Z87
Intel has announced that it will be discontinuing some of its Lynx Point based chipsets which are most commonly associated with its Haswell processors on socket LGA 1150. Along with the long-standing H81 chipset, other Intel Lynx-point chipsets entering the End-of-Life cycle include Q87, C226, QM87, and HM86. Originally introduced to the market back in 2013, Intel's H81 chipset is the latest casualty of Intel's product discontinuance strategy. The H81 chipset along with others entering product discontinuance are all based on its 32 nm lithography. The H81 chipset was built for Intel 4th generation Haswell processors and acted as the budget-conscious version of the Z87 chipset, minus some of its premium features including overclocking support. Intel states that although its product discontinuance program support began...
ASUS TUF Z87 Gryphon Review
The TUF range from ASUS is a different sort of blip on the motherboard radar – they come with a five year warranty. ASUS will mention that the...
62 by Ian Cutress on 2/3/2014G1.Sniper Mid-Range Expansion: GIGABYTE Launch Z5S and Z5
All the main motherboard manufacturers now have three distinct classes of motherboard to sell to the common home-build end user: the channel range, the overclocking range and the gaming...
17 by Ian Cutress on 1/3/2014ASRock M8 Barebones Review: My Steam Box
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so the saying goes. Most development in home computers veers towards the ultra large (high impact gaming machines for...
78 by Ian Cutress on 1/2/2014MSI Launch mini-ITX Gaming Platform: the Z87I Gaming AC and GTX 760 Gaming
Even though we already let in on a sneak preview during our Holiday Guides, today marks the official launch of MSI’s mini-ITX Gaming Platform. The platform has two...
38 by Ian Cutress on 12/4/2013GIGABYTE to Launch the Z87X-SLI
Hearing the name ‘Z87X-SLI’ took me aback. Z87 supports SLI already, right? Why would a manufacturer need to confirm SLI usage on the Z87 chipset: it is...
24 by Ian Cutress on 12/2/2013ASUS Maximus VI Impact Review: ROG and Mini-ITX
In previous generations, the ASUS Republic Of Gamers (ROG) range has been split across three models – the micro-ATX Gene, the gaming oriented Formula and the more overclocker friendly...
69 by Ian Cutress on 11/22/2013ASRock Launch Z87 Extreme11/AC with 22 SATA Ports and the H81 Pro BTC for Cryptocurrency Mining
This week ASRock are launching a high/low combination of motherboards for Haswell. The first one is going to be one of the wildest designs on the Z87 platform...
20 by Ian Cutress on 11/18/2013GIGABYTE Launches $170 Z87 G1.Sniper
Astute followers of the Z87 motherboard market might start to notice a trend. For each generation we have had gaming focused motherboards, designed with hardware to lure gamers...
9 by Ian Cutress on 11/8/2013ASRock Z87E-ITX Review: Motherboard Juxtaposition
In the office I am currently running through a series of smaller sized motherboards – both micro-ATX and mini-ITX. Due to the size, there is plenty of scope...
43 by Ian Cutress on 11/6/2013MSI ‘Master Overclocking Arena’ 2013: The Final
These past few days MSI has held their annual competitive overclocking event, the ‘Master Overclocking Arena’, in Taipei. Following a preliminary overclocking competition online, with tickets evenly distributed...
3 by Ian Cutress on 10/21/2013GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Review: Overclocking Oriented Orange at $200
Last generation saw a new type of product in motherboards: the cheap OC oriented SKU. At $200-240 we had a single option specifically designed for OC, with other...
23 by Ian Cutress on 10/11/2013MSI Z87I Review: Mini-ITX Haswell for $140
I am always excited when a mini-ITX motherboard bound for the mainstream market crosses my desk. In a small PCB, compared to full sized ATX, it can be...
47 by Ian Cutress on 8/27/2013ASUS Introduces Z87-Deluxe/Quad: World’s First Thunderbolt 2 Certified Motherboard
For those that might not be too familiar with the standard, Thunderbolt is Intel’s high-bandwidth, do-everything connector, designed as a potential future path for all things external to a...
56 by Jarred Walton on 8/19/2013ASRock Z87M OC Formula Review: mATX OC at $190
The typical mainstay for the overclocker is the ATX size, with ample room for large coolers and multi-GPU setups. Is micro-ATX up to scratch? ASRock thinks so...
26 by Ian Cutress on 8/14/2013MSI Z87 XPower Review: Our First Z87 with PLX8747
When it comes to motherboard extravagance, X58 heralded some mightily expensive boards, and a choice few from X79 and Z77 also raised this baton. So where does a...
35 by Ian Cutress on 8/12/2013ASRock Z87 OC Formula/AC Review
When we tested the ASRock Z77 OC Formula, I described it as ‘the best ASRock motherboard I have ever tested’. Today we test the Z87 version to see...
23 by Ian Cutress on 7/26/2013Intel Z87 Motherboard Review with Haswell: Gigabyte, MSI, ASRock and ASUS
Talk about Haswell and Z87 has circulated the internet for many quarters – today we reap the benefits of the wait and get our chance to review both the...
58 by Ian Cutress on 6/27/2013Computex 2013: Galaxy Expanding into Motherboards, PSUs, SSDs
Galaxy is known more for their graphics cards, and in particular the HOF/SOC series of high end NVIDIA cards - some models of which have featured a white PCB...
5 by Ian Cutress on 6/8/2013Computex 2013: ASRock Z87 with 22 SATA Ports [Update]
For X79 and Z77 ASRock have released an Extreme11 model, known for being high price due to the integrated PLX and LSI 2308 RAID chips to provide extra PCIe...
28 by Ian Cutress on 6/7/2013