Gigabyte Z87 Motherboards Roundup – G1.Sniper M5, GA-Z87X-OC, GA-Z87X-UD5H

Gigabyte Z87 motherboards would be unveiled on 1st June and would consist of their Z87 OC, Z87 G1 and Z87 UD “Ultra Durable” series motherboards. The new motherboards
would feature the Ultra Durable 5 components and the latest Dual UEFI
BIOS along with the AMP-UP audio technologies on G1.Sniper series motherboards.

The Ultra Durable series is the mainstream lineup which goes upto the Z87X-UD5H while the overclocking series consists of the Z87X-OC and Z87X-OC Force motherboards for overclockers. For enthusiasts, Gigabyte has the G1 Sniper and Killer series motherboards which are detailed below:

The Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC Force is truly Gigabyte’s Z87 chipset based
flagship part with a VRM area that sits beneath a hybrid cooling system.
This ensures that water cooled rigs get the most performance out of
their processors through overclocking. The motherboard
has a cool orange and black theme design which looks amazing. The four
set of heatsinks are interconnected via heatpipes to circulate cooling
efficiently.

Expansion slots include five PCI-e 3.0 x16 and two PCI-e 3.0 x1 slots and for storage there are 6 SATA 6GB/s and two SATA 3GB/s ports. The motherboard comes with Dual UEFI BIOS and has a ton of switches for overclocking
near the DDR3 DIMMs including a debug LED. For I/O, there’s Dual
Gigabit Ethernet LAN Ports, a 7.1 Channel audio jack, 6 USB 3.0 ports,
SPDIF, HDMI and a display port.

Image courtesy of OCaholic!

The Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC comes with an 8 Phase Solid VRM which makes
use of DRMOS, International Rectifier MOSFETs which provides overclocking best stability and reliable power supply. The motherboard has a orange and black design scheme.

As for features, the GA-Z87X-OC has several buttons for overclockers
on the board. It comes with an 8 vrm. These include BCLCK, Turbo, Gear, Power switches at the side of DIMM slots, Voltage measuring points, Debug LED and a Dual BIOS switch. There’s also a LN2 switch which can disable the Dual BIOS option on the motherboard.
The Z87 PCH is covered with a blue heatsink which is also not a final
design, comes with Four PCIe 3.0 x16, 2 PCI and a single PCIe x1 slot.
Power is provided through an 8 Pin + 4 Pin connector which adds additional juice to the CPU for overclocking. For storage, the board offers 6 SATA 6GB/s ports with two onboard USB 3.0 ports and 6 via I/O rear panel.

The Gigabyte Sniper series is the next in line to replace the Z77 based G1.Killer series motherboards. The G1. Sniper series motherboards allows
users to manually replace the onboard AMPs and select from a range of
eight different AMPs that can be customized through Gigabyte’s editing
and configuration suite. For now, only the G1.Sniper Z87 motherboards have
been announced to make use of the AMP-UP technology feature set that
features Gigabyte’s upgradable OP-AMP, Creative Sound Core3D with gold plating shielding,
Audio Noise Guard with path lightning, Build-in gaming heatphone
amplifier, 15u plated gold connectors that includes HDMI, Audio jacks and displayport and Nichicon High-End audio capacitors. You can learn more about the AMP-Up Features here.

Image Courtesy of Kitguru!

The Z87 G1.Sniper 5 comes with the green and black design scheme of the Killer and Sniper series motherboards
from Gigabyte. It has a hybrid air and liquid cooling solution that
cools the electrical components near the CPU socket and a heatpipe
solution that runs towards the PCH heatsink. Storage includes 10 SATA 3
ports, Four PCI-e 3.0 x16 and 3 PCI-e 3.0 x1 slots offer expansion
cards connectivity.

While the G1.Sniper 5 comes in the ATX form factor, Gigabyte also
revealed their Z87 G1.M5 which features a Micro-ATX design, three PCI-e
3.0 x16 and one PCI-e 3.0 x1 slot for expansion and 6 SATA 3 connectors.

The rest  of the lineup is made up from the Ultra Durable series motherboards which include three parts:

• Gigabyte Z87X-D3H
• Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H
• Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H

Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H

GIgabyte is also preparing and teased their what is supposed to be
the GA-Z87X-UD5H motherboard.It has a 16 Phase VRM, an 8 Pin connector
for CPU Power delivery, several overclocking features, 10 SATA 3 ports.
three PCI-e 3.0 x16, three PCI-e 3.0 x1 and a single PCI slot.

The motherboard comes with a yellow and black design theme and is fitted with the top of the line Ultra Durable 5 components.

Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H

With the GA-Z87X-UD4H, Gigabyte also enters the red and black theme
color battle that’s ongoing between other manufacture’s such as ASUS,
MSI and ASRock. The Gigabyte motherboard keeps it simple yet sleek which
gives an overall great look. The GA-Z87X-UD4H comes with a 16 Phase VRM
and is equipped with the Ultra durable 5 design with features similar
to the GA-Z87X-UD3H such
as ll IR Digital Power Design (IOR International Rectifier) with IR
digital PWMs equipped with IR Powerstage ICs. The PCB itself is a 2
layer copper design and equipped with Durable black solid capacitors.

Other features include Intel LAN with high ESD protection, UEFI and
DualBIOS support, On/Off Charge 2 (For quick charging mobile devices),
Gaming headphone amplifier for enahnced audio quality, 10 USB 3.0 ports
and 8 SATA 3 Ports for storage. Overclock friendly features include a
Debug display near the DIMM slots and Quick buttons to allow Power
On/Off, Reset, CMOS Clear, Dual BIOS, Smart Voltage, etc options.
Expansion slots include three PCI-e 3.0 x16, three PCI-e 3.0 x1 and a
single PCI legacy slot. Both the electrical components and PCH sit
beneath a large aluminum heatsink, the upper part features a copper
heatpipe cooling solution. The CPU is powered by a single 8-Pin
connector.

Gigabyte Z87X-D3H

The Z87X-UD3H features the LGA 1150 socket to support Haswell
processors. It comes with a Black, Blue and Gray color combination and
has three sets of heatsinks, two sitting on top VRM phases and a single
sitting on top the Z87 PCH.

The Ultra Durable 5 design makes the Z87 motherboards use an All IR
Digital Power Design (IOR International Rectifier) with IR digital PWMs
equipped with IR Powerstage ICs. The PCB itself is a 2 layer copper
design and equipped with Durable black solid capacitors. Other features
include Intel LAN with high ESD protection, UEFI and DualBIOS support,
On/Off Charge 2 (For quick charging mobile devices), Gaming headphone
amplifier for enahnced audio quality, 10 USB 3.0 ports and 8 SATA 3
Ports for storage. Overclock friendly features include a Debug display
near the DIMM slots and Quick buttons to allow Power On/Off, Reset, CMOS
Clear, Dual BIOS, Smart Voltage, etc options.

For expansion slots, the motherboard features three PCI-e 3.0 x16
slots, three PCI-e 3.0 x1 slots and a single PCI slot. It offers both
SLI and CrossFireX functionalities. The price was not mentioned but it
would be cheaper than the high-end Z87 motherboards that Gigabyte has to
offer on Haswell’s launch.