Motherboard for i7 870

[Espada]

okay ive read around sata 3 and usb 3.0
im getting an i7 870
first thing is first i do not plan to ever crossfire or sli just getting 1 graphics card that can do all, and upgrading if i ever need to.
now i need a good motherboard to can handle light overclock first at 3.6ghz till i get a good hs/fan to go 4ghz.
overclocking the video card as well as the ram.
i really only wanna pay $150ish $200 max is fine.
ive been looking at the
GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P
and
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro

so between those two motherboards. i am getting an ssd sata 3. so if i use the ssd and only one graphics card the pcie will still be at x16? and i wont see any performance drop. what ive read if sata 3 or usb3 is running the pci e x16 will run on pci e x8 or is that only when you crossfire? so if i dont have to crossfire i will have the satisfaction of running 1 x16 pci-e and have sata 3 and usb 3 at full speed?

 

[Espada]

dont matter for me the case i have can fit m-atx and atx.
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W
Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 4GB 1600mhz 7-9-7-24
5850 or the new 6870 not sure yet.
2 dvd drives
250gb hdd
1 sata 3 ssd 64gb
just want something that can use usb3 and sata 3 without taking the bandwidth away from my primary video card. and not to expensive.

 

[davcon]

Both those boards are excellent choices.
MSI has some very affordable boards the P55A-GD55,P55A-GD65 pretty much have the same features as the Asus and Gigabyte.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627%2050001314%20600007888&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=280%7C13-130-291%5E13-130-291-TS%2C13-131-621%5E13-131-621-TS%2C13-131-601%5E13-131-601-TS%2C13-130-298%5E13-130-298-TS%2C13-128-409%5E13-128-409-TS

 

[Espada]

thx but davcon which one of those boards wont have the bandwidth problem or are all boards the bandwidth on the graphics card be limited because of sata 3 and usb 3.0?

 

[Espada]

okay well i looked at hose motherboards. might not get sata 3 and usb 3
honestly might get 5770 and crossfire it down the road. now im pretty sure i can still use the 600W psu i put up there on those and still oc the cpu to 4ghz?

 

[davcon]

thx but davcon which one of those boards wont have the bandwidth problem or are all boards the bandwidth on the graphics card be limited because of sata 3 and usb 3.0?

The only boards known to have the 3/3 limitations when Xfired are the lesser and middle range Gigabyte boards.
The MSI's and the Asus don't have that issue they are 1156 gen 2 boards.

 

[Ar-el-es]

Yes, if you aren't going to use crossfire you'll have enough bandwidth to run Sata3 and USB 3.0 together.

 

[Espada]

okay so if using any of the msi and asus and im running sata 3 and usb 3.0 i wont have limitation on just one gpu so i can run the 5850 at x16. but if i crossfire then the sata 3 and usb3 will bottleneck my gpu.

 

[davcon]

okay so if using any of the msi and asus and im running sata 3 and usb 3.0 i wont have limitation on just one gpu so i can run the 5850 at x16. but if i crossfire then the sata 3 and usb3 will bottleneck my gpu.

The Asus and MSI boards will not be bottleknecked when two gpus are used they are 2nd gen boards and use a separate chipset for usb 3 and sata 3.
The Gigabyte is a 1st gen board and the usb3 and sata 3 shared pci-e lanes with the gpus which caused limitations.

 

[Espada]

Best answer selected by Espada.