Haswell Z87 Motherboard Preview: 50+ Motherboards from ASUS, Gigabyte, ASRock, MSI, ECS, Biostar and EVGA
by Ian Cutress on May 22, 2013 5:00 PM ESTIn an industry where Intel is continually putting more elements onto the CPU, the motherboard manufacturers have to innovate to differentiate themselves from each other. As a result we now have a number of gaming ranges and overclocking ranges to choose from. Of course motherboard manufacturers also have SIs to consider, some of which require specific connectors on various models.
There are a number of features I want to get my hands stuck into. Having the first motherboards with 802.11ac is going to be interesting for sure. Other features such as the ASUS OC Panel, the Maximus VI Hero, the Gigabyte OPAMP and x8/x4/x4 + x4 PCIe layout, the ASRock Waterproof coating and LCD screen, the MSI XPower, the EVGA one, and those ECS buttons are all piquing my interest.
We are not long to Haswell. What are you most interested in?
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silenceisgolden - Sunday, May 26, 2013 - link
Well if everyone has settled on USB, why put PS/2 on anything besides maybe 1 high-end/gaming motherboard per brand. I think most people have settled on USB, and the ratio of motherboards that have PS/2 ports to motherboards sold is way greater than the ratio of people using PS/2 ports to the amount of people with PS/2 ports.JDG1980 - Thursday, May 23, 2013 - link
You won't see all these features together because they are designed for different audiences. mSATA and Wi-Fi are most useful on Mini-ITX boards where portability and size are issues; full size workstations generally use regular SATA, and most enthusiasts have Ethernet connections on the desktop.Adding more than the standard number of SATA ports or USB3 headers might not be supported by the base chipset, thus requiring extra ICs, driving up costs. This means you're only going to find it in an enthusiast board. Of course, if you have an enthusiast board, you could always add another SATA host adapter and/or USB3 adapter to one of your PCIe slots.
silenceisgolden - Sunday, May 26, 2013 - link
With an enthusiast board, however, most of the PCIe slots will be filled and on my current rig I already use a USB3 adapter since the motherboard is old. However, I'd like to get rid of it, not continue with it on my new motherboard/cpu combo. Most motherboards at the enthusiast level seem to have 10 SATA ports so I'm not as worried about that. I'll give you that mSATA might not be great, but I can think of uses for Wi-Di, and I believe that needs to be motherboard solution (or maybe an adapter, but that's another $50-70 on top of the price).EnzoFX - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
So for the ASRock ITX board, the 8pin cpu connector needs to be on the edge? Isn't it more common to see it in the middle? So Asus has one on the edge and suddenly it's a necessity? =pNot arguing the benefit, just saying.
RoslynWan12 - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
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hurrah for pyramid schemestackle70 - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
To be honest, and this may seem very vain to some, I just look for whichever high end motherboard has the best aesthetic to go with my build. I trust that once you get to a certain point ($~200+), all the big name boards (ASUS/Gigabyte/ASRock/MSI) are going to be quality stuff with more features than I will use.So it all comes down to aesthetics for me. I bought the ASRock z68 extreme7 gen3 because I liked the black/gold look to go with my lightning 7970s (MSI didn't have any black/yellow motherboards out yet at the time). And I always find ASUS' black and red stuff hideous on the ROG boards, so I stay away.
Razorbak86 - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
That's funny. I love red and black boards, and I think all gold-colored boards looks gaudy. I went with the ASUS Maximus V Formula.n0x1ous - Thursday, May 23, 2013 - link
I hate both red/black and black/gold. for me I prefer blue/black or green/black so Gigabyte gets the nodFlunk - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
This article is great, it gives a great overview of all these boards that will help me better recommend boards to all the people who ask me about it this year. Looking forward to the in-depth reviews later.