Upgrade or not upgrade Analysis of Intel 7 Series motherboard positioning

Will Ivy Bridge replace Sandy Bridge to dominate the mainstream market?

The 22nm Ivy Bridge processor is coming soon. The major manufacturers' Z77/Z75/H77 series motherboards are ready to go. We have already reported on the 7 series motherboards of MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, ASRock, Sotec, Biostar, and Onda. It is raining everywhere. However, judging from the current news, Ivy Bridge is likely to postpone until mid-to-late April, so friends who want to change platforms may need to wait a little longer.

It's really hard to say goodbye to 6 Series motherboards. The mainstream 6 Series motherboards on the market today include the Z68, P67, H67, and H61. Among them, the Z68, P67, and H67 will all be replaced by the successor 7 Series motherboards, but as an entry level The H61 of the product will remain on the market until the launch of Lynx Point (8-series motherboard with Haswell) in the first quarter of 2013.

In addition, due to the strength of the Sandy Bridge processor and AMD bulldozer processor performance is very dissatisfied, motherboard manufacturers have previously hoarded a large number of 6 Series motherboards, short-term can not be cleared. The backward compatibility of the Ivy Bridge processor with the 6 series motherboard will further extend the life of the 6 series motherboard. After all, the 7 series motherboard also has more native USB 3.0 interface than the 6 series motherboard. The price may be much more expensive when it is just listed, and then the 6 series will be The motherboard with Ivy Bridge processor will be a good choice,

How is the 7-series chipset located?

H61's positioning within Intel is Basic, which focuses on entry-level markets. The H77 is positioned as Better, and it focuses on the mainstream market. Like the current H67 positioning, the H77 is stronger than the H61, but it does not support CPU and memory overclocking. Z77/75 two motherboards are positioned as Best, for high-end players, mainly with Intel K-tail processor allows players to experience overclocking fun; As for the X79 has been released, naturally belonging to the Extreme series, high-end enthusiasts exclusive products.

What are the differences between the three 7-series chipsets?

In terms of main specifications, there is no difference between the three H77/Z75/Z77 motherboards. The same 14 USB ports contain 4 USB 3.0 ports, 6 SATA ports contain 2 SATA 6Gbps ports, support for three screen independent outputs, etc. The difference is that H77 does not support CPU overclocking, but Z75/Z77 support; H77/Z77 supports SSD hybrid acceleration technology, but Z75 does not support. For Doka's crossfire, the H77 only supports single graphics cards; the Z75 supports dual card crossfire, and the dual-channel bandwidth is ×8; and the Z77 supports three-card crossfire, with bandwidths of ×8, ×4, and ×4, respectively.

Should it not be upgraded in the end?

After reading these simple analyses, we finally talk about upgrading. Our advice is: If you currently have an Intel 5 Series or 6 Series platform, then there is no need to upgrade to the upcoming Intel 7 Series platform, because the upgrade performance is not very clear. If you are an LGA 775 or AMD platform user, we recommend that you upgrade directly to the Intel Ivy Bridge 7 Series platform if you have an upgrade plan. However, do not start immediately when you release. Wait and see for a while and you will get better results.