Product Showcase

Product Showcase

The G1 Gaming follows a standard ATX form factor (30.5x26.4cm). The motherboard is located in the Gaming enthusiast class range within this new Skylake desktop processor range. 

Check it out first, nice huh ? Included with the motherboard are the regulars including; manuals, driver CDs, SATA cables and a rear IO plate. It also has a couple of new features which we'll talk about in-depth in this review. BTW the white accents are incredibly hard to photograph in our white studio, so sorry about that as things can look a little washed out.

• CPU support: Skylake-S class Intel Core processors
• Chipset: Intel Z170 Chipset
• 2x Gigabit Ethernet (Killer E2400)
• 1x Wireless-AC 1535 a/b/g/n/ac, supporting 2.4/5 GHz Dual-Band
• Storage: 
  • 2 x M.2 Socket 3 connectors
  • 3 x SATA Express connectors
  • 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0~5)
  • 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors ASMedia ASM1061
• Connectivity: 
  • 4x PCI-E 3.0 x16  (single at x16 / dual at x8 / triple at x8 - x8 - x4 / quad at x8/x4/x4/x4)
  • 3x PCI-E 3.0 x1
• USB 3.0 / 3.1 
• 8-channel Audio Creative Sound Core 3D chip

Included in the bundle is one interesting looking motherboard and gear like SATA cables, SLI connectors and so on. Also included is a USB expansion box to house inside your chassis, it unfortunately is incredibly bulky and dull looking with a HUGE Gigabyte logo slapped onto it. We doubt anyone would use it. 

The I/O back panel reveals 3.1/3.0/2.0 ports. The audio unit has special noise reducing capacitors and EMI shielding. You will spot one 10/100/1000  Gigabit Ethernet jack (Killer E2400). Included is a PS/2 combo port for either a keyboard or a mouse, optical SPDIF out port and five audio jacks. If you plan to use the integrated IGP of the processor, you can make use of one HDMI connector. You will also spot the outputs for WIFI. The rear connectivity back-panel is loaded full - we like that, nice.

The board has 4 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots which can be arranged in these slot configurations with graphics cards:

• 1-way mode - x16 / x0 / x0 
• 2-way mode - x8 / x8 / x0
• 3-way mode - x8 / x8 / x4
• 3-way mode - x8 / x4 / x4 / x4

As you can see these are PCI Express Gen 3.0 configurations, that's plenty for regular graphics card setups up-to even 4-way SLI/Crossfire. 

The motherboard comes with an 8-pin power connector and if you want to use it, another 4-pin as well. You'll get four DIMM slots that can be used for up-to 64GB of dual-channel memory up-to 3866 MHz supported in OC mode. We use a new 3200 MHz kit from Corsair which we'll feature in detail in this review.

Back Panel I/O Ports

• 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
• 1 x HDMI port
• 1 x USB Type-C™ port, with USB 3.1 support
• 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A port (red)
• 7 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
• 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
• 2 x RJ-45 ports
• 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
• 5 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Line In/Mic In, Line Out, Headphone)
• 2 x MMCX antenna connectors (2T2R)