Intel Z97 Motherboard Roundup: Asus, Asrock, EVGA, MSI & Gigabyte

When Haswell replaced Ivy Bridge last year it came accompanied by Intel's 8-series chipset. Codenamed 'Lynx Point', the Z87 flagshipoffered 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