Best motherboard for build

[OrderChaos]

Ok, so this is my first post even though I have been looking at this site for a while now.

I recently bought a new processor and mobo. The cpu is an intel e8400 and the mobo an Asus P5n-D. The Asus board had some issues and utterly failed after I attempted to update the bios.

I returned it to newegg and am getting a replacement in a couple of days, hopefully it works. If it doesn't I will return it for a refund.

This brings me to my actual question: If I do have to return the mobo and get a different one what are your recommendations? my budget would be less than $200, with duo sli (I'm amenable to tri even though I would probably never use three graphics cards).

Thanks for the help.

 

[kad]

Stay away from nForce chipset mobos
Go for X48 or P45 Intel chiset mobo
Not neccessary to SLI and actually it has lot of issues
With the price of 2 cards SLI you can always find a single card with same performance and less power cosumption and less problems
See this thread to believe the suffering of others with even high end 790i mobo and SLI
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/253207-13-need-system#bas
If you want to end up in the same position you are most welcome
But do not expect me to respond in your future post " NEED HELP SYSTEM IS NOT BOOTING"
Good luck

 

[OrderChaos]

Hmm...I was planning on getting either 2 gtx 260s, or 2 4870s (similar price and performance, but I've always used nvidia so was going to get them). What is the performance difference between two of either of those and a gtx 280? anybody know?

 

[ku4hx]

Beware of people who emphatically tell you what's bad or good; they have no place advising anyone of what to do.

The simple truth is you need to do the research and find what you believe to be the best product in your price range. Two respondents can't give you a good picture of any truth. A good place to start is www.newegg.com user reviews of your components of interest. Other sites have ratings too. But you need to do the work and do the research and decide for yourself. There are no simple answers and there are many ways to be both right or wrong.

nVidia is taking a $900m+ chargeoff because of poorly built boards and other reasons. You need to do that research and learn which ones have very high failure rates. Those might be a bad idea.

 

[OrderChaos]

I went to newegg and after reading reviews there (and other articles here about different mobos) went with the EVGA 750i FTW edition. I know kad, its an nvidia chipset, but I just wanted the option of going sli in the future should I choose to do so. Right now I am not, but the performance gains are just too tempting to stay away from. Thanks for the advice kad and ku4hx.