Gigabyte G1.Sniper M3 Intel Z77 Express

[cadaveca]

Cool. Looking forward to the re-bench!

Well, the compare between P67/Z68 and Z77 would be to see what the new boards bring to the table in terms of performance. Since they're all S1155 based and both support the latest gen. intel cpus.

Those differences won't be really be much of anything, since CPU/IMC/iGPU are all on the chip itself. Just drive controller differnces are really there, and I already include that in my reviews anyway. The rest of any difference can be found from any board, since they all use different external controllers for things like USB 3.0/Firewire/Audio. Clearly though, with a new VGA, a re-bench is in order, so I'm going to have to do it anyway. My drive resutl graphs are ENORMOUS at this point.

the other difference, of course, is that Z77 has some extra memory dividers, but again, that's a CPU thing, not really board-related per-se, evne though that ability is tied into the PCH. There's really not much different between Z68 and Z77, except PCIe 3.0, and add-on features like Rapid Start and Smart Connect.

All that said, I'll have Z68 included in the re-bench, for sure.

 

[borschwanger]

so i was basically all set to get the maximus v gene with this in second place. i can combo the m3 with a 3570k for $263 after $20 MIR. best ive seen 3570k + gene is $373 (would be 340 if i could get it online without tax). is the gene worth the difference there considering you didnt even give a recommendation to the sniper?

 

[cadaveca]

so i was basically all set to get the maximus v gene with this in second place. i can combo the m3 with a 3570k for $263 after $20 MIR. best ive seen 3570k + gene is $373 (would be 340 if i could get it online without tax). is the gene worth the difference there considering you didnt even give a recommendation to the sniper?

The major reason for the lack of a recommendation here for the G1.Sniper M3 is due to the lack of proper PCIe spacing. You cannot use proper Crossfire or SLi in a mATX case, and this is a mATX gaming product. That was a big mistake on Gigabyte's part, and it affected the final score in a big way.


In that regard, the Gene is better.

Is that worth $100 to you?

For me, a multi-GPU user, yes, the cost is worh it, but if you are going to use a single card, I can see no reason for the extra expense.



Gigabyte has a tonne of really really good Z77 Express products, and I'm not sure what happened with this one. It's not that there is anything really wrong with it...other than that PCIe spacing, and the heat that will be cuased by the use of a 4-pin CPU plug rather than an 8pin. That 4-pin choice won't affect overclocking ability though.