Gigabyte G1 Sniper Z87 (LGA 1150) Motherboard Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

In North America the G1 Sniper Z87 can be had for $170 while in the UK we’ve found it for £111 and £120 respectively.

Overview

As someone who has observed trends in high-end Intel motherboards over the successive generations, P67/Z68 to Z77 to Z87, it is easy to see that standard is rising rapidly. In just a few years almost all vendors are producing fantastic motherboards and now that standard is rising again. However, more importantly – what the G1 Sniper Z87 shows – is that the standard can still rise while the price is kept at affordable levels. The G1 Sniper Z87 motherboard is hard to argue with as a value proposition and it puts some other vendors to shame in terms of value for money comparisons. Up until now if you wanted Killer networking, high quality audio, SLI/CFX support and a dual UEFI BIOS with onboard buttons and diagnostics then you’d of had to pay a hefty premium for it. Today, Gigabyte has shown you that you do not have to pay that premium any more.

The G1 Sniper Z87 has very good audio though I think our results hardly do it justice for a number of reasons. Firstly, the RMAA test is a bit dated and is only a rough indicator of performance. Secondly, it is very sensitive to audio enhancements and effects, and given the nature of the audio system Gigabyte use it is likely that the results show up as worse than they actually are because of all the Creative audio effects. However, the results were still flattering. Something the results cannot capture is the flexibility of Gigabyte’s audio package – changeable operational amplifiers and 2.5X/6X gain switches. This type of flexibility has never really been seen before and Gigabyte deserve kudos for offering it, the gain switches will be particularly useful to gamers with a decent pair of headphones as different headphones work better with different levels of amplification and gain. As I mentioned at an earlier point the USB DAC is also a very exciting addition. While it may not seem like much, having a dedicated USB DAC port is really useful. Anyone who knows about how audio works knows that having your audio inside a PC is a terrible idea. Even with a separated PCB and EMI shielding there is so much interference inside the average PC system that the audio is always constrained. Gigabyte’s dedicated USB DAC port offers you an escape route to an external DAC which could offer you access to true audiophile grade audio. However, if you’re happy with the provided onboard audio (which most people should be) then there’s no reason to take the external DAC route, but it is still nice to have that option. 

The rest of the motherboard has also been equally as impressive as the audio. The UEFI DualBIOS is just exceptional. I will happily say that up until today I have been more inclined towards the ASUS UEFI BIOS, however after today the Gigabyte UEFI has just won me over. Why? Well it has class leading combination of excellent visual presentation, customisation and functionality. Other vendors could learn a thing or two from the UEFI Gigabyte use on this motherboard. Of course the excellent UEFI leads nicely onto overclocking because it facilitates that. Gigabyte’s decision to offer a DualBIOS with individual BIOS switches and onboard  buttons with a debug LED make the overclocking process an absolute ease. Whether you’re someone who only dabbles in light overclocking, or someone who likes to overclock to the maximum attainable frequency, then you’ll find that the Gigabyte Z87 G1 Sniper easily facilitates both. Particularly when you consider their EasyTune software that allows full advanced tweaking to take place from within the operating system as well! Lastly I think the Gigabyte Z87 G1 Sniper deserves recognition for including a Killer E2200 networking chip. I know this is favoured among the gaming community, along with Intel Gigabit, because of its reliability and excellent performance. Compared to cheaper Realtek Gigabit solutions the Killer E2200 networking just has that edge in terms of UDP acceleration, packet prioritisation and reliability.

Of course getting all of those amazing things into a small and cost-effective package results in a few things being left out. Having only six SATA III ports might be a bit thin for a lot of system owners. By the time you’ve accounted for a couple of small SSDs, three to four storage drives and an optical drive you’ve already hit the limit. Definitely if you’re big on hard drives and other SATA devices you may find six doesn’t really cut it and you’ll need a motherboard with more storage options. You could buy a small SATA PCIe expansion card if you find yourself really wanting this motherboard. Next I think having only three system fan headers and one CPU fan header is a bit stingy. Even the most basic “Gaming” cases are likely to have more than three fans while most mid-range CPU coolers have two fans or a fan and a pump. However you can easily get around a lack of fan headers by using splitter cables or picking up a cheap fan controller. Many cases come with integrated fan controllers these days anyway so the relatively sparse fan headers are not too much of a problem.

Pros

• Excellent high quality audio with class-leading customisation options
• A visually and functionally stunning dual UEFI BIOS
• Onboard BIOS switches and Power/Reset/Clear CMOS buttons
• Clean aesthetics and layout
• Very easy to overclock with
• Killer E2200 networking chip
• 3 year warranty
• Extremely competitive pricing

Cons

• Limited fan header options
• Six SATA ports may be limiting factor for some people

“Gigabyte have raised the bar with the G1 Sniper Z87 motherboard. This exceptional motherboard packs all the features you’d expect from a premium gaming motherboard – delivering great audio, advanced networking, easy overclocking and top-notch performance all at a highly compelling price point. If you’re in the market for an Intel gaming motherboard then you’d be absolutely nuts to not consider this!”

Thanks to Gigabyte for providing this review sample.