What's the difference between the intel H87 and Z87 Chipest?

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Gregory baker

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What's the difference between the intel H87 and Z87 Chipest? im building a Single Gpu gaming rig, with a gtx 770 and a new haswell I5, now while im looking for a motherboard i noticed that there is a H87 and a Z87, chipest, could anybody please explain to me the difference?
thanks lads
 
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Heironious

Heironious

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Usually in any generation, the Z means for unlocked CPUs to overclock. By unlocked CPU's I mean the "K" models. The Z87 board is not worth the premium to get if you do not have an unlocked CPU as you won't be able to use the features you are paying premium for.
 
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PS-Matt

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We actually have a new article up that is specifically for the new 8-series chipsets: http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Z87-H87-H81-Q87-Q85-B85-What-is-the-difference-473/ . In a nutshell though, Z87 has CPU overclocking and can run triple (3 GPU) SLI/Crossfire while H87 lacks CPU overclocking and can only do run normal (2 GPU) SLI/Crossfire configurations.

However, one thing we ran into when choosing what boards to offer our customers is that H87 boards tend to have fewer port options and worse board layout in general. So even if you don't need triple SLI/Crossfire or CPU overclocking, don't count out a Z87 board. It may be more expensive, but if you need a certain number or type of port it is better to get a board that has them built in rather than using PCI-E cards.
 
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Sachin D

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So basically, if shopping for an H87 board for a mid-to-high gaming rig, make sure it has a good board layout and plenty of appropriate ports? What would be things to look out for in terms of bad board layout?



 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Z87-H87-H81-Q87-Q85-B85-What-is-the-difference-473/
H87 The H87 chipset is very similar to Z87, but lacks a few important features including CPU overclocking. While this chipset can easily handle SLI/Crossfire configurations by allowing the 16 PCI-E lanes from the CPU to be divided into either a single x16 slot or dual x8 slots, it does not support triple SLI/Crossfire configurations.

Like Z87, H87 supports Rapid Storage Technology, Smart Response Technology (otherwise known as SSD Caching), six SATA 6Gb/s ports and six USB 3.0 ports. Unlike Z87, it adds Small Business Advantage support, but removes support for Lake Tiny (SSD caching performance and power optimization). Finally, it supports two DIMMs per memory channel so it will be able to utilize up to four sticks of RAM.

H87 provides most of the same features as Z87 including plenty of SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0 ports. The only major features it lacks is CPU overclocking support and support for triple SLI/Crossfire configurations. Unfortunately, many motherboard manufactures attempt to push users to Z87 motherboards by limiting the number of ports and headers on their H87 motherboards. Because of this, Z87 motherboards are sometimes a better choice than H87 even when you do not need overclocking or triple SLI/Crossfire.
Click to expand...

There are some very smart people who do nothing else but think sh** up, who have people who think sh** up to back them up, who have other people who think sh** up to back them up. So why when one of those people actually writes something down, people who don't know sh** argue with them...

I read this article, on advice from a smart person, and I found it both informative and fascinating and most definitely educational. it did leave me a little confused, though, as Asrock seems to claim their H-87 Fatality Performance mobo seems to support extreme overclocking
 
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Sakkura

Sakkura

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Aug 22, 2011
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That article from Puget Systems is wrong on one count, though. H87 does NOT support splitting the 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes into x8/x8. You would need a secondary PLX chip for that on an H87 board, which is not going to be worth it compared to just putting a Z87 chipset in the same board.

Source: Intel.com

h87-chipset-diagram-3x2.jpg
 
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massapeal79

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I have a z87x oc desktop motherboard running 2 gtx 970sc but people are say this motherboard run only run 3 graphic cards but what the forth slot for can some explain to me what's the forth slot for can somebody tell thank u
 
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Sakkura

Sakkura

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It can technically run 4 cards in Crossfire, but the last 2 slots only have 4 lanes, so it's not well suited for that. Especially the 4th slot, which is PCIe 2.0 x4, which is half as much bandwidth as the third slot's PCIe 3.0 x4.

You can use them for RAID cards, PCIe SSDs, or for other expansion cards you might need. I would recommend only using the 4th slot for any of that though, and keeping the 3rd slot empty. Because the 3rd slot "steals" PCIe lanes from the 1st and 2nd slots when it's in use.
 
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