14 DAY TRIAL // It's easy to expect a large computer to have the prowess needed to run, say, Dragon Age: Inquisition in 4K image quality. It's cooler to be able to cram all the needed resources in a fraction of the size though.
Sure, some may disagree, saying that a large, full tower or at least a mid-tower case is the most appropriate container for such power. Especially since high-end motherboards usually come in the full ATX form factor anyway.
Every once in a while, though, someone will launch a micro-ATX gaming motherboard. Even mini-ITX models have been revealed with borderline gaming capabilities, but those aren't our focus today.
Instead, we're bringing you the X99M-Gaming 5 mainboard from Gigabyte, based on (obviously) the X99 chipset.
The assets of Gigabyte's X99M-Gaming 5 motherboard
First off, the X99 chipset means that the LGA 2011-3 socket is available, supporting Core i7 Extreme Edition (Haswell-E) processors from Intel.
Moreover, the X99 chipset has support for DDR4 memory. No other chipset, not from Intel and not from AMD, has this feature.
Sure, the top capacity will be limited to 32 GB for now, since there are only 4 slots, but it's not like anyone really needs more than 8 GB anyway. In fact, even the most demanding games can make do with 8 GB of DDR3 easily, let alone DDR4.
Even Dragon Age: Inquisition is supposed to run fine on 4 GB of DDR3 from what we understand, so long as you have a good enough video board.
Besides the chipset, CPU and what they inevitably bring with them, the Gigabyte X99M-Gaming 5 motherboard possesses 2-way graphics support (for AMD CrossFire and NVIDIA SLI setups), as well as AMP-UP Audio Technology (enhances the natural quality of the gold-plated, 7.1 channel tech), an OP-AMP socket (you can swap the onboard audio amplifier), Killer E2200 networking, server-level chokes, and black solid caps (for endurance).
Add to that onboard SATA-Express and M.2 ports and you have top storage speed as well. All in all, the Gigabyte X99M-Gaming 5 motherboard has everything a high-end gaming system needs and then some.
Availability and pricing
Sadly, the company didn't include this information in the press release, and the product page for the Gigabyte X99M-Gaming 5 motherboard isn't much better.
Given the time of the year and the oncoming winter holidays, however, we're willing to bet that it won't take more than a few days for retailers to add the product to their stock lists.
