Switching to Intel from AMD, need advice on motherboards

[fpeller]

I recently purchased an AMD 7970 as an upgrade to my AMD 6870. I have an Asus M4A79XTD EVO motherboard (AM3 socket) and a Phenom II 965 (@3.8ghz OC) but it's bottlenecking my system in a massive way. Getting terrible fps in most games, worse than I was previously with my old 6870.
I need to buy a new motherboard as I think it's time I switched allegiance and purchased an i7 chip to complement my 7970 gpu.
I was thinking of getting the Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz as it is a massive step up from the AMD Phenom II 965 (See benchmark comparisons: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=551 ) but I need help deciding what motherboard to purchase. Would the Asus P8Z68-V LX be an acceptable board for such a high spec system? http://www.ebuyer.com/281367-asus-p8z68-v-lx-socket-1155-onboard-graphics-output-8-channel-audio-atx-p8z68-v-lx

Any help would be great, will be running the following system:

Cpu: i7 3770K 3.5GHz
GPU: AMD 7970
RAM: 8GB Kingston HyperX 1600mhz
SSD: 120GB Agility 3
HDD: 500GB Blue caviar 7200rpm

Cheers in advance!

 

[fpeller]

Would the MSI Z77A-G43 Z77 motherboard be alright? It's PCI 3.0 and supports 3rd gen i7's, but I cant find any information on whether the board supports 3GB of video ram. Anyone got any idea? It's very reasonably priced for a PCI 3 board. http://www.ebuyer.com/345353-msi-z77a-g43-z77-socket-1155-8-channel-hd-audio-atx-motherboard-z77a-g43

 

[abekl]

Stay away from MSI and Asrock. For a high spec system, you really want to stick with Asus and Gigabyte.

There are no compatibility issues between the amount of V-RAM and the Motherboard. So that's not an issue.

The Asus P8Z68-V LX is a good board, but it's a generation old. Consider the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H. It is a very good all around board, overclocks well, and is built very tough.

 

[RetiredChief]

Some general comments on MBs:
1) Yes I'd go the Z77 route, Native USB3 support and for the PCI-e support.
2) Of my last 5 builds, all Gigabyte MBs except last one and VERY happy with all five. Last MB was an ASRock Z68. Asus also make excellent MBs, just preferred Gigabyte.
.. Last one was the Asrock Ext4. Selected based on the fact that it had very good reviews and a Gigabyte in there infinite wisdom (blew it) did NOT offer an hdmi output - There rationale being NOBODY buying a Z68 would NEED the iDGP output.
.. A little on Asrock. They originally where Asus low end boards and were eventually spun off as a separate company. Originally they were still "Low" end MB. But that has changed as they now make some good MB.

3) On choices, I often take a look at the Newegg reviews, and the Vast majority of the Z77 board have either Low number of responses (So Not really valid), or for the ones with more than say 30 responses have terrible 1/2 (neg) reviews. Some of the low ratings could well be the Fault of the User!!

.. If I was buying I'd select one of these two:
Asus P877-V LK
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131837&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo
AsRock Extreme4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

Question, Why are you putting a LOW end SSD in such a High end system?
.. The agility III is a SATA II SSD in a SATA III wrapper. First do Not get me wrong, it will still run circles around a HDD. But in reality you could stick it on your sata II port and it would be just as fast as it would be if placed on a SATA III port. This was identified in a Review, and as I mistakenly bought 2 120 gig Agility III, I confirmed this on My i5-2500k system. Removed it and stuck it on My wife’s system on sata II port. My Normal recommendation is Crucial M4s and Samsung 830s. Do NOT recommend any of the SATA III SSDs using aSync NAND chips unless this is all that can be afforded.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I like ASUS for both intel and AMD.

 

[jitpublisher]

Gigabyte, Asrock, ASUS, Biostar, EVGA all have good products. I have been using Gigabyte and ASUS for the past few years, with no issues to speak of. I have had a few MSI boards in the past. From my experience with them, well I won't ever buy another one.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I don't care for MSI boards , but they make some decent cards.