Gigabyte G1.Assassin 2 review - Introduction

Introduction -  Gigabyte G1.Assassin 2

Wowzers, Gigabyte had a bit of a awkward issue two weeks ago, an overclocker posted a video on the web showing an X79 board frying the VRM circuitry during an overclock session, with smoke and everything.

The issue can be tracked back towards a bad mix of firmware limitations in relation to the board's PWM circuitry, the failing safeguards had an effect on the PWM components causing an overheat.

Gigabyte responded with a new BIOS very quickly, it seems that the older BIOS did not set any failsafe limitations. The new F7 BIOS will throttle down the CPU when subjected to extreme stress, to preserve and overheat the VRM. The board effected where: GA-X79-UD3, GA-X79-UD5, and G1.Assassin 2.

So now would be a good time to to review the Gigabyte G1.Assassin 2. It's the motherboard that is both loved and hated for it's gun themed design. Regardless of what you guys might thing, Gigabyte knows and certainly appreciates the fact that everybody is talking about their products.

So we take the Gigabyte G1.Assassin 2, armed with the new F7 BIOS it should be safe to overclock again, as such we'll bring that thousand USD Core i7 3960X processor close towards 5 GHz today.

The G1.Assassin 2 motherboard comes loaded with some very nice features, much like it predecessors it has an embedded Killer E2100 NIC, said to deliver better networking performance to hardcore gamers.  The board itself comes with three PCI Express x16 slots for 3-way CrossFireX and SLI support and a high-power 8-phase VRM with POScaps and Driver MOSFETs.

Outside of the three PCI Express x16 slots, the rest of the expansion options available in the Assassin include two PCIe x1 and a legacy 32-bit PCI slot, four SATA 3Gbps ports and another four SATA 6Gbps ports

Gigabyte also added an integrated Creative X-Fi PCI Express sound card featuring Nichicon MUSE audio capacitors, included is a WIFI and Bluetooth network card and sure, we spot all the usual connectors including a pair of USB 3.0 ports and 7.1-channel audio with digital S/PDIF out driven by the X-Fi sound card, but also a special OC button and a CMOS reset switch.

Well, let's fire her up and see how she behaves ... have a peek at that black green contract killer first though.