Hardware Z97 Motherboard Group Test - Asus, ASRock, Gigabyte and MSI

Seriously hope they get rid of all that red soon

 

Well I have waited with my faithful old 2700k long enough so it shall be the Asus ranger and a new cpu coming my way. Can see my 2700k and maximus formula very going for sale soon

 

And just as I was writing a specification list for my new system, Intel throw a curve ball. Either way, I feel my Asus Maximum IV Gene/Gen 3 has been faithful and shall retire to permanent Folding duties.

Perhaps eBay will be flooded with Z87 boards for us tight pocket folks?

 

How about day glow pink

Back OT, it would be nice to see Intel provide more PCI-E lanes on future chips. I get the feeling manufactures have had one hand tied behind their backs with Z97 when it comes to dividing the available lanes between the PCI-E connectors, and M.2 / SATAe

 

Just ... completely black would be ok

 

These came out nicely, I'm about to upgrade my aging Lynnfield-based system. The new, more affordable ROG offering seems perfect (I was eyeing the VI Hero before, lower price with less not-so-necessary features is just nice), although MSI's ain't so bad either, and my P55-GD65 hasn't really gave me much issues. Now if only Intel would just start shipping the Devil's Canyon...

Could you b-t folks please confirm whether the MSI's board is genuine black like on the Maximus one, or is it the usual ugly butt-ass brown most vendors try to sneakily pass as black pcb? I've seen enough photos to not trust them.

Thank you.

 

At the start you state:

Yet in the conclusion you write:

Which seems to contradict each other ?

 

AFAIK the Gaming 7 comes with a M.2 to SATA Express adapter, so while it doesn't have a SATA Express connector you can plug the adapter into the M.2 socket should the need arise.

 

I am personally going to upgrade to the Z97 board from my Z77 server system for one simple reason - Z97 is the last DDR3 system Intel will have. Next gen for both S2011 and S115x is DDR4, and i am not planning to replace my 32GB DDR3 at the higher prices DDR4 will have in first 1-2 years . So upgrade to Z97 (ASRock Z97 Extreme6 is the board which i like the most) and a CPU yet to be decided (with possibility of replacing it with Broadwell once it comes out in Q4/2014 or Q1/2015) and that will be my server system hopefully until sometime 2017.

 

Well I see my AMD Phenom II x4 and my Asus Crosshair III finally being replaced now although I want to stay with AMD but it costs less to get an Asus Hero and an i5 4670K than an Asus Sabertooth 990FX and a AMD FX-9590.

 

While I realise there is little SATA Express out there, M.2 is available and as one of the major features of the Z97 boards, I can't understand why no one is reviewing these boards utilising them.
I do agree that there is far too much red, some one needs to make white highlighted board, think they will clean up.

 

Red makes everything faster .

 

I wouldn't expect it in this review, but does anyone know where the VII Impact is at? Haven't heard very much about it.

 

Great, hopefully in time for the new Haswell processors.

Edit: Does the Asus KeyBot allow for turning on a the computer with the keyboard? My Gigabyte board at the moment has this option, but apparently I need a PS/2 keyboard. Does KeyBot mean I can just use my usb keyboard?

 

I don't know if anyone else has mentioned it, but some of the Gigabyte thumbnail images don't load up the enlarged shots.