I'm trying to find the best motherboard for my build

Hello Glfess27

First of all, what is the purpose of this computer? The screen resolution?

And most importantly, where do you live? To be easier to find parts near your location.

Alright, so it looks like you're going to assemble a full computer, what's your budget? Do you have to buy a windows copy?

About the CPU, are you planning to overclock it?

From the get go, your build looks ok, powerful GPU and an I5, if you're planning to overclock the CPU, get an I5-xxxxK one, it's an unlocked processor which allows you to achieve great overclock potential and get that cooler, the EVO one, great cooler with a decent price.

If you're not overclocking, stick with an I5-3350P, a little cheaper than your CPU choice and disables the intel graphics, which are useless to gaming, as you will have a discrete card anyway.

You live in the US, so you have access to Newegg, a great online computer part seller, you should buy from there.

Here's something we can work with:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3aZIp
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3aZIp/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3aZIp/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3350P 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($177.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock B75 PRO3-M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($67.48 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($328.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case ($50.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($134.94 @ OutletPC)
Total: $885.34
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-16 17:06 EDT-0400)

I picked a cheap motherboard, has you are not going to overclock, the EVO cooler is not needed since the CPU comes with a stock cooler which is more than enough for the job. It's a microATX, you could use the spare money to buy a atx motherboard.

I have included a windows 7 professional copy 64bits and a placeholder case. If you have spare dvd-roms you could use one.

Are you thinking on adding another GTX 770 along the road? For dual SLI?

What do you think?

The main difference between micro ATX and ATX motherboards is the size, as you can see in this picture



I would suggest an ATX motherboard, as the GTX 770 is a quite big and long card, it also allows for more space between the CPU cooler, memory sticks. You get more cooling headroom and easier cable management.

About GTX 770 SLI, I think it's useless to power just one 1080p monitor, even a single GTX 770 may get bottlenecked by the monitor maximum fps of 60. As an example, I own a GTX 650, almost an entry level graphics card powering the main gaming monitor 1080p and a secondary monitor 1600x900 for web browsing while gaming, the GPU holds itself quite well during gaming, it runs War Thunder, planetside 2, Elder Scrolls Online (got beta tester invite) at 60 fps if you lower some settings, the point is, what can't a GTX 770 do?

If you do add another monitor, then it's more viable for heavy games. If you're thinking about a SLI down the road, better get a ATX motherboard, a PSU that outputs at least 500 watts, but 600 watts is preferable, to give the cards some headroom.

Here are two choices that I think are worthwhile:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z77extreme3 Asrock Z77 Extreme 3 priced at $87 on Newegg.

It packs 4 3GB Sata ports and 2 6GB sata ports.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z77extreme4 Asrock z77 Extreme 4 priced at $128 on Newegg.

It packs 4 3GB Sata ports and 4 6GB sata ports.

The sata port amount and PCI-e slots are the main difference between those motherboards, for the average joe, 2 sata ports are more than enough, the 3GB sata ports aren't that much slower.

About drives, are you planning on using a regular HDD to install windows and programs, or a small SSD and a HDD.

The latter being my configuration and I'm quite happy with the speed of the SSD, this SSD the Crucial M500 is a very good choice, it offers powerloss security measures, while being fast enough and not too pricey.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148693 priced at $70. While it looks a bit expensive, it's actually a very cheap one, comparing the competition and the speed is totally worth it! I installed windows 8 in 5 minutes flat, I used the phone chronometer to be sure.

Install windows and main programs on the SSD, and the junk on a regular HDD that you may have laying around.

Here's an updated build summary:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3350P 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($177.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($87.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($328.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($134.94 @ OutletPC)
Total: $959.85

It does go past the maximum budget of $900, but the SSD is really worth it, you can then buy a HDD later on.

You could try to build the computer with a computer case that you already own, you could shave off around $40 from the build. Imagine an old computer case running Crisis 3 on ultra 60 fps smooth! If you go that route, search guides though, as the size may not the enough for the big GTX 770.

Any dvd-rom unit can suffice to use CD's, you could also use one from another computer.

Enough writing, what is your opinion?

Alright, looks like you're set!

Would you mind giving me the Best answer thing? I would appreciate it!