We’ve looked at our share of Z68-based motherboards here at HotHardware, and the Gigabyte G1.Sniper2 is another stand-out to consider.
The G1.Sniper2 is in Gigabyte’s line of Sniper/Guerilla/Assassin gaming motherboards, although it’s currently the only one in the family with the Z68 chipset.
The G1.Sniper2 is in Gigabyte’s line of Sniper/Guerilla/Assassin gaming motherboards, although it’s currently the only one in the family with the Z68 chipset.
 |
|
| CPU | -Supports 2nd Gen Intel Core i7/i5/i3/Pentium/Celeron processors, LGA1155 package -L3 cache varies with CPU |
| Chipset | Intel Z68 Express |
| Memory | -4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory -Dual channel memory architecture -Support for DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules -Support for non-ECC memory modules -Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules |
| Onboard Graphics | -1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200 |
| Audio | -1 x Creative CA20K2 chip -Support for Dolby® Digital Live and DTS™ Connect -Support for X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity® and EAX® Advanced HD™ 5.0 technologies -High Definition Audio -2/4/5.1/7.1-channel -Support for S/PDIF Out |
| LAN | -1 x Bigfoot Killer E2100 chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) |
| Expansion Slots | -1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16) -1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) -2 x PCI Express x1 slots -2 x PCI slots |
| Multi-Graphics | -Support for AMD CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI technology |
| Storage | Marvell 88SE9172 chip: -2 x SATA 6Gb/s connector (GSATA3_6, GSATA3_7) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices -Support for RAID 0 and RAID 1 Chipset ICH: -2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3_0, SATA3_1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices -3 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_2~SATA2_4) supporting up to 3 SATA 3Gb/s devices -1 x eSATA 3Gb/s connector (eSATA/USB Combo connector) on the back panel supporting up to 1 SATA 3Gb/s device -Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 |
| USB | 2 x Etron EJ168 chips: Up to 4 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (2 on the back panel, 2 available through the internal USB header) Chipset: Up to 14 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (8 ports on the back panel, including 1 eSATA/USB Combo connector, 6 ports available through the internal USB headers) |
| Interior I/O | iTE IT8728 chip |
| Form Factor | ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 26.4cm |
This ATX board supports the gamut of Intel socket LGA1155 chips, from the mighty Core i7 on down to Celeron processors, as well as up to 32GB of DDR3-2133 memory over four DIMM slots. On the graphics side, the G1.Sniper2 offers Intel’s integrated graphics of course (which powers an HDMI port with a maximum resolution of 1900x1200) as well as two PCI-E x16 slots (one x16 and one x8), two PCI-E x1 slots, and two PCI slots, with support for two-way SLI/CrossFireX.
For storage, the chipset powers a pair of SATA 6Gbps connectors, three SATA 3Gbps connectors, and one 3Gbps eSATA/USB combo connector (on the back panel), while a Marvell 88SE9172 chip delivers another couple of SATA 6Gbps connectors. The former supports RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10, while the latter supports RAID 0 and 1.
For storage, the chipset powers a pair of SATA 6Gbps connectors, three SATA 3Gbps connectors, and one 3Gbps eSATA/USB combo connector (on the back panel), while a Marvell 88SE9172 chip delivers another couple of SATA 6Gbps connectors. The former supports RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10, while the latter supports RAID 0 and 1.
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
The G1.Sniper2 comes with a driver/utilities/software disc and a trio of manuals--one for the motherboard in English, a multilingual installation guidebook, and an Intel SRT installation guide. Predictably, it also has a rear I/O panel, a two-way SLI bridge, and a smattering of SATA cables.
Like some of its predecessors, this motherboard has a 5.24-inch front panel that you can install. The panel sports a pair of USB 3.0 ports, an eSATA/USB port, and a Quick Boost overclocking button.
And for those who love to trick out their cases, bedrooms, basements, or what have you, Gigabyte included a colorful poster (one side is scary-looking men, and the other is a human-shaped target) as well as a cornucopia of death-y, bullet-y stickers.
Like the other motherboards in the G1.Sniper/Guerilla/Assasin family, the G1.Sniper2 sports a black PCB with gunmetal black and neon green accents--a striking color palette, although we wonder at the usefulness of a Sniper wearing neon green. (It just seems a little counterproductive. We digress.) The heatsinks evoke gun barrels, and there’s a banana clip with a bullet peeking out of the top for extra intimidation. One of the gun barrels has a quintet of neon green lights.
Also like most Gigabyte boards you’ll see, there are no physical buttons on the G1.Sniper2, which is a little odd for a higher-end board of this type.
There are heatsinks galore around the CPU socket, but they didn’t in any way interfere with our sizable CPU heatsink. For that matter, even with a big dual-fan heatsink sitting on top, we were able to fairly easily get to all the fan and power connectors.
Next to the CPU socket are four memory slots, which are conveniently color-coded in black and neon green so you can easily tell where to put your first pair of DIMMs. The PCI-E slots are spaced so that there’s ample room for two PCI-E x16 cards (which will operate at x8 each) in an SLI or CrossFireX setup.
The back panel features seven USB 2.0/1.1 ports and two USB 3.0 ports, an eSATA/USB Combo connector, an optical S/PDIF Out connector, an HDMI port, a PS/2 port, five audio jacks including line in/mic in and line out, and a gigabit LAN port powered by the Bigfoot Killer E2100 chip. (Note that the G1.Sniper2 supports a total of eighteen USB ports between the chipset and a pair of Etron EJ168 chips.)
Gigabyte definitely worked to bake in strong audio capabilities to this board. It features Creative Soundblaster Digital Audio Processor (20K2), X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity, and EAX Advanced HD 5.0, along with a built-in front audio headphone amplifier.
There are many included utilities and software with this motherboard, which are all available on the driver disk. Some of the more notable utilities include EasyTune 6, for adjusting a variety of settings from the OS; Gigabyte EZ Smart Response, which provides an easier way to configure Intel’s SRT; Cloud OC, which lets you overclock your machine via the Internet; 3TB HDD unlock, which does what it sounds like it does for larger hard drives; and Smart 6, which gives you control over a variety of settings in the OS environment. If Smart 6 sounds a lot like EasyTune 6, it’s because they are indeed a lot alike.
Gigabyte's bundled software also includes TouchBIOS, which lets you adjust BIOS settings from the OS (more on that later) and LucidLogix Virtu technology. The G1.Sniper2 also includes support for PCI-E Gen 3.
Gigabyte definitely worked to bake in strong audio capabilities to this board. It features Creative Soundblaster Digital Audio Processor (20K2), X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity, and EAX Advanced HD 5.0, along with a built-in front audio headphone amplifier.
There are many included utilities and software with this motherboard, which are all available on the driver disk. Some of the more notable utilities include EasyTune 6, for adjusting a variety of settings from the OS; Gigabyte EZ Smart Response, which provides an easier way to configure Intel’s SRT; Cloud OC, which lets you overclock your machine via the Internet; 3TB HDD unlock, which does what it sounds like it does for larger hard drives; and Smart 6, which gives you control over a variety of settings in the OS environment. If Smart 6 sounds a lot like EasyTune 6, it’s because they are indeed a lot alike.
Gigabyte's bundled software also includes TouchBIOS, which lets you adjust BIOS settings from the OS (more on that later) and LucidLogix Virtu technology. The G1.Sniper2 also includes support for PCI-E Gen 3.
Gigabyte is fairly unique in the motherboard market in that the company still uses an old BIOS interface at a time when most manufacturers have flashy, colorful, and powerfully appointed UEFIs. To each his own--you could argue that there are pros and cons to each approach--but the fact is that there isn’t much to talk about regarding this motherboard’s BIOS. With some minor exceptions, it’s pretty much the same thing you’ve seen on any Gigabyte board in the recent years.
That is not to say that there aren’t a multitude of ways to tweak the G1.Sniper2’s settings. Indeed, there are several. You can of course adjust settings manually from the BIOS, but you can also use the Smart QuickBoost utility, the EasyTune6 utility, the OC button on the back I/O panel, the OC button on the optional front panel, or the TouchBIOS utility. If you really want to test its limits, you can also overclock your system over the Internet with the Cloud OC utility.
Using the old standby method of manually adjusting settings via the MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.), we reliably hit 4.5GHz on standard air cooling. TouchBIOS is essentially just a GUI of the BIOS running within the Windows environment, so it offers the same tools as the actual BIOS.
Using the Smart QuickBoost utility, you can click a button to overclock the system on one of three settings: Faster, Turbo, and Twin Turbo. You have to be a little careful with Smart QuickBoost, as it will give a quick boost to whatever settings you already have. Thus, if you already have the system overclocked, QuickBoost might offer an easy one-button overclock to, say, 5.2GHz if you already overclocked the system to 4.5GHz. With stock settings, even the Twin Turbo setting is 4.2GHz the Core i7 2600K we used for testing.
Oddly, the EasyTune6 utility looks and feels almost identical to Smart QuickBoost, but the three options are “1”, “2”, and “3”, and the highest automatic overclock it offers is 4.1GHz on our Core i7 2600K CPU.
The system also automatically overclocked itself to 4.2GHz when we used the back panel or front panel OC buttons.
Although the Gigabyte G1.Sniper2 delivered somewhat mixed benchmark scores, at times dropping behind the pack and other times leading the way, overall it performed well. One limitation worth mentioning is that it only supports two-way SLI/CrossFireX, which limits its graphics expansion capabilities. For a board in this class, we were a little surprised at that.
Further, the G1.Sniper2 is not cheap; its MSRP is $359.99. We looked at other Z68 boards that cost a lot less yet deliver similar performance. Some boards certainly have better graphics expansion options, though admittedly going beyond two cards is a much more limited market need.
Further, the G1.Sniper2 is not cheap; its MSRP is $359.99. We looked at other Z68 boards that cost a lot less yet deliver similar performance. Some boards certainly have better graphics expansion options, though admittedly going beyond two cards is a much more limited market need.
Let’s face it, you can always juice a system here or there to get some more performance out of it, but stability is always a problem. There’s a narrow margin between squeezing more performance out of your system and having it crash on you, and the worst time for a crash is in the middle of a game. The G1.Sniper2 is a rock; it feels as solid as any board we’ve tested of late, and despite our tinkering and tweaking, it never crashed until we overclocked it to beyond the limits of our CPU at 4.7GHz.
Additionally, we suspect that an overclocker with more patience and time could probably push our system farther than we did and maintain stability.
The G1.Sniper2 is a motherboard built for gamers, and although it’s somewhat limited in graphics expandability, this board possesses other qualities near and dear to gamers: it overclocks very well and remains stable when you need it most. It also looks pretty sweet should you want to showcase your rig to fellow gamers.
Additionally, we suspect that an overclocker with more patience and time could probably push our system farther than we did and maintain stability.
The G1.Sniper2 is a motherboard built for gamers, and although it’s somewhat limited in graphics expandability, this board possesses other qualities near and dear to gamers: it overclocks very well and remains stable when you need it most. It also looks pretty sweet should you want to showcase your rig to fellow gamers.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar