Would it make a difference if I went with a H81 board instead of a H97?

[Taafe]

Hello there, I'm going to be buying an Intel i5 4440 or 4690 (Non k) in about a month or so. Would it REALLY matter if I didn't get a H97 board? If I'm going to upgrade I'll most likely get a new board anyway so will it really matter?

 

[TechCIDLC]

If you're going for a Haswell Refresh CPU, such as the i5-4460 or the i5-4690, then you'll have to go with H97 boards. Not H81, B85.

 

[Taafe]

What about the 4670? Would that also require a H87/H97?

 

[TechCIDLC]

The 4670 can work in H87 and H97 motherboards.

 

[Taafe]

The 4670 can work in H87 and H97 motherboards.

You're not getting where I'm coming from.

Do I need an expensive Motherboard for my CPU? I'm going to get a i5 4760, will it be okay to use a B85 or H81?

 

[MartinNixon0422]

well, I think all you need to do is update the h81 bios, then you should be able to use the i5 on the h81 mb
but I will not recommend the h81 mb for i5 cpu
dont matter with 4440 or 4670,
I know you dont want to spend too much on the mb
but I hope you know the different between h81 and h97
(if you asking which h97 is good, I suggest the msi h97 pc mate, cheap and get most feature you need)

Z87 H87 H81
Processor Support Hasell LGA1150
Graphics Support 1x16 or 2x8 or 1x8+2x4 1x16 1x16
Intel RST12 Yes Yes No
Lake Tiny Yes No No
Intel Smart Response Technology Yes Yes No
Small Business Advantage No Yes No
USB Total (USB 3.0) 14(6) 14(6) 20(2)
Total SATA (SATA 6Gb/s) 6(6) 6(6) 4(2)
PCI-E 2.0* 8 8 6
Mem/DIMMs per Channel 2/2 2/2 2/1
CPU Overclocking Yes No No
(well..go check the link at: http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Z87-H87-H81-Q87-Q85-B85-What-is-the-difference-473/)
you will see h81 get less sata/usb3.0/pci-e

I will not say h97 is requir for i5 cpu...but I suggest you buy h97 mb for the i5 cpu though...
up to you~

 

[TechCIDLC]

The 4670 can work in H87 and H97 motherboards.

You're not getting where I'm coming from.

Do I need an expensive Motherboard for my CPU? I'm going to get a i5 4760, will it be okay to use a B85 or H81?

Yes. The i5-4670 is 'Haswell', not 'Haswell Refresh', and can perform fine in all LGA 1150 motherboards.

You don't need an expensive motherboard to use that processor. However, more expensive motherboards have more features.

 

[TamalAnwar]

Please look at this link: http://ark.intel.com/products/80817/Intel-Core-i5-4460-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_40-GHz#@compatibility

It shows that Intel H81 chipset is a compatible board for Haswell Refresh processor 4460 & 4690. Also compatible with 4440.

H81 has only 2 USB 3.0 ports, 2 SATA 3.0 ports, max resolution of 1920x1080 output on video ports, and max RAM support of 16 Gigs (correct me if I am wrong)

If all that is okay for you, then go for H81. I am going to buy that in my recent build.

The B85, H87 and H97 has many more features like 4K output, 6 SATA 3.0 ports, and 8-10 USB 3.0s etc.