Although Intel rendered its mainstream LGA1156 platform (Socket H) obsolete by launching the Sandy Span processors in January, LGA1366 (X58) has remained the company's flagship platform since its consumer debut in November 2008. There's no denying that the Z68 chipset has knocked some wind out of X58's sails, but the most-antiquated socket is nonetheless the only way for enthusiasts to get their easily on a six-core Core i7 processor.

Non only does X58 have exclusive support for hexa-cadre processors, but it's better equipped to handle multi-GPU configurations. Without the aid of Nvidia's NF200 chip, Intel's new Z68 and P67 motherboards can only run two graphics cards in an x8/x8 setup. Because of those reasons, Gigabyte originally released its elite G1.Killer boards (the G1.Guerrilla, G1.Sniper and G1.Assasin) for LGA1366.

Naturally, this prompted requests for LGA1155 versions of Gigabyte'due south premium boards considering the newer platform supports Sandy Span, namely the Core i5-2600K and i7-2600K CPUs. Answering to that demand, Gigabyte has unleashed the G1.Sniper2, an enthusiast-minded board based on the Z68 chipset, an affiliation of Intel'south H67 and P67 chipsets with the company'south SRT hybrid storage engineering.

Priced at $360, the G1.Sniper 2 is $50 cheaper than the original G1.Sniper. However, it's a alone territory in the Z68 market as few products can demand such a high price. The Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z is among the few boards that reside in this price range, fetching $360 on Newegg, while Gigabyte'due south own Z68X-UD7-B3 is $350 and stands as one of the most characteristic-packed boards available.

Like Asus' ROG motherboards, Gigabyte'south G1.Killer series targets hardcore users by including boosted hardware on-board such as a dedicated sound scrap past Artistic and a network controller from Bigfoot Networks. Those extras are backed by a vehement matte-black military theme (annotation the magazine-mode heatsink) that is sure to concenter gamers. Those niceties make the G1.Sniper2 one of the nigh expensive Z68 motherboards available, which begs the question: are y'all getting your money'due south worth?