Which one should I get?

[jkeaton88]

I am planning to have Intel i7 970 for my new system. I am trying to decide between the following:

1) Asus Rampage III Extreme - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131642&cm_re=rampage_3_extreme-_-13-131-642-_-Product

2) MSI Bigbang XPower - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130289&cm_re=msi_xpower-_-13-130-289-_-Product

3) Gigabyte G1.Sniper - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128471&cm_re=gigabyte_g1-_-13-128-471-_-Product

Which brand offers the most stability, performance, and lifespan? I know that many of you will say Rampage III Extreme, but I would like to know why. I am guessing many people will choose that board just because it is made by Asus. I know Asus is a top-notch brand for motherboards but what makes it different than other competitive brands out there (MSI, EVGA, Gigabyte, etc.)?

I am not limited to a specific budget but I would not want to spend too much or too little on a motherboard. Anywhere between $250-450 would be reasonable. Also, I am not planning to overclock my system.

 

[Rusting In Peace]

They are all as likely to fail as each other and any performance between them does not merit the additional cost.

I'd go for the MSI and if you still have money left in your budget then pick up a better CPU / GPU / SSD.

 

[4745454b]

Why get the 970 when the 2500/2600 is just as good?

 

[geofelt]

Why do you want those types of motherboards?

They are very expensive compared to alternatives.
Their main draw is the ability to run more than two discrete graphics cards on multiple X16 pci-e slots.

If you have a unlimited budget, and are planning on a 6 core Intel cpu, then your application needs to be heavily multithreaded to justify the 6 core cpu.
But, then a motherboard at half the price will do just as well.

If, on the other hand, you are interested in triple sli of GTX580 class cards(crazy IMHO), for gaming, then the sandy bridge 2500K/2600K will be superior to any 6 core cpu.

If your budget is less than unlimited, sandy bridge is the only way to go.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Unless you are doing very heavy multi-threaded or multi-tasking work I would advise that you moved to the 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processors. If you are going to be mainly gaming then you would want to be using the Intel Core i5-2500K. Right now very few games will take advantage more than 3 threads because of that the value for hyper-threading or even more cores then 4 becomes very minimal. So right now the Intel Core i5-2500K is seen as the best value and very close to the top in performance for a gaming processor right now.

With the change to the 2nd generation Intel Core processors you can move to the a P67 or Z68 board and use the money that you saved to get an SSD like the Intel SSD 320 80GB.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team