In continuing our Haswell coverage (following up from our "is Haswell worth it for gaming?" post), today we visit the topic of the CPU's most intimate counterpart: the Chipset. As more of you begin to evaluate the place for 4th Gen Intel components in your upcoming PC builds, it's important to understand the various chipsets and their inherent use case scenarios. If you're brand new to all of this and aren't even 100% sure what a chipset is, check out this previous article: "What is a Chipset, Anyway?"

Intel's previous generational tick (IvyBridge), known as the 3rd Gen Intel Cores, operated on the LGA1155 socket with 7-series chipsets. You're all familiar with Z77, Z75, and H77 chipsets at this point, but with the Haswell drop comes the 8-series ("Lynx Point") of chipsets -- and Intel has made a good deal of changes, especially for power and voltage regulation.
In this article, we'll compare Intel's Z87, H87, and H81 Haswell chipsets, talk about the differences, and evaluate what you need for your machine. Let's talk about the major differences between Intel's new family members.