Introduction

With the Intel 3rd Generation Core i5/i7 CPUs recently hitting shelves in the past few days, we've got another board preview before we retreat into the bunker to torture and interrogate Intel's latest, and this time I've got a G1.Killer to put under the screws, from none other than Gigabyte. The G1.Sniper M3 is a mATX gaming-oriented motherboard, packed with gaming-oriented hardware and features, including a true hardware-based Creative audio CODEC.

Gigabyte has been around for a long time, known for rainbow-colored products in the past, while more recently they've changed their look, and they also changed a fairly big part of their hardware design too. Their Intel Z77 Express products are the culmination of several years of innovation and advancement in design that few can match; gone are the technicolor slots, and here to stay is a highly-focused product design that centers on the individual needs of users, each met with a different product line. I've got several different options here from Gigabyte that I'll be covering in the coming weeks, but first, the G1.Sniper M3.

Specifications

Packaging

The G1.Sniper M3 arrived with several other products all wrapped up in the same shipping box, but I noticed it right away, thanks to the camouflage that wraps around the box. The product name is right in the middle and is easily recognizable, with just a few technology logos on the bottom, nearly half of which are Gigabyte's own technologies. The back of the box has a breakdown on the features, and a picture of the board showing where they are, and that's about it. Nothing too stellar or surprising to be found here.


Inside the outer wrapper I found another box, also clad in camouflage, but of a different color, and I opened the flap to find the included accesories staring back at me. I tried to lift what I thought was a cardboard divider, only to find that the board itself is very close to being in its own box as well, as shown in the third image above. A box, in a box, in a box! Motherboard Inception!?!