Gigabyte G1-Killer line (first images)

The most important question for any X58 board:

Will it properly detect all installed RAM?
 
funny that they would include the killer nic feature...I have 2 of the first edition Killer PCI cards and they definately showed improvement...but NOBODY thought that company and product would ever be accepted as viable....did Agia give up to early on Physx to soon?...I wonder....haha
 
sok0 said:
Ya seriously, whose gonna buy that stuff now.....?? The assassin board looks nice and I believe they actually put a real x-fi chip + 128mb of memory with head phone amps on the board. Would love to finally get rid of a expansion sound card since it causes my watercooling tube routing to be kinda funky.
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Alot of people may at the right price point, not everyone buys the latest and greatest, also some people will buy it for looks.
 
Some of their SB line up : http://www.pcper.com/image.php?aid=news&img=Gigabyte_family_l.JPG

So where do you think they picked up their naming scheme from? I betz I know...

gbname.jpg
 
So if it gets too hot does it automatically fire the round in to the side of the case to add more air flow?
 
Rizen said:
I like the integrated Killer NIC. I think that is actually a nice feature, since that chip really is supposed to offer faster pings, but I probably wouldn't spend the money and waste the expansion slot otherwise.
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It's the difference between a software based NIC and a hardware based one. Which only mattered when you were choking with a single core.

Switching from onboard audio to a dedicated hardware sound chip would have done more for pings then.
 
Killer NIC along with the "top of the line" Sound Blaster X-Fi Digital, now that's a nice combo.
 
And to think i was actually thinking they might bring something interesting when they were showing those huge boxes some time ago.
 
loki7 said:
I want a motherboard that caters to RPGs. It should be colored blue or red with heatsinks in the shape of swords and wands.

Ok, maybe not.
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+1

a little more color with these boards would be nice
 
Well, looks like graphics cards with over the top graphics just got one-up'ed.
 
SeamasterPG said:
That's ok if you're assuming everybody is going to use 3-way SLI...
In my case i prefer to have a better sound card like the Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 2G or X-Meridian instead of a Sound Blaster, and of course some space between video cards for air flow (a MUST have today), this is something the Classified provides (and few others too), and it's also 3-way SLI capable.That's the best mobo layout IMHO for those reasons (for me anyway).

Putting together PCIe for a x16 x16 (Rampage II Extreme or Rampage III Extreme) is the dummest idea ever.
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How does the Classified provide more room in between video cards? It doesn't unless you run 3-Way SLI and drop the last card down one. Even then you only get the extra space between the last two cards. In 2-Way SLI you can put the cards in opposite ends of the board. That's what I'm doing on my Rampage III Formula. Why wouldn't you be able to do that here? Not sure what your complaint is. That board is no better and no worse than the Classified for layout. At least at a glance. I've seen Classified's in person and own one. I've not seen these in person yet.
 
I don't think it looks that bad. Crazy marketing scheme, but not that bad. I too like the Bigfoot KillerNIC integration. I think this way might be easier to keep them going than $200 add-in cards.
 
Master [H];1036670042 said:
I don't think it looks that bad. Crazy marketing scheme, but not that bad. I too like the Bigfoot KillerNIC integration. I think this way might be easier to keep them going than $200 add-in cards.
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I'd rather just have a quality Intel NIC.
 
Dan_D said:
How does the Classified provide more room in between video cards? It doesn't unless you run 3-Way SLI and drop the last card down one. Even then you only get the extra space between the last two cards. In 2-Way SLI you can put the cards in opposite ends of the board. That's what I'm doing on my Rampage III Formula. Why wouldn't you be able to do that here? Not sure what your complaint is. That board is no better and no worse than the Classified for layout. At least at a glance. I've seen Classified's in person and own one. I've not seen these in person yet.
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I was talking about using a PCI sound card like the ones i mentioned and a 2-way SLI setup, not 3-way...

Most of the mobos (NOT ALL) with a layout similar to the G1.Assassin have a x16 x16 x8 PCIe slot configuration while a few others of course, like yours, have a x16 x8 x16 for 2-way SLI with 2 slots free between cards and a x16 x8 x8 in 3-way SLI.

In mobos like the Rampage II Extreme, if you want to run 2-way SLI @x16 you have to put the cards together with no space between them, is that a good idea for you? Most of those mobos can't run x16 x16 x16, so why put the PCIe slots in that order? That's useless, it'd be so much better to have x16 x8 x16, or not?

I know your mobo (Rampage III Formula) have the same space like i said before, fair enough, but if you want to use a PCI sound card, can you? Nope, but the Classified can...You can say you have an onboard X-Fi or maybe a PCIe X-Fi, good, in my case i don't like how the X-Fi sounds, their drivers and nothing about that brand, that's why i prefer PCI Auzentech.

And yes, in the layout arena the Classified it's better because you can use more combinations of video cards/sound cards (not everybody like the X-Fi and their drivers).

:D
 
Vegasr said:
Killer NIC along with the "top of the line" Sound Blaster X-Fi Digital, now that's a nice combo.
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It's more than likely a Realtek ALC889 or ALC892 audio CODEC using EAX emulation software.

SolidBladez said:
+2

Why can't Gigabyte learn from Asus?
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No kidding. ASUS took notice of all the enthusiasts bitching about the terrible Realtek and Marvell NICs, then did something about it. They still offer both as a choice depending on the model your looking at, but at last we can now have Intel NICs with our boards.

MrGuvernment said:
which probably really uses a Via audio chip liks the Asus rampage IV for AMD
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I assume you mean the ASUS Crosshair IV for the AMD Platform. I'm not sure which audio solution they use but it's either a VIA or a Realtek.

mtbush said:
been running an X58 since launch

ZERO ISSUES w/ memory detection
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Same here. I'm running 6 x 2GB modules and have been from the start. Ran them on both the EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified and the Rampage III Formula.

dr.kevin said:
This one was made especially for Osama Bin Laden and his Taliban crew.

images
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Negative. If it were it would be an AK mag. That's clearly styled after the M4/M16's magazines.

SeamasterPG said:
I was talking about using a PCI sound card like the ones i mentioned and a 2-way SLI setup, not 3-way...

Most of the mobos (NOT ALL) with a layout similar to the G1.Assassin have a x16 x16 x8 PCIe slot configuration while a few others of course, like yours, have a x16 x8 x16 for 2-way SLI with 2 slots free between cards and a x16 x8 x8 in 3-way SLI.

In mobos like the Rampage II Extreme, if you want to run 2-way SLI @x16 you have to put the cards together with no space between them, is that a good idea for you? Most of those mobos can't run x16 x16 x16, so why put the PCIe slots in that order? That's useless, it'd be so much better to have x16 x8 x16, or not?

I know your mobo (Rampage III Formula) have the same space like i said before, fair enough, but if you want to use a PCI sound card, can you? Nope, but the Classified can...You can say you have an onboard X-Fi or maybe a PCIe X-Fi, good, in my case i don't like how the X-Fi sounds, their drivers and nothing about that brand, that's why i prefer PCI Auzentech.

And yes, in the layout arena the Classified it's better because you can use more combinations of video cards/sound cards (not everybody like the X-Fi and their drivers).

:D
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Who the hell uses a PCI sound card anymore? As far as the PCI-Express x8 / x16 argument, who cares? There isn't any real world difference between the two. Lets not forget that boards equipped with the nForce 200MCP aren't really giving you more bandwidth as they still have to cram everything through the motherboard chipset. So you get latency instead which actually does degrade performance slightly. There is less of a difference running your cards at x8 speeds. Your point is really moot.
 
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martinmsj said:
Why an X58 Board? Don't why bother with the technologies coming out/out this year.
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X58 is still considered the high end solution until we get the next socket (LGA 2011?). What it has over P67 is triple channel memory, more PCIe lanes and 6 core CPUs.

jfreund said:
Will it properly detect all installed RAM?
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Use JEDEC spec 1.5v RAM and you won't have an issue.

Killahurtz said:
..did Agia give up to early on Physx to soon?...I wonder....haha
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No, they just got bought out by NVIDIA.

MrGuvernment said:
which probably really uses a Via audio chip liks the Asus rampage IV for AMD
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Hey, some VIA audio chips are pretty nice. Ask anyone who has a VIA Envy24 audio chip. Heck, even the cheaper Envy24T is pretty nice.
 
Dan_D said:
Who the hell uses a PCI sound card anymore? As far as the PCI-Express x8 / x16 argument, who cares? There isn't any real world difference between the two. Lets not forget that boards equipped with the nForce 200MCP aren't really giving you more bandwidth as they still have to cram everything through the motherboard chipset. So you get latency instead which actually does degrade performance slightly. There is less of a difference running your cards at x8 speeds. Your point is really moot.
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Just because you don't it doesn't mean anyone else can!!! A lot of people prefers cards like Auzentech or HT Omega which are far better choice than Creative ones in a lot of areas.

Maybe there isn't a real world difference, that means you choose x8 or x16?
 
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SeamasterPG said:
Just because you don't it doesn't mean anyone else can!!! A lot of people prefers cards like Auzentech or HT Omega which are far better choice than Creative ones in a lot of areas.
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Sound is subjective so I'll give you that. Creative's drivers blow, so I understand your desire to use something else. I don't really keep abreast of all the changes in the sound card market because I rarely have enough free slots to use a sound card, and even if I did, I just don't see a lot of benefit to the hassle of messing with terrible drivers any longer.

SeamasterPG said:
Maybe there isn't a real world difference, that means you choose x8 or x16?
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There isn't any real difference between running your card at x8 speeds or x16 speeds. Therefore I'm smart enough to realize it's a moot point. It flat out doesn't matter. There are tons of articles proving this. The nForce 200MCP isn't the answer either as it consistently benchmarks slightly worse than motherboards which do not use it. Again it simply multiplexes the chipsets lanes. The chipset's available PCI-Express lanes are still the bottleneck. The nForce 200MCP doesn't get around that. So if you run anything more than dual card SLI then your stuck running cards at x8 speeds which isn't even being saturated at this time.

So I choose not to have the nForce 200MCP generally speaking and I choose to place the cards in a manner which provides the most airflow and provides at least x8 lanes of bandwidth. After that I'm not concerned about it. Some people are of the mindset that they need "true PCI-Express x16 slots" for their graphics cards and thus, they've bought into NVIDIA's marketing. The fact is you are being duped if you think it matters.
 
Dan_D said:
Sound is subjective so I'll give you that. Creative's drivers blow, so I understand your desire to use something else. I don't really keep abreast of all the changes in the sound card market because I rarely have enough free slots to use a sound card, and even if I did, I just don't see a lot of benefit to the hassle of messing with terrible drivers any longer.
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Maybe that's because you you use your system for games or other stuff than say music (which is my case).And it's not just the drivers, it's the quality of the card too.

Dan_D said:
There isn't any real difference between running your card at x8 speeds or x16 speeds. Therefore I'm smart enough to realize it's a moot point. It flat out doesn't matter. There are tons of articles proving this. The nForce 200MCP isn't the answer either as it consistently benchmarks slightly worse than motherboards which do not use it. Again it simply multiplexes the chipsets lanes. The chipset's available PCI-Express lanes are still the bottleneck. The nForce 200MCP doesn't get around that. So if you run anything more than dual card SLI then your stuck running cards at x8 speeds which isn't even being saturated at this time.

So I choose not to have the nForce 200MCP generally speaking and I choose to place the cards in a manner which provides the most airflow and provides at least x8 lanes of bandwidth. After that I'm not concerned about it. Some people are of the mindset that they need "true PCI-Express x16 slots" for their graphics cards and thus, they've bought into NVIDIA's marketing. The fact is you are being duped if you think it matters.
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Good for you Dexter!!! But nobody here talked about the NForce 200 (the subject of 3-way sli was mentioned by other member), i mentioned the Classified, which current version doesn't have it, just because of the layout and for the same reason the Rampage II extreme, examples of what i consider good and bad for 2-way SLI, nothing else.

The fact is (and still my original point), aside the differences or not between x8 or x16, the manufacturers claim there is a big one, so IF they sell that idea, THEN why some of them distribute PCIe slots in the worst possible way like they do?

Have a good weekend guys!
 
X58....for... gamers? Why would you target that when Sandy Bridge is better for stock performance.

I understand X58 is the better overclocking platform, but i doubt any real OCer wants that tacky design

Hmm..first they Copy our DrMOS for their Sandy Bridge and now redoing X58 (??) and now they are just trying to counter our Military Class build philosophy with just.... a.... clip heatsink

Like someone said before me "WTF were they thinking"
 
Dan_D said:
It's more than likely a Realtek ALC889 or ALC892 audio CODEC using EAX emulation software.






Who the hell uses a PCI sound card anymore?
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Dan what are you talking about, can you explain? you mean this Realtek chip is emulating a Creative X-fi?:confused:

And I do still use my X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro PCI sound card. I got it back in 2006 and it has been used in every build and upgrade since then.

My next motherboard will definitely be one with this KIiller NIC and X-Fi on-board.
 
That mobo is just plain fugly. Enthusiasts pay big for cool looking components, but the designer really missed the boat in thinking this was in any way attractive.
 
AMD_Gamer said:
Dan what are you talking about, can you explain? you mean this Realtek chip is emulating a Creative X-fi?:confused:

And I do still use my X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro PCI sound card. I got it back in 2006 and it has been used in every build and upgrade since then.

My next motherboard will definitely be one with this KIiller NIC and X-Fi on-board.
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All the boards I've seen using an onboard "X-Fi" are basically software versions of the card. You install the Realtek drivers (Some of them are actually recognized by Windows 7 as HD Audio Devices using an MS driver) then you install the Creative software on top of that. The ASIC on the board is not the same thing that goes on the actual separate Creative Labs X-Fi cards. Granted the software is pretty good for what it does. Though EAX emulation, Creative's Alchemy software and by adding a control panel with some more settings you get an improved experience over the plain Realtek ALC889 or ALC892, but they are still not real Sound Blaster's. The hardware implementation is still head and shoulders above a typical Realtek card. For example the Rampage III Formula has gold plated jacks, and supposedly higher quality capacitors than you'd typically find on an integrated Realtek ALC889. On my setup I played games on the thing with just the Microsoft driver and it sounded like it always does, then I added the full software installation minus some of the Creative Lab's bloatware apps that I would never use like their Jukebox crap and the audio sounded better.

Again it's a nice implementation of the Realtek hardware but it's not a real Sound Blaster. They licensed the name and the EAX 5.0 / THX certification etc. so they can sell you on this board vs. another. It's similar to with the NIC. It's an Intel adapter alright, but it's just the one that comes with the chipset. It's not in the same league as their actual server adapters. It's better than Marvell or Realtek solutions by a noticeable amount but don't kid yourself, it's not the same as an add in server class NIC.

On another note, I had the exact same Creative card your talking about. The X-Fi Fatal1ty. I loved it. It was a great card. However I had trouble with drivers and Windows 7. In fact I couldn't make it work on my EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified and I eventually sold the card after ensuring it worked. I miss having it because it sounded way better than the onboard audio I've used since. However the driver headaches weren't worth it and to even get the benefits of the improved hardware, you had to run Alchemy / OpenAL audio in all your games. By default you don't reap the benefits of it. Even if I opted to go back and use a new sound card, I'd opt for a PCI-Express version. I don't think the PCI cards have anything on the latest Creative X-Fi Titanium HD card. I don't consider a $200 sound card to be all that expensive and as a result I'd just by one and get on with life. I'd like to see legacy PCI go the way of ISA and VLB.
 
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Dan_D said:
All the boards I've seen using an onboard "X-Fi" are basically software versions of the card. You install the Realtek drivers (Some of them are actually recognized by Windows 7 as HD Audio Devices using an MS driver) then you install the Creative software on top of that. The ASIC on the board is not the same thing that goes on the actual separate Creative Labs X-Fi cards. Granted the software is pretty good for what it does. Though EAX emulation, Creative's Alchemy software and by adding a control panel with some more settings you get an improved experience over the plain Realtek ALC889 or ALC892, but they are still not real Sound Blaster's. The hardware implementation is still head and shoulders above a typical Realtek card. For example the Rampage III Formula has gold plated jacks, and supposedly higher quality capacitors than you'd typically find on an integrated Realtek ALC889. On my setup I played games on the thing with just the Microsoft driver and it sounded like it always does, then I added the full software installation minus some of the Creative Lab's bloatware apps that I would never use like their Jukebox crap and the audio sounded better.

Again it's a nice implementation of the Realtek hardware but it's not a real Sound Blaster. They licensed the name and the EAX 5.0 / THX certification etc. so they can sell you on this board vs. another. It's similar to with the NIC. It's an Intel adapter alright, but it's just the one that comes with the chipset. It's not in the same league as their actual server adapters. It's better than Marvell or Realtek solutions by a noticeable amount but don't kid yourself, it's not the same as an add in server class NIC.

On another note, I had the exact same Creative card your talking about. The X-Fi Fatal1ty. I loved it. It was a great card. However I had trouble with drivers and Windows 7. In fact I couldn't make it work on my EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified and I eventually sold the card after ensuring it worked. I miss having it because it sounded way better than the onboard audio I've used since. However the driver headaches weren't worth it and to even get the benefits of the improved hardware, you had to run Alchemy / OpenAL audio in all your games. By default you don't reap the benefits of it. Even if I opted to go back and use a new sound card, I'd opt for a PCI-Express version. I don't think the PCI cards have anything on the latest Creative X-Fi Titanium HD card. I don't consider a $200 sound card to be all that expensive and as a result I'd just by one and get on with life. I'd like to see legacy PCI go the way of ISA and VLB.
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bit-tech has a picture of the chip without the X-Fi Sticker, http://images.bit-tech.net/content_...sassin-motherboard/gigabyte-g1-assassin-4.jpg . Does that mean it is a real X-Fi?

They alao claim that Gigabyte pays $15 for the Killer NIC hardware.
 
Zap said:
X58 is still considered the high end solution until we get the next socket (LGA 2011?). What it has over P67 is triple channel memory, more PCIe lanes and 6 core CPUs.
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Agreed. Until Intel has something to replace my 980x, I will own X58 boards.
 
Awesome style and colors. I'd buy it in an instant if it had an AMD chipset and socket. :p
 
It made me laugh. I think it is pretty cheesy, but at least they are trying (better than a butterfly heatsink or something).
 
AMD_Gamer said:
bit-tech has a picture of the chip without the X-Fi Sticker, http://images.bit-tech.net/content_...sassin-motherboard/gigabyte-g1-assassin-4.jpg . Does that mean it is a real X-Fi?

They alao claim that Gigabyte pays $15 for the Killer NIC hardware.
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Interesting. Well I guess that's a real Creative chipset then. I've not seen that board and wasn't sure, but speaking from experience almost all of the boards I've seen save for MSI's from about two years ago didn't have real Creative chips on them. They were always some form of Realtek.
 
I really hate to admit this... but i kind of like these boards.
 
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