Motherboard buying advice?

[Valtiel]

If I had a budget of ~$250 what would be the best Motherboard to buy for the money?

I have been looking at the eVGA 680i board but is there a better one that could possibly be cheaper?
What I'm looking for in a board is:
-at least two PCI-e x16 slots
-Socket T
-DDR2 (obviously )
-BIOS loaded with overclocking features

the board will be used for a gaming system.
Remember im looking for performance and stability first, price second (under 250 though!).

Oh yeah it will be supporting an e6600, an eVGA 7950GT superclocked (then later an 8800 GTX) 2GB of DDR2-800 Memory (but I plan on having room to upgrade that) and in the future a sound card and maybe a PhysX card or something.

Any ideas?

 

[genec57]

EVGA 680i is great. the overclocking is the best I have seen. The downside is its newness. The bios still needs a couple of revisions to be mature. Despite that I wouldn't consider trading.

 

[rwaritsdario]

If you can find the P5N32-E SLI for that price, go for it. Its basically a Striker without the ROG marketing crap, its doing 500Mhz FSB in the first try (yes, the first try) and going up to 525Mhz FSB.
It's Vcore isnt the strongest but there are still BIOS revisions to come.

PS: The 7950GT is overpriced for its performance, a X1950Pro can equal it for $60 less.

 

[Valtiel]

If you can find the P5N32-E SLI for that price, go for it. Its basically a Striker without the ROG marketing crap, its doing 500Mhz FSB in the first try (yes, the first try) and going up to 525Mhz FSB.
It's Vcore isnt the strongest but there are still BIOS revisions to come.

PS: The 7950GT is overpriced for its performance, a X1950Pro can equal it for $60 less.

Hey thanks for the advice I will try and find one.

Im buying the 7950 to step up to an 8800 later buying an ATI would actually cost more for me thanks for the advice though I didnt know that.

 

[rwaritsdario]

Sure man, NP 8)
The 7900GT is actually in the same price range as the X1950Pro. I just dont think the 7950GT justifies its price, its only a bump in mem and twice the amount (which doesnt do a thing..).

 

[Valtiel]

this one right here?
Click to expand
seems a little pricey one newegg but if what you say is true then its definitely worth the extra $50 and its price could go down by the time I buy it.

I will check around for a better deal.

 

[rwaritsdario]

Its still EASP... but shop around, you might find a better deal.

 

[Valtiel]

Yeah i found ~$270 on mWave and ~$263 on eBay

 

[rwaritsdario]

Nice, but the real MRSP is still under that, so if you wait say after Christmas, you might get even a lower price.

 

[Valtiel]

Yeah i was planning on waiting until after christmas anyway so it all works out 8)