Intel Z87 Motherboard Review with Haswell: Gigabyte, MSI, ASRock and ASUS
by Ian Cutress on June 27, 2013 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- Asus
- Haswell
- Z87
- Shark Bay
- Lynx Point
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our test bed:
Thank you to OCZ for providing us with 1250W Gold Power Supplies.
Thank you to G.Skill for providing us with memory kits.
Thank you to Corsair for providing us with an AX1200i PSU, Corsair H80i CLC and 16GB 2400C10 memory.
Thank you to ASUS for providing us with the AMD GPUs and some IO Testing kit.
Thank you to ECS for providing us with the NVIDIA GPUs.
Thank you to Rosewill for providing us with the 500W Platinum Power Supply for mITX testing, BlackHawk Ultra, and 1600W Hercules PSU for extreme dual CPU + quad GPU testing, and RK-9100 keyboards.
Thank you to ASRock for providing us with the 802.11ac wireless router for testing.
Test Setup
| Test Setup | |
| Processor |
Intel Core i7-4770K Retail 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 3.5 GHz (3.9 GHz Turbo) |
| Motherboards |
ASRock Z87 Extreme6/AC ASUS Z87-Pro Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H MSI Z77A-GD65 Gaming |
| Cooling |
Corsair H80i Thermaltake TRUE Copper |
| Power Supply |
OCZ 1250W Gold ZX Series Corsair AX1200i Platinum PSU |
| Memory |
GSkill TridentX 4x4 GB DDR3-2400 10-12-12 Kit Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x8 GB DDR3 2400 10-12-12 Kit |
| Memory Settings | XMP (2400 10-12-12) |
| Video Cards |
ASUS HD7970 3GB ECS GTX 580 1536MB |
| Video Drivers |
Catalyst 13.1 NVIDIA Drivers 310.90 WHQL |
| Hard Drive | OCZ Vertex 3 256GB |
| Optical Drive | LG GH22NS50 |
| Case | Open Test Bed |
| Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit |
| USB 2/3 Testing | OCZ Vertex 3 240GB with SATA->USB Adaptor |
| WiFi Testing | D-Link DIR-865L 802.11ac Dual Band Router |
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system as a whole with a wall meter connected to the OCZ 1250W power supply, while in a dual 7970 GPU configuration. This power supply is Gold rated, and as I am in the UK on a 230-240 V supply, leads to ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, which is suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.
In terms of power consumption in our roundup, the Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H takes the crown in all factors, with Idle and Long Idle being 10-20W lower than the ASRock. All boards get under 500W during Metro.
Windows 7 POST Time
Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we are now going to look at the POST Boot Time - this is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows 7 starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) These results are subject to human error, so please allow +/- 1 second in these results.
The ASUS Z87-Pro sneaks in at under 10 seconds which is a great achievement, with the ASRock under 12 seconds. The Gigabyte almost hits that 12 second ideal line, whereas the MSI BIOS has to be stripped of all controllers to get near the Gigabyte. Overall boot times seem to be better than Ivy Bridge, however.
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HexiumVII - Sunday, June 30, 2013 - link
Hey Ian! Maybe run the Asrock Z87 in water and let us know how waterproof it is!Hrel - Monday, July 8, 2013 - link
You guys DO talk about how motherboard manufacturers have less and less to do now; with Intel moving more and more things onto the CPU die. Yet for some reason you still fail to ask WHY motherboards are getting MORE expensive. Not less. I got an AMAZING motherboard with SLI and massive overclocking ability that's rock solid back in 2007 for 125 dollars. Yet now that the northbridge isn't even ON the motherboard anymore I have to pay 175 for the SAME level of performance... WTF is that!adridu59 - Monday, July 8, 2013 - link
It looks like you are playing the marketing game, because ALC1150 (nominally ALC900) is just a tweaked ALC898 (same as ALC889 and ALC892).More info: http://www.overclock.net/t/1398739/is-realteks-alc...
Rafalus - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
Hi, Is it possible to stop TPU tuning eg when it reach 4.5GHz as I did not want to raise it higher?SilentRyder - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
Honestly i believe this integrated Voltage Regulator will cause many problems. If we check the previous Ivy Bridge main boards, They do have a huge power regulator designed on the top side of processor socket. Now the whole idea of power supplied from the mainboard is gone off. May be this technology will benefit laptops or any other mobile devices. but this is certainly a bad idea for desktop users.We would certainly have HEAT problems, which i am truly afraid of. I do not think haswell will support enough for overclocking. i never over clock my self but i am sure INTEL will change this concept on its new generations.
Even laptops running in high temperature can be a issue.
How many of us are satisfied with the intel built in Graphics processor?
clyman - Tuesday, November 26, 2013 - link
So far, it meets my needs just fine. I am sure it would meet the needs of all my customers. I did put a fluid filled cooler on the processor, but that was only needed while running OCCT. I will add a video card should i ever need one.clyman - Tuesday, November 26, 2013 - link
I have the ASUS Z87-PRO mobo and was hoping someone had a few answers here for me, haven't seen anything related though. My problem is that no matter what I do, the multiplier will not go above 39 and I cannot find out why. Is that due to having 1600 MHZ memory?Another issue is that when I update AI Suite 3 from the original on the supplied CD, it will not recognize my WIFI Engine adapter, however it finds it with the original. ASUS techs have been useless on both of these points as they say have no information regarding overclocking and no one has a clue about the WIFI Engine. I have been given all kinds of advice, all fruitless. I can't get them to understand it simply will not recognize the device on the updated version. I think it is a bad update, they want to RMA it.
Any help on these issues would be appreciated.
LoCk3d - Friday, December 20, 2013 - link
A problem encountered someone USB Charger + function? I do not detect the device, I enabled ERP in bios but still does not work. Help me please !