Z97 and H97 are new chipsets that Intel plans to use for Haswell refresh parts. As one might suspect they should launch shortly before the Haswell refresh desktop parts in Q3 2013. The current plan is that the chipset launch happens in Q2 2014, so that motherboard manufacturers or what is left of them have enough time to manufacture their boards.

The new chipset support Haswell LGA1150 processors just as its predecessor based on Z87 and H87 and the Z97 is the choice for overclockers. The good news is that Intel is committing to socket 1150 and the Haswell refresh should work on a Z87 or H87 board after a simple BIOS update.

Frankly speaking we are having a hard time distinguishing the difference between Z97 and H97 compared to a Z87 and H87 chipsets. The Z97 supports overclocking, Dynamic storage accelerator and a combination of PCIe 16X or two 8X or alternatively one time 8X and two 2X PCIe connectors for three card configurations.

The Haswell refresh is definitely an evolutionary step rather than a revolution and the 9th series of chipsets reflect the same trend. We are sure that the usual suspects lead by Asus and Gigabyte will come up with some crazy expensive boards trying to get way too much money from you for a fancy feature packed high-end motherboard.