Gigabyte Gaming B8

$185 | WWW.GIGABYTE.COM.AU A potentially meme-marketed name, a missed goal.

Like hitting the uprights in a closescoring football match, we were disappointed when our queries of the Gaming B8 product name wasn’t a stroke of marketing genius for a meme-driven market. We then suggested that, if the product stands up to the APC labs rigors, we could “r8 the B8 8/8 ‘cause it’s gr8”. For those of you that groaned at that last part, perhaps it was better that Gigabyte’s marketing squad didn’t acknowledge that little nugget. For those that laughed — oh well, we’ll smirk together.

The Gigabyte Gaming B8 features a strong core spec with general needs of gamers attended to, as well as general users. The Intel I219-V NIC driving the LAN will be welcomed by many, the ASMedia driven USB3.1 fills a spec hole for Intel B250 boards and the rest of the rear I/O is sufficient for the platform spec. Gigabyte’s RGBW header implementation on its Intel 200-series mobs continues to be a plus and will likely see competitors follow suit in the next generation.

Performance-wise, the B8 had a close battle with the Strix B250F (back over the page), just missing out on taking third in the overall ranks, yet delivering gold in both the single and multi-threaded Cinebench R15 tests.

Its looks will polarise. Some will appreciate the return of the fluoro-green presence previously associated with the G1 series. However, when considering the integrated RGB implementation, the strong green colouring may be viewed by some as a strong negative — tastes and preferences will vary from user to user.