Gigabyte Z68 G1.Sniper 2 Review

The Board Itself

Published: 17th August 2011 | Source: Gigabyte | Price: £320 | Author: Bryan Waters

The Board

Design-wise there are a lot of similarities between the Sniper.2 and the Assassin. This is one seriously gorgeous board. Sure the green might not be to everyones taste, but it works so well. On the main heatsink are 5 LEDs that glow seriously green. They could double as a special effect in Fringe they are so bright.

Audio is one of the big selling points of the Sniper 2. Rather than go the standard route of including the Realtek ALC889, Gigabyte have mounted a full Creative soundcard to the board. In the right-hand picture you can see the shielding helping to keep the whole audio section as free from interference as possible.

In keeping with both the military theme and the premium design, Gigabyte have included a Bigfoot Killer NIC on the board. There has never been a consensus about whether the Killer NIC actually improves gaming performance, but it's a nice addition. The heatsinks themselves are amazing works of art, nicely replicating the business end of a sniper rifle.

It's a stunner isn't it.

Most Recent Comments

17-08-2011, 07:26:37

tinytomlogan

Today we're taking a look at the follow-up to the very popular X58 Assassin Motherboard, the Z68 G1.Sniper 2.

17-08-2011, 08:05:28

dugdiamond

ouch - expensive!!! £250-£270 and i would have been impressed

17-08-2011, 08:29:09

SieB

I really hope that the price of this board will come down and that it is priced so high because it is being marketed as being PCI-E 3 and Ivy Bridge native and that retailers are just charging extra to cash in on it.

The thing is now that we know that all Gigabyte boards are PCI-E 3 compatible with just a simple BIOS update, then that makes the UD7 the better and cheaper board. Ok, so it may not have the sound card and the NIC chip but these have been proven to be not that much of a improvement over standard ones at a lower price anyway, so is it really worth paying the extra for them? No, in my opinion anyway.

It is a good board and it does look good and perform very well but the price is just to high

17-08-2011, 08:42:00

| raVen |

Good motherboard but TOOOO expensive!

17-08-2011, 10:44:16

badtaylorx

awwww....no shots of the "this is not a real gun" sticker??? Tell me yer gonna use it as a case vadge!!!

17-08-2011, 10:49:19

CrissTM

As usual v nice review.

Nice looking Board, me like so much

OOPS ... about the price

19-08-2011, 07:26:39

StreekG

Quote:

Originally Posted by badtaylorx

awwww....no shots of the "this is not a real gun" sticker??? Tell me yer gonna use it as a case vadge!!!

You don't stick it on yourself. Its on there from the beginning.

19-08-2011, 18:40:25

sday03

I like the LEDs in the heatsink! I think more boards should incorporate that.

20-08-2011, 22:59:50

Cold

If only tech wasn't outdated so fast. It sucks spending a load on building a top of the range rig, making it look all smart then 3-6 months later its outdated.

Love the board, the price, not so much.

22-08-2011, 10:28:20

Montysaurus

Good review but Ouch on the price! Why are they still sticking old technology on the board with a price like this there should be no USB 2 and Sata 2! I definitely wont be buying any new M/Board until the legacy kit is replaced with up-to-date gear its not like it isnt backwards compatible!

28-08-2011, 10:16:10

Stl Drifter

Newegg.com has it in stock right now for $319.99 U.S. dollars!

01-09-2011, 06:54:15

yassarikhan786

Nice review. The price has come way down from before, which makes it all the more impressive now.

04-10-2011, 20:42:50

CocaCola

Really nice board. Kind of reminds me of the DFI look, without the weapons theme.

Gigabyte should make a Z68 or P67 board with the orange layout like the X58A OC board.

Gigabyte Z68 G1.Sniper 2 Review

The Board Itself

Published: 17th August 2011 | Source: Gigabyte | Price: £320 | Author: Bryan Waters

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