Digital Power Design
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Since quite some time
Gigabyte has been equipping its boards with digital power designs. On
the G1.Sniper Z87 there are only high-end components when it comes to the
power design. the CPU it feeds with eight Power delivery phases and the mosfets are cooled by two matte black alluminum heatsinks, Gigybyte is using
"Black Solid Caps", which offer 10'000 operating hours, which is up to
three times as much than what you get from standard caps.
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USB DAC-UP
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Gigabyte equipped the
Z87 Sniper with an USB port that received additional shielding. The
manufacturer claims this port is perfectly suitable for connecting USB
DACs (Digital Audio Converter). |
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Creative Sound Core3D
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The Gigabyte G1.Sniper series features a
dedicated Sound Core3D audio processor from Creative which can be
controlled by bundled SBX Pro Studio Crystalizer Software. There is an IC TP58 for the
headphone amplifier that improves quality on front headset. We also
found two switches close to the OP-AMP which allow users to change
amplification mode from 2.5x to 6x. This feature make it possible to use
headphones or speakers that allow for larger impedance headroom. Other
than that we found very nice high-end
green capacitors from Nichicon, which offer clean signal quality. |
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Upgradable OP-AMPS
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In addition Gigabyte give the
possibility of changing the operational amplifier in other words there
is an upgradable 8-pin DIP stamped by Burr-Brown marked OPA2134 is
capable of handling headphones with up to 600 Ohm resistance. In case
you don't connect hi-fi-grade headphones to the audio outlets on the I/O
panel, you get the option of installting another OP-AMP from Texas Instruments, recommended for the usage with BluRay players or sound cards.
This makes
it clear that Gigabyte wants to offer more than just standard with this
motherboard. |
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Gold plated Connectors
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Till now we saw Gold plated
connectors only on high-end equipment. The difference between gold
and metal plated connector is first gold is a better conducer so
signal conductivity increases and second gold doesn't oxidize, which
means conductivity will be the same in years from now. On this board
the Sound card chip cover, HDMI, DisplayPort, Optical S/PDIF out
connector, Audio jacks and also USB DAC-UP received gold plating to eliminates
electrostatic interference and improve conducivity |
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MSI Z87 XPower Review