Asus Vs. Gigabyte

[IVIadness]

hello everybody im going to be obviously making a system and i cant decide which mother board is better the ASUS LGA 1155 SATA 6Gbps USB 3.0 Supported Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 2400 Motherboards P8Z68-V PRO (link http://www.amazon.com/6Gbps-Supported-Motherboards-P8Z68-V-PRO/dp/B00503EA80/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_c) or the Gigabyte DDR3 2133 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard (GA-Z68XP-UD4) ( link http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0054OWTJC/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1312755103&sr=8-10) my usage plans are an intel i7 2600k processor which i will probably overclock to around 4.3 GHz 2 Corsair vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz 4 gig 8 gig together i will upgrade the RAM later on though. The graphics card will be a Diamond AMD Radeon HD 6970 2GB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card 2 DVI / HDMI / 2 Mini Display Port Eyefinity and im hoping to get two / upgrade if i feel the need. Last but not least i would really love to be able to put in a Killer™ Xeno™ Pro network card later on my power supply will be a 850 watt corsair if it matters ill be using windows 7 home premium 64bit and ill be obviously mainly playing games so for my usage plans what is the best motherboard

 

[wintermint]

Hi, both ASUS and Gigabyte are quality motherboard manufacturers. I would normally go with the features the motherboard offer such as the amount of SATA connections, USB 2.0, 3.0, PCIe 2.0 x16, whether it supports x8/x8 or not, etc. Either brand would be good for you. I do have a gigabyte and I do notice how bad their bios is at the moment so keep that in mind.

If it's possible I would like to convince you to purchase the i5-2500k instead. The i7-2700k only high point is its hyperthreading. Hyperthreading will not give you the higher edge in gaming over other people. You will save $100 with the i5-2500k and get the same gaming performance.

The 850W is a lot if you plan to use a 6970. Another suggestion is to purchase a 6950 and flash it to a 6970. The 6970s are running out of stock too by the way. I think a 600-700W is enough for you. Your network card won't use much watt if any haha. Instead of the corsair vengenance, take a look at G.SKILL they cost less and are just as reliable. Great customer service by the way.

 

[IVIadness]

the 6970 is for atm ill probably get another card / upgrade in the near future. Ive done enough research on the processor though so i think ill keep the i7. What i cant find out is if i can use a 3 slot RAM system on either one and have room for 2 graphics cards and a network card.
The voltage is for when stuff gets more powerhungry and just out of interest which motherboard would you choose.

 

[Gamer-girl]

I would personally go with the Asus but both brands are good. It has a 3rd PCI-e 2.0 slot @x4

Also have you read this article about the Killer Xeno Pro

 

[IVIadness]

Ive been on several forums so as a conclusion im going to go with the gigabyte
thanks for the advice though i dont think ill be getting a Xeno anymore.

 

[clarkjd]

What i cant find out is if i can use a 3 slot RAM system on either one and have room for 2 graphics cards and a network card.

Since all of the Sandy Bridge chips(I5 or I7) only support dual channel RAM, neither will have a 3 slot Ram system.