GIGABYTE G1.Sniper Z87 Review
by Ian Cutress on February 24, 2014 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- Gigabyte
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our test bed:
Thank you to OCZ for providing us with 1250W Gold Power Supplies and SSDs.
Thank you to G.Skill and ADATA for providing us with memory kits.
Thank you to Corsair for providing us with an AX1200i PSU, Corsair H80i CLC and 16GB 2400C10 memory.
Thank you to ASUS for providing us with the AMD HD7970 GPUs and some IO Testing kit.
Thank you to MSI for providing us with the NVIDIA GTX 770 Lightning GPUs.
Thank you to Rosewill for providing us with the 500W Platinum Power Supply for mITX testing, BlackHawk Ultra, and 1600W Hercules PSU for extreme dual CPU + quad GPU testing, and RK-9100 keyboards.
Thank you to ASRock for providing us with the 802.11ac wireless router for testing.
Test Setup
Test Setup | |
Processor |
Intel Core i7-4770K ES 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 3.5 GHz (3.9 GHz Turbo) |
Motherboards | GIGABYTE G1.Sniper Z87 |
Cooling |
Corsair H80i Thermalright TRUE Copper |
Power Supply |
OCZ 1250W Gold ZX Series Corsair AX1200i Platinum PSU |
Memory |
G.Skill RipjawsZ 4x4 GB DDR3-1866 8-9-9 Kit ADATA XPG 2x8 GB DDR3L-1600 9-11-9 Kit |
Memory Settings | XMP |
Video Cards |
MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB (1150/1202 Boost) ASUS HD7970 3GB (Reference) |
Video Drivers |
Catalyst 13.12 NVIDIA Drivers 332.21 |
Hard Drive | OCZ Vertex 3 256GB |
Optical Drive | LG GH22NS50 |
Case | Open Test Bed |
Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit SP1 |
USB 2/3 Testing | OCZ Vertex 3 240GB with SATA->USB Adaptor |
WiFi Testing | D-Link DIR-865L 802.11ac Dual Band Router |
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system as a whole with a wall meter connected to the OCZ 1250W power supply, while in a single MSI GTX 770 Lightning GPU configuration. This power supply is Gold rated, and as I am in the UK on a 230-240 V supply, leads to ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, which is suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.
Windows 7 POST Time
Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we are now going to look at the POST Boot Time - this is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows 7 starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) These results are subject to human error, so please allow +/- 1 second in these results.
Hitting sub-10 seconds at stock is rather good, as well as sub-8 seconds when features are disabled.
36 Comments
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nos024 - Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - link
Wow, PCI slots on a high-end Z87? Where was this when I wanted PCI slots?Jay77 - Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - link
Have I mentioned how much I hate PCI slots? They were a waste of space and resources 5 years ago and they are an insult now. A PCIe 2.0 x2 or x4 slot is going to be real handy in the next couple of years (3-way crossfire, not so much). Pissing away lanes on PCI is just stupid at this point.Frolictoo - Sunday, March 2, 2014 - link
Overall, this is a good motherboard. However, I wish they would include a second LAN port, one based the various Intel options. I have always built multi-boot systems and the ports do not behave the same under different OSs while the gaming must go on.RAYBOYD44 - Monday, March 3, 2014 - link
my Aunty Violet got a new Volvo XC60 SUV by work part-time using a laptop.Antronman - Saturday, March 29, 2014 - link
I thought PCI slots were extinct?trebor darnoc - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
I have such a stupid question. . . I love this review and ended up buying the board. But now I have a question about the F_PANEL (Front Panel Header) connections. On page 27 in the manual, there is a diagram for the F_PANEL. But it shows 2 different 'Power LED' locations! There is a 2 pin Power LED possibility at one corner and a 3 pin option at the opposite corner (of the F Panel) . The Power LED wires from my case (Corsair 450D) are 2 individual little connectors marked Power LED (one + and one -). All the other wires from the case are little 'doubles' with 2 wires each, clearly marked. If you look at that page in the G1.Sniper Z87 manual you will see one is labeled 'PWR_LED' and the other 'PLED', but each one of those has a little box describing that connection as 'Power LED' just like the cables say. Can I use either one? I thought the case wires might be split for a reason, which led me to considering the 3 pin grouping (connecting the outer pins and leaving the middle one bare)? ? ? ? ?