The G1.Sniper 5 Review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlI2ACcmCyI
So earlier this month everyone saw the launch of the 4th generation core I processors from Intel, Haswell. Haswell is the latest in Intel?s mainstream lineup bringing new technologies such as the integrated silicon voltage regulator to the average consumer. The SharkBay platform is the code name for the Z87 chipset and today I will cover the intricacies of the G1.Sniper 5, GIGABYTE?s top of the line G1-Killer series motherboard. I will cover brand new technologies such as Flexible I/O, which is the ability given to the motherboard makers to customize the amount of USB 3.0, SATA6G, and PCI-E 2.0 from the PCH. I will also cover some of GIGABYTE?s latest technologies such as their new AMP-UP replaceable operational amplifier, their new UEFI, and software. So without further ado I bring you the G1.Sniper 5 Review.
Box, Board, and Accessories:
The G1.Sniper 5 totes a pretty big box. Advertised on the front is their replaceable AMP-UP kit which includes an extra o-amp and IC tweezers for replacing it.
The back of the box shows the user all the fancy features of the Sniper 5.
The Accessories:
1. 6x SATA6GB/s Cables
2. USB 3.0 front case panel bay
3. BackPanel I/O Shield
4. GC Dual Band Wifi/BT 4.0 with new Antenna Kit
5. OP-AMP Kit(Tweezers and 1 extra OP-AMP)
6. 4-way SLI Bridge
7. 3-way SLI Bridge
8. 2-way SLI Bridge
9. 2-way CF Bridge
10. Driver DVD + Manuals
Here we have an up close of some of the parts. Since the jacks are gold plated they aren?t color coordinated, so the IO shield can show the end user which port is AMPed up and which are not.
You can also see the stream line antenna, it combines both the Bluetooth and Wifi into one, and it is magnetic. It looks pretty cool.
Okay so here we have the majestic G1.Sniper 5. The board supports 32GB of DDR3, 4-way SLI/CF at 8x/8x/8x/8x. The heatsinks have active and water cooling, we have 10x SATA6G ports, and 10x USB 3.0 ports. The board also has 9 fan headers, the fan on the heatsink doesn?t use any of those 9, and I am pretty sure you have full control of at least 7 of those 9 both in the UEFI and in Software.
Compared to the G1.Sniper 3 the G1.Sniper 5 is like comparing a BWM 3 series to a 5 series, the G1.Sniper 5 is so beefed up it requires 2 more PCB layers than its predecessor.
Here we have the backpanel:
1. 6x USB 3.0(the two closest to the audio jacks are Intel, the rest are through a hub)
2. Gold Plated TOSLINK w/S/PDIF Digital
3. 2x USB 2.0
4. 2x Gold Plated HDMI
5. Gold Plated DisplayPort
6. Intel NIC Port
7. Bigfoot Killer NIC Port
8. PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse
9. Gold Plated S/PDIF Optical
As you can see there is a fan which blows down onto the VRM heatsink. This fan is pretty quiet actually and the heatsink I cold to the touch when the fan spins, meaning that the fan really is just for esthetics. The heatsinks is cooling a 16 phase VRM powered by IR3550 PowIRstages. We can also see the nice black capacitors. The VRM heatsink and the PLX/PCH heatsink are not connected. I will take apart the heatsink later to show you how it is constructed.
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