Which motherboard for my build?

[jsagaga02]

Hello, I'm building my first gaming rig and was wondering if I can get suggestions and opinions on which motherboard I should get. I am favoring the Asus brand because of the large support it has on many of its mobos as well as their reputation. I am trying to find a motherboard that is future proof. The mobos from Asus that I'm trying to choose from are:

ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO
www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131398

ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131646

ASUS M4A89GTD PRO
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131631

Below are the list of the other parts that I will buy or have already been bought:

AMD Phenom II X2 555 "Castillo" Black Edition (Already bought)

Corsair TX850W (Already bought)

WD Caviar Black 750GB (Will buy)

Thermaltake v3 Black Edition Mid-Tower Case or Cooler Master HAF 922M ATX Mid-Tower Case (Will buy)

Diamond Radeon HD 5670 1024MB (Will buy)

LG GH22NS550R DVDRW Drive (Will buy)

Corsair XMS3 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 RAM or CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 or A-DATA Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333G (PC3 10666) (Will buy)

About the motherboard, I am building this rig on a budget, I bought the CPU and Power Supply from ebay for half of its retail price in brand new conditions. The total I am trying to spend on the rig is around $650-700. I want to know which motherboard to get that is better for the long run (because I will be upgrading not frequently though) as well as one with better features. If you have any suggestions on buying a motherboard from a different brand besides ASUS feel free to leave it in your response.

Thank you!

 

[violentlyhappy91]

Get the one that cheapest but still does what you need it to do. I was faced with a similar problem when I got my board. I had the choice between EP45-UD3L and the EP45-UD3P, needless to say, I bought the UD3L because I didn't need the extra stuff.

It's all in preference my friend, get what you need to run what have.

 

[jsagaga02]

Thanks for the quick response, now I have narrowed my choices between the ASUS m4a785td-v evo and the ASUS m4a88td-v evo. The ASUS m4a88td-v although is $20 more excluding the shipping that is. But I've read somewhere online that mobos with 16x/4x PCI-e slots will bottleneck your graphics card setup if you want run CrossfireX. I am not the most tech savvy, but I want a motherboard that will utilize the graphics card I buy to the max and not suppress its full potential.

 

[violentlyhappy91]

In a single card setup, you'll have no issue as long as you're using the blue slot. If you go to Crossfire with the 5670 (i don't know if you can or not), I don't think it'll bottleneck anyway.

 

[violentlyhappy91]

Looked into it for you. The HD 5670 can use Crossfire without a CF Bridge, but you would need to have a x8 rather than the x4 that the grey slot provides. I'd just recommened getting a more powerful card rather than dual-5670s though.

 

[jsagaga02]

Ahh I see. So pretty much the 4x slot is the one that will not fully utilize the graphics card potential like the 5670 right? And as long as I don't use a dual card setup like 2 5670 512mb as suppose to one 5670 1gb (use this on the blue slot) then I should be okay without worrying whether or not the graphics card being bottlenecked, right?

 

[violentlyhappy91]

Correct. Using only the x16 slot will not bottleneck your performance at all.

If you were to plug your single card into the x4 slot, I'd hit you and call you an idiot for not using the perfectly sexy x16 slot that's clearly there, but it would bottleneck.

 

[jsagaga02]

LOL pls do...Sweet okay looks like I'm going with the ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO then. It's $20 cheaper and pretty much has the same features as the other two mobos I posted. Thanks a lot for your help and Happy 4th of July!!

 

[violentlyhappy91]

No problem at all Hope everything works out well for you.