Z87 advantages over Z77?

here http://www.ukgamingcomputers.co.uk/difference-between-z77-and-z87-a-34.html

More USB3.0 and SATA3 ports. Nothing major that's actually new.

IMHO, the number one difference is the number of native SATA 6Gb/s ports (6 vs. 2). More can be added, but it is typically done through lesser-performing Marvell controllers.
There are also more USB3.0 ports, but I'm not sure how many more.

Not much it seems, mostly the support for the new cpu socket.

LGA1150 chips do run a little hotter, can't be clocked as high. But an i5-4670k at 4.3Ghz, is about as fast as an i5-3570k at 4.6Ghz so it evens out.

You get a lot of power-saving features and better on-chip graphics with the haswell chips, but that isn't really important to most enthusiasts.

If they make another chip series for 1150, maybe it is worth it. But I expect my next upgrade will be to a DDR4 board.

It's not so much the socket but the new CPU architecture that you get the improvement in performance from.

Haswell is definitely faster by about 10-15% and can run at higher temperature's then IB. You also get more raw power out of over clocking Haswell due to it's better single threaded performance by a solid 18% give or take 1%.

Right now there isn't much advancements happening with CPU's. Haswell is the biggest advancement since the first gen Core ix CPU's.

It's not even worth spending more then $150 on a MB anymore since Intel is coming out with a new series every year that has brought nothing new. For example the 9 series, it has nothing the 8 series doesn't already have. So they are just price gouging people that don't know any better.

I just upgraded last month or so to a GA-Z87X-D3H, i5 4670k 8GB Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1600, Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120GB OS, WD Black 1TB HDD, XFX XTR 750w full modular 80 Plus Gold PSU, Cooler Master Hyper Evo /w Direct heatpipe cooling, XFX ATI HD 6950 2GB (soon to be Gigabyte AMD R9 280X), Antec 900 case.

Going from a Core2Quad Q9400 with 4GB of DDR2 ram. I really did need the update and since DDR4 Ram and CPU's with a noticeable difference isn't going to happen for another couple years or at least be mainstream. I made the right move. Even 2x 780 Titan's can't bottleneck a i5 2500 at 4.1ghz anyone with my setup or better is set for years to come.

If you already have a 2nd or better iX CPU you're good to go until a CPU that has a noticeable real world difference. Since it's already been shown DDR4 Ram is not noticeably faster in real world use and Intel has no competition right now. It will be year's before we need to upgrade from something better then haswell. If anything Intel's next CPU that shows real difference will be 100% soc but that won't be for a while since so many people will fall for upgrading there MB and CPU for nothing really noticeable proformence wise. So if you have the about 700 bucks and want something you won't need to upgrade for a few years or more then get a good z87 MB and a haswell CPU go for it. You will be happy and if you don't have a SSD get one for your OS and a nice size WD Black as it's the best HDD for the money.

Or if your happy with your good old SB or IB build stick with that. Though Haswell is noticeably faster then the older i core CPU's. But either way, as long as you have a good MB with USB 3.0 and a few pci-e 3.0 along with some pci-e 1x you can upgrade what you need to using them. And another thing Intel Gigabyte Ethernet is so much better then old junk use one of the pci-e 1x and geta intel Ethernet card if you don't have it built in you're MB because it really is night and day. How it priorities everything for you so you can be on teamspeak3 with the best codecs, be downloading things and be playing you're favorite online game without the slightest bit of lag and very fast download's. 4 years + since I've upgraded and damn Core2Quad has nothing on my i5 4670k at such 3.8 let alone 4.4ghz but I'm running stock profile just because I only see a real difference in a few games that I don't need the extra fps from anyway 60 is always done for me when I was getting 12 to -5 in a game I'm now getting nothing below 40 with a old 6950 2gb but soon to be R9 280X since it's a great price and runs just as good as a 770 or better with mantle games.

There are plenty of tests around showing very little +performance over IB so I dont know where you are getting 10-15% from. The power consumption is also LOWER on IB. Haswell certainly ISNT " the biggest advancement since the first gen Core ix CPU's"

You don't want to be looking at Z87 anyway, if currently looking you want to look at Z97 and the Haswell refresh CPUs (the Devils Canyons), these run much cooler and OC better than on the Z87 platform (i.e. on my Z87 Hero can run my main 4770K CPU at 4.6, the same CPU on my Z97 Hero runs at 4.8 with the same approximate voltage, runs cooler and handles DRAM better) , the Z97 mobos also offer an upgrade path to the upcoming Broadwell CPUs.

There are plenty of tests around showing very little +performance over IB so I dont know where you are getting 10-15% from. The power consumption is also LOWER on IB. Haswell certainly ISNT " the biggest advancement since the first gen Core ix CPU's"

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/382267/intel-haswell-hotter-and-slower-than-expected

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/157337-the-haswell-paradox-the-best-cpu-in-the-world-unless-youre-a-pc-enthusiast

Thunderballs

On the link you provide above from extremetech.com they in fact show Haswell w/ lower power consumption than an IB 3770K at idle, they also indicate a 10% advantage " For the same price as an Ivy Bridge chip, you get around 10% more performance."

Z97 wasn't available in June 2013.

Yes, my bad, missed the original date saw it where Thunderballs had responded shortly before me and didn't notice the earlier dates