GIGABYTE G1.Assassin

Zitat: Eine Gamerplatine der Spitzenklasse, die für absolute Highend-PCs gedacht ist.

Zitat: The Gigabyte G1.Assassin is a ´no holds barred´ type of motherboard. Gigabyte wanted the best of everything in order to give the gamer all they needed in one package. They did such a good job at this that if you can´t tell this motherboard is geared towards the gamer... well, then you might want to set up an appointment with an Optometrist. ;) It all starts visually with these G1-Killer brand of boards. Fans of FPS-style games will get the theme´s message from the get-go. For cooling the main board components, the G1s use heatsinks whose design is inspired by the most recognizable parts of an assault rifle. As unique as these heatsinks may be, they are also very functional. They cool the phase power MOSFETs, the X58 North Bridge. These coolers are not made of cheap light-weight pot metal either, but heavy pieces of aluminum. The LEDs on the middle heatsink may not serve any reals function, but they sure do look cool. When it comes to the extra onboard bonus features this motherboard is packing quite few, and better yet is those few are pretty big. It begins with the Creative CA20K2 chip. This is a huge plus for those that do not want to also purchase a separate sound card, especially when running quad CrossfireX and blocking the x1 slots, as you have a high quality X-Fi already built in. Surpassing the likes of Realtek or VIA offerings in it´s own right, this one also includes a high power per-channel and headphone amp, great for cranking the latest MP3s at louder than normal volume levels More still is the inclusion of Bigfoot Network´s famous Killer e2100 networking chip, which ideal for those that game online often. The low ping advertised by Gigabyte and Bigfoot will get you into games faster and eliminate lag that comes from online gaming services. One of the ways it achieves this is by being a dedicated controller, taking over full control of the networking job from the CPU. The G1.Assassin is no slouch when it comes to overclocking either. With a modest bump to 1.35 volts we were able to get our new i7 960 to 4.2GHz. Yes, we know that more voltage would lead to a higher overclock, but we looked at who this motherboard was aimed at and tested accordingly. A solid 1GHz over the default speed will no doubt help gaming, especially if you are feeding multiple graphics cards at high resolution The only real fault of this motherboard is the price you will have to pay to own this piece of hardware. At $500, this motherboard is most certainly not for the budget gamer. It´s not that Gigabyte is looking to charge that just to be cruel either, but because they with give the buyer so many high end additional features. Going this route means not having to go out and buy a high end sound card or network card. Factor in the price of an equivalent sound card and Killer NIC and those alone would set you back about $180-$250 (depending on the X-Fi model). Factor those into the equation, plus the fact it´s the fastest platform available (X58), and you end up with a real deal here. The Assassin´s form factor is larger then normal, but we did not consider the size a negative. Being an XL-ATX motherboard actually means that there is more spacing between the PCIe slots which means there is better airflow between video cards. You will need a case which features 8 expansion slots outback though, but we´ve shown you a number of fine choices there as well.  

Zitat: Pro: + High performance + ´Specialist´ visual appeal Contra: - Hugely overpriced - No incentive to ignore Sandy Bridge