GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 5 (rev. 1.0) Pro Reviews

The G1.Sniper 5 may be the very definition of feature overkill but it also provides a first class experience for just about anyone looking for a system upgrade that will last for years. Sure, the cost of entry is extreme but if you are looking for a premium motherboard it deserves serious consideration provided your case supports its E-ATX form factor.

The only issues of note could be considered more of an oddity in the board's design. For a high-end board designed for both LN2 and water cooling enthusiasts, it was an odd choice to go with integrated barbs on the VRMs sinks. Users are locked in to using 3/8 inch inner diameter tubing with the integrated barbs, small for most enthusiast custom water-based builds. A more flexible solution would have been to allow the user to choose their barb size by integrating G1/4 ports instead of fixed barbs. Additionally, the heat pipe cooling the PCI-Express bridge chip and Z87 chipset is physically separated from the fan cooled/liguid cooled VRM heat sink. In testing, the chipset heat pipe put out significantly more heat than the board's VRMs and would have benefited if directly included in the VRM cooling loop.

Unfortunately, our sample board has memory compatibility and intermittent instability issues irrespective of the kits we’ve paired it with and the settings/XMP profiles. It made things worse when Gigabyte India refused to provide another replacement for the chip and/or the motherboard to verify/confirm the issue on the actual sample. Sadly the time was wasted on this motherboard, but on the bright side I was able to test the audio capabilities. G1 Sniper 5 emphasizes on the audio aspect, so it makes sense to at least cover a part of it. Mind you that we’ve also updated the bios of the motherboard as well (F7 version at the time of writing) but unfortunately that did not have any effect on the stability of the motherboard.

If you’re looking for a great board with all the bells and whistles, the GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 5 Intel Z87 motherboard should be at the top of your short list!