Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87

dutchbrit · 26 Nov 2013 at 21:25

baz2963 said:
Well ... been playing with it for the past few days. Its awesome ! I have come from both an Asus V Gene Z77 and MSI Z77-GD55 and it I much prefer it to those.

I have got my I7 4770k running at 4.5 (1.267v) and not had a blue screen yet, just went straight in and OC'd it. I should think about lowering the voltage, because its super stable at the moment.

With 2 x 780's Im getting 2791 on the OC'ers official Heaven 4.0 settings.

Have fun with it !

Hi, Im close to buying myself one of these boards, its between this and the UD4H. I tend to do a fair bit of gaming and also music software so this board really appeals to me with its decent audio features.

My concern is, and this is partly due to lack of knowledge.. I read that this board is only a 4 power phase? and that it may not be good enough for overclocking.. where as the UD4H is 16 power phase. I understand maybe that this Sniper board has better quality VRM's though.. Would this board be able to overclock the 4670K to around 4-4.5GHZ ?

Thanks

baz2963 · 27 Nov 2013 at 07:46

EdgeDs said:
What cooling are you using on the cpu?

Using a corsair H80i getting 67 under load. It's proper stable, been throwing loads at it, I could definitely get more then 4.5 if I wanted.

baz2963 · 27 Nov 2013 at 07:49

dutchbrit said:
Hi, Im close to buying myself one of these boards, its between this and the UD4H. I tend to do a fair bit of gaming and also music software so this board really appeals to me with its decent audio features.

My concern is, and this is partly due to lack of knowledge.. I read that this board is only a 4 power phase? and that it may not be good enough for overclocking.. where as the UD4H is 16 power phase. I understand maybe that this Sniper board has better quality VRM's though.. Would this board be able to overclock the 4670K to around 4-4.5GHZ ?

Thanks

I'd say yes no problem ... I'm not an experienced overclocker, but it's the easiest I've used. Also it will depend on how good your Haswell chip is, you could have the best OC board and still struggle to get 4.5.

dutchbrit · 28 Nov 2013 at 19:11

does anyone actually know how many power phase's this board has? I cant find any reliable info on it at all.

Neolink · 29 Nov 2013 at 02:10

Not sure, I got my board this morning and I could not see it stated on the manual anywhere. It overclocks fine though, my 4670k has been happy at 4.5Ghz all day! Not planning on pushing it any further as it is crazy fast already.

My only gripe so far with the board is that I am getting a lot of buzzing from the onboard audio while gaming, going to try a few things tomorrow but if that does not fix it, I will try for an RMA, it is unacceptable as you can hear it easily over the game sounds. It is fine when the PC is not under load though (windows or loading screens in games for example).

dutchbrit · 29 Nov 2013 at 16:33

Neolink said:
Not sure, I got my board this morning and I could not see it stated on the manual anywhere. It overclocks fine though, my 4670k has been happy at 4.5Ghz all day! Not planning on pushing it any further as it is crazy fast already.

My only gripe so far with the board is that I am getting a lot of buzzing from the onboard audio while gaming, going to try a few things tomorrow but if that does not fix it, I will try for an RMA, it is unacceptable as you can hear it easily over the game sounds. It is fine when the PC is not under load though (windows or loading screens in games for example).

Thats not good... Faulty board perhaps or something a later firmware update could fix. I might wait a little longer before buying one I think..

los · 30 Nov 2013 at 16:50

How does this compare to the z87x-sli and d3h?

Nelly · 30 Nov 2013 at 19:42

You can hear what the sound chip is like for this series of Sniper boards in this youtube clip from 4:05 minutes onwards.

stulid · 30 Nov 2013 at 20:36

los said:
How does this compare to the z87x-sli and d3h?

It has better audio and the killer NIC, the Z87X-SLI is just a HD3 which is wired to do SLI, the minimal price difference makes the Sniper a no-brainer.

The D3H is ok but again doesn't have the sound and network chip of the Sniper.

Nelly · 30 Nov 2013 at 20:58

Neolink said:
My only gripe so far with the board is that I am getting a lot of buzzing from the onboard audio while gaming, going to try a few things tomorrow but if that does not fix it, I will try for an RMA, it is unacceptable as you can hear it easily over the game sounds. It is fine when the PC is not under load though (windows or loading screens in games for example).

Do you have Gigabyte Easytune Utility installed by any chance?

Bart_Hunt · 30 Nov 2013 at 21:10

Its same chip as in Z77 g1 m3 I think. And that one is so much better thsn realtek.
Also, I am buying that mobo in 2 weeks for my green monster

Neolink · 5 Dec 2013 at 10:44

Nelly said:
Do you have Gigabyte Easytune Utility installed by any chance?

No, I just had the essential drivers installed, none of the extra gigabyte stuff! I generally run my gaming system as barebones software/driver-wise.

I RMA'ed the board, OCUK turned it around quickly and my new one should arrive today, I will report back if this one has the same issue too! Hoping it does not though

Nelly · 5 Dec 2013 at 10:48

Neolink said:
No, I just had the essential drivers installed, none of the extra gigabyte stuff! I generally run my gaming system as barebones software/driver-wise.

I RMA'ed the board, OCuK turned it around quickly and my new one should arrive today, I will report back if this one has the same issue too! Hoping it does not though

Nice one.

I read a while ago Easytune can cause issues with various things, one of those is latency, but the later versions just cause latency on starting it up, then it completely goes anyway. I don't use it that often.

Neolink · 6 Dec 2013 at 19:59

The new board does it too

It must be a design fault. Very disappointed, the sound is fine (and FANTASTIC, i'll add) in the non-amplified slot ,except it is much quieter of course. It is just annoying as I bought it pretty much specifically for that feature

Oh well, I'll have to find a cheapish external headphone amp instead I guess.

los · 6 Dec 2013 at 21:06

Other than this, what do you think of the board? Would you recommend it?

Neolink · 6 Dec 2013 at 21:26

Yeah it is great, bios is nice, it is holding my 4.5Ghz overclock steady and it looks fantastic

Interestingly: I've just put my headphones into the headphone slot in the front of my case rather than the slot in the back of the board, I can barely hear the static sound at all anymore even though it seems to be going through the amp as it is very loud...Going to investigate further!

los · 6 Dec 2013 at 21:34

Ok, thanks very much.
Looks like I will have to decide which board to get soon.
This one is definetly tempting, seems a lot for your money

los · 6 Dec 2013 at 21:36

Oh do you know phases this has?

dutchbrit · 7 Dec 2013 at 16:52

los said:
Oh do you know phases this has?

ive been told its got 16 power phases.. can anyone confirm?

fluidz · 7 Dec 2013 at 20:05

Have been looking at this board as a solution to cleaning up usb noise feeding to my dac, is anybody using an external dac via usb?