I'm looking at building to build a gaming/general purpose rig soon and I'm trying to settle on a motherboard.
I'm wanting to overclock an i5 2500k, mostly for value. I plan on cooling it with a Corsair A50. I'd be delighted with a stable 4.5 GHz and could be satisfied with a bit less. I'd probably clock the system back down at or near stock a lot of the time, assuming the included BIOS/software doesn't make switching between different OC profiles a hassle. I want this system to last me at least ~2.5 years as my main PC and beyond that as a nice hand-down.
Also, while I don't plan on running 2 GPUs to start with, I'd like to have SLI/Crossfire open as a possibility down the line.
From what I can tell, the Z68MA-ED55 seems like a pretty good fit at $140 shipped, $110 after rebate. Do you guys think I'm correct in this assessment?
Other boards I've been considering include the Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 (pros vs the ED55: inexpensive without a rebate, x8/x8 SLI/xfire), the ASRock Extreme3 Gen3 and Extreme4 (which are feature-rich but seem to be plagued with some technical issues) and more expensive options which seem to have everything I want/need and more, but come with price tags that I feel might kill the value proposition.
Opinions? Would running x16/x4 really be noticeably inferior to x8/x8 if running, say, xfired 6950s? Does anybody know the exact phase count for the ED55 (I think it's 6+4?) or is able to attest to the quality to this board's VRM vs. the alternatives I mentioned? Is there anything else I may be missing, or another board you'd recommend?
Thanks.
I'm wanting to overclock an i5 2500k, mostly for value. I plan on cooling it with a Corsair A50. I'd be delighted with a stable 4.5 GHz and could be satisfied with a bit less. I'd probably clock the system back down at or near stock a lot of the time, assuming the included BIOS/software doesn't make switching between different OC profiles a hassle. I want this system to last me at least ~2.5 years as my main PC and beyond that as a nice hand-down.
Also, while I don't plan on running 2 GPUs to start with, I'd like to have SLI/Crossfire open as a possibility down the line.
From what I can tell, the Z68MA-ED55 seems like a pretty good fit at $140 shipped, $110 after rebate. Do you guys think I'm correct in this assessment?
Other boards I've been considering include the Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 (pros vs the ED55: inexpensive without a rebate, x8/x8 SLI/xfire), the ASRock Extreme3 Gen3 and Extreme4 (which are feature-rich but seem to be plagued with some technical issues) and more expensive options which seem to have everything I want/need and more, but come with price tags that I feel might kill the value proposition.
Opinions? Would running x16/x4 really be noticeably inferior to x8/x8 if running, say, xfired 6950s? Does anybody know the exact phase count for the ED55 (I think it's 6+4?) or is able to attest to the quality to this board's VRM vs. the alternatives I mentioned? Is there anything else I may be missing, or another board you'd recommend?
Thanks.
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