With the 14nm Broadwell K-series chips not expected until late 2014 or early 2015, the current LGA1150 platform is going to be hanging around for a while. Intel is expected to release some faster Haswell chips early next year, but we're probably talking about parts that are only clocked 100MHz higher than what's currently on the market. As a result, if you're in the market for an upgrade there is little reason to procrastinate at this point.

Back in August we reviewed the GIGABYTE Z87X-UD5H, and we came away impressed with its clean design, sleek new UEFI BIOS, overall feature set, impressive overclocking capabilities, and strong performance. Therefore, today we are going to be taking a look at another model in GIGABYTE's extensive Z87 motherboard lineup: the slightly more affordable $185 Z87X-UD4H. Compared to the aforementioned UD5H model, you will be saving around $35, but giving up one gigabit LAN port, one HDMI port, two SATA 6Gb/s ports, and the front USB 3.0 panel accessory output. On the plus side, you do gain a VGA port and two eSATA 6GB/s ports, both of which are lacking on the higher-end model.