need help selecting gaming mobo

hi, i am looking for stability, compatibility, performace, and quality

the system is being built from scratch and I could use suggestions on everything but am starting on the mobo 1st

this is mostly for gaming and then also as everyday computer

i am thinking about spending $1000 or maybe a little more so I do not need fresh out of the oven cutting edge but close to it when speaking of the CPU and GRFX card (memory and mobo should have less restrictions $ wise)

if anyone has thoughts on the grafx card that would be great too. i am not looking at SLI. I want power and STABILITY (does not run too hot)

i will not be overclocking anything

i dunno that I want water cooled as I have never set one of those up yet

thank you for reading and any comments

p.s. 1 last thing

I had a creative Xfi sound card on my current system

it sounded great but had crackling issues

i has to take it back. this issue is widely known concerning all flavors of the xfi sound card from creative

i heard certain mobos had no crackiling so if anyone has comments on that, that would be great

otherwise i will wait til creative releases a better card with no crackles

thanks for the reply. before you posted i had selected the following parts. i had some similar parts to your suggestions and also had looked at those you suggested beforehand too. feel free to comment on anything. i am not locked into anything yet. the total is ~$1400. newegg actually raised the total by $10 since i made the wishlist so i was not happy about that. i am not in a big hurry and might wait for this price to drop a little. i might buy elsewhere also.


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Quick question since I am at the junction of upgrading my AGP System (with a very old Motherboard in use) or building a moderate PCI-E system.

Shouldn't the majority of his $1K build allowance be spent on the Motherboard, CPU, PSU, and Case? Rather than the GPU, RAM, etc? Since a case is the item least likely to be changed during the lifetime of the computer, followed by the PSU, Motherboard, and CPU.

I'm sure there are other factors, but I'm just not keen to them.

Mado