Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87: gaming motherboard with high-quality sound

Audio system of the motherboard

We have already described the audio hardware, but what about software? The available software includes Recon3Di Control Panel by Creative, enabling us to set sound in detail and to arbitrarily switch on or off its technologies such as Crystalizer etc. Now, let us have a glance at what its seven folders have to offer. It is no use to show the last of them, Advanced Features, because there is just one option, switching the sound into the digital output.
When we connect headphones, in our case big headphones Sennheiser HD 497, into the output at the rear I/O panel, there are no problems with their resounding even if we do not switch Gain Boost on. If you switch over to the headphone mode in the menu Speakers/Headphones, in the default setting it activates SBX Pro Studio and its functions of bass enhancement, in addition to Crystalizer and Surround.

At this point, Creative must have gone slightly mad, because the resulting sound was absolutely impossible to listen to, with over-excited basses that the headphones could not cope with. In fact it had the same effect as putting up low frequencies on an equalizer. It also had no sense to switch on Surround and Crystalizer because these function would only lead to sound distortion. There is simply no reason to enhance the sound by means of these function if you have a quality recording and at least a little decent headphones or speaker system.

On the other hand, the function for suppression of noise during microphone recording, which you can find under the Crystal Voice folder, can have some sense. Then there is the Scout Mode, i.e., a gaming function that is supposed to provide you with an advantage consisting in that you hear your opponent sooner than he hears you. What must not be missed is a classical mixer and equalizer with various preset modes.

The output to the integrated audio card is generally of high quality. I have not noticed any interference, and its power is able to resound even big headphones with no less than big impedance.

BIOS and its environment

When we display BIOS in full resolution, the basic screen, which you can see on the first screenshot in the middle and surrounded by classical folders, extends by the left, right and top panel. The left panel shows the processor status, i.e., machine cycle, voltage, temperature and fan speed, and memory status. The panel on the right shows system information, i.e., main frequency, actual voltage in the main branches of the source, system temperature and speed of other fans. The top panel displays selected information in time diagrams.
Setting proper is performed by means of the centre menu, which is basically identical as that of the motherboard Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H but with a different colour design. There are seven folders, Home, Performance, System Information, BIOS Features, Peripherals, Power Management and Save & Exit. Their menus and functions have already been described for the above mentioned motherboard, so we will not repeat it here. We can just present the corresponding screenshots, which can be created in this BIOS using the F12 key. Resulting bitmaps are then automatically saved, for example, to a connected flash disc.
Also here, we can use the menu that appears upon clicking the right button, to switch over to the classical textual display of BIOS, where we can perform the same tasks, but in a different user environment.
Article in Czech: Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87: herní deska s kvalitním zvukem