Top 3 MOBO's to OC (Details inside)

Get ddr2-800 ram, it'll be much easier to oc then if you use 533. The choices of hsf depend on your definition of "expensive", the best air coolers around right now cost around $50. The Thermalright Ultra 120+, Tuniq Tower 120 and the Thermalright Ultra 120 are all excellent coolers. The top 3 mobos off the top of my head are: Asus P5B Deluxe, Asus P5W DH Deluxe, Gigabyte DS3. Well, those are the most popular oc'ing boards. There are many more superb mobos out there, the Intel Bad Axe series, the Asus Commando, the Gigabyte DQ6, DFI Infinity 975X/G, Asus Striker Extreme, there are just too many awesome boards to pick just 3.

i will be ocing them and putting up picture by picture guides i was asking which ones... thanks =)

The three best platforms for C2D?

1) IN9 32X Max
2) AW9D-Max
3) AB9 QuadGT

Key features:

a) Rational, humane BIOS (Phoenix Award), without an overwhelming number of screens and user defined fields to worry about. Still does whatever you'd need it to do though...

b) uGuru software allows users to access key BIOS features from the desktop. Built in temperature, fan, and voltage monitoring. Can be set to give audible warning signal when certan events occur, or automatically shut down system, for instance, if CPU temp reaches a certain level, or the HS/F drops below user specified RPM. nVidia nTune software has some these features too, but only with their own chipsets.

c) Most of the high-end Abit boards support a proprietary controller panel which fits into a 5.25" bay. This is really a neat piece of hardware. Since it's powered by its own chip, it will continue hardware monitoring even after a system failure. Another nice feature: the controller panel allows the user clear CMOS by depressing a button on the front of the machine. That means you won't have to take off the side panel and mess around with a tiny jumper every time you screw up your memory timings (which is bound to happen oftener than you think).

To be fair, there are a few negatives:

d) Lousy customer support. Do not expect email inquiries to be answered promptly; you'll be lucky to get a response at all. Btw, all Taiwanese companies, including Asus, MSI, etc, seem to have really lousy customer support in their US branch offices. Maybe Gigabyte is different. I've heard they are pretty good.

e) Infrequent BIOS updates. This is bad, especially with brand new boards, which oftener than not have a few kinks to work out.

f) Expensive. This is another real bummer

Regarding heatsink/fans: I'm using a Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX in both of my systems. Excellent cooler. I saw a comparison some guy did which had it outperforming the Tuniq Tower once the crappy stock 120mm was replaced with a Panaflo. But anyway, the Tuniq is also excellent (if you can find them in stock anywhere - haha!). One more piece of info regarding the BT VX - it uses the same mounting mechanism as the stock Intel cooler. Some people love it, since it's tooless and doesn't require you to use a mounting bracket on the back of the motherboard. But a lot of other people hate it, since the heatsink can get loose or even fall off completely if you give your case a good whack.

I would put the AB9 QuadGT in as one of the top 3 mobos too & I would also suggest better RAM than DDR2 533.