Gigabyte Offers GA-X99M-Gaming 5 Haswell-E Micro-ATX Motherboard
Small yet powerful, those three words would sum up what the Gigabyte GA-X99M-Gaming 5 is all about. Quad channel DDR4 with four DIMM slots, four expansion slots, two M.2. slots. As small as the motherboard is, it comes at a bigger price though, $235 USD.
GIGABYTE X99 series motherboards use an all digital CPU power design from International Rectifier® which includes both 4th Generation digital PWM Controllers and industry-leading 3rd Generation PowIRstage® controllers. These 100% digital controllers offer incredible precision in delivering power to the motherboard’s most power-hungry and energy-sensitive components, allowing enthusiasts to get the absolute maximum performance from their new Intel® Core™ i7 Extreme Edition CPUs. IR Digital PWM & IR PowIRstage® ICs This new generation of IR® digital power controllers and PowIRstage® ICs feature Isense technology, which provide more precise current sensing accuracy. This helps evenly distribute the thermal loading between the PowerIRstage® ICs, preventing the overheating of each individual PowerIRstage®, resulting in longer lifespan and better reliability.
Networking is managed by Killer NIC, audio is led through a high-end Realtek codec likely 1150. The integrated audio has a socketed amplifier chip. There are also four "DAC-UP" ports tuned to deliver cleaner power to USB audio devices. The M.2 slots don't connect to the CPU though.
- Supports New Intel® Core™ i7 Processor Extreme Edition
- 4 Channel DDR4, 4 DIMMs
- Genuine All Digital Power Design with IR Digital PWM & IR PowIRstage® ICs
- 2-Way Graphics with Premium PCIe Lane
- Dual M.2 Technology for SSD Drive and WIFI card
- 6x(30µ) Gold Plating for CPU socket, Memory DIMMs and PCIe slots
- AMP-UP Audio technology with exclusive Upgradable OP-AMP
- Independent Right and Left Audio Channel PCB Layers
- LED lighting for the audio guard light path
- Quad DAC-UP USB ports
- Gold plated audio ports
- High end Nichicon audio capacitors
- Killer™ E2200 gaming networking
- SATA Express support for 10 Gb/s data transfer
- Long lifespan Durable Black™ Solid caps
- APP Center including EasyTune™ and Cloud Station™ utilities
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Joined: 2003-09-21
LOL, I don't. I am running mATX with a 5960x clocked at 4.4ghz 24/7, fully custom watercooled. I think it's great, having that much power in a much more compact form factor, and I definitely benefit from it vs z97 with the encoding etc that I do.
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Posts: 206
Joined: 2014-08-03
I see where both of you are coming from. While it is nice having a smaller form factor for the type of uses a 6 core cpu is used for that type of work doesn't really need to be portable and if your office/room can fit a micro atx system in it than there really is no reason an atx sized system couldn't fit as well. It's more just for the cool factor of having a really small compact system with that kind of power but it's really not a necessity.
The only thing I can think of for getting a true benefit of a small matx x99 system is if you also lan party with it in addition to the encoding and work stuff the 6 core is used for. Or if you have some really heavily customized desk setup that needs a smaller PC. So while there is a tiny fraction of users that can get a real benefit most of the people getting an matx x99 system are doing it for the coolness factor.
I am still waiting for an ATX sized RoG board from Asus to show up for x99 before I can even consider upgrading my x58 system. I'm probably just going to grab an EVGA classified GTX 980 to tide me over till skylake-e comes out because with the i7-980x at 4.2ghz on all 6 cores i'm not really hurting on the cpu side of things yet. All my friends and family know to get me newegg gift cards for christmas. My 5870 is really getting long in the tooth and has a hard time feeding my dell u3014 that i upgraded to after getting the PC. It really sucks having to render games at 1920x1200 and suffering the side effects of a non native resolution. Can't wait to see how fast I can OC the evga classified GTX 980 with the 3x 180mm AP182 fans cranked up to their max RPM's on my silverstone fortress FT02.
Then again by the time holidays are over and 2015 has started GM200/GM210 won't really be that far off so maybe I will just save the gift cards for that and suffer with the 5870 a bit longer. I really want this GPU I buy to just slide over to my skylake-e build and when that time comes I don;t think I'll be happy with gm204 and I'll end up buying another gpu so even if I have to buy the titan 2 (which if history repeats itself will come out long before the regular gm200's do) it will still be cheaper than getting a gm204 now and another gpu when skylake-e comes out.
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Posts: 90
Joined: 2014-03-09
i wish they would bring back that green sniper series. everyone seems to need to make black and red. or blue. not that it really matters but the green was at least a different choice. and some had that neato heatsink