MSI’s Z87I puts Gigabyte in a tight spot by providing a nearly identical feature set and price. Using the same 802.11n wireless card from Intel as its competition, MSI adds teaming support to its dual GbE ports by leaning on a matched pair of less expensive controllers.
MSI adds DisplayPort to facilitate higher resolutions from the board’s second video output than Gigabyte enables, but joins the Z87N-WiFi in leaving out the rarely-needed DVI-to-VGA adapter block. We even find four USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports on the I/O panels of both boards.
You get six analog audio outputs from the Z87I, compared to Gigabyte's five. This is achieved by relocating the Z87I’s optical audio output. MSI also finds room for two easy-access buttons on its I/O panel: CLR_CMOS and the firm’s aptly-named “Go2BIOS”.
Similarities between competing models don’t end at the I/O panel. The Z87I also has the same CPU-to-graphics slot crowding issue, and is even limited to two fan headers. I'd like to offer the same tip about offset measurements from Eight Low-Profile CPU Coolers For Your Compact PC, Reviewed, though the Z87I does have slightly more room between its CPU interface and ATX12V connector.
We're pointing out an awful lot of similarities here, but also like Gigabyte's board, MSI only exposes four internal SATA 6Gb/s ports, highlighting a lack of eSATA on the Z87I. Both platforms go so far as to use the same ALC892 audio codec, so we’re left to check overclocking and efficiency before we can choose a leader.

You only get two SATA cables with the Z87I, an I/O shield, and a pair of Wi-Fi antennas to complete the installation. Aside from antenna style, this is an almost exact match to its closest competitor.
- The Mini-ITX Market Is Small, But Growing...
- ASRock Z87E-ITX
- Z87E-ITX Software
- Z87E-ITX Firmware
- Asus Z87I-Deluxe
- Z87I-Deluxe Software
- Z87I-Deluxe Firmware
- EVGA Z87 Stinger
- Z87 Stinger Software
- Z87 Stinger Firmware
- Gigabyte Z87N-WiFi
- Z87N-WiFi Software
- Z87N-WiFi Firmware
- MSI Z87I
- Z87I Software
- Z87I Firmware
- Test Hardware And Benchmark Settings
- Results: 3DMark And PCMark
- Results: SiSoftware Sandra
- Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Results: Productivity
- Results: File Compression
- Energy, Heat, And Efficiency
- Overclocking
- Which Mini-ITX Motherboard Would We Buy For Haswell?


Yes, they've sent one for another article. If the site did multiple items per manufacturer the article would take weeks to finish. That wouldn't be a problem if all Tom's Hardware did was motherboards
More room between the PCI-E and CPU LGA is nice on the Asus as are all the features.
I am still running an older H55n usb3 24/7 and it has been quite stable and cool and low on power consumption. Shame that this new gigabyte board has higher power and temperature levels.
Overall it's good to see the roundup. Would have liked to see post times. With SSD storage, motherboard post times are now becoming the longer wait in a system boot up.
Also interested in thoughts on reasons for Z87 mobos for a standard non-overclocking build. For a non-overclocked gaming ITX PC, say with an I3 or low-end I5, are there any compelling reasons to pay the Z87 premium over, say an H81, which can run $100 cheaper?
I thought Intel did away with allowing non-k processors to use the four 100 MHz bins with Haswell. It only applies to Sandy and Ivy. At least that was what has been reported:
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2013/06/14/haswell-overclocking/1
Now that looks interesting.
I don't see how this is even a consideration. How many people have the need to plug in the connector AFTER installing the cooler? Or for that matter, BEFORE removing the cooler? The only need to move this at all would be during a PSU swap, which is probably very infrequent for most.
Now that looks interesting.
Yep that does look interesting.
Some other itx boards, not as cool as that MSI, but worth sharing.
http://www.asus.com/Commercial_Servers_Workstations/P9DI/
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Q87T/
http://www.asrock.com/server/overview.asp?Model=E3C226D2I
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4463#ov
Not ITX but worth sharing too
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/CSB/
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/VANGUARD_B85/
Yep the Deluxe has Wifi AC and pro has Wifi N