Gaming/Overclocking Motherboard

[bryan240g]

In two weeks I am building my first computer, and now that the moment to start ordering parts(Newegg), I am changinh a few things up. Alot of people have mentioned to me since this is my first build, that an Asus mobo, would be a good choice, because they are easy even for noobs to overclock which is something I plan on doing,, but have only learned a little bit about it. Below I will again list the parts I am using so that you can decide what mobo to help me choose. This will be a gmaing machine ONLY, and some movie watching(blu-ray).

Parts:

Case- SILVERSTONE TJ09-BW Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower

Power Supply- SILVERSTONE OP1000 ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V 1000W Power Supply (the reason I went so huge with the ps, was that I plan to do some serious upgrading in the future)(watercooling)
OR
PC Power & Cooling PPCT860 ATX12V / EPS12V 860W Power Supply
Undecided

CPU-Intel E8400 or the Q9450, eventhough most everyone is saying that fro gaming only a Dual core is needed.

RAM- G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)

CPU Cooler- XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

Case Fans-(5) Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120mm

VGA Cooler-(2) Thermaltake CL-G0102 VGA Cooler

GPU-(2) EVGA 8800GT in SLI ( I already own these)

Drive-Lite-On Blu-ray drive

HDD-(2) Raid 0 Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3250310NS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

So, now you know what parts I plan to use, Give me some advice on a great overclocking mobo, for a noob that will only use this for gaming. I was gonna get the EVGA 750i but then some people made comments about it so it got me thinking, so that's why I am asking you guys. What do you think?

 

[dagger]

780i oc better than 750i, and should be on par with p35. It's no
x38/48 though. There's also 790i, but it's very expensive, plus the
extra expensive from ddr3 ram. 780i run at 1333mhz fsb natively, and
reliably oc to 1600mhz. 1600mhz = 3.2ghz on Q9450(8x) and 3.6 on
E8400(9x). There's a good chance you'll do better than 1600mhz, it's
just not guaranteed.



X38/48 runs at 1600mhz natively, and oc reliably to 2000mhz. But it doesn't support sli, only crossfire.

 

[bryan240g]

So if I get the 780i let's say, which brand should I get? Remember I have never OC'ed but want to learn, and I want to get the most out of it obviously. It will be about 2 years before I upgrade again. And let's say i go with the E8400(which I most likely will), how can I get it to OC more? I don't mind buying better or faster memory, what should I change? I can also add a RAM cooler if that might help???? If I were goind to get a DDR3 790i mobo, then I want 4gb or RAm what RAM should I get? Suggestions please.

 

[dagger]

So if I get the 780i let's say, which brand should I get? Remember I have never OC'ed but want to learn, and I want to get the most out of it obviously. It will be about 2 years before I upgrade again. And let's say i go with the E8400(which I most likely will), how can I get it to OC more? I don't mind buying better or faster memory, just not DDR3, what should I change? I can also add a RAM cooler if that might help????

Memory speed or overclocking usually don't make a noticable difference under realistic conditions. Ram cooler helps, but most ram don't ran hot enough to warrant one.

For cpu oc, not much to do except get a good cooler, and hope for a chip with low VID.