I'm hoping to upgrade to Haswell at launch if the pricing is right. The CPU is definitely going to be the Core i7 4770K but what about the motherboard? I've been using the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 for (almost) two years and ASRock have done some incredible things to this motherboard.
First, they upgraded the UI of UEFI to match the more modern looking one that came out with the motherboards based on the Intel 7-series chipsets. Then they brought few of the features in that UEFI to the previous generation. (check my post about them adding Ultra Fast Boot to my ASRock Z68 Extreme4 board). Asus never did that, because according to them the Z68 chipset isn't capable of that feature.
With the next generation boards, they are (rumored to) bringing in some cool features.
1. Integrated 802.11ac on selected models
2. Semi liquid proof design to prevent those catastrophes from potential spills from the liquid coolers - this is good, because I might go back to a AIO water cooler after all.
3. Enhanced integrated audio using Realtek ALC1150 codec which they call Pure Sound- I hope I don't have to deal with my Creative card anymore. I'll probably sell it if I cannot make out a difference in audio quality. I'm no audiophile.
4. HDMI input which is useful if you are capturing video.
Plus, they are usually cheaper than the products from the tier-1 manufacturers like Asus and Gigabyte.
But there is one problem. To get all the benefits, you have to settle for a Extreme6-ac model at least. It won't be cheap though. It would probably not $200 mark. That would suck, because I don't want to spend that much on the motherboard. That would mean I would be paying well over $500 just for the CPU and the motherboard.
But we'll see how things work out. I won't be getting the first iteration of products because of the USB3.0 issue they'll be carrying.
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