GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 or G1.SNIPER2

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oblivion666

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I am going to be using an intel i7-2600k with an SLI setup of two Nvidia 580GTX.

The G1.SNIPER2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128525

Look at all the features on the overview. With 8 phase power design, Dual CPU Power and Driver MOSFETs, GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 2 promises to deliver first class system performance and power stability required for elite gaming systems.

GIGABYTE seriously addresses online gaming network lag issues by implementing the Bigfoot Networks Killer E2100 Game Networking Platform directly onboard the G1.Sniper 2. Utilizing a unique combination of dedicated Network Processing Unit (NPU) with 1Gb of dedicated DDR2 memory and exclusive Game Networking DNA technology, the Bigfoot Networks Killer E2100 Game Networking Platform was designed to give the best online gaming experience possible.

DOES SLI dual x8

2 x USB 3.0. Does it feature PCI Express 3.0 or what exactly is 3rd generation PCIE?

GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128499

GIGABYTE's cutting edge 24 phase power VRM design utilizes the highest caliber components to provide unadulterated, smooth power to the CPU. The innovative 24 phase power VRM has been designed and engineered to deliver fast transient response times through quick and seamless power delivery during extensive CPU loading variations. In addition, heat from the VRM is effectively reduced by spreading the load between the 24 power phases, resulting in a cooler, more stable platform.

VS the 8 phase on the sniper 2. Does this matter much?

6 x USB 3.0

DOES SLI dual x16 VS the x8 on the Sniper 2. Doesn't really matter too much x8 VS x16 performance wise, but still nice to have.

Please, help me decide I really need some ideas and comments to help me get an assured idea of what I want to use. This will mainly be for games. Do both of these boards support the GPU inside the newer intel processors? Does the GPU in the processors work with the processor and video cards to produce a smoother game play or higher fps? I think the GPU in the processors only work with onboard graphics? Either way ill be using 580 GTX
 
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I bought the GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 and I love it, using it with 2 GTX 580's in SLI. There was a recent review I read on the G1.SNIPER2 http://www.techspot.com/review/432-gigabyte-g1-sniper2/ and in the end they gave the UD7 higher marks.

The bigfoot networks E2100 is mostly a marketing ploy/joke.
The GPU on the processor you wouldn't use even if the board supported it if you have a 580 GTX.
The Dual 16x is nice to have especially for future cards that will undoubtedly have higher peak bandwidth demands.
I can't remember if the G1 supports the future Ivy bridge processors but I know the UD7 does with a bios update which I already did on mine.
PCI express 3.0 will be a worthless feature likely for the lifetime you will have this PC, even current cards don't saturate a 2.0 bus.
24ph vs 8 ph power wont give you any difference in performance, but there is an argument to be made for stability and longer lasting components on the board. They are also self redundant so if any die they will get ignored and the rest will keep on going. Some boards if 1 dies the board dies.
The UD7 IMO is a higher quality board with less gimmicks.

Personal choice mostly but I think the UD7 delivers more real features and in some areas higher quality and is like $10 less. Plus, for me it looked a hell of a lot nicer inside my case than all that green gimmick would have.

My setup is identical to what you are going for and I am playing everything I have thrown at it at 2560x1440 resolution and completely max settings and I have yet to see anything drop me below my vsync 60fps. Disabling vsync on most games I was well in the 100+ fps range. Just make sure you get a very strong PSU. What case are you going to put it all in? I went with the Silverstone Raven RV02B-EW, it keeps my 2 580's nice and cool and definitely recommend it. Incidentally, if you are also considering an SSD I got a Mushin Chronos and I have not had any BSOD issues since I have had it (about a month) at all with this MOBO that plagues a lot of sandforce drives/mobo's. Just keep it on the Intel controlled port, not the Marvell one. Marvell and sandforce don't play well.
 
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The bigfoot has 1GB of ddr2 memory wonder exactly what it does it actually has a lot of good reviews
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833189002

I am upgrading from a LGA 775 system that is running a Q9650 at 4.0 and DDR3 memory. I was going to put everything into an antec 1200 and use a SSD mainly for windows. I agree that everything on the GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 has a little better features than the sniper. The Multiple USB 3.0 ports (6) VS the two on the sniper. The sniper does physically look kind of obnoxious. It is always nice to have PCIE that runs dual x16 VS the x8 on the sniper. Four PCIE slots VS two that the sniper has if your card gets really cheap and you want to expand even more.

The only thing I could see getting the sniper for was someone without a sound card for DDL or DTS encodes on the fly for surround sound receivers, however I use an x-fi titanium pro and wouldn't have a need to use audio on the board..

As for the bigfoot network card I think it is pretty much useless and hardly a gain. Unless it does something to help out the CPU or RAM I have no clue.... either way if it was something you really wanted you could buy the card and put it in the GA-Z68X-UD7-B3.

The sniper is meant to attract teens or kids who like the whole gun theme or gamers who don't know much about all the features on a board. They just see the Internet and surround sound with the gun theme and go for it. I will get the GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 :)

Can you tell me more about the case you have? Does it like slide the motherboard out so you can access it to plug something in without being cramped. How is the air flow my antec 1200 is huge. What heat sink are you using in that case. Are you considering doing that SSD GIGABYTE EZ Smart Response?
 
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The case is this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163173 a review on it here: http://www.techspot.com/review/351-silverstone-rv02e/ If you look around you can find more from Tom's and a few other reputable sites. Its a great case and the pictures really don't do it justice, it looks a lot better in person. More importantly it it performs really well, one of the highest rated cases for cooling on air as well as being pretty quiet. It's much quieter than my old case.

The only issue I had with it was the slots for the video card were about an 1/8th of an inch farther away from my cards where they mount to the case with screws. I fixed it by just simply pushing that area of the case towards the cards and bending it just slightly (not even noticeable) and they lined up fine.

Not sure what you mean by slide out for the motherboard, but it was really easy to build with, lots of room and routing all the cables around the back side made for a really clean install. The key feature of the case is the motherboard is physically rotated inside 90 degrees from what normal PC cases are. Several Silverstone cases have this design. Instead of the "back" of the motherboards being at the back of the case, it is instead at the top of the case. The primary reason for doing this, and one that works quite well, was so that the video cards will be oriented vertically in the case instead of horizontally. This allows for a much more efficient cooling design as all the heat is vented out the top, where heat wants to naturally go, instead of the back. Working with the 3 huge fans at the bottom pushing in loads of cool air and pushing out the hot with positive pressure at the top makes for a really effective design. My cards run quite a bit cooler in this case than my old one with a standard layout, and it had more fans. I recommend a power supply that has its fan on the top (or bottom) side instead of at the end though, as it can then take advantage of the filter that is at the back of the case as well.

I'm using the Xigamatek Aegir CPU cooler, it works really well, however I had to trim a few of the little "legs" on the back of the motherboard near the CPU socket that are from where some components are soldiered to the board as they were left fairly long and were dangerously close to touching the metal bracket that you have to use on the backside of the motherboard for the cooler to mount to. The bracket has a rubber lining on one side to prevent it shorting the board if it touches anything but there were a few spots that don't have the rubber that were extremely close to touching the legs as well as the fact that the legs are very pointy and could potentially poke through the rubber and short out. Not really a flaw in the Cooler, just that the component legs on the back of the mobo were slightly longer than I'm used to seeing. Trimming them is easy, but if you aren't familiar with that kind of thing or are a novice at PC building I'd consider a cooler that doesn't have such a large back plate, otherwise its a very solid cooler performance wise. CPU idles around 28C and under load around 35C at stock clocks which is pretty cool.

I opted for the 240GB Mushkin Chronos Deluxe for an SSD Which is plenty big enough for the OS and any games I would be currently playing so I have no real need for the Smart Response. For anything non essential performance wise I have a 1TB drive which is mostly empty lol.
 
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That is the previous (but still available) version of the Raven 2, though they look very similar the newer one (that I linked above) has a redesigned hard drive bay that is hot swappable and loads from the side instead of the rear. It also has the newer "peerless" fans that supposedly offer increased performance and even less noise than the old ones. The power light on the front is also a little better on the newer one.

I'm not sure which cooler he is using but as long as you get one that blows air through sideways (which would blow up in this case) you will be fine. You just want to avoid one that blows towards the board, or away from the board. The idea is to make sure it is blowing in the same direction as the case airflow (bottom to top) for it to be effective. The Xigamatek I have is freaking HUGE but it still fit easily in the case.
 
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G1.SNIPER2........what an overpriced piece of crap motherboard, only does 8x/8x pcie dual card? TOTAL piece of overpriced crap. There are motherboards that cost $130 that can do what this does with the addition of a dedicated sound card. It is also not full UEFI, it uses "hybrid efi BIOS". Seriously, dont buy gigabyte, get something else that is actually worth the money and doesn't rely on a clunky old bios and has dual 16x lanes. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130610
 
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You mention that this will support the Ivy processor in the future. Do you want to upgrade to that processor sometime? How come you didn't wait for the LGA 2011 with quad channel memory on a X79 chipset?
How come you didn't pick out a raven 3?
 
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I will likely upgrade to Ivybridge at some point in the future, probably in a year or two. I upgrade fairly often. Ivybridge will be > the LGA 2011 cpu's for gamers. LGA 2011 is more targeted for servers/workstations, etc. It is only slightly better than the current i7 2600k though not by much from most reviews I have seen, however it will cost significantly more. Ivybridge will from most things I have read crush them.

Good article on the LGA2011 cpu's here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-3960x-x79-performance,3026.html

I like the design of the raven 2 better than the raven 3, the Power supply is in a better place IMO and you have 3 huge fans on the bottom vs only 2. The "access side" or window side on the raven 2 is also on the right side of the case where the raven 3 is on the left side of the case. My PC sits on the left side of my desk so that was a nice feature for me. In most tests the Raven 2 scored slightly better in terms of cooling, especially with video card temps. Though they were only off temp wise by like 5-10C. They are pretty close though so either is a very good case, mostly it was just personal preference. I've never been a fan of the radical cases, I always preferred a more "clean" high quality look. Don't let the "blandness" of the Raven 2 pics fool you, it is a very nice looking case in person.
 
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Keep in mind the NF200 adds latency, and the NATIVE lanes to the SB are x16. Native TRUMPS NF200 in anything 2-WAY.

2-WAY/2-WAY + PhysX:
Z68 - Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD5

3-WAY:
P67 - Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7-B3
Z68 - Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD7-B3


Extreme 3-WAY + PhysX:
P67 - ASUS P8P67 WS REVOLUTION ; perfect PCIe spacing
 
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I agree on the G1.sniper2 for the most part. UEFI bios while nice is really not that big of a deal. It's pretty easy to make BIOS adjustments on any BIOS really, and once you set it you really don't ever change it again unless you just like to mess with stuff all the time for no real reason. The BIOS interface certainly wouldn't be a major factor in a mother board decision for me, what I care about is how many things it lets you change and how good its compatibility list is. There is nothing "clunky" about the GB BIOS, it is extremely good, it just doesn't have a "bling" interface.

Not a big fan of MSI really, though they do have some good products. That motherboard is brand new, it looks good but I wouldn't buy anything without waiting for some real reviews on it.
 
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Can you point me to any real world benchmarks from games that show the Z68-UD7 with NF200 in 2 way SLI being noticeably slower than a non NF200 board with all other hardware being the same? I have never been able to find anything conclusive. Some show them slightly higher, some slightly lower, though NONE of them varied by more than a few FPS. Most of those benches I have seen were well over 100+ fps as well. Considering I haven't seen anything yet drop me below 60fps Vsync it wouldn't matter anyway.
 
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Thanks for the link, I actually read that article already a while back. As I said, the difference is pretty much meaningless, and different tests go different directions. Mostly they are talking 2-4 fps in lower (in the 80's) fps situations. Not much of an issue at all really in the real world and most experts would agree that readings that close are nothing more than normal fluctuations.

In the end the only real world difference is the NF200 will allow more than 2 cards to be used if you choose.
 
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You see I have been stuck on an LGA 775 x38 system for 3-4 years. For years I have been limited to what I can upgrade on my computer. My core 2 quad Q9650 12MB cache stock 3.0 is the highest desktop processor that you can get for 775, so there is no future to that. The X38 chip that I am running on has almost no SLI support, so there is no future to my graphics. I can't increase my SSD speed anymore because there is no newer versions of SATA on my board. I was going to build a i7-930 setup last week, but I learned about all these new chipsets and processor sockets everything just hit me at once. I thought of getting a nice asus rampage III extreme board that had every feature possible that I wanted then I hear that these Sandybridges are out and on LGA 1155 and theres so many different types of boards for this socket... P67s Z68s a bunch of other different versions and revs. Then when I think about the Sandybridge and want to get one I hear this LGA 2011 is coming in quad channel with 22nm processors and 6 cores unlocked? On a newer X79 chipset which probably will have a lot of nice features. I just don't want to be stuck like I was on my 775. I don't want to buy a 1155 and be stuck with two processor choices and then a LGA 2011 comes out and Intel stays with that socket for three years or more or developes an even nicer processor for LGA 2011 in the future. =\ GAH
 
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Then it comes down to $ and your choices, I 'can' rationalize the Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD5 or GA-P67A-UD7-B3 BUT I cannot rationalize the GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 especially for gaming and OC'ing they perform identical.

IF you want to Intel SRT on a GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 then that's CrAzY waste of money for that MOBO. Use the savings for an OCZ Vertex3, and get the GA-Z68XP-UD5 or GA-P67A-UD7-B3.
 
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I would stick with the 1155 socket, its still the top performing socket currently and has chips planned (ivy bridge) well into the future.

I came from a 775 also, it was a massive upgrade lol.
 
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What RAM are you using? Is there going to be a big difference between the DDR3 1800 VS the 2200 speeds? will I be able to overclock a 2200 higher than the 1800 or does the 2200 just help with the processor overclock

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233183 1800

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233207 2200

I know the ram for this corsair dominator is a little expensive but I am fine with it
 
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I wasn't happy with my last few Corsair kits so I went with G.Skill this time and am very satisfied with it. The fan kit included with those is also a waste of money and with most good CPU heatsinks it wont fit anyway due to ram slots being so close to the CPU on most 1155 boards.

I went with this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231455

It is great RAM and with the XMP profile it is extremely easy to set up. 1866 is already overkill to be honest, 2133 is really just a waste and if anything will just make your mobo run hotter for no reason.

RAM speed is irrelevant to the K series processors. You overclock them with the multiplier (that is unlocked on them) not the frequency.
 
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It can fit in the bottom slot just fine. The only slot that wont work is the very top x1, which is really not needed anyway. If you truly need that particular slot with your card you prob should look for an alternative.
 
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The board only comes with one PCI 1x slot and the only one it comes with is unable to be used and here is my sound card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102019
 
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I understand what you mean now. the 1x in the PCIE slot would still work and fit.

Final build bought to go with nvidia 580 GTX and x-fi tanaium sound card.

i7 2600k
corsair dominator 2x4GB DDR3 1866
Gigabyte Z68 UD7
Silver stone raven 2 evolution
zalman 9900 CPU heatsink

Thanks for all the ideas and support
 
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P67/Z68 cannot have true dual 16x native lanes. Boards like the UD7 have NF200 chips, which doubles the bandwidth to 16x on both slots, but electrically they are still 8x (doubled). This introduces latency and can hurt performance in some games, while in others it can be a bit faster. Overall, you'll find that dual 8x native slots perform faster on the average for gaming. NF200 is good for when you are running 3-way SLI setups or have a third device like a raid card that's bandwidth-hungry; otherwise, native lanes are the ideal setup.
 
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