Without any surprise, mITX boards arrive at your doorstep in minuscule boxes. It's amazing how technology has evolved and how the manufacturers are able to include so many features in such a tiny package. How about 7.1 channel audio, Dual LAN ports, a build in WiFi and Bluetooth functionality, a dual BIOS for enhanced safety and last but not least no cutbacks were made neither on the choice of the Intel chipset. The Gigabyte Z87N WIFI is equipped with the full blown Z87 Express chipset from Intel, resulting in solid RAM and K skew CPU overclocking.

 

 

 

Due to the mITX nature, the Z87N-WiFi black PCB is stuffed with components; the LGA1150 processor is powered by a 4 phase design. While this is far from what we see on normal sized boards, this is more than ample for Intel's Haswell CPU generation. In typical mITX style, we spot just two DIMM slots, however these are supporting up to 16GB of system memory. Thanks to the utilization of the Z87 chipset RAM speeds of up to 2933 are possible. One PCIe 3.0 x16 slot provides maximum bandwidth for a discrete graphics card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The included accessories are sparse: a pair of SATA cables, a backplate, manual and a driver CD. A WiFi Antenna is also included for better reception. Below are the Z87X-OC ATX form size paired with the mITX sized Z87N-WiFi.

 

 

To power the board a 24-pin ATX power connector is located at the top of the board, together with a 4-pin power plug instead of an 8-pin version, standard stuff in fact for a mITX board.

 

 

 

 

Four SATA ports, powered by the Z87 chipset, are located near the front panel header. A USB3.0 header is also located next to the Intel chipset. Gigabyte opted to keep the Dual Bios feature, providing you with a backup bios once things go terribly wrong. As you can see the PCB's space is utilized to the max.

 

 

 

The Z87N-WiFi board is equipped with an Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 card, installed in the Mini PCIe port. The Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 plus Bluetooth adapter combines fast speed (up to 300 Mbps) and greater range and reliability with Intel-only wireless features to deliver a better connected experience. Both 802.11 b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.0, 3.0+HS and 2.0+EDR are supported; secondly it opens up the multimedia features of Intel's Smart Connect and Wireless Display functionality.

 

 

 

The I/O panel hasn't received any trim-downs due the mITX PCB size: a Combo PS/2 supporting legacy keyboard or mouse devices, two, yes two HDMI 1.4a ports and a DVI-I connector fulfill the desires for hooking up multiple display devices. Two USB  2.0 ports and a total of four USB 3.0 ports and two Gigabit networking ports. One port is powered by an Intel chipset, while the other one utilizes an Atheros GbE LAN chip, both supporting 10/100/1000Mbit speeds. Sound is provided by the Realtek ALC892 codec, delivering High definition Audio up to 7.1 channels.

 

 

The Gigabyte Bios layout remains loyal to the one of the full sized ATX boards, not only in looks, but also in the amount of bios features/settings. Almost no compromises have been made: being tiny doesn't necessarily mean less features nor settings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For our stock tests we go out of the box and just go into the Bios and load the XMP profile for our 16GB Dual channel CORSAIR Vengeance Pro kit. In the Bios we just disable the onboard Audio and the LAN ports.

The hardware setup comprises out of:

• Intel i7-4770K cooled by stock boxed cooler
• Intel DZ87KLT Mainboard
• ASRock OC Formula ( 1.51 bios )
• ASUS Z87 MAXIMUS VI Formula ( 0039 bios )
• Gigabyte Z87X-OC ( F5v bios)
• MSI Z87 XPOWER ( 1.19 bios )
• 16GB CORSAIR Vengeance Pro 2400C10 Dual Channel kit
• ATI HD7970 GPU
• Thortech Thunderbolt 1200W
• Western Digital Green Caviar 1TB HDD
• Windows 7 64bit Pro with Service Pack 1

 

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS:

 

The out of the box benchmarks in the MadShrimps test suite always start off with the single threaded SuperPi and the core crushing Wprime benchmark. SuperPi reveals already a lot about how the Bios engineers dialed in the board. Wprime tells the tale, the Intel Turbo is running in an enhanced state, keeping the cores in sync at the maximum available Turbo multiplier. Besides comparing the Gigabyte Z87N-WiFi with its full blown brethren, it might also be interesting to compare the performance versus the H81 chipset on the ASUS board. Take note that the latter is limited at 2133MHz with reduced timings of 9-11-10-27 versus the 2400C10-12-12-31 of the other boards.

 

 

The Z87 logically trounces the H81 chipset based board in the SuperPi test. If one tends to use the integrated HD graphic chipset, higher memory speeds reflect in a higher Frame Per Second rate. Comparing the Wprime outcome, one directly spots the aggressive Turbo feature of most vendors. Only ASRock and the Intel board use out of the box the reference Turbo values. In the AIDA tests the memory bandwidth is crucial for the PhotoworXX test. The H81 chipset powered ASUS board with 2133MHz RAM speeds can't keep up with the higher running competition.

 

 

 

When we run two pure CPU benchmarks, the field is narrowed again to a few  milliseconds difference. The ASRock and Intel board utilize the standard Turbo reference speeds, hence they are trailing the rest. Take note that the ASRock can be setup for aggressive Turbo Mode too, though we tested the out of the box BIOS configuration. Comparing the Z87 with the H81 chipset outcome, no performance difference at all.

 

 

The Gigabyte Z87-WiFi proves to be no slouch at all and manages to stay close or even surpass the ATX sized boards. This little mITX board demonstrates high efficiency is possible in compact size and at a fair price. The H81, due to the lower RAM speeds again has to give way to the Z87 chipset.

 

Time to verify the efficiency of the Gigabyte Z87N-WiFi board under 3D. As expected not much to see as the Radeon HD7970 card takes most of the credit here, while the Z87 chipset is faster in the 2D memory intensive department than the H81 chipset; this due to the possibility to select 2133MHz and higher memory dividers. For 3D with a discrete graphics card, in general we can conclude that from 1600MHz on there's hardly any gain noticeable.

 

 

 

 

 

However if you intend to use the onboard iGPU of the Haswell CPUs, than the difference between the H81 and Z87 chipset will become more apparent. The HD4600 integrated GPU of the i7-4770K processor benefits from every bit of RAM MHz you throw at it. We did not re-test this finding specifically on the mITX Gigabyte board, though are basing our statement on the massive tests conducted during the Haswell launch article. The tested memory speeds were:

• 1600MHz C8-8-8-24
• 2133MHz C9-11-10-27
• 2400MHz C10-12-12-31
• 2933MHz  C11-14-14-31

Below are some extracts of the memory divider tests, more memory MHz is better :)

 

 

Z87 chipset powered boards are tailor made for overclocking the K skew processors. We settled at a moderate 1.35 Vcore in the bios and got a nice 4500MHz CPU speed rock stable. Take note that the Vcore droops/drops so it might be you need to set a slightly higher value then as on other competitor's boards. Below is the OC screenshot with 2 x 8GB of memory installed (no XMP selected).

 

 

 

Memory compatibility test:

The RAM compatibility test is not alike with the Overclocking boards. No PSC, nor BBSE legacy DIMM test here. We just test the high speed kits we have at our disposal at the MadShrimps lab.  The PC has to complete a SuperPi 32M and a X264HD encoding run. The Gigabyte Z87N-WiFI had no issues with the memory available in the [M] lab.

• CORSAIR 4 x 4GB 2666C10: PASS
• CORSAIR 4 x 4GB 2800C11: 2666MHz C11-14-14-35 2T
• CORSAIR 2 x 8GB 2400C10 Vengeance Pro: PASS
• GeIL Evo Veloce 2 x 8GB 2133C10: PASS
• G.SKILL TridentX 2 x 4GB 2400C9: PASS
• Kingston Predator 2 x 4GB 2400C11: PASS
• Kingston BEAST 2 x 4GB 2400C10: PASS
• Kingston BEAST 2 x 8GB 2400C11: PASS

The Gigabyte Z87N-Wifi is the company's flagship offering in the mITX lineup. By selecting the Intel Z87 chipset, this board shows immaculate performance in the MadShrimps test suite. Some performance flaws in early BIOSES were quickly corrected allowing the 2D and the 3D performance to get on par with its bigger sized Z87 brethren.

Of course the choice to opt for Intel's top Haswell chipset puts this nice board in an upper price class for mITX boards. A design decision that cuts on two sides: on one side you receive a solid board with great performance, adding the possibility for easy K skew processor overclocking; on the other side one main question has to be asked: does the higher price tag weigh up for the little performance boost over e.g. an H81 chipset motherboard ? An answer which will depend on the usage: if one utilizes the HD4600 and wants to maximize performance then yes a Z87 chipset board choice will be justified. However if the board is just used on a daily basis for standard HTPC usage, plus when running a non K skew processor or when running the setup with a discrete graphics card, then a lower end chipset with a far lower price tag might be a better bang for the buck option. Naturally Gigabyte also offers H81 powered boards, retailing at almost half the price of this Z87N-WiFi.

 

 

But back to the Z87N-Wifi now: it offers solid performance and good XMP memory compatibility. No matter what we threw at the Z87N mITX board, it remained right on the heels of the other Z87 Haswell boards we have tested. Secondly the dual LAN ports allows the user to setup e.g. a local server. The onboard Intel Centrino Wireless WLAN Bluetooth adapter opens the possibility to take advantage of Intel's Smart Connect and Wireless Display functionalities. To sum it up: The Z87N-WiFi is a great feature packed board that will be a reliable partner in all your multimedia endeavors ! This little board packs some great punch.

 

 

PROS:

• Solid performer
• Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 adaptor
• Memory compatibility
• Dual LAN adapter
• High end intuitive Bios
• Price versus other Z87 mITX mobos
  

 

CONS:

• Only two fan connectors
  

 

I wish to thank Bernice from Gigabyte for the Z87N-WiFi sample

 

Harry from Corsair for the Vengeance 16GB 2400C10 Pro kit

 

 

The Tones crew for the years of support