More X99 Teasers: GIGABYTE’s X99 Gaming G1 WiFi
by Ian Cutress on August 8, 2014 5:18 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gigabyte
- X99
The summer months are usually some of the quietest in the tech world, however motherboard manufacturers seem to be keen to release preview images of the upcoming X99 platform. Next in line is GIGABYTE with its X99 Gaming G1 WIFI. As GIGABYTE’s new gaming line is still gaining a foothold, synchronizing the GPU and Motherboard gaming ranges, the color scheme is a combination of red, black, white, grey and some green for audio.
The X99 Gaming G1 WIFI looks like it comes in at the top end of the range, featuring a full 4-way PCIe layout with 8 DIMM slots. We see 10 SATA 6 Gbps ports, two of the SATA with SATA Express which is complemented by the M.2 slot in the middle of the PCIe slots. The M.2 area also houses a mini-PCIe slot which contains the WiFi module, with the antenna connected via the rear panel next to the rear audio. It looks like that the M.2 and WiFi modules can be used at the same time along with GPUs however we might test if we get the motherboard in. The heatsinks are all connected via heat-pipes low to the motherboard to avoid conflict with other devices.
While we cannot see the rear IO, the bottom of the motherboard contains two USB 3.0 headers, two USB 2.0 headers and a thunderbolt header. The audio looks like a Sound Core 3D combined with filter caps, PCB separation, an EMI shield on the codec, an audio gain switch and a switchable op-amp. The top right of the motherboard houses several buttons and switches for dual BIOS/selectable BIOS functionality, along with voltage read points, a power switch and a two-digit debug. The extra power for the PCIe slots is provided by SATA power next to the SATA ports.
I would imagine the Gaming G1 WIFI to be nearer the top of GIGABYTE’s X99 launch range, but we will have to wait until launch day to see some full specifications and pricing.
Source: GIGABYTE Tech Daily
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mapesdhs - Tuesday, August 12, 2014 - link
I'm just disappointed the 5930K is only going to be a 6-core. That makes the 8-core largely
unaffordable to so many who've been waiting for HW-E. I thought what Intel was going to
do was simply bump up the entire baseline from X79, ie. entry chip is a 6-core (akin to
the 4820K), other two above both 8-core, with the latter being separated by the same kind
of cache, base/turbo clock & sampling differences we've seen with SB-E and IB-E. Instead,
we have 4-core entry, 6-core middle and 8-core at the top. That's dumb. It means to a large
extent, the speedup from a 3930K to a 5930K isn't really going to be that much at all, and
likely not worth the platform update given the cost of the new mbd & RAM.
So, X99/5930K fine for a new build, but may well suck value-wise as an upgrade (even
more so for those with IB-E setups).
Ian.
Meaker10 - Friday, August 8, 2014 - link
Looks like a m.2 pcie wireless card rather than mini pcie to me. Look at the screw position.dgingeri - Friday, August 8, 2014 - link
If you look just to the right of the bottom of the wireless card, you'll see the M.2 card connector. The M.2 SSD would actually sit over the wireless card.