GIGABYTE G1.Gaming Z97 Motherboard Pictured

[btarunr]

GIGABYTE is giving final touches to its next G1.Killer series motherboard, the G1.Gaming Z97. Branded in an uncanny way to MSI's Gaming series, the G1.Gaming is a mid-range ($150 - $200) socket LGA1150 motherboard based on Intel's Z97 Express chipset, which can run Core "Haswell" Refresh processors out of the box. The board features most of the stuff you've come to expect from "gaming" grade motherboards. To begin with, its draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, and uses an 8-phase VRM to condition power to the CPU. The CPU is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory; and two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated). Three PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and two legacy PCI make for the rest of its expansion area.

Display connectivity on the G1.Gaming Z97 includes DisplayPort and HDMI. Storage connectivity includes six SATA 6 Gb/s, and likely one M.2 slot. A total of six USB 3.0 ports are on offer, four on the rear panel, two by header. The board features 7.1-channel Creative Sound Core3D audio with user-replaceable OPAMPs, a 115 dBA DAC, audiophile-grade electrolytic capacitors, and ground-layer isolation. The wired networking on this board is equally special, a Broadcom-Killer E2100 PCIe NIC with packet prioritization that's optimized for multiplayer gaming. For those with USB headsets that come with their own DACs, GIGABYTE is offering a special USB 2.0 port with extra power output, and electrical noise filter. GIGABYTE's dual-UEFI BIOS is at the helm of this board.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[vega22]

looked better in green but i am guessing this was found to be a better colour by an american think tank to whom it reminded them of some food.

 

[DeNeDe]

64GB? isn't the max for Z97 and LGA1150 32GB ?
4 DIMM x 8GB/DIMM .. or they are available 16GB/DIMM ?

 

[RCoon]

or they are available 16GB/DIMM ?

Soon™

 

[DeNeDe]

Interesting... DDR4 is 5-6 months away and they release 16GB DDR3 DIMM. Hope the Z97-Deluxe from ASUS will support 16GB per DIMM. I just purchased 32GB Kit Dominator Platinum at 1866MHz.. I guess that was a bad move? )

 

[RCoon]

Interesting... DDR4 is 5-6 months away and they release 16GB DDR3 DIMM. Hope the Z97-Deluxe from ASUS will support 16GB per DIMM. I just purchased 32GB Kit Dominator Platinum at 1866MHz.. I guess that was a bad move? )

So far they are only ECC 16GB DIMM's, and the timings are pretty high and the frequencies low. Your Dominator kit will have much lower cycle times, and will inevitably be quicker in benchmarks. Sure you got half the capacity, but your speed is better. Not that you would use 64GB anyway!

 

[DeNeDe]

Of course, I know that. But for multitasking and for bragging rights 64GB is looking better than 32GB

 

[RCoon]

But for multitasking and for bragging rights

And RAMDisks! Also corporate database servers love lots of RAM, keeps access time quick. When you're on the phone to customer services and they say "sorry our system is running slow", you know their database server is not quite up to scratch.

 

[Hood]

I don't see what differentiates this from Z87, except the m.2 slot ( a $10 adapter card does the same thing). So now we'll have dozens of new boards to review, with nothing new to say about them, except how the color scheme looks, and how you still can't overclock worth a damn because of the on-die voltage regulator. I guess SATA Express won't arrive until Broadwell. This is why desktop builders are in a slump - 2 years has gone by since Z77 and nothing has really changed.

 

[RCoon]

I don't see what differentiates this from Z87, except the m.2 slot ( a $10 adapter card does the same thing). So now we'll have dozens of new boards to review, with nothing new to say about them, except how the color scheme looks, and how you still can't overclock worth a damn because of the on-die voltage regulator. I guess SATA Express won't arrive until Broadwell. This is why desktop builders are in a slump - 2 years has gone by since Z77 and nothing has really changed.

Z77 only had 2 SATA 6Gbps ports unless you bought the super high end, Z87 brought it up to 6 on midrange boards. Besides that, you're spot on.

 

[micropage7]

come on use better picture, if the red color is matte-red it would nice

 

[TheLostSwede]

More pictures of several other Gigabyte boards here http://lab501.ro/stiri/gigabyte-g1-gaming-soc-force-ud7-th-si-ud5h-bk-pregatite-de-lansare

 

[Urobulos]

Yesssssss.... Z97X-UD5H-BK finally a good looking motherboard for my white H440 (other than the ridiculous X79 Black Edition from ASUS)

When I saw the red in Techpowerup's post I was but if pics from lab501 are legit, then we're finally getting a good, somewhat affordable black mobo.

 

[vega22]

I don't see what differentiates this from Z87, except the m.2 slot ( a $10 adapter card does the same thing). So now we'll have dozens of new boards to review, with nothing new to say about them, except how the color scheme looks, and how you still can't overclock worth a damn because of the on-die voltage regulator. I guess SATA Express won't arrive until Broadwell. This is why desktop builders are in a slump - 2 years has gone by since Z77 and nothing has really changed.

except performance?

my z87 pisses all over both z77 and z68 in terms of "chipset" performance.

z77 was hardly any better than 775 at the end.

 

[diopter]

I think Gigabyte's Z87 designs are a lot classier looking than these. Glad I got one especially since there are no must have features for me on Z97.

 

[DeNeDe]

When do we expect that all Mobos from all vendors to hit the stores? Last April? First May ?

 

[Disparia]

More pictures of several other Gigabyte boards here http://lab501.ro/stiri/gigabyte-g1-gaming-soc-force-ud7-th-si-ud5h-bk-pregatite-de-lansare

Thanks for the link.

They're alright. Instead of giving us two boards with PCI I would have like to see a model with a pair of M.2 slots in those spaces for a more diversified and in my opinion, desirable lineup.

 

[Chaitanya]

Here is one more pic of the said board. Looking at other photos, I think Gigabyte has put in too many sata express connectors and removed too many SATA 6Gbps ports.

 

[bogami]

Oh, no green: Yes well equipped with everything we need only mini PCE not or some other plugin for SSD on board. RAM disc is a good benefit but space is insufficient, regardless of the slots 16 GB x 4 max. Besides, it is necessary to load all together on the RAM in the computer switching on, MSI has realized this and properly equip its series. Stell good board .

 

[Disparia]

Here is one more pic of the said board. Looking at other photos, I think Gigabyte has put in too many sata express connectors and removed too many SATA 6Gbps ports.

Those are also SATA ports. Each SATA Express port (some of those Gigabyte boards have two) can be used by either a SATA Express device (10Gb/s) or two SATA devices (up to 6Gb/s).

**There is also a SATA Express port defined for only SATA Express devices, but at this time we'll mostly see the other one to smooth the transition. It also doesn't take up much more space on the board so I expect the 2 SATA Express + 2 SATA configuration to be a popular one. (And if someone were to produce a board with 2 M.2 slots and 2 SATA Express that would be hot!)

 

[Chaitanya]

Those are also SATA ports. Each SATA Express port (some of those Gigabyte boards have two) can be used by either a SATA Express device (10Gb/s) or two SATA devices (up to 6Gb/s).

**There is also a SATA Express port defined for only SATA Express devices, but at this time we'll mostly see the other one to smooth the transition. It also doesn't take up much more space on the board so I expect the 2 SATA Express + 2 SATA configuration to be a popular one. (And if someone were to produce a board with 2 M.2 slots and 2 SATA Express that would be hot!)

I know Sata express is backwards compatible with SATA 6gbps and older standards. I use high-end boards with fast cpus and gpus for database computation and parallel programming also couple of my friends use high end systems(currently dual xeon based systems) for CAD/CAM work. I am worried about the driver stability for this new standard. Since drives in my workstation are going to be on RAID, failure(lost time and lost work) is going to be a big headache for me. From gamer/overclocker/enthusiast perspective the config you mentioned would be freaking awesome. Imagine the performance from 2 m.2 drives in raid 0 while having sata express for future upgrades as a peace of mind.

 

[Hilux SSRG]

Yesssssss.... Z97X-UD5H-BK finally a good looking motherboard for my white H440 (other than the ridiculous X79 Black Edition from ASUS)

When I saw the red in Techpowerup's post I was but if pics from lab501 are legit, then we're finally getting a good, somewhat affordable black mobo.

Z97X-UD5H-BK that caught my eye as well. Simple black on black with a splash of color.

 

[Hood]

except performance?

my z87 pisses all over both z77 and z68 in terms of "chipset" performance.

z77 was hardly any better than 775 at the end.

I have all 3 chipsets in Asus systems (Z68/2500K, Z77/3570K, Z87/i3-4130) that I built, and I'm not sure what you're talking about - the "chipset" handles the I/O, and the only improvement brought by Z87 was more 6 GB/S SATA ports and a few more USB. The Z87 chipset is no faster, and putting the VR on-die was a mistake that Intel is already rectifying on their next mainstream socket. Z77 has great memory support and Ivy Bridge procs are better overclockers in general. It's normal to brag on ones system, better though if you get your facts straight. Ask others if you don't believe me. Most of us avoid building high-end Haswell systems unless our old systems were past usefulness and needed replacement. At least Z97 will bring SATA Express and fast M.2 SSD speeds, but Z87 isn't "pissing on" much of anything.

 

[vega22]

so gaining more performance from the same ancillary hardware is not an improvement?

the performance of my drives, and ram all improved on z87.

while the ram was constrained by sandy the drives where not on either z68 or z77 so where else does it come from?

are they next to your false facts?

or the stuck up nature about your hardware?

if you knew me you would know how i feel about how it stacks up against my other systems and why and how i got it

 

[revin]

except performance?

my z87 pisses all over both z77 and z68 in terms of "chipset" performance.

z77 was hardly any better than 775 at the end.

Easy now bro My Z68 is well into z77+ performance as noted by Dave when the Samsung ram was getting ran thru the ringer..... as he said it's all about how well the Dev's do thier job. My 1866 is far better than most any 2133 and to be able to keep 5.0+/- Ghz with a skt 478 cooler is not just lucky IMHO. They did a great job on my chipset performance, and the entire board.
As he pointed out, Intel seen there was going to be an issue, so they worked the hell out of the board to get the best performance.
Sure if I had an SSD it'd be an awesome system, but running 24/7, i'm not "in a hurry" to reboot the system.
There's not enough real world performance gain out yet for me to spend the money to move up to a new platform. Benching dont mean alot for everyday performance to most.
Now TBH, that the new Gen video card's {780's/R290's} there's a performance increase to be had over my 5870, but the 7970, not much more than eye candy for 1080p.

I'd love to get the last Skulltrail Intel board and a 4770K, but it's just not going to do much but take $$$ outta me, but the same $$$ for 780 performance hell yes, "HELL NO" from the wife Lol !!!