Sorry if this has been asked before:
I have an Asus P8Z77-V Pro mobo (Z77) and I was wondering if it is worth it to upgrade to a Z97-based motherboard? Yes, I know i will have to purchase a new CPU for this upgrade as well--but is it worth the hassle over the new features the Z79 chipset offers?
Thanks for your opinions.
Performance wise? That's your call, but probably not. Despite what others may say, a Haswell with a 400-500MHz lower clock than a similar Ivy - the Haswell will still be overall faster. This is something i've tested on my own for my own curiosity. So even if your overclock is slightly lower (if you do OC) the Haswell should still be better. But these performance differences will only be seen in synthetics. It won't be an amazing difference.
You should look at this from the perspective of NOT performance, but for other things such as features and future proofing.
First, future proofing: Intel has stated that a 9 series chipset will be required for Broadwell LGA. Now that could change in the interim, we do not know - but there are power delivery differences between 7, 8 and 9 series chipset so I believe it is plausible. OTOH, they said the same about DC, which actually works on 8 series chipsets (but not 7). Then again this requires work on the part of mobo vendors and not all 8 series boards will work with DC. Some will some won't. 9 is guaranteed to work. 9 series is guaranteed to work with Broadwell. 8 series? Highly unknown. It might just like DC, or maybe not.
Features: SRT is easier to configure on a 9 series board. 9 series board is more up to date with BIOS / UEFI features. 9 series is guaranteed to be Broadwell LGA compatible. 9 series gives you M-2 SSD's and SATA Express. Going forward, SATA-E will get you better SSD performance and future proofing. Furthermore, 9 series gives you more goodness all around with more SATA6G ports. From what I remember, my 7 series boards only had 2 native SATA6G ports. 9 series has more which allows more SATA6G without additional 3rd party chips such as Marvell and what-not.
Is that important to you? Or do you just want more performance? If you want more performance, it's perhaps the wrong choice. The way you should look at this is guaranteed Broadwell compatibility (again, it may be compatible with 8 series but 7 series will definitely be a no-go) and other features such as faster SSDs and what not. Performance will not be gained by getting a 9 series motherboard.
TL'DR: If you want a 9 series board, do so for more features, forward looking compatibility with broadwell, but not more performance. Pretty much, Haswell is faster than Ivy but not by leaps and bounds.
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