GIGABYTE has released an entire pack of motherboards based on the Intel X99 chipset: Champion, Gaming, and Super Overclock. And now GIGABYTE has released the X99-SLI board. From the first glance, the board looks to be chock full of enthusiast-level hardware, with lots to offer most end users. To field the board with all that high-end hardware at $250 (NewEgg) , they had to make a few compromises, but based on price/performance, there's a good bang for the buck factor on the GIGABYTE GA-X99-SLI. Reality being what it is, we are seeing a lot of high-end motherboard features on a $250 board, but there might be a few after-purchase costs. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth aren't included on the board, but a special M.2. slot for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are provided for by a W2-Wi-Fi slot. The combo cards we?ve seen are in the 35-40 dollar range, so if you want internal Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, that may set you back a few bucks.

We don't consider not including some of the fancier options as bad, as it does place a lot of enthusiast level hardware in a price bracket that is less painful for a lot of consumers. Looking at what you do get, there's ALC 1150 audio with fine gold capacitors, Intel LAN and up to Quad SLI (with the right CPU), and 8 RAM slots supporting OCs up to 3333 MHz via Intel XMP support.

Important to us, GIGABYTE squeezed in their Genuine All Digital Power Design with IR Digital PWM & IR PowIRstage ICs which is the MOSFET setup you see on competitor's high-end, high-priced boards. The Digital PWM & PowlRstage MOSFETs, given adequate cooling, have proven to be excellent overclocking hardware and can be found on boards ranging from $300 to $600. It's a first for us to see that ?geek candy? on a $250 board, so job well done Gigabyte.