Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87: gaming motherboard with high-quality sound

The company Gigabyte offers a number of motherboards with the Z87 chipset, from which we have chosen hot news, the model G1.Sniper Z87, which was only presented and launched in November. It is not a generally abundantly equipped board, as the recently tested model Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H. Instead of that, we have in front of us a specialized model designed for computer game sets that wants to offer high-quality configurable sound and an interesting network solution. Sniper is also significantly cheaper than UD5H.




If we compare the used chipset Intel Z87 with the previous model Intel Z77 for the processors Ivy Bridge.


So, after the model Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H we have another board with the chipset Intel Z87 and the differences between this one and the older 7 Series version are not big, they mainly include the support of the SATA and USB interfaces, where the emphasis has shifted to newer versions. The diagram shows 14 USB 2.0 ports, whilst the specification states 8. But if we add the other six USB 3.0, which are naturally compatible with USB 2.0, the quantity fits. So, our motherboard G1.Sniper Z87 almost fully uses the USB ports offered by the Z87 chipset. It provides six ports USB 3.0, and just one from the available USB 2.0 ports is not at user's disposal.

At the same time, the motherboard offers all the supported ports SATA 6 Gbps and its slots PCI Express 3.0 x16 work in full configuration, that is, either as one slot with the full number of lines or two slots by eight lines each. The difference compared to the Z87X-UD5H model is that G1.Sniper Z87 uses, with respect to the offer of basic interfaces, rather just the possibilities of the chipset, which definitely is not to any harm. But one would miss, for example, an interface for Trusted Platform Module, or FireWire or two Ethernet interfaces. On the other hand, Sniper offers other advantages we will be focusing on in the third chapter.
In the case of the current generation, the chipset is still linked to the processor by means of the DMI 2.0 bus, support of DDR3L has been added but it still is 1600 MHz and 2 channels, and the Serial ATA interfaces still have the maximum of 6 ports but all versions are SATA 6 Gbps.

Main advantages of the motherboard

• technology Ultra Durable 4 Plus
• replaceable operating amplifier
• sound solution by Creative (Sound Core 3D)
• network solution Killer E2200

Article in Czech: Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87: herní deska s kvalitním zvukem