Moving in for a closer look, the around the LGA1155 socket we have a more than sufficient heatpipe/heatsink system. GIGABYTE has actually redesigned their heatpipe for the G1 Sniper 2 and they claim this new design helps to effectively dissipate heat from around this region. The larger of the 3 heatsinks has 6 LED lights fitted, when powered up these LEDs emit a venomous green glow to compliment the colour configuration on the G1 Sniper 2.
The G1 Sniper 2 has 12 Phases (8 specific to the CPU and 4 for memory) and 8-pin power for added stability. This motherboard features GIGABYTE’s notorious Ultra Durable 3 - twice the copper for both the power and ground layers of the PCB, Japanese Solid CAPs, Lower RDS(on) MOSFET and Ferrite Core Chokes. For more information on this please visit: http://www.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/48/tech_080924_ud3.htm
Being LGA1155 we have support for Intel’s 2nd Generation Core i7/i5 and i3 processors. Being a motherboard of such calibre it would be advisable to opt for a K series Intel processor since this motherboard oozes capabilities for overclocking.
An impressive heatsink design with LED lighting
Over on the memory slots we of course have support for dual channel DDR3, with the ability to use 1066MHz all the way up to 2133MHz – including Intel XMP and a maximum capacity of 32GB.
Off towards the left we have the USB3.0 header that will provide up to 2x USB3.0 ports and can be used in combination with the included USB3.0 front panel device.
Memory support – up to 2133MHz, XMP and up to 32GB
Further along we have the SATA ports. There are 4x SATAIII (6Gbps) ports 2 of these provided by Marvell 88SE9172 and the other 2 via the Intel chipset whilst the black ports are SATAII (3Gbps).
SATAIII and SATAII support for HDD storage
Our Intel Z68 chip is cooled via a heatsink carrying the resemblance of firearm ammo. This ‘clip-like’ heatsink has an imitation bullet showing out of one side. As the disclaimer on the bottom of this clip states, this heatsink is exclusively for visual aesthetics.
Intel Z68 cooled via magazine clip styled heatsink
A warning to the big kids out there, this is not a real magazine clip!
Turning out attention to the PCI-E slots the 2 significant slots are highlighting in green. The top slot operating at x16 whilst the 2nd slot at x8. Both of these PCI-E slots support upcoming PCI-E 3.0. If a dual card configuration is used then both cards will operate at x8. Other slots found in this area are 2 x1 slots and 2x PCI slots.
The PCI-E slots here are well spaced out but some may well have expected more PCI-E slots for Tri-SLI or Tri-CrossfireX and rightly so, a gaming motherboard of this calibre should probably offer this feature.
Dual GPU configuration is available on G1 Sniper 2
Seen by the PCI-E slots is the Bigfoot Killer E2100 chip. Providing 1000 Mbit networking capabilities. GIGABYTE have teamed up with Bigfoot to supply a dedicated Network Processing Unit (NPU) – here we have 1GB of DDR2 diverting network traffic away from the CPU. This NPU promises to offer up to 10x faster networking performance for gamers.
Next to the Killer chip we also have a series of Nichicon Audio CAPs that have been given dazzling green and gold colours to correspond with the G1 Sniper 2’s colour configuration.
Bigfoot Killer E2100 - Dedicated Network Processing Unit with 1GB DDR2
Finally, taking a look at the I/O panel on the G1 Sniper 2 there are a variety of ports for gamers to take advantage of, including:
• 7 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
• 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
• 1 x CPU overclocking button
• 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
• 1 x eSATA/USB Combo connector
• 1 x HDMI port (max resolution 1920x1200)
• 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
• 1 x RJ-45 port
• Audio jack panel via Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Digital Audio Processor (20K2)
The I/O panel with OC button
