Which Asus to choose?

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lawrencendlw

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Feb 7, 2010
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My wife recently gave me the go ahead to buy or build a new computer because "The CPU is going out" on my current computer. so i was fiddling with a few options for a motherboard. i know im going with a:

Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMD8GX3M4A1600C8

ZALMAN CNPS9900ALED 120mm 2 Ball Low-noise Blue LED CPU Cooler

XCLIO Windtunnel Fully Black Finish 1.0 mm SECC Chassis ATX Full Tower Computer Case

And i have a raid max volcano 630w PS and a BFG Tech BFGE88512GTOCE GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card. so my question is what is THE best motherboard for gaming right now for the core i7 cpu? i would prefer to have a Asus board because i have had them in the past and have grown to love them. i know best is all a matter of opinion so im hoping to get several suggestions so that i can make a informed decision. I'm also looking to put a Seagate Cheetah 15K.7 ST3300657SS 300GB 15000 RPM 16MB Cache SAS 6Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive but it isnt set in stone yet but i would love to have it. So a SAS port or two on the board is a definate plus. Any inputs that you guys have for me on this issue is a huge help and i know that i can count on the toms hardware site users to set me in the right direction, you guys always have and i dont see that changing anytime soon. Oh also as to a time frame, we did our taxes a week ago and I am planing on buying the parts literally the minute that the money hits my account since i have my bank account set up to text message me immediatly as soon as any funds are deposited =). can you guys tell that im really excited and in a hurry to put this beast together? im currently running a AMD athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.6GHz with 4 gigs of ram on a HP asus board with windows vista 32bit ( im upgrading to Windows 7 64bit OEM version on the new computer.
 
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lawrencendlw

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Feb 7, 2010
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My budget isnt really a issue. Were getting $6000+ back from taxes and i just need to save some for a few things. I mean I dont want a $500 motherboard but i can do $300+ if its really by far the best. If there is a board that is like $250 and it isnt that much of a difference from the $300+ board then it wouldnt make sence to throw the money out the door you know? Is the GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard that good of a board? also it seems that it does support the SAS HHD's.
 
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wayneepalmer

wayneepalmer

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Feb 23, 2009
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If you go to Newegg and look at LGA 1366 boards, set it select for "best rated" and you will see that the ASUS P6X58D premium is far away the best rated board for your CPU. It is on sale for $284 (normally $309).

It comes with a lot of ports and slots. It has USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbs ports along with support for the new 32nm Core i7 hexacore CPU's.

Forget what is being said about Gigabyte closing on ASUS for quality. The tail of reviews tells the story. Look at the cooling flow over the board. The Gigabyte boards don't have as good an airflow path. If you mount your Zalman correctly you will pull a greater volume of air over the heatsinks on the various chipsets around the CPU on the ASUS. The cheaper Gigabytes block the airflow due how they are covered with respect to your Zalman's airflow more than aiding it.

Keeping cool is the key to longevity...that, and forward designing for upgrades (USB 3.0 and SATA 6).
 
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