Gigabyte G1.Sniper B5 review - Article - Guide

Gigabyte G1.Sniper B5 - the B85 budget solution with a Killer Price

Let's review the Gigabyte G1.Sniper B5, which is based on the budget B85 chipset from Intel. See B85 based motherboards typically end up in business desktops and normally are limited from overclocking. Well, that changes with the Gigabyte G1.Sniper B5 ! So small price, nice features and tweakability ? We just have to check that out. Oh and you'll get many  USB 3.0 ports and of course an improved and enhanced audio solution (albeit that really is a software layer sitting on top of the Realtek ALC898 codec)

The Gigabyte G1.Sniper B5 uses a modest  4+1 phase VRM (voltage regulation) design, has 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, four SATA 6 Gbps ports and two SATA 3 Gbps ports. It also features a Realtek ALC898 Audio CODEC (110 dBA SNR) and Nichicon audiophile-grade electrolytic capacitors on the AMP stage, yup again this is supposed to be a budget series chipset :)

Gigabyte also fits the board with a pair of PCI Express 3.0 slots - one is connected straight to the CPU and supports x16 graphics card. The other slot however can only work in x4 mode as this is a a limiting factor of the B85 chipset. But with one graphics card, you'll have full x16 PCIe 3.0 bandwidth. Other features are AMI UEFI Dual-BIOS, multiple USB 3.0 ports at the back, audio outputs and PS/2 mouse/keyboard ports. In addition to Gigabit LAN support.  Lets have a peek at this fairly feature rich 'budget' motherboard and then let's fire up this review.

Oh and before you browse to the next page, you can find this puppy for as little as 80 EUR already - hey now I got your attention didn't I ?