Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 Motherboard Review

Motherboards/Intel S1150 by stefan @ 2014-06-23

The G1.Sniper 5 high-end Z87 board from Gigabyte is also available in a smaller form factor, while retaining some of the most important features like Killer NIC, dual BIOS, Creative Sound Core 3D DSP. The UEFI interface is pretty customizable, has three modes and features the same design as with the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 5.

 

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Conclusive Thoughts

While we could consider the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 5 as residing in the high-end gaming segment, the M5 model is rather positioned on the mainstream, while retaining many good features from the ATX board variant. From the removed features we could remind the less beefy VRM, only one LAN controller (Killer NIC), no WiFi expansion as a bundle or no support for quad SLI.

 

The smaller form factor makes installation in more compact cases possible and the Creative Sound Core 3D DSP has been preserved, along with the PCB isolation in order to keep the fidelity to higher levels when compared to the regular solutions based on Realtek CODECs.

 

The UEFI interface is practically identical to fully-fledged model and here we can dial-in our preferred settings in order to achieve optimal results in overclocking environments. The dual-BIOS feature is available so if one gets corrupted, the system will automatically copy a working version from the backup in order to be able to boot-up successfully; we also have the option to choose between the two BIOSes by only working with the on-board switch.

 

Speaking about overclocking, we have succeeded to keep our 4670K stable with a little bit more voltage, but the extra heat build-up was insignificant.

 

The only thing we did not enjoy much was the fact that if we are using a large high-performance CPU cooler, very little space remains between the video card placed on the first PCI-Express slot and the heatsink fins so we must be very careful with the mounting; a better solution would be to use an all-in-one liquid cooling system which eliminates this small issue completely.

 

Gigabyte G1 Sniper M5 model is priced quite fair for the features we are getting, so it can be acquired for about 115 Euros.

 

Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 Motherboard is Recommended For:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Gigabyte for making this review possible!

 

 

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