3 mobos, can't decide.

[popsicledeath]

Am in the proccess of getting new case/psu/mobo/cpu/ram, and have decided on most aspects of this, but motherboards are a bit beyond my smarts it seems. i have researched alot and narrowed it down to 3 that all seem to come highly reguarded, but im stuck as to which of them is better and why.

1) Asus K8N nForce3 250Gb Athlon 64/Sempron Skt754 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, LAN, RAID/Serial ATA

2) Abit NF8 nForce3 250GB Athlon 64/Sempron Skt754 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA

3) MSI K8N Neo Platinum nForce3 250Gb Athlon 64 Skt754 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, LAN, RAID/SATA

am leaning towards the abit because everyone says they're good quality and last a long time, but as far as i can tell they're all about the same, (and about the same price), save for small differences with stuff like ai/easy overclocking programs and easy bios updating blah blah blah, but am i missing anything of importance between them due to my slight ignorance on the subject and is there any one that stands out particularly, or am i way off and need to consider one completely different?

I'm looking to get a64 3200/3400 range, 2x512 pc3200/ddr400 ram, geforce 6600gt range stuff to jam into it, and will probably end up using the system for the next 2 years. plan on getting a lian li pc-v1000 despite it costing more then i wanted to pay with a truepower 550 (hope it will fit, have read of issues), use windows xp home, and use the system for online gaming primarily, and would only be ocing minorly until possibly later to get more life out of the system.

Thanks for even reading, without these forums i would be totally lost as they've been a great help so far, but need over the last hump of ignorance/indecisiveness.

 

[endyen]

Take the Abit board, if you can get it. They sell out fast, to people wo know quality.
Second choice would be the Asus board.

 

[Rugger]

A second thing to look at when choosing one of the boards are the small differences that you noted. All else being the same take into account the differences in features from the mfrs. Which of those features are most important to YOU and make sure they are features that you will USE. Beyond features you need to get something that will last and that the mfr will support well if something does go wrong. I've never had an Abit board, but have heard a lot of good things about them. Don't forget YMMV - the mfr process is not perfect and there is always a chance that you will receive a faulty part. If that happens, then come here and one of the pros (not necessarily me...not a pro) will giv you a hand. JMHO

"He who will not risk, cannot win"
- John Paul Jones

 

[BrandtP]

You may also want to consider the DFI LANParty UT, which is also based on the nForce 3 250 Gb chipset. I love mine, and supposedly it is a good overclocker (I am not into that so I don't know). It has been nothing but stable for me and had an absolutely problem-free installation. Have a look on Newegg and the reviews of it on Anandtech.