New Gaming Machine Build ($1000) Motherboard?

[cosmicrich]

I'm looking to build a new gaming machine, primarily for Battlefield 3, Skyrim, and Diablo 3.

My current projected PC Build.

Processor: Intel I5 2500K ($179)
Memory: Corsair 8GB Vengeance DDR3 1600 ($47)
Graphics Card: EVGA GTX 560Ti 1GB ($249)
Motherboard: ? Z68 ? Upto about $170
Power Supply: CORSAIR Gaming Series GS600 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply ($89)/Seasonic S12II 620 ($79)
Case: Rosewill Challenger ATX Mid Tower or Antec 300 ($49)
Hard Disk: Corsair Force 3 90GB SSD (As Boot Drive) ($149)
Optical Drive: LG Black Super Multi SATA WH12LS30 LightScribe Support - OEM ($79)

Any advice? The Motherboard is the unknown quantity here. I've had decent luck with ASUS and Gigabyte in the past. But I'm struggling to pick a board out.

 

[abekl]

Either of these Gigabyte boards would do your system proud:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128498
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128506

 

[AbdullahG]

The AsRock Extreme3 Gen3 is a great, solid-built motherboard. It offers many features such as PCE-E 3.0 (2x) and it's Z68. It costs close to $130. The only issue would be it's 2 year warranty. Other manufacturers offer +3 years.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271

 

[rwayne]

I have always liked the ASUS Sabertooth Boards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131702

Especially this one. I love the armor plating (or what ever you want to call it) that they place on the motherboard.

 

[g-unit1111]

Either of these Gigabyte boards would do your system proud:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128498
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128506

Second. I have the UD3P. I love that motherboard, one of the best I've ever owned.

 

[aznshinobi]

Check out my $850 build here:
http://www.squidoo.com/electronicandmore
The build will give you a great board, more power, larger case, and you can always get your SSD again since you still have $150 left. Plenty for the SSD.

 

[cosmicrich]

For Information here is the final build I selected:


Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W

ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 Mobo

Patriot Pyro PP60GS25SSDR 2.5" 60GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B

EVGA GeForce GTX560 Ti 448 Cores FTW 1280 MB GDDR5

CORSAIR Gaming Series GS600 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

LG 22X Super-Multi DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS90B - OEM

(Excluding the copy of Windows 7 - The Total came to $1008 including shipping, but prior to Mail In Rebates)

I dropped the Blu Ray re-writer to put additional money into the Graphics Card. Everything else stayed the same price pretty much except for the processor which jumped in price, I reduced the size of the SSD to balance that out.. I selected an ASUS board over Gigabyte due to what looks like a higher failure rate in the current batch of Gigabyte boards, and my good experience with the previous ASUS board.

 

[AbdullahG]

Consider the Crucial M4 for your SSD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148441

The HD 6950 2GB is also an option for cheaper (Newegg has it out of stock ATM, but Amazon has it):
http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-DVI-I-SL-DVI-D-PCI-Express-100312-3L/dp/B005X64QAG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1322948311&sr=8-5

Not much of a performance difference between the GTX 560 Ti 448 Core Edition and the HD 6950 (by several frames, the 440 Core Edition is slightly faster). You'll still max out your games with playable frames just fine.

 

[cosmicrich]

I constructed the selected build without any major problems. Although the Molex connectors from 2 of the fans on the Rosewill case were pretty shoddy, I had to tweak those, then manually select the Ram speeds, it autodetected at a slower speed. But it's running Battlefield 3 at most Ultra settings without a problem for hours at a time. So I declare myself happy with the build.

 

[AbdullahG]

I constructed the selected build without any major problems. Although the Molex connectors from 2 of the fans on the Rosewill case were pretty shoddy, I had to tweak those, then manually select the Ram speeds, it autodetected at a slower speed. But it's running Battlefield 3 at most Ultra settings without a problem for hours at a time. So I declare myself happy with the build.

Congratz! Post pics in the Tom's Member's Gallery to show it off!