When Haswell replaced Ivy Bridge last year it came accompanied by Intel's 8-series chipset. Codenamed 'Lynx Point', the Z87 flagship offered broader SATA 6Gb/s support, more USB 3.0 ports, and did so while consuming almost 40% less power.
It had been expected that the Z87 chipset would see the Haswell range out, but this June delivered a Haswell refresh and along with some rebadged CPUs we got the new 9-series chipset and a successor to the Z87. Codenamed 'Wildcat Point', the new Z97 was virtually identical to its predecessor with a few exceptions.
The most noteworthy change was support for future Broadwell CPUs, which should arrive during the coming holiday shopping period. In addition to compatibility with future processors, the Z97 brought SATA Express as well as the M.2 socket (briefly known as NGFF or the next generation form factor after mSATA).
M.2 is a specification for internally mounted storage and add-in cards. First designed for mobile devices, the M.2 interface has found its way into desktops and the new Z97 and H97 chipsets have played a big role in speeding up its adoption as a replacement for mSATA, which uses the PCI Express Mini Card physical layout.
Having a smaller and more flexible specification together with more advanced features, the M.2 is better suited for solid-state storage applications in general, especially when used in small devices like ultrabooks or tablets.
SATA Express is less promising in our opinion as it doesn't currently have supporting SSD devices. Whereas the M.2 socket is typically shared with one SATA 6Gb/s port, the SATA Express interface takes two SATA 6Gb/s ports and requires a third smaller port which deals with PCI-Express based communications.
With over 90 motherboards available right now using the Z97 chipset, picking the right one can be a difficult decision. Hoping to narrow the search down, we have taken seven popular boards and compared them in just about every way possible.
We've included a total of seven boards from Asus, Asrock, EVGA Gigabyte and MSI in this roundup. Check out the comparisson table below for a quick glance at the features offered by each or skip to the respective page for a more detailed rundown.
Asus Z97- Deluxe | MSI Z97 Mpower Max AC | Asrock Z97 Extreme9 | Asus Z97-Pro WiFi/AC | Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK | EVGA Z97 FTW | Asrock Z97 Extreme6 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Price | $275 | $250 | $240 | $210 | $200 | $170 | $165 |
Dual PCIe x16 | x8 / x8 | x8 / x8 | x16 / x16 | x8 / x8 | x16 / x8 | x8 / x8 | x8 / x8 |
Triple PCIe x16 | x16 / x8 / x4 | x8 / x4 / x4 | x8 / x8 / x16 | x16 / x8 / x4 | x16 / x8 / x4 | x8 / x4 / x4 | x8 / x8 / x2 |
Quad PCIe x16 | No Support | No Support | x8 / x8 / x8 / x8 | No Support | No Support | x8 / x4 / x4 / x1 | No Support |
mini-PCI Express Slot | No Support | No Support | x1 | No Support | No Support | No Support | x1 |
SATA 6Gb/s | x6 | x8 | x10 | x6 | x8 | x8 | x10 |
SATA Express | x2 | No Support | x2 | x1 | x1 | No Support | x1 |
M.2 | 1 x M.2 (NGFF) | 1 x M.2 (NGFF) | 1 x M.2 (NGFF) 1 x Ultra M.2 Gen3 x4 | 1 x M.2 (NGFF) | 1 x M.2 (NGFF) | No Support | 1 x M.2 (NGFF) 1 x Ultra M.2 Gen3 x4 |
M.2 Supported Length | 60 and 80mm | 42, 60 and 80mm | 30, 42, 60, 80 and 110 mm | 60 and 80mm | 42, 60 and 80mm | No Support | 30, 42, 60, 80 and 110 mm |
eSATA | No Support | No Support | x1 | No Support | No Support | No Support | x1 |
Storage Interfaces | 9 | 9 | 15 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 14 |
Maximum Usable | 7 | 8 | 12 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 12 |
Audio | Realtek ALC1150 | Realtek ALC1150 | Realtek ALC1150 | Realtek ALC1150 | Realtek ALC1150 | Realtek ALC898 | Realtek ALC1150 |
Network | Dual Gigabit LAN Intel I218V & Intel I211AT | Single Gigabit LAN Intel I218V | Dual Gigabit LAN Intel I218V & Intel I211AT | Single Gigabit LAN Intel I218V | Dual Gigabit LAN Intel I217V & Killer E2201 | Single Gigabit LAN Intel I217 | Dual Gigabit LAN Intel I218V & Realtek RTL8111GR |
WiFi | Wi-Fi 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.0 | Wi-Fi 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.0 | No Support | Wi-Fi 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.0 | No Support | No Support | No Support |
USB 3.0 | x10 (6 rear/4 onboard) | x12 (8 rear/4 onboard) | x8 (4 rear/4 onboard) | x8 (4 rear/4 onboard) | x8 (6 rear/2 onboard) | x6 (4 rear/2 onboard) | x10 (6 rear/4 onboard) |
ThunderBolt | No Support | No Support | No Support | No Support | No Support | No Support | No Support |
Display Outputs | DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort, HDMI | HDMI, DisplayPort | HDMI, DisplayPort | HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, HDMI | HDMI, VGA, DVI | HDMI, DisplayPort | HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI |
Form Factor | ATX 305 x 244mm | ATX 305 x 244mm | ATX 305 x 244mm | ATX 305 x 244mm | ATX 305 x 244mm | ATX 305 x 244mm | ATX 305 x 244mm |