CPU Cooler Fit and Included Accessories

CPU Cooler Fit

To test the amount of space surrounding the CPU socket, we mounted the Noctua NH-D14 cooler to the CPU socket. This behemoth CPU air cooler sports a dual fan construction and two huge vertical cooling towers.

When running the unit blowing air towards the rear panel, there is sufficient room along the front, back, and left sides of the cooler to accommodate any installed peripherals. The primary PCI-Express x16 slot remains usable with the cooler seated, but you may have issues removing the card from the system when using such a large cooler.  Also, notice how close some of the cooler fan clips are to the back surface of the video card.

While the front of the cooler and front fan are close in proximity to the memory modules, there is sufficient room to accommodate memory modules with larger heat spreaders installed. However, you may want to use memory modules with small heat spreaders if you choose to populate all slots.

The Noctua hold down mounts provide a good measure of how much space is located in between the physical CPU socket and the VRM heat sinks. While the mounts do appear to get close in proximity to the chokes and VRM heat sinks, there is more then enough room to accommodate the mounting cage.

Since there are no components placed on the underside of the board, there is no issue with the cooler back plate mounting.

Included Accessories

GIGABYTE includes all the board accessories you need to get the G1.Sniper 5 up and running out of the box.

Bundled in with the G1.Sniper 5 are multiple manuals and install discs containing information for the motherboard and included 802.11n Wi-Fi card. The motherboard manual contains sufficient information to get the board up and running, but is not as detailed on the more esoteric areas of the board and BIOS. With such a feature-rich high-end board, you expect the motherboard manual to detail out everything.

The rear panel shield is a flat black color with port holes for the PS/2, USB 3.0, and analog audio ports labeled in white lettering for easy identification.

GIGABYTE included a total of six 6Gb/s rated SATA cables for use with the integrated port. The cables have integrated port locks and a mix of straight and 90 degree connectors.

For multi-GPU use, GIGABYTE includes two-way, three-way, and four-way NVIDIA SLI cables as well as a single two-way AMD CrossFire cable.

To take advantage of the on board USB 3.0 headers integrated into the board, GIGABYTE packages in a 3.5 inch front panel bracket with mounting screws containing additional USB 3.0 ports.

For customizing the audio experience through the rear panel audio ports, GIGABYTE includes two OP-AMP chips and a chip puller tool. By default, GIGABYTE includes the Burr-Brown OPA2134PA OP-AMP chip mounted to the board with the LM4562 OP-AMP chip included in the external packaging along with the extractor tool.

For attaching to wireless and Bluetooth-based networks, GIGABYTE included a PCI-Express x1 card with an Atheros-based PCIe module and dual antenna ports and their dual-plug antennae. The included cable is used to attach to the one of the on board USB 2.0 headers to help power the module and to provide additional monitoring capabilities. The antenna screws directly into the provided ports on the PCIe card and can be swiveled in a 180 degree arc for optimal signal reception.

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