FrgMstr

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GIGABYTE X99 Phoenix SLI Motherboard Review - GIGABYTE’s X99 Phoenix SLI is another entry into the G1 Gaming lineup. While there is little to nothing that’s truly unique about the feature set, the combination of features and unique aesthetics are hard to argue with. The X99 Phoenix SLI offers good features and stellar looks at a reasonable price point.
 
Nice review!
Man, I would cry if those were my degraded CPU's. Ouch.
The board is Jekyll/Hyde in appearance. Hideous in the light, awesome in the dark. I didn't really think I would like the LED bling on a MB, but that looked pretty nifty.
Gigabyte is slowly growing on me in the MB department.
 
Solid review, as usual. I do have one suggestion though for reviews in general ... can you please make the pics higher resolution/quality? These grainy 800 x 600 images are difficult to fap to on my 4k monitors.
 
Nice review!
Man, I would cry if those were my degraded CPU's. Ouch.
The board is Jekyll/Hyde in appearance. Hideous in the light, awesome in the dark. I didn't really think I would like the LED bling on a MB, but that looked pretty nifty.
Gigabyte is slowly growing on me in the MB department.

The lighting is really one of the best aspects of the design. Otherwise its pretty much a run of the mill X99 motherboard. It's a good board obviously, but little sets it apart from the rest. I actually rather like the lighting. If I wanted a window in the side of my case I'd go for the LED bling as that gets paid attention to more than the motherboard color scheme. That said, I've seen the Phoenix SLI in windowed cases with the right ambient lighting working in concert with the onboard LEDs and it can look amazing. If I can find the pic, I'll post it.
 
Huh. I have a mITX version of the Phoenix and all it had was underside orange LEDs on the bottom of the motherboard. Cute but nothing to write home about. Solid board overall.
 
My next ground up build will definitely be some aesthetically pleasing color matched build. I don't think those colors will be orange and white though. I really hope more manufacturers start putting RGB LEDs into their motherboards and other components.
 
Good review. I have always found GigaBytes color schemes ugly, but I do like the LEDs.
 
Solid review, as usual. I do have one suggestion though for reviews in general ... can you please make the pics higher resolution/quality? These grainy 800 x 600 images are difficult to fap to on my 4k monitors.

We will do so in future articles.

Good review. I have always found GigaBytes color schemes ugly, but I do like the LEDs.

I'm not a huge fan of them either, although I did like the old black and green motherboards.
 
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I'm not a huge fan of them either, although I did like the old black and green motherboards.

My stationary rig has the G1.Sniper 3 in it, and while I like the green it was far too difficult to find other components in that color scheme. But this orange one is going to be even less likely.... Go go RGB lighting, I guess!
 
My stationary rig has the G1.Sniper 3 in it, and while I like the green it was far too difficult to find other components in that color scheme. But this orange one is going to be even less likely.... Go go RGB lighting, I guess!

I think we'll see some relief on this soon. Before too long motherboard manufacturers and video card makers may go modular with the plastic bits and sell them in different colors.
 
Solid board, absolutely hideous color scheme :p business as usual in the 'gaming' world.

Nice review guys, sucks to hear your broadwell CPUs have deteriorated
 
What I find really interesting is they make you use a 4pin molex plug on the end of the motherboard if you want to run SLI. Who even uses 4pin molex anymore, why wouldn't they face it upwards or at least include a 90degree/low profile plug to ensure that the mobo will work in most cases.
 
Must be just me that really likes the orange and white color scheme. The light show it puts on is really cool. If I had a case that could A. Sit on my desk and B. Had a window that faced me I'd be kind of tempted by this.
 
What I find really interesting is they make you use a 4pin molex plug on the end of the motherboard if you want to run SLI. Who even uses 4pin molex anymore, why wouldn't they face it upwards or at least include a 90degree/low profile plug to ensure that the mobo will work in most cases.

You don't want it straight up in that part of the motherboard. Early SLI motherboards did this and that can cause issues with inserting a graphics card in that slot. The other place this connector is commonly found is above the primary PCI-Express slot. That's not generally as easy to deal with from a cabling standpoint. Some motherboards also use a SATA power connector at the motherboard's edge above / next to the SATA ports. I like that the best, but few do it.
 
Must be just me that really likes the orange and white color scheme. The light show it puts on is really cool. If I had a case that could A. Sit on my desk and B. Had a window that faced me I'd be kind of tempted by this.

My Gigabyte motherboard is dark grey and orange and it's one of the better looking boards I've seen, IMHO. Blue is overused.
 
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