Help me select a mother board Please

Welcome to Tom's Forum!  

IF you're going to use QuickSync then Z68.

Z68 - GA-Z68X-UD7-B3

P67 - ASUS P8P67 WS REVOLUTION
P67 - GA-P67A-UD7-B3

Nice side-by-side {I took off the ASUS MAXIMUS IV EXTREME (REV 3.0) because of Newegg's 5 MOBO side-by-side limit -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submi...|13-128-480^13-128-480-TS%2C13-188-099^13-188-099-TS%2C13-128-499^13-128-499-TS%2C13-131-760^13-131-760-TS%2C13-131-714^13-131-714-TS

But, if I use an SSD then I don't need the quicksync and thus can use a P67 board, is that correct? I was also wanting the UEFI BIOS I think. It sounds simpler and better.

But, I was also concerned that some of the boards have PCI e slots disabled if you use the wrong slots? Or something to that effect. I know I need to read up on exactly how this all works, but have not had the time. I have been trying to research each component piece by piece and there is a bunch to learn. Thank you for the reply, I can use all the help I can get.

personally, ignoring the reviews, ive always been an asus guy. from start to now.
and asus motherboad has never disappointed me. its a very trustworthy brand for a motherboard.
if its a Z68 board you are looking for, the MAXIMUS is definitely a board i would recommend:
http://www.eio.com/p-35101-asus-maximus-iv-extreme-z-lg...

if not Z68 then i would highly suggest SABERTOOTH
http://www.eio.com/p-30601-asus-sabertooth-p67-rev-30-s...

those are both great boards, and my friend actually has the sabertooth and he's been very happy with his purchase.

Huh?! QuickSync has nothing to do with an SSD, you're confusing it with Intel RST caching.

Z68:
QuickSync - Intel's acceleration for MPEG-2/4/H.264 video creation; If you don't make movies then it's useless.
Intel RST - Intel's HDD acceleration using an SSD as a cache.

Gaming only none of that is useful, and I was 'asking' not suggesting  

The (2) MOBOs I listed are good for (2) major things: 1. OC'ing - low vCore and lower than the MAXIMUS; low vCore = low Temps = superior and Higher OC CPU, 2. NF200 which has proven to add up to +3% CF performance depending on your Monitor(s) Resolution(s).

I ass-u-me if you're looking at 3-WAY CF then you're looking at 3 monitors in Eyefinity 5760+x1080. Also, IF you're looking at Eyefinity then you need 3GB of vRAM 2GB at the very least to avoid vRAM bottlenecks from many games. Otherwise 3-WAY CF is a waste.

Using the 'wrong' PCIe slot i.e. the secondary results in the PCIe running a x8 vs x16 for a single GPU. However, you stated "Tri crossfire" which I assume to 'mean' 3-WAY CF and at that point you dealing with x8/x8/x4 on ANY non-NF200 MOBO or x8/x8/x8 for 'most' of the MOBO's and PCIe slots that I listed. Keep in mind the LGA 1155 / Sandy Bridge only has 'x16' PCIe lanes to the CPU, so in order to get more you the NF200 adds 'x16' 'fake' lanes to be ultimately funneled back into the x16 lanes to the CPU; x8/x8/x8 (24) >= {funnel} (16) CPU.

This is not a problem because the GPU's cannot 'saturate' {fill} the even x8 PCIe per GPU and the data being sent to the NF200 and is shared/split across the GPUs connected to it.

Nice article -> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/p67-gaming-3-way-sl...

Bottom-Line results - typical 1920x1080 resolution:



Bottom-Line results - typical 2560x1600 resolution:

OK Guys, thanks for the help. I am leaning toward an Asus board, I was thinking of a Sapphire, but they appear to have more issues and the support doesn't appear to be there. I can't gamble on that, I don't have enough knowledge to deal with a buggy board and no tech support.

Jaquith, thank you for setting me straight, I was confused. Thank you for the article that cleared up some of my confusion also. I am undecided on 3-way CF at this point, as of now I only have the two video cards and am trying to piece the rest of my build together. I think I will start with the two cards for now and see where it goes from there. I will probably go with the Revolution or the Maximus, I had already looked at both those boards already. Thank you very much for your help, I appreciate it, sorry I didn't reply before now, been busy at work.

Okay, good luck!