Gigabyte Motherboard Questions

[Azhral]

Building up a new PC, and have settled on getting either a Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P or a Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P. The UDP5 is about 20% more expensive, but comes with Full 16x/16x Crossfire (rather than 16x/8x), 10 SATA2 ports (over 8) and 2 Gigabit ethernet ports (rather than just the one). Will be using with a Phenom II X3 720 BE 2.8GHz and a Sapphire Radeon HD4770.

Question 1: Is there any other difference between these two boards that I have missed?
Question 2: What is the performance difference using Crossfire 16x/16x over 16x/8x with two HD4770's?
Question 3: After noticing the number of Gigabyte Mobos with issues in the forums, would it be a good idea to switch to another brand? Maybe an Asus M4A79T or an MSI 790FX-GD70?

Also is 2gb RAM enough these days? Should I just get 4gb anyways?

 

[jsc]

Cannot say anything about the AMD based motherboards, but DDR2 memory is cheap. Buy 4 GB.

 

[lonelypauly]

If max game-age is important, Probably go for the UD5P. 2 HD4770's in crossfire is excellent bang for your buck! Just make sure you have a fast cpu and a beefy psu.

 

[Azhral]

Getting DDR3, not DDR2. And Max Game-age isn't the most important, cost effectiveness is, basically its 20% more expensive for just 16x on the 2nd PCI-slot, all the other stuff is inconsequential, which is why I asked if there were any differences that I missed. Also, I will only have the one HD4770 to start with. The next upgrade path will add a second HD4770, double the RAM (however much I get with to start) and beef up the cooling so I can get the most out of the BE without having to resort to Water cooling or Liquid Nitrogen. And the PSU I was gonna get is an Enermax Infiniti 720w.