14 DAY TRIAL // Gigabyte has apparently acted on all the consumer feedback and requests it received in regards to its G1 series of gaming motherboards.
What this means is that the company finally has a product that, rather than the ATX or XL-ATX form factor, uses the microATX size.
The name, according to VR-Zone, is G1.Sniper M3, and the design involves a mostly black color theme with blue heatsinks instead of the blue PCB Gigabyte is known to love.
As people are no doubt able to guess, the product is made with Intel's Z77 chipset, which handles LGA1155 "Ivy Bridge" and "Sandy Bridge" processors.
Two PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots are present (work in dual x8 mode when both are employed), as are a PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot and a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot.
Since this is a small motherboard, it is actually quite a feat that there is a full pair of slots for high-end video cards.
On the flip side, the storage options aren't as extensive as one might hope, with just two SATA 6.0 Gbps ports and three SATA 3.0 Gbps connectors.
Then again, mATX cases don't usually have room for more than five drives, if they even reach that number.
Moving on, the back panel offers four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports (no USB 3.0 hubs), eSATA, a PS/2 port, Ethernet, 7.1 channel audio with optical S/PDIF out and the expected range of video outputs (D-Sub, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort).
Headers on the motherboard allow for an extra six USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 links, but the clear CMOS, power and reset buttons are conspicuously absent, along with the POST80 debug LED. At least Creative's Sound Core3D technology made it on the spec list.
We don't have a price for this G1.Sniper M3, so we can't tell for sure how well liked it will be, even if the heatsinks in the photos get replaced by better ones. We do know that ASRock's Z77 Fatal1ty Professional-M will be at odds with it though.
