Gigabyte G1-Killer Sniper 2 Motherboard Review

Gaming motherboards come in all shapes and sizes and in most cases aren't designed for a specific purpose since the categorization is generally a segmentation decision made by the mobo maker.  In fact you can "game" on any motherboard but, if you want to get the most from your gaming system you'll likely need to pay extra for expensive add-ons such as high-end audio cards and fast network adaptors. 

The G1-Killer Sniper 2 is a Z68 based motherboard that has been designed specifically for hardcore gaming.  In a world where gaming and enthusiast systems have been combined we find this to be a rather bold product decision  The first thing you will notice with the Sniper 2 is the motherboard heatsink design and how it strongly resembles gun parts, the most notable is the banana clip over the South Bridge.  The other heatsinks are less iconic but resemble a gun stock and rifle barrel.

Board layout is quite nice and offers support for two video cards and other expansion cards across the six available positions.  Onboard sound is handled by the custom designed sound card powered by the Creative CA20K2 Digital Audio Processor.  As of this review the custom Creative DAP has given us the best audio specifications of any system we have tested.  Ethernet connectivity is enhanced by the Bigfoot Networks Killer E2100 NPU.  The Killer NIC has gotten mixed reviews in the hardware world and often discredited by reviewers claiming it doesn't work.  We cannot say for sure if these claims are unfounded but we suspect they are based on the fact that network performance is difficult to test. 

Both of these onboard systems represent a hardware solution to offload network and audio processing that would otherwise consume CPU cycles.  That additional power can then be put back into your game to smooth gameplay and enhance your overall experience.

Onboard Creative Audio
Onboard Killer NIC
Z68 Virtu Support
Quick Boost Button
Front Access Panel
PCI Express 3.0 Ready

Not friendly to manual overclocking