GIGABYTE GA-X99-Gaming G1 WiFi Motherboard Review

By Dan Stoltz

GIGAYTE X99-Gaming G1 WiFi Motherboard – GA-X99-Gaming G1 WIFI

GIGABYTE X99 Gaming G1 WiFi Layout

The GIGABYTE X99-Gaming G1 WiFi motherboard is the flagship gaming board from our friends over at GIGABYTE. There isn’t much that the X99-Gaming G1 WiFi isn’t capable of doing, it’s packed with features. While you might expect to pay an arm and a leg for the flagship gaming motherboard from GIGABYTE, it’s priced pretty reasonable for an Intel X99 motherboard. As I’m writing this the GIGABYTE X99-Gaming G1 can be purchased for as little as $344.99!

The GIGABYTE X99-Gaming G1 WiFi isn’t lacking in features by any means. For starters the X99-Gaming G1 WiFi is as the name suggests, based around the latest Intel X99 chipset and has all the bells and whistles that come with it. The Intel X99 chipset brings with it features like Quad Channel memory, Intel Haswell-E support, six SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports, ten SATA III 6Gbps ports, and various other features. The GIGABYTE X99-Gaming G1 WiFi includes that and so much more. As you may have guessed from the name, the X99-Gaming G1 WiFi also includes WiFi built into the board. More specifically it is an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 adapter tucked into an M.2 slot.

One of the new features GIGABYTE rolled out with the Intel X99 product stack is Ambient Light. Ambient light from GIGABYTE allows you to customize the LED’s on the X99-Gaming G1 WiFi motherboard. There are a number of ways that it can be programmed, not only on or off. It can be set to light up with the beat of the music, various gaming sounds, or a nice glow. If you’re a fan of LED’s this is a pretty cool feature.

Another new feature that GIGABYTE brought out with their Intel X99 motherboards is the GIGABYTE Q-Flash Plus. Q-Flash Plus is a technology that allows the BIOS on the X99-Gaming G1 WiFi to be updated without having the CPU or Memory installed into the motherboard. This is a great feature to have if you need to update the BIOS to support the latest processor microcode or to repair a corrupted BIOS file. GIGABYTE isn’t the first to have this feature, but it’s definitely a good one to have and I have used it a handful of times.

The GIGABYTE X99-Gaming G1 WiFi has a number of features that we will look at as we go through the review today. Among the key ones though, there are the dual Gigabit LAN, GIGABYTE OP-AMP, Dual M.2 slots, SATA Express, and the Creative Sound Core 3D quad-core audio processor. Combining all of these features brings the GIGABYTE X99-Gaming G1 WiFi to the forefront of the GIGABYTE G1 Gaming product stack!

GIGABYTE X99-Gaming G1 WiFi Motherboard Specifications
CPU
  • Support for Intel Core i7 processors in the LGA2011-3 package
  • L3 cache varies with CPU
Chipset
  • Intel X99 Express Chipset
Memory
  • 8 x DDR4 DIMM sockets supporting up to 64 GB of system memory
  • 4 channel memory architecture
  • Support for DDR4 3000(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666(O.C.) / 2400(O.C.) / 2133 MHz memory modules
  • Support for non-ECC memory modules
  • Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
  • Support for RDIMM 1Rx8 memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)
Audio
  • Creative Sound Core 3D chip
  • Support for Sound Blaster Recon3Di
  • TI Burr Brown OPA2134 operational amplifier
  • High Definition Audio
  • 2/5.1-channel
  • Support for S/PDIF Out
LAN
  • 1 x Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2201 chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN1)
  • 1 x Intel GbE LAN phy (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN2)
Wireless Communication module
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, supporting 2.4/5 GHz Dual-Band
  • Bluetooth 4.0, 3.0+HS, 2.1+EDR
  • Support for 11ac wireless standard and up to 867 Mbps data rate
Expansion Slots
  • 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIE_1, PCIE_2)
  • 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x8 (PCIE_3, PCIE_4)
  • 3 x PCI Express x1 slots
  • 1 x M.2 Socket 1 connector for the wireless communication module (M2_WIFI)
Multi-Graphics Technology
  • Support for 4-Way/3-Way/2-Way AMD CrossFire/NVIDIA SLI technology
Storage Interface Chipset:

  • 1 x M.2 PCIe connector
  • (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 SATA & PCIe x2/x1 SSD support)
  • 1 x SATA Express connector
  • 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0~5)
  • Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10

Chipset:

  • 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (sSATA3 0~3), supporting IDE and AHCI modes only
USB Chipset:

  • 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (available through the internal USB headers)
  • 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (2 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)

Chipset + 2 Renesas uPD720210 USB 3.0 Hubs:

  • 8 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports on the back panel
Internal I/O Connectors
  • 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
  • 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
  • 1 x PCIe power connector
  • 1 x I/O shield audio LED power connector
  • 1 x heatsink LED power connector
  • 1 x SATA Express connector
  • 10 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
  • 1 x M.2 Socket 3 connector
  • 1 x CPU fan header
  • 1 x water cooling fan header (CPU_OPT)
  • 3 x system fan headers
  • 1 x front panel header
  • 1 x front panel audio header
  • 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 headers
  • 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
  • 1 x Thunderbolt add-in card connector
  • 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
  • 1 x power button
  • 1 x reset button
  • 1 x Clear CMOS button
  • 1 x Direct to BIOS button
  • 1 x audio gain control switch
  • Voltage Measurement Points
  • 2 x BIOS switches
Back Panel Connectors
  • 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
  • 1 x CPU overclocking button
  • 1 x Fast Boot button
  • 1 x Clear CMOS button
  • 8 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
  • 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
  • 2 x RJ-45 ports
  • 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
  • 5 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Line In/Mic In, Line Out, Headphone)
  • 2 x SMA antenna connectors (2T2R)
I/O Controller
  • iTE I/O Controller Chip
H/W Monitoring
  • System voltage detection
  • CPU/System/Chipset temperature detection
  • CPU/CPU OPT/System fan speed detection
  • CPU/System/Chipset overheating warning
  • CPU/CPU OPT/System fan fail warning
  • CPU/CPU OPT/System fan speed control
BIOS
  • 2 x 128 Mbit flash
  • Use of licensed AMI UEFI BIOS
  • Support for DualBIOS
  • Support for Q-Flash Plus
  • PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.7, WfM 2.0, SM BIOS 2.7, ACPI 5.0
Unique Features Support for APP Center

  • @BIOS
  • Ambient LED
  • EasyTune
  • EZ Setup
  • Fast Boot
  • Game Controller
  • Cloud Station
  • ON/OFF Charge
  • Smart TimeLock
  • Smart Recovery 2
  • System Information Viewer
  • USB Blocker
  • V-Tuner
  • Support for Q-Flash
  • Support for Smart Switch
  • Support for Xpress Install
Bundle Software
  • Norton Internet Security (OEM version)
  • Intel Smart Response Technology
Operating System
  • Support for Windows 8.1/8/7
Form Factor
  • E-ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 25.9cm

Now that you have committed all of the GIGABYTE X99-Gaming G1 WiFi motherboard specifications to memory, let’s take a look at the retail packaging and board before we get into the testing!