At CES 2011, during a closed-door, invitation-only presentation, GIGABYTE unveiled their new gaming-oriented G1-Killer motherboard series. Presented in the form of three distinct models dubbed G1-Guerilla, G1-Sniper, and G1-Assassin, what primarily distinguished this new series from other Intel X58-based LGA1366 motherboards was the unique third-party hardware that GB had chosen to integrate. Found on all three models is an onboard Bigfoot Killer E2100 network interface controller with 1GB of dedicated DDR2 memory. This NPU (network processing unit) is designed to reduce in-game lag and give gamers the best response times via CPU offloading and Bigfoot’s proprietary networking utilities.Another unique feature of the G1-Killer series, albeit one only found on the G1-Sniper and G1-Assassin models, is the onboard Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi CA20K2 digital audio processor. This flagship audio solution supports EAX 5.0 HD, has its own 128MB of onboard memory, utilizes very high quality audio capacitors usually reserved for top of the line audio equipment, and also features a built-in high-capacity headphone amplifier.The design and colour scheme of the G1-Killer line-up is also definitely worth noting, since there has arguably never been anything like it in the motherboard realm. While the black PCB and lime green PCI-E slots are vaguely reminiscent of past EVGA nForce motherboards, it is the magazine-shaped southbridge heatsink that has everyone talking. It is definitely a love it or hate it design element.The initial unveiling was almost 2 months ago, and with these motherboards now ready to hit the retail channel, GIGABYTE held an impromptu launch event / gaming LAN party in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on February 25th. Truth be told, this event wouldn’t have taken place without the organizational efforts of Canada Computers, and the combined sponsorship from Supercom, Thermaltake, Phillips, NVIDIA, Intel, Corsair, and Antec.