Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 Review

Introduction and Technical Specifications

Published: 9th December 2013 | Source: Gigabyte | Price: £116 | Author: Tom Logan

Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 Review

Introduction

Since the Z77 chipset, Intel have absolutely got the formula nailed down. We've often mentioned how, within reason, you can buy any Z87 motherboard and find yourself with a good performing option that overclocks well.

Gigabyte released the G1.Killer series, and the Sniper variant in particular, a while ago and it was always a high-end option that has, over recent times, gradually reduced in cost without losing a lot of features.

Today's review of the Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 takes both of these standpoints and tests them to the very breaking point. At a barely believable £116 the Sniper sees just how far you can lower the price of a motherboard and still consider it worthy of something as inspirational as the G1.Killer series, and also how little can you pay for a Z87 motherboard and still have plenty of performance available.

Is it a bridge too far, or is it such insanely good value that every other manufacturer has to take a long hard look at their pricing policy?

Technical Specifications

Specifications follow the regulation Z87 arrangement of USB3.0 ports, SATA 6Gb/s offerings and PCI Express lanes. The Sniper Z87 does give us the first, in memory, motherboard that comes with the SoundBlaster Recon3D soundchip rather than a RealTek or TI offering.

CPU
  1. Support for Intel® Core™ i7 processors/Intel® Core™ i5 processors/Intel® Core™ i3 processors/Intel® Pentium® processors/Intel® Celeron® processors in the LGA1150 package
  2. L3 cache varies with CPU
Chipset
  1. Intel® Z87 Express Chipset
Memory
  1. 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
  2. Dual channel memory architecture
  3. Support for DDR3 3000(O.C.) / 2933(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666(O.C.) / 2600(O.C.) / 2500(O.C.) / 2400(O.C.) / 2200(O.C.) / 2133(O.C.) / 2000(O.C.) / 1866(O.C.) / 1800(O.C.) / 1600 / 1333 MHz memory modules
  4. Support for non-ECC memory modules
  5. Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
(Please refer "Memory Support List" for more information.)
Onboard Graphics Integrated Graphics Processor:
  1. 1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096 x 2160 @ 24 Hz / 2560 x 1600 @ 60 Hz
    * Support for DisplayPort 1.2 version.
  2. 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096 x 2160 @ 24 Hz / 2560 x 1600 @ 60 Hz
    * Support for HDMI 1.4a version.
  3. Maximum shared memory of 1 GB
Audio
  1. Creative® Sound Core 3D chip
  2. Support for Sound Blaster Recon3Di
  3. High Definition Audio
  4. 2/5.1-channel
  5. Support for S/PDIF Out
LAN
  1. Qualcomm® Atheros Killer E2201 chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Expansion Slots
    1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)

    1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
      * The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.
      (The PCI Express x16 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)

    1. 3 x PCI Express x1 slots

  1. 2 x PCI slots
Multi-Graphics Technology
  1. Support for 2-Way AMD CrossFire™/2-Way NVIDIA® SLI™ technology
Storage Interface Chipset:
  1. 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0~5)
  2. Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
USB Chipset:
  1. 6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header)
  2. 7 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (3 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)
Internal I/O Connectors
  1. 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
  2. 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
  3. 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
  4. 1 x CPU fan header
  5. 3 x system fan headers
  6. 1 x front panel header
  7. 1 x front panel audio header
  8. 1 x USB 3.0/2.0 header
  9. 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
  10. 1 x serial port header
  11. 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
  12. 1 x power button
  13. 1 x reset button
  14. 1 x Clear CMOS button
  15. 2 x BIOS switches
  16. 2 x audio gain control switches
Back Panel Connectors
  1. 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
  2. 1 x coaxial S/PDIF Out connector
  3. 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
  4. 1 x DisplayPort
  5. 1 x HDMI port
  6. 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
  7. 3 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
  8. 1 x RJ-45 port
  9. 5 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Line In/Mic In, Line Out, Headphone/Speaker Out)
I/O Controller
  1. iTE® I/O Controller Chip
H/W Monitoring
  1. System voltage detection
  2. CPU/System temperature detection
  3. CPU/System fan speed detection
  4. CPU/System overheating warning
  5. CPU/System fan fail warning
  6. CPU/System fan speed control
BIOS
  1. 2 x 64 Mbit flash
  2. Use of licensed AMI EFI BIOS
  3. Support for DualBIOS™
  4. PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.6, ACPI 2.0a
Unique Features
  1. Support for Q-Flash
  2. Support for Xpress Install
  3. Support for APP Center
    @BIOS
    EasyTune
    EZ Setup
    USB Blocker
    Smart TimeLock
    Smart Recovery 2
  4. Support for ON/OFF Charge
Bundle Software
  1. Norton Internet Security (OEM version)
  2. Intel® Rapid Start Technology
  3. Intel® Smart Connect Technology
  4. Intel® Smart Response Technology
Operating System
  1. Support for Windows 8.1/8/7
Form Factor
  1. ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 23.3cm
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Most Recent Comments

09-12-2013, 12:26:15

J0s3e
This is a hell of a review for a hell of a board. Thanks guys, I'm getting one. Quote

09-12-2013, 13:45:19

SieB
Just goes to show you don't need a highend motherboard these days, at least not for 1150/55. So many motherboards these day at this price point or slightly higher that are more than capable. All it comes down to now is if you actually need those extra features of the more expensive motherboards or not.

I love the design on the Gigabyte's G1 Sniper boards though, dat green and black goodness Quote

09-12-2013, 13:59:12

WYP
A nice review for my lunch break .

the need for an expensive board seems to keep on diminishing, this is very good for the more budget minded of us. Quote

09-12-2013, 16:16:25

cooperman
Nice i may grab one of these after christmas for my next build...may even go for a 'hulk' green theme Quote

09-12-2013, 16:51:44

Jedziah
Thanks Tom for the great review. The first look had me and I bought it for the new rig.

Some pointers however to take into account:

If you are running windows 8/8.1 - The Soundblaster Recon 3Di has some 'issues' which you can live with, however, frankly, they annoyed me enough to buy an internal card.

Essentially it is a known issue that probably around 60% of the time you switch your rig on, the soundblaster will not be detected in Windows and you will require to shut down, power off completely and restart (which fixed it every time) however, it's just not good enough from Creative's standpoint and we all know that a set of drivers is still 2-3 months away.

The only other bad point to make is the Orange LED down near the legacy PCI ports is unfortunately the brightest light in the case. My case which will have some pictures up soon on the forums is covered in some matching green LED's and I feel this LED is a horribly bright addition that does kind of tarnish everything else about this board which frankly is excellent both visually and from an overclocking perspective. Quote
Reply

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