Two years ago Gigabyte announced their G1.Kille series of motherboards with an interesting event featuring camouflage and tons of military imagery. The concept behind it was that the G1.Killer was meant to be a series of “super-soldiers” for gaming. Each of the products would be tailored after an imaginary persona: The Assassin, The Sniper and the Scout. These would have super sight, hearing, speed, and shield all to assist you in your gaming dominance. We have taken a look at some of these for the X79 lineup and now have one from the Z77 chipset line; the G1.Sniper M3. This $180 board from Gigabyte features a full audio card built into the motherboard, SLI, and a Micro ATX form factor. So let’s take a look at what Gigabyte has stuffed into this little package.
Features -In the current market motherboard (and indeed almost all component) performance is very close. The days of a large performance advantage between boards using the same chipset are long gone. That is unless someone makes a HUGE mistake (like runs traces completely wrong). Now, the thing that differentiates different products is the features. These are things like power management, extra slots, better audio CODECs etc. It is these items that R&D teams work so hard to drop into what are really identical pieces of hardware at their most basic level. As we have said before (and will repeat again here) as motherboards become closer and closer in specification it is up to the manufacturers to differentiate them with features, components choice and even software bundles. This is becoming more true ad the market narrows down into smaller groups. Back when there were more companies making products there were more verticals to the market, now there is too much crossover from all segments to not work on a solid feature set for a given product. Gigabyte has done a good job building an expected feature set into their G1.Killer line up and while it could be seen as a knock off of Asus’ ROG line there are many things that differentiate the two. Taking a look at the G1.Sniper finds a solid group of core features that should help it find a place to call home.
Excellent -Gen 3 SLI SoundCore 3DNichicon audio capacitorsVirtuMVP
These are the features that will stand out for many that are looking to pick up a motherboard for use in a small form factor gaming rig. The full audio card on the board will be a big hit as it means one less slot to have to populate during the build.
In the middle (good) -Enhanced Ethernet Speed (cFos)USB 3.0SATA 3.0G1.Killer CPUz
Although these are good features and might tip the scales a little they are not going to be the highlight of why someone will buy the G1.Sniper M3.
Floor Mats -On/Off ChargeUltra Durable 4EZ Setup Utility
Again these features are nice, but they are also common and what you expect from Gigabyte when you buy their boards. They might be the reason you choose Gigabyte, but they will not be the reason you pick the G1.Sniper M3. You can read the full list on Gigabyte's page for the G1.Sniper M3
