GIGABYTE G1.Assassin (rev. 1.0) Pro Reviews

So would we recommend this product? It really depends on your current situation. If you're already married to X58 and rocking a six-core 990X Extreme Edition Gulftown, the G1 Assassin could be a nice upgrade over previous motherboard models. But if you're building from scratch, there are other platforms like P67 and Z68 that offer support for the latest advanced processor and features, as well as lower price tags. Also keep in mind, Intel's next-gen enthusiast platform is only a few months away. That said, in terms of currently available hardware, the X58 chipset also offers the best performance money can buy for Intel's Core i7 and it's also the only Intel chipset to provide true dual X16/X16 PCIe connectivity for multi-GPUs setups as well. And so, if you want it all, boards like Gigabyte's G1 Assassin certainly deliver.

The G1.Assassin has plenty of features and dedicated hardware to enhance the gaming experience of a serious gamer. While the $530 pricetag might seem too steep for some users, the motherboard could cost even more if the user ends up getting the dedicated audio and network card for another high-end motherboard. That would also occupy extra expansion slots on their motherboard. The G1.Assassin does all of this without needing additional cards. This motherboard is definitely recommended to gamers seriously looking into dominating at LAN parties!

If you are trying to build a new supercomputer for gaming, parallel processing, editing, or other intensive tasks and don't want any comprimise, then the Gigabyte G1.Assassin is the board for you. Gigabyte has really hit is home on the enthusiast front with this one.

First and foremost, GIGABYTE have to be commended for undertaking such ambitious product. We are not saying this because they made a motherboard series targeted towards gamers, but because they did it right. When we look at the G1.Assassin it is immediately obvious that a lot of thought went into the design and that no corners were cut. This motherboard features the best dedicated gaming hardware currently available and the best implementation of that hardware too.

The Gigabyte G1.Assassin may be classified as a "wow" motherboard. It could be a "simple" high-end socket 1366 motherboard, just because it has six memory slots, a high-end voltage regulator, four PCI Express x16 slots, support for SLI and CrossFireX arrays, eight USB 3.0 ports, two SATA-600 ports, etc.

As this board offers so little for the money, and is increasingly old, soon to be obsolete, tech, it's impossible to recommend.