Gigabyte G1.Sniper.2 motherboard review - Product Showcase

Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated), two PCI-E x1 and two legacy PCI slots. 2-way SLI or Crossfire is supported.

Rear IO connectivity then --  First thing we notice, legacy PS/2 ports; good stuff still preferred by hardcore gamers. We spot 7 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports, 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse por, 1 x CPU overclocking button, 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector, 1 x eSATA/USB Combo connector, 1 x HDMI port, 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports, 1 x RJ-45 port, 5 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Side Speaker Out, Line In/Mic In, Line Out)

When we flip the board around we stumble into the processor area. Spacious enough for sizable coolers, you should have no issues with most heatsinks. Other than that, fairly clean looks surround the LGA 1155 socket alright, we see high-grade components all throughout the board, nice.

We spot one 8-pin CPU power header; the G1.Sniper 2 is a high-end LGA1155 motherboard and comes with a 12-phase CPU VRM, 2-phase for the dual-channel DDR3 memory.

Components wise we only see quality really, solid capacitors, ferrite core chokes, quality components and nothing else. This is based on Gigabyte's Ultra Durable design strategy, which ensures stability -- but also reliability and extended lifespan.

There is 4 x DIMM support with a maximum of 32 GB and supports four unbuffered DIMM at 1.5 Volt DDR3 1066/1333/1600*/2133*(OC) DRAM, 32GB Max

• Supports 1GB/ 2GB/ 4GB/ 8GB DRAM size
• Supports Dual channel mod

Overall board design is just great. Everything is positioned really well.  If you look to the left side where we stumble into a bunch of SATA connectors. This motherboard has two SATA controllers:

1 x Marvell 88SE9172 chip:

1. 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connector (GSATA3_6, GSATA3_7) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
2. Support for RAID 0 and RAID 1

Chipset:

1. 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3_0, SATA3_1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
2. 3 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_2~SATA2_4) supporting up to 3 SATA 3Gb/s devices
3. 1 x eSATA 3Gb/s connector (eSATA/USB Combo connector) on the back panel supporting up to 1 SATA 3Gb/s device
4. Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
   * When a RAID set is built across the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s channels, the system performance of the RAID set may vary depending on the devices being connected.

A nice perspective view. Notable is (to the left, in the middle) the new USB 3.0 motherboard connector. Connect the supplied USB 3.0 bracket and you gain another two USB 3.0 ports.