Question 1

how many fans can this run?

Accepted Answer

CPU fan, Rear case fan,  I also have 2 fans on the front of my case. so 4 total connections. unless you buy a fan splitter adaptor. which I will order soon because I have another fan I would like to plug in.  I hope this helps man!

Question 2

is this board compatible with intel i7 4790 haswell?

Accepted Answer

Yes it is compatible.   BTW, if you are ever unsure if a motherboard/CPU combo will work or not, go check out pcpartpicker(dot)com

If you select a motherboard, it will filter out all the components to only show you ones that will work with that motherboard (same goes for RAM, Power Supply, Hard Drives, Cooling Fans, etc).

Question 3

Does this mobo support dual monitor/multi display?

Accepted Answer

I know this isn't answering your question but if I were to run two or more displays I'd install a stand alone video card.  Having said that it does have a DVI and HDMI port so I suspect you can have two displays and then adjust the settings in your control panel so they can both be used in whatever configuration you want.

Question 4

Does this motherboard support overclocking and Nvidia SLI?

Accepted Answer

This is a good basic motherboard but it does not support SLI or overclocking either. You will need to find another more advanced motherboard to do SLI  and overclocking.

Question 5

Can you overclock right out of the box with this motherboard or does it need a BIOS update?

Accepted Answer

I don't know for sure.  I own the Sniper B6 but I've made no attempt to overclock.  I bought the I7 4790 processor and the system is so fast I see no point in overclocking based on my needs or owning the 4790K.   The installed BIOS was the F2 version and I haven't attempted to update the BIOS to the BETA version which I think is the F3.  It's on Gigabyte's website.  This is  a nice board.  I've had ZERO problems with it.   I like it better than my X99X Killer ASRock that I spent 3 times as much for.  Don't get me wrong, the X99X is great with my 5820K but when not overclocking it serves no additional purpose for my needs.  I'm only running 8Gbs of DDR3 1600Mhz ram in in the Gigabyte B6 and it boots about 5 seconds faster than the X99X with 16Gbs of 2400Mhz Ram DDR4.

Maybe the 4790 stock clock speed or maybe a more efficient BIOS in the B6.  I don't know but if I were to build another system tomorrow I would use the SNIPER B6 and no more than the 4790 non K version.  I've read that the K version gets significantly hotter.  I'm not interested in that.  My 4790 stays at or below 29°c idle.  That's outstanding.  I'm not interested in being up in the 50s and 60s for a marginal increase in speed.   I'm using the thermaltake water extreme 3.0 cooler.   It's a decent cooler but I recommend the Kraken 61 which is what I have on my 5820K.   I've had no problem with the Kraken or CAM contrary to other folks reports.  All temps and readings are accurate and I can adjust the LED.  I love the Kraken so far.  The  thermaltake is fine also, just not as efficient but quite fine nevertheless.   I'm only running 1 each video card also on both rigs.

Question 6

Does this support SLI?

Accepted Answer

No it doesn't, the second PCI express a lot is 8x and shares the same bus and the m2 port.

Question 7

Can the cool looking path LED be turned off?

Accepted Answer

I haven't personally tried to turn it off. I like having it on

Question 8

Has anyone used this board for Ubuntu or another Linux distro? I'm wondering if drivers exist.

Accepted Answer

Good Question..  I am an avid Linux user, and I know I have installed Ubuntu and Fedora on this motherboard before.   No issues to report from what I remember.

Question 9

Alright, I've been planning this computer for awhile. I recently logged back in after a while to find this particular mother board out of stock. Any suggestions on a similar mother board that will fit this case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133223

Accepted Answer

Before looking elsewhere, I highly recommend that you use Google Shopping to find any re-sellers who still stock this board. After a lot of research I found this to offer the best combination of reliability, stability, and performance in this segment, and I absolutely cannot recommend an alternative board. I know that Gigabyte gets a bad rep sometimes (as all OEMs do from time to time), but this board is amazing.

Whatever you do, best of luck in your search.

Question 10

stupid question: the plastic heat sink green things over the chipsets i guess, mine seem to bend as if to open or pop-up. is there a way to pop them down or are they meant to come up a bit. they seem to have a spring built-in. is there a way to snap them down? what is the point of this spring action?

Accepted Answer

It scared me a little when I popped mine off by mistake, but my guess is that it's for cleaning purposes.  I just pressed it back on and it held fine.

Questions & Answers