Z97 Chipset leak

Communities Blog
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http://www.techpowerup.com/198968/msi-z97-based-gaming-series-motherboard-lineup-detailed.html

This is a link from Tech Power Up.  MSI has shown some z97 boards.  So far it seems that on the MSI line that there'll be 3 flavors for gaming.  Their series are now 3, 5, and 7.  My guess is they're kind of going to a simple scheme kind of like what AMD did with their cards R7, R9.  I'm guessing the enthusiast stuff is the Gaming 7 series.  So looks like they'll be implementing M2 drives (SATA 3.2 if you don't know what the actual technology is).  I've been saying this for a good while on other forum posts that SATA 3.2 would be the next major upgrade on motherboards.  Pretty much now there is no more independent SATA controller and it'll be using the PCI controller to transfer data.  My guess is Intel will offshoot the M2 connection onto SATA for the conventional drives.  

This actually is a really smart move because later on when programming catches a bit better for the gaming world.  We will see more fluid syncing with the CPU, Video Card and Drive.  Currently what is holding the PC performance back the most is the SATA controller.  Apple currently is on the thunderbolt route with their drives which is quite promising and we may see that happen very soon on the PC market.  So with SATA 3.2, now we can sync video and CPU load based on how much is being loaded on the drive without buffering so much.  This also means less power consumption because the CPU and Video will only have to load by what is delivered without making any headroom and excessive calculations for further buffering.  This means as well as less cache loading and a free up of L2/L3 cache in games if programmed properly.

Another interesting thing is that it seems the z97 chipset will control even more and give less load on the board itself.  It seems like they're trying to phase out any bridging on the boards and just putting it directly with the CPU and give it full autonomous control while the board now will become a slave and just act straight only as a connection between the peripherals.  Haswell brought voltage control direct to CPU.  Even before with Sandy/Ivy the north bridge was taken away.  AMD is following with the same route with FM2/FM2+.  This means if things go right, motherboards are going to be even cheaper because they have to do less work.

Also it seems that the PCI controller has been adjusted.  Not entirely sure but a few discussions i've read from Toms/ Linus Tech/ and anandtech shows that they may be adjusting in what mode the PCI-E lanes will work in based on headroom.  So at moments PCI-E may go in 2.0 state and later 3.0 state depending on what function requires it.  For example, if you play a game, we get PCI-E 3.0, then when we watch a video on youtube, we go into PCI-E 2.0.  With this revision Intel seems to push more and more on power efficiency.

IMO i think focusing power efficiency at the moment on a desktop market is a bit dumb when you consider desktop in general now is becoming more and more of an enthusiast thing and mobile is becoming more prominent towards the general consumer.  Also a desktop that us gamers use is quite efficient.  The power bills aren't exponentially high compared to a general desktop user or an HTPC user.

What do you guys think?  Do you feel this is the right step that Intel is making or do you feel Intel is slapping us enthusiasts in the face?  Do you feel this iteration even matters?

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Yeah i allready saw an diffrent article about these new msi boards few days ago ☺

only the gaming 5/7 would be interessting in my opinnion. in therms of vreg design. and feutures. with the M-sata 3.2 implementation.

Intels new cpu´s will probably be even more designed for power saving.. i dont realy see the benefit of it, but its probably Intels marketing stratergy.

Somethimes i just get the feeling that intel just tries to jump away from the overclock enthusiasts.

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I saw looked at the picture of the mobo its self in that leak, and with the "high end" board barely having anything for VRM heatsinks, I'm getting REALLY worried that intel is trying to snuff out overclocking for realistic performance increase, not necessarily killing it for the extreme OC communities that use N2 cooling and such. This is a real turn-off to me, just like I'm not particularly enthusiastic about Haswell, but having Xeon support on the consumer chipset is drawing me in.

I personally don't really care about power consumption as of yet, being that I'm not going to be paying for utilities in a place of living for some time. I'd rather pay an extra $200/mo on rent for "utilities included" so I don't have to worry about things like heating and power, even if I were to save some money otherwise. Peaceful mind, you know?

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well I don't care how extreme a gamer you are there's no reason your GPU should need as much power as your refrigerator to play the latest games at max.

every little bit of power saving helps if your goal is cool & quiet PC.

@Hikage

intel never intended to make Haswell a desktop chipset in the 1st place. they were originally waiting for skylake before releasing them so they could iron out the bugs due to the die shrink.

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I don't even care really. Series 9 seems more for businesses than consumers. The refreshes will be for 8 series. If you need a bunch of storage and usb ports then series 9 might get your attention. Other than that zzz.

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Broadwell CPUs should be soldered. At least there is a win for overclocking.

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You are not seeing that meny VRM's or heatsinks because the mobo dosent need them you can allready see this with haswell, VRM management is now on the cpu its self.

You can oc on motherboards with only a 4+2 phase to the same overclock as a super high end mobo with 16+ phase's as overclocking is now down to the cpu on haswell not how good the motherboard is.