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The Gigabyte G1 Assassin is a stunning showcase of the highest engineering standards, even to rival industry leaders Asus.
The G1 board features a new heatpipe design which was created to deal with excessive temperatures. We love the green and black colour scheme, its very distinctive. There is a lot of attention to detail, such as little ‘bullets' visible on the heatsink areas, to make it look like the clip of a machine gun.
The heatsink takes heat from critically important parts of the motherboard, such as the CPU VRM section and pushes it across the fins. Gigabyte claim that the heatpipe design utilises a ‘unique fluting technology, similar to a rifle barrel fluting, which allows for maximum heat dispersion'.
The board is also loaded with smart fan pin headers and is exactly how we like it. Regardless of case fan positions, this board allows for cables to be connected in all corners of the PCB layout.
Gigabyte are using high quality Nichicon MUSE ES series and MW Series Bi polarised audio capacitors at each channel layout. These are professional grade audio capacitors which deliver very high levels of sound resolution. there is even a built in front audio headphone amplifier which can drive high loads (up to 150ohms). The amplifier also features a wide band width, low noise, high skew rate with low distortion for great quality output. There are also 4 additional amplifiers onboard for the center/sub woofer, rear speaker and side surround and line out connectors.
The image above left shows the 16 phase power capabilities of this board. This dual power switching and Power phase boost with multi gear switching can help with overclocking and stability, when pushing processors higher. Gigabyte recommend that 1366 Extreme Edition users populate both phase power ports, so you will need a capable power supply.
The motherboard features a Killer E2100, dedicated NPU with 1GB of DDR onboard. This will take the networking load from the main processor, freeing up CPU cycles for more important tasks, such as gaming. KitGuru really loves the Bigfoot technology and we have reviewed their products in the past, but we will delve into the networking performance again later in the review.
Gigabyte populate this board with Japanese Solid Capacitors which have a 50,000 hour operation time. The 2x Copper PCBs, Ferrite core chokes offer higher energy efficiency when compared to the common iron core chokes and lower RDS(on) MOSFETs that feature lower resistance.
The board supports up to 8 SATA devices, 2x Sata 2 (3GBps – white) connectors, and 6x Sata 3 capable connectors (6GBps – black).
Rear connectivity is strong with support for older PS2 connectors. Coaxial out. 4 x USB 2.0 ports, 4x USB 3.0 ports. Gigabit Lan, optical and full surround out.
Our final system build, which is liquid cooled by the new Antec Kuhler H20 620.
It is important to point out that this board is classed as an ‘XL-ATX' board measuring 345x262mm. This is larger than the ATX standard, which is 305x244mm.
While we didn't run into fitting issues in an Antec Twelve Hundred Chassis, it proved impossible to use the secondary Molex connector ( image above). There are two of these optional molex connectors on the PCB which aid PCIE stability when fully loaded in CrossfireX or SLI configurations. We actually found that we didn't need either of them connected throughout testing, but the power supply may block the lower molex connector, depending on the length of the chassis.
Dear god, I need a cold shower, shall read it more in depth later today! awesome
That motherboard is just insanely well designed. the heatsinks are incredible. the bullet showing through etc? wow asus might need to be worried!
I have been thinking of upgrading to this board now for a week, I have a 980x and want to ditch my current intel board as I can’t get past 4.2, even with a D14. its a lot of money, but hey we all need perks, right? 🙂
that is a crazy board design. crazy good, not crazy bad.
The cost is incredible however. I can under maybe £350, but £450? that would get a nice SLI setup.
Gigabyte just shot up in my books due to this. the other products in the range look slightly better value for money however :p
5ghz, thats a mega achievement for a standard cheap watercooler. look forward to the kuhler review zardon
good read, and what a great design from gigabyte. I wonder how much of hte heatsink design is just for show however.
990x is great, but not that exciting, just a clock bumped 980x. still nice oc too.
The audio side looks stunningly well done for a reference onboard option. did it sound good?
The last gigabyte board I had was alright, the bios was dodgy, but it might just have been an early revision. I sold it after a few weeks as I couldnt return it and I wanted something more stable.
Between asus, msi and gigabyte, they produce mega motherboards.
This product is really a showcase of their engineering skill, its hardly practical for 99% of the enthusiast market. Still I wouldnt mind it, if you are giving it away.
crank the nuts off it ! 5ghz is good, it should go higher but you are right, over 1.5volts is risky business.
Additional power connectors on the motherboard are of no importance if you are going with classic cooling (air or water) – excluding here some extreme experiments. Additional power is primarily designed to ensure stability with LN2 (just like with Asus R3E).
There is plenty of things which I like, but it is more interesting what I don’t like.
Price utterly prohibitive. With LGA 2011 around the corner, I simply don’t get it. Also they stuck with heat-pipe between NB and SB. It’s bloody mad to transport heat from red-hot north-bridge to south-bridge (OC!). For that kind of money I would expect at least 2 NICs, at least 10 SATA ports, 4 electrically x16 slots and some form of active cooling on north-bridge. Passive cooling of X58 that is pure madness. With big coolers you can run into problems because of that massive heatsink.
Hi Hakuren. some interesting points, but im not sure I agree with them all. Why would you need a dual Killer Nic configuration. Is this for a specific demand you need? Gamers will never need a dual setup. Also I dont follow your cooling theories on the NB and SB heatpipes. they shouldnt be transferring heat between components, more ‘evenly’ removing them across the whole area.
Absolutely brilliant, what a setup. I can only dream…
If anyone wants to donate this to someone, I can send my address? 🙂
450 quid for a motherboard. I thought they were taking the piss until I saw what it can do. Im sold, now I just need a new job!
My friend bought this and it’s brilliant. He is loaded, and now i guess he will be selling his 980x for an ‘upgrade’ 🙂
I have that set up now, I bought it a week ago. I am waiting on the watercooling get to arrive before I OC the board.
BUT as of fight now I am in shock at how good this computer set up is and works out of the box.
G1. Assassin
990X
12 GB 1600 DDR3
2 P128 Corsair SSD
Coolermaster HAF X
Was thinking of buying this board myself, and once I get the funds sorted im ordering one for my 980x. not sure what case to get. the HAF x looks good. might opt for a lian li.
Excellent review, loads of info. the ocing is great. im sick of crap x58 boards so i might bite the bullet and order this.
I dont know what some dude was saying earlier in this discussion, this gigabyte board is one of the best on the market, bar none. its an overclocking force.
Got no idea why you recommend this board over eg an UD5/7…
Are those gimmicks really worth the extra cash ?
Would loved to have seen the Killer NIC test and sound test. That’ is what makes this board special … Or a Bclock test… as 143 Bclock my grandma can do that…
There is a Killer nic test in the review Alby. Sound testing can be rather subjective. I think the board looks great. people who dont want the extras will buy a cheaper board, thats pretty obvious, right? Some people love all the high end capacitors and extras. I know I do, but not sure id pay for it.
My bad , overlooked that part :p