A lot of CPUs for LGA 1150 platform are available now. You can buy not only quad-core Core i7 and Core i5 but also less expensive dual-core Core i3-4340, Core i3-4330 or Core i3-4130. In our next review we have tested these models based on contemporary Intel Haswell microarchitecture.
Intel had refreshed their long-life LGA 2011 platform and had released new 22-nm Ivy Bridge-E processors instead of old Sandy Bridge-E. But we have doubt about the new CPUs can breathe new life into old high-priced enthusiast platform.
The motherboard is based on Intel Z87 but powered with a lot of additional controllers. Some features of Gigabyte G1.Sniper 5 are typical for high-end platforms and some are unique. The board has many advantages and a very few disadvantages.
Asus Z87-Deluxe is good and balanced model for powerful LGA 1150 system. It has additional SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0 controllers, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth support dual Gigabit Ethernet, two CPU fan headers and two POST-codes indicators. However we had seen some problems with it.
We had tested one of the most interesting GeForce 760 graphics card from MSI. The card has exciting hardware and a very good performance which looks like a GeForce GTX 770.
This is a very well-made mainboard model with classic feature set. The functionality includes: additional USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps ports, IEEE 1394 (FireWire) and Thunderbolt ports, two network adapters, wireless technologies, AMD CrossFire and Nvidia SLI, as well as a special connector for mSATA and mini-PCIe cards.