Bizarrely, though, the platform lacks SLI support

Sep 22, 2014 08:39 GMT  ·  By

You would think that a graphics card colored in such a way as to go well, aesthetically, with specific high-end graphics cards would have support for everything those cards could throw at it. Alas, that is not, in fact, the case for the Gigabyte G1.Sniper B6 motherboard.

Despite being part of the G1.Gaming series and, thus, presumably loaded with high-end graphics features, the newcomer doesn't support SLI technology.

Which is to say, it won't allow you to install two video cards of the same sort and have them combine their resources into one whole.

The reason for this is the fact that the two long PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots aren't handled the same way. One of them is connected to the CPU socket and the other to the PCH (chipset).

What the Gigabyte G1.Sniper B6 does possess

First off, the LGA 1150 socket means that no Intel CPUs newer and better than the Core i7-4000 line can be installed. So no Haswell-E for you.

Consequently, there is no DDR4 support to be had here. You'll have to make do with good, old-fashioned DDR3 random access memory (RAM for short).

Also, in addition to the disconnected PCI Express 3.0 slots, the motherboard features a pair of PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots and two legacy PCI slots.

We can only assume from this that the G1.Sniper B6 is intended for gamers with more low-key tastes and budgets. Indeed, the use of the Intel B85 Express chipset means that no CPU overclocking can be done either.

Well, unless Gigabyte included one of its BIOSes with unlocked clock tweaking, but last we heard Intel had forbidden overclocking on it.

Moving on, the new platform boasts four SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, for solid state drives (SSDs), hard disk drives (HDDs), and hybrid hard drives (HHDs), or solid state hybrid drives as they are otherwise called (SSHDs).

Other specs include a pair of SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, AMP UP onboard audio (featuring an EMI-shielded 115 dBA SNR CODEC), audio-grade electrolytic capacitors, user-replaceable headphones amp, Gigabit Ethernet, EMI-shielded 115 dBA SNR CODEC, and an M.2 slot.

The M.2 slot is wired for 10 Gbps, meaning that you should be able to squeeze over 1 GB/s out of SSDs connected to it.

Availability and pricing

The Gigabyte G1.Sniper B6 motherboard has a price of under $120 / €94 and should be put up for order soon, if it hasn't been already.

Gigabyte G1.Sniper B6 (4 Images)

Gigabyte G1.Sniper B6 motherboard
Gigabyte G1.Sniper B6 motherboard close-upGigabyte G1.Sniper B6 motherboard, front overview
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