLX PEX8747 bridge chip, which takes in one PCI-Express 3.0 x16 link, giving out two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 links, it even has a native multiplex that splits its second downstream x16 link to two x8 links. This way, the G1.Sniper 3 is ready for 4-way action with the latest PCIe Gen. 3.0 graphics cards.The socket LGA1155 CPU is powered by a 15-phase VRM. It is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting dual-channel DDR3 memory. Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/NC/x16/NC; x16/NC/x8/x8; x8/x8/x8/x8); two PCI-Express 2.0 x1 (wired to the PCH), and one legacy PCI. There's a boat-load of SATA connectivity, starting with six SATA 6 Gb/s ports (two from the PCH, four from additional controllers), four SATA 3 Gb/s, and one mSATA 6 Gb/s. For a change, Gigabyte did away with Creative X-Fi audio (at least the CA20K2-based version), and replaced with Sound Core3D driving the audio, with better ground-isolated amp circuitry, and Bigfoot's Killer E2100 network controller. There's a second GbE connection, driven by Intel Gigabit Ethernet controller (probably 82579V).Display connectivity looks to include DVI, D-Sub, HDMI, and DisplayPort (the whole lot). All USB ports on the rear panel are USB 3.0, four of them could be wired to the PCH. There are a number of USB 2.0 ports available by headers, not to mention two more USB 3.0 ports via front-panel header. Moving on, the G1.Sniper 3 has Gigabyte's dual-UEFI BIOS with 3DBIOS UI. While the board retains the gunmetal black+green color scheme, it did away with retarded-looking heatsink designs. It packs a whole bunch of features for overclockers, including consolidated voltage measurement points, a feature-rich BIOS, etc. The G1.Sniper 3 could feature in Gigabyte's first wave of Z77 motherboards.