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For our review today we built a new system around the Gigabyte G1 Assassin motherboard. We are using the new Antec liquid cooler and 6GB of high performance Kingston DDR3- 2000mhz memory. As always, special thanks to all our partners for supplying the hardware today.
Gigabyte G1 Assassin Test system:
Processor: Intel Core i7 990x
Cooler: Antec Kuhler H20 620 (full review forthcoming)
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1 Assassin
Memory: Kingston HyperX 6GB @ 2000mhz 9-10-9-31
Graphics : Sapphire HD6970 x 3, Inno3D GTX 580 x 2 (gaming tests) / Sapphire HD5870 Flex Edition CFx/MSI GTX 560 ti (productivity tests)
Drives: Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB & Kingston HyperX Max 3.0
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay SBC-06d1S-U
Chassis: Antec Twelve Hundred (review forthcoming)
Monitors: 2 Prolite B2712HDS & Dell U2410 and Dell U3011 Ultrasharp.
Intel Core i5-2500k System:
Processor: Core i5-2500k
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600mhz
Power Supply: Antec High Current Pro 850W
Motherboard: ASRock P67 Extreme4
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Thermal Paste: Noctua NT H1
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Graphics: Gigabyte GTX460 OC
Drive: Intel X25-M SSD (160GB)
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit
Intel Core i7-2600k System:
Processor: Core i7-2600k
Memory: GSkill Ripjaws 4GB 2133mhz
Power Supply: Antec High Current Pro 850W
Motherboard: ASRock P67 Fatal1ty Pro
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Thermal Paste: Noctua NT H1
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Graphics: Inno3D GTX570
Drive: Intel X25-M SSD (160GB)
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit
Intel Core i5-655k System:
Processor: Intel Core i5 655k
Memory: Kingston 4GB DDR3 1600mhz
Motherboard: AsRock P55 Deluxe 3
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD6850
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W
Chassis: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Drive: Kingston 128GB SSD
Intel Core i5-760 System:
Processor: Intel Core i5 760
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB 1600mhz
Motherboard: AsRock P55 Extreme4
Graphics Card: AMD HD6870
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W
Chassis: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Drive: Kingston 128GB SSD
Intel Core i7 950 System
Processor: Intel Core i7 950
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 6GB 1600mhz
Motherboard: AsRock X58 Extreme6
Graphics Card: AMD HD6850
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W
Chassis: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Drive: Kingston 128GB SSD
Software:
Windows 7 64 Bit Enterprise Edition
Catalyst 11.2
Forceware 266.58
Fraps Professional
SiSoft Sandra
CPUz
GPUz
CPUID Hardware Monitor Professional
Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
CyberLink PowerDvd 10 Ultra
Cyberlink Media Espresso
CrystalMark
HDTach
HQV Benchmark V 2.0
3DMark 11
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Games:
Alien V Predator
Lost Planet 2
Far Cry 2
Resident Evil 5
Mafia 2
Tom Clancy HAWX 2
Dead Space 2
F1 2010
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
Left4Dead 2
Battleforge
Media Of Honor SP
Devil May Cry 4
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.
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