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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JDG1980 - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
I thought Haswell was supposed to integrate the VRMs into the CPU die. But these boards still have big heatsinks which appear to be used for VRM cooling. What gives?By the way, is it confirmed whether the ASUS Z87-WS supports ECC RAM (assuming a compatible processor is used)? It's a workstation board, so it should, but to some people "workstation" is now just a marketing term.
lever_age - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
There is an integrated VRM to do DC-DC conversion to generate the voltages for the CPU, but its input voltage is 2.4 V or so. The parts on the motherboard convert 12 V to that intermediate 2.4 V (or whatever it was).lever_age - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
wait nevermind, anyway, details were here with probably more coming:http://www.anandtech.com/show/6898/intel-details-h...
mwildtech - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
I see a lot of Gold on these motherboards...Some look pretty awful. IMO the MSI boards look the best.Ksyder - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
I think if the MSI boards work well they will be very popular. Nice designs.jasonelmore - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
really expensive boards. This is the supposed to be the mainstream platform, not the enthusiast. Highest board should be no more than $350 unless it has thunderbolt imho....MonkeyPaw - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
Doesn't sound too far out there, really. Z87 is the enthusiast class hardware. If you're just building a workstation or HTPC, there will probably be an H81 or P86 or some base-level boards without all the "Xtreme" components.austinindallas - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
Go ahead and sign me up for an asrock z87 mini-itx and i7 4770k. As soon as microcenter has a deal!meacupla - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
The asrock mITX is a huge improvement over the previous Z77 model, but their built quality and bios are still questionable.Unless there is a $100 price difference between asus' Z87 mITX board, I see no reason to go for asrock.
cjs150 - Thursday, May 23, 2013 - link
I disagree. I have the ASRock z77-eitx board and it is excellent. Rock solid, having MSata on reverse is a nice touch, sensible layout, easy to overclock. I looked at both the ARock and Asus mini boards and the ASRock was a better choice for meWhat more do you actually want?