Intel Chipsets

[Dat Midget]

Hello, i'm struggling with the range of Intel chip sets for the LGA1150 socket. What do the codes (Z97, H97, B85 etc) mean? Do they affect performance? I know that effect features but what does each chip set have to offer on a LGA1150 socket. 

[MrChavelo]

Z97 -> Overclocking features and possibility to support SLI

H97 -> Newest chipset without overclocking features

B85 -> Older chipset without overclocking features

[Sakkura]

Z97 and H97 belong to the newest generation and support the new Broadwell CPUs, as well as new features like M.2 and SATA Express.

 

Z87, H87, B85, H81 belong to the previous generation and do not support Broadwell CPUs.

 

Z87 and Z97 allow for the CPUs PCIe lanes to be split for SLI/Crossfire. They also allow CPU overclocking, though motherboards with the other chipsets have actually circumvented Intel's restrictions to also allow CPU overclocking.

 

B85 and especially H81 offer cut-down IO, like fewer USB3.0 and SATA3 ports; H81 also only allows two memory slots.

[Blebekblebek]

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Z87-H87-H81-Q87-Q85-B85-What-is-the-difference-473/

 

as for overclocking, it really depends on motherboard company, even the lowest H81 some motherboard can oc just fine, the obvious part ofcourse VRM & capacitor quality

[Lotus]

At no point do motherboards affect performance. They can indirectly affect performance by enabling overclocking of other components like your CPU. The Z chipset boards enable overclocking on K series CPUs. H and B chipsets do not. From our perspective, that's all we need to know. Yes, h81 chipsets only have 2 ram slots, B85 chipsets support more SATA ports, but even the H81 chipset boards have 4 Sata3 connections so it's fine and support 16GB of VRAM. Basically, Z97 enables overclocking, and that's only relevant if we also have a K series CPU and an aftermarket CPU cooler. Otherwise H97/h81 is fine. B85 is usually a bit pricier than H81 for no good reason. There is a reason, but again not one that we gamers care about. We're not hooking up 6 HDDs.

 

One important thing when it comes to motherboards is the 80 series vs 80 series (Z87 vs Z97). 80 series motherboards only natively support original haswell (like the i5-4670k). 90 series motherboards natively support haswell refresh (i5-4690k) as well as original haswell. 80 series motherboards can have their bios updated to support haswell-refresh CPUs, and many will already have that done, but remember it takes a working CPU to update the bios, and you can't get a haswell-refresh CPU to work without updating that bios leaving you in a catch-22 and no workable solution. This is why I avoid pairing 80 series motherboards with haswell-refresh CPUs, unless you know for 100% certainty it will come with the updated bios before you get it.

[Sakkura]

 Yes, h81 chipsets only have 2 ram slots, B85 chipsets support more SATA ports, but even the H81 chipset boards have 4 Sata3 connections so it's fine and support 16GB of VRAM. Basically, Z97 enables overclocking, and that's only relevant if we also have a K series CPU and an aftermarket CPU cooler. Otherwise H97/h81 is fine. B85 is usually a bit pricier than H81 for no good reason. There is a reason, but again not one that we gamers care about. We're not hooking up 6 HDDs.

 

Well you're wrong. The H81 chipset does not offer 4 SATA3 ports, it only offers 2. And it's 16GB of system memory, not VRAM. B85 costs only slightly more than H81 for very good reason. In addition to offering 4 SATA3 ports instead of 2, it also offers 4 USB3.0 ports instead of only 2. Having just 2 USB3.0 ports is a real downside.

[Dat Midget]

Thank you guys. I'm going for a i5-4690K and i do want a mild over clock in the future when i get an aftermarket cpu cooler. Going by this forum I should go with a Z97 board. Anyone got any suggestions for a Z97 board? I would like it to be black and red but that doesn't really matter, just so long as it is cheap.

[MrChavelo]

Thank you guys. I'm going for a i5-4690K and i do want a mild over clock in the future when i get an aftermarket cpu cooler. Going by this forum I should go with a Z97 board. Anyone got any suggestions for a Z97 board? I would like it to be black and red but that doesn't really matter, just so long as it is cheap.

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#c=99&C=19&sort=a8&page=1

[Dat Midget]

Okay thanks guys.

[Lotus]

Well you're wrong. The H81 chipset does not offer 4 SATA3 ports, it only offers 2. And it's 16GB of system memory, not VRAM. B85 costs only slightly more than H81 for very good reason. In addition to offering 4 SATA3 ports instead of 2, it also offers 4 USB3.0 ports instead of only 2. Having just 2 USB3.0 ports is a real downside.

Whoops. I still stand by the general gist of what I was saying even if I was wrong on a few minor specs.