Best Motherboard Recommendation – Dec. 2010

shirodx

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Dec 15, 2010
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You all here seem to me to be the most knowledgeable around when it comes to the best hardware out there.

So I really need your help in figuring out which motherboard to get.
I’ve decided on an i7-950 cpu so the board has to be LGA 1366.

It’s going to be for gaming\video editing (Heavy on the gaming).
I will over clock, 12GB of RAM (Haven’t decided on the RAM yet), and will be running RAID and SLI in the future. Going with an GTX 570 video card, PSU??

Preferences’: I was really burned by ASUS (Purchased a $400 Striker Extreme II board and had to deal with the whole dreaded “CPU INIT” error crap). So I really want to stay away from ASUS, definitely no nforce chipsets, but I am still open to an ASUS board as long as it comes highly recommended.

I don’t have any experience with Gigabyte or EVGA but am open to them.

Spending limit is $200 - $269 Canadian.

I really want the best board within that price range that’s great for gaming, stays cool for overclocking, and runs properly with most RAM.

Thinking about the ASUS Sabertooth. Any thoughts??

Looking to purchase this week.

Thanks in advance!
 

zergesys

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Nov 6, 2010
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If you plan on going intel, it will be worth waiting a little while before getting your system together. Intel's new Sandybridge chips are coming very soon (January), and promise to deliver some great power at a reasonable (well, for Intel) price-point.
The new boards for them are also looking quite neat, like ASUS' new 'air flow cover' motherboard style and Gigabyte's new beefy motherboard MOSFET designs.
 
G

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Yup, I would also suggest for you to wait for the next Intel Sandy Bridge core processor LGA 1155. It's coming out this January 5, 2011. Its fastest CPU is the quad core i7 2600K 3.4 GHz priced a $317. Initial test looks promising as it can be overclocked air cooled up to 5.0 GHz. Wait more & by the end of next year, you'll geting an 8 core Sandy Bridge core processor that will support DDR3 Tri & Quad Channel memory.

In terms of motherboard, I'll go with Gigabyte. Though Asus is a heavy favorite since the past. Gigabyte seems to be gaining grounds in motherboard battle. There's a nice Gigabyte motherboard that will also come out January 15, 2011 for the Sandy Bridge core processor. Check on the link below.

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1956&pageID=9780
 

shirodx

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Hmm it's gonna be hard to wait but I think that will be the better thing to do.
I'm just not sure how reasonable "price wise" the Sandy Bridge CPU's and motherboards are going to be vs the performance gains over the current i7's.

The new motherboards (Thanks for the Giga link) do look sweet.

Any idea just how much more of a performance the Sandy Bridge CPU's are going to be over the current i7's?

 

zergesys

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I'm getting some conflicting information on the specific time in January. Some say 9th, others say 5th, that's why I didn't say the day but rather the month.

In general, though. Sandybridge Performance models = Jan 2011 5/9, Mainstream models = Feb 2011 20/27.

I'd put my money on the 9th.