14 DAY TRIAL // Until now, it was a safe assumption that the Devil's Canyon Intel Core i5/i7 Haswell refresh unlocked CPUs (central processing units) would only work on mainboards powered by the H97 or Z97 chipset. This might not really be true though.
Whenever a motherboard maker releases a high-end gaming mainboard, they often say that the thing is “future-proof” and can go without upgrades for at least five years.
Unfortunately, we've noticed a tendency on Intel's part, and AMD to a lesser extent, to release new sockets every other year.
This effectively renders motherboards incapable of supporting next-generation CPUs from the two corporations. So in the end, the motherboards aren't as future-proof as it is initially claimed.
The Broadwell line of CPUs has been delayed, so Intel has had to launch a refreshed Haswell range this year.
However, even these chips were supposedly unsupported by existing motherboards. It's why so many 9-Series mainboards have been revealed so far. It was a shame, since the socket is, ultimately, the same.
However, now it is reported that makers of desktop platforms might enable compatibility between Z87-based mainboards and the Devil's Canyon chips.
The people at hardware.fr say that Z87 mainboards will support the new chips and are already being put through validation tests for it. You'll probably have to upgrade the BIOS, but that's a small price to pay.
Now, all we have to do is wait and see if the Z87 BIOS is complete before the release of the chips themselves.
Most Z97 platforms haven't really started selling yet, and the true availability and demand won't come before the chips do.
Enabling Z87 support will significantly undercut the demand for newer, Z97 and H97 mainboards, especially since many owners only bought one less than a year ago.
Even though high-end customers are usually the ones with enough money for an upgrade, it's still debatable whether it's worth swapping the mobo less than a year after the acquisition. Especially if all you're getting in return (that the Z87 didn't already have) is an Xtreme Audio DAC and some “armor” (think MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC).
Do keep in mind that we're not totally sure about the whole Z87 support thing, since this is, in the end, just a rumor. However, it would make sense, and would be a lot less frustrating to prospective buyers. Besides, it wouldn't be the first time when plans for “guided” upgrades got scrapped in the face of customer annoyance.