Good asus gaming motherboard

[pheonix1984]

My friend is looking to build a new pc and his birthday is coming up so I was thinking of picking up a motherboard for him to get him started. He is partial to asus and intel and the pc will be used mainly for gaming. I know he wants to have at least 2 vid cards using crossfire and maybe a third. I don't if he wants a sandy bridge or just a i7-9** and I don't know the dif. He also would like usb 3.0 and at least 4 pcie 2.0 slots. I have a $500 budget (Canadian). Any suggestions would be great, Thanks

 

[o1die]

Go for the 2500K and gigabyte z68 board with 4 ram slots. You should find both within your budget. Gigabyte quality has surpassed asus lately.

 

[HDTH]

I have always relied on ASUS for great boards, most of ASUS boards will do just fine but if you really want a high end one i would recommend a Sabertooth P67 or a Asus P8P67. There are several versions of the Asus P8P67 and it comes down to the amount of gadgets but the Asus P8P67 Deluxe seems a good choice. These boards should be around the same price and have many great functions that includes good OC capabilities. Now if you want the ultimate board you could go with the Asus R.O.G. Maximus IV Extreme. Even though its got a great performance it losses out on value since its not really worth the premium compared to the Sabertooth or the Deluxe. Just check before which CPU he wants and check if there compatible with the board on the ASUS site.
Hope this helps.