Gigabyte has a new version of his G1.Sniper motherboard presented, which is based on Intel’s new Z68 chipset. The G1.Sniper 2 retains many of the features of its predecessor, but has a pci-express-x16-slot less.
Where the Sniper even with the first generation Core i cpus meshed, the Sniper 2 because of its lga 1155 socket is compatible with the new Sandy Bridge cpu’s from Intel. Other differences are a maximum of 32 instead of 24GB of memory and onboard hdmi output.
The Sniper 2 features a pci-express x16 and a pci-express x8 slot. If two video cards in a CrossFire or SLI setup can be rotated, run both slots at x8 speed. A setup with three video cards, such as the G1.Sniper still was possible, so it can’t.
The sound is still provided by the X-Fi 20K2 sound chip of Creative with preamp for koptelelefoons. The network traffic is handled by a Bigfoot Killer E2100-netwerkchip. From the chipset, there is support for two sata-600 and three sata-300 connectors. Gigabyte has a Marvell 88SE9172 chip built in, which is another two sata-600 ports add.
On the atx board, internal headers included, fourteen usb 2.0 connectors included. Of the new usb 3.0-type, there are four present. The G1.Sniper 2 should be in mid-August for a yet undisclosed price.
