Gigabyte G1.Killer Series Meets Sandy Bridge with New G1.Sniper 2 Motherboard

[btarunr]

Gigabyte released pictures of G1.Sniper 2, the company's first socket LGA1155 motherboard in the G1.Killer series of motherboards designed for gamers with overclocker alter-egos (the same market ASUS Republic of Gamers targets). The board is based on the Intel Z68 Express chipset without any additional PCI-E bridge chip such as NVIDIA nForce 200. The board supports 2nd generation Core "Sandy Bridge" LGA1155 processors. The first G1.Sniper was a LGA1366 motherboard based on Intel X58 chipset.

Apart from being yet another high-end 2-way SLI/CrossFire Z68 motherboard, which Gigabyte's mainline Z68X series motherboards already achieve, the G1.Sniper 2 packs two extremely gamer-specific onboard devices: the Bigfoot Killer E2100 low-latency, high-offload PCI-Express network controller with its of dedicated memory; and Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi hardware audio with CA20K2 PCIe processor and 64 MB XRAM, backed by a high-grade Cirrus Logic DAC and OPAMP circuit, driving signal-noise ratio easily above 105 dBA with punchy bass.



That aside, the G1.Sniper 2 is your typical high-end LGA1155 motherboard, with 12-phase CPU VRM, 2-phase for the dual-channel DDR3 memory; expansion slots that include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated), two each of PCI-E x1 and legacy PCI; storage connectivity that include two SATA 6 Gb/s, five SATA 3 Gb/s, one power eSATA; four USB 3.0 ports (two by header), and HDMI being the lone display output. Given that Killer E2100 and SB X-Fi are together worth well over $200 when purchased as separate add-on cards, one can expect this to be the most expensive LGA1155 motherboard from Gigabyte, yet.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[RejZoR]

Nice. Onboard CA20K2. You don't see that everyday...

 

[erixx]

nice, but want one without ethernet and soundcard!!! I already own an xfi, and don't believe in the killercards.

I mean. An onboard VIDEO is nice, because you can run and USE a mobo without a video card (the contrary is impossible), but onboard audio? please use all that space for something else...

 

[entropy13]

Why oh why are the ports bright red/orange/blood/juice?

 

[Sihastru]

I don't mind the high-end-ish integrated sound card, it can help with multi-GPU setups, but I think that a Killer NIC is useless.

 

[btarunr]

nice, but want one without ethernet and soundcard!!! I already own an xfi, and don't believe in the killercards.

Buy a Z68X-UD5 then.

 

[micropage7]

nice but too expensive, and i dont like that

 

[gumpty]

All they need to do now is squeeze this into a mATX format.

 

[WarraWarra]

Looks good and puts the i7-2600k in it's rightful place.
Electrical x8/x8 is a bit sad / primitive for the price and date.
You expect new motherboard, so you expect 16x/16x at least or am I wrong ?

 

[TheLostSwede]

That's an Intel limitation as the CPU's only have enough PCI Express lanes to do dual x8. Go talk to Intel about, as it's not the motherboard makers fault.

 

[arnoo1]

Just a little wrong, there is almost no difference between 8x and 16x. On the interwebt are enough test and stuff, also on youtube(linus tech tips)

 

[micropage7]

All they need to do now is squeeze this into a mATX format.

if its on micro atx you gonna lose triple or quad sli

 

[GSquadron]

This mobo is so damn cool
If only it was for amd too...
Hoping to show with bulldozer

 

[erixx]

its overprized lik the other one BATuRNr

 

[Sir B. Fannybottom]

Just a little wrong, there is almost no difference between 8x and 16x. On the interwebt are enough test and stuff, also on youtube(linus tech tips)

He got hacked! It made me sad, they took down all his videos.

 

[DigitalUK]

very nice looking board ,i hope gigabyte bring an amd version very soon

 

[_JP_]

That gun makes no sense. How am I supposed to fire that?

 

[TheLaughingMan]

nice, but want one without ethernet and soundcard!!! I already own an xfi, and don't believe in the killercards.

I mean. An onboard VIDEO is nice, because you can run and USE a mobo without a video card (the contrary is impossible), but onboard audio? please use all that space for something else...

I don't mind the high-end-ish integrated sound card, it can help with multi-GPU setups, but I think that a Killer NIC is useless.

http://www.futurelooks.com/gigabyte-g1-killer-assassin-x58-lga1366-gaming-motherboard-review/4/

its overprized lik the other one BATuRNr

Actually adding up the cost of those parts seperately, high-end board, X-fi Titanium audio card, and Killer NIC 2100, the G1.Killer line is actually a little cheaper. It also saves you those two PCIe slots, leaving you with space to add other stuff like a TV tuner, second/third GPU without worrying about needed space for them.

 

[arnoo1]

He got hacked! It made me sad, they took down all his videos.

fack noooooooo!!! xd

i saw all his video's though xd

 

[micropage7]

He got hacked! It made me sad, they took down all his videos.

yeah, i like his video. thats kinda sad

 

[Sir B. Fannybottom]

yeah, i like his video. thats kinda sad

I was just going to check what new videos he had Who will fill my unboxing void?!

 

[Animalpak]

one of the best looking motherboard i ever seen ! gorgeous color scheme !

 

[xtremesv]

Pretty nice design but I can bet that'd be out my yearly budget.

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Meh, features no one really needs and most aren't likely to use the sound given it will use the teribad creative drivers.

 

[Steven B]

This is the second generation G1 Killer boards, check out the first gen as many of the fetures are teh same, pretty damn cool boards. The Audio and LAn do help multiGPU setups in benchmarks and game play. I reviewed the Assassin board, pretty damn sick board. The Killer NIC is cool, the audio is very cool, and the rest of the board is very cool.

This gigabyte board will have 5 fan ports with total windows control. It has its USB 3.0 header to the side, which is new. it has 4 SATA6G ports from what i can see and 3 SATA 3G. The heatsinks have lights in them too.

BTW the only way to achieve 16x/16x on sandybridge is with an NF200 chipset, and they add latency. becuase of the nature of the PCI-E controller in the 2600K 8x/8x 2 way SLI/CF will beat out 16x/16x with NF200 in most all tests, except when using highend Nvidia cards like GTX 580 highly overclocked and with monitor like 2600x/1600(that's a lot of requirements), otherwise the NF200 boards like the UD7 and M4E are reserved for 3 way SLI and benchers.