Chip giant Intel has finally presented its long-awaited Z97 core logic and the Haswell Refresh processors. The Intel Z97 chipset is not a revolutionary product – instead it is an evolution of the popular Z87 core logic, a fact that can be said about the Haswell Refresh processors too.
Intel Z97 targets hardware enthusiasts and comes with all features present in Z87 save for one. Z97 now supports M.2 SSDs that will supersede the mSATA SSDs that have been popular until now. M.2 SSDs will offer theoretical bandwidth of 1 GB/sec but in reality will reach 850 MB/sec. Even then the new data transfer speed will be about 60 per cent better when compared to SATA 3.0 SSDs.
As to Haswell Refresh there are a ton of new processors that include Core i7, Core i5, Core i3, Pentium and Celeron chips. We have to say that there’s nothing new except for minor speed bumps but even with just that Haswell Refresh will provide new levels of performance.
Source: Intel