Motherboard for a GTX 690

just get an Asus p8z77-V pro, you won't regret it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

gigabyte UD5H-Z77X provides almost every possible feature you need for a reasonable price-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
SLi/CF,solid overclocking,very durable and high quality components.
here's a great review-
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/gigaby...
anything more expensive will not show any good difference.

will these work well with a I7 2600K cpu?
I read a bit here and there and that just made me more confused, so now I'm not sure. Should I get a z77 at all? I have a sabertoooth p67 now, but I'd like to upgrade because of the pci-e 3.0 and the gtx 690.

Why do I always get stuck on the details? I should just close my eyes and klick the order button   (on the other side, my builds are usually very stable, no bsod for me)  

in order for pci-e 3.0 to work, you need to have an intel ivy bridge cpu(e.g. i5 3570k/ i7 3770k). With your sandy bridge 2600k, the pci-e will only work as 2.0 since all the new pci-e 3.0 motherboards are backwards compatible.

I say keep the sabertooth p67 for now unless you want to upgrade the cpu as well, IMHO, ivy bridge isn't worth upgrading from sandy bridge. Also your gtx690 won't even use the full bandwidth of a pci-e 2.0 slot, let alone pci- 3.0

As of now, we do not need pci-e 3.0 since no single graphic card actually uses that amount of bandwidth so you will not notice any differences in performance. Save your money for now and then upgrade the mobo is 1-2 years when gpus finally start using pci-e 3.0
Getting a z77 mobo will be a waste of money as of now.

while this is true, the gtx690 is the single card that is arguably bottlenecked by pcie2.0 x16. by around 3-5%. even so, the rest of these guys are right. keep your p67 board for now, get a haswell i7 next year  

you got a beast motherboard bro,the z77 benefits are negligible.enjoy your 690.

PCIe 3.0 will only provide you an increase if your playing in 5760x1080p or higher resolution.

In 2560x1440p it shown a +10-20score increase in 3dmark11 so lets say its nothing.

But well for the price difference it still worth to go for PCIe3.0 I'd say.

upgrade from a sabretooth p67? one of the best P67 board? i do't think that it is worth upgrading.there are hardly any useful features on z77.

if you already own the mobo well no it doesnt worth to upgrade at all.

as far as what the performance difference is between 2.0 and 3.0 @x16 this is a good read:
Ivy Bridge PCI-Express Scaling with HD 7970 and GTX 680
unless you can tell the difference between 133.6 and 134.2 FPS, it is a non issue, even if your grandmother is wearing purple underwear.

EDIT: removed mobo suggestions be cause i didn't completely read/comprehended the OP. my bad

ROFL!

If your going to upgrade, just purchase Z77 and be PCI 3.0 ready. Not worth purchaseing a 67 chipset or 68 chipset mobo if your buying something new. You might as well set yourself up for future upgrades versus buying a older chipset and hindering yourself or costing your self more money in the long run.

I'd recommend you look at Asus Z77 pro or MSI Z77 related mobo with two PCI 3.0 slots. Continue using your same Sandy Bridge processor for right now. When the time comes in a couple years to utilize PCI 3.0, upgrade to Ivy Bridge at that time. That is the most logical thing to do. Good luck!

Random question but its about motherboards... i have a msi motherboard (military class iii) "Z77A-GD65" and I noticed on the motherboard's LED display that it has a number showing "03" I looked in the manual and it says "Power on North Bridge Initialization" can anyone dumb this up for me or where i should go to fix this.. if its a problem that needs to be fixed... thanks

@all,OP already has a Sabretooth P67, a very solid board,there's no solid reason to upgrade to a z77 board IMHO.

well i have my computer already built with the z77 i just was concerned about what is going on

^read the first post carefully.

@OP, to summarize: you have a wonderful mobo already, and the i7 2600 CANNOT use pcie3.0 even if you got a z77 mobo. it is absolutely not worth the money to upgrade to ivy bridge just for a 2% performance difference for the 690.

Haha, that just made my day!

I'll post my spec below  

Haha, that just made my day!


My spec now is:

Asus Saberthooth p67
Intel Core I7 2600k (stock cooling for now)
2x msi gtx 560ti sli
Corsair dominator DHX 8 GB RAM
Corsair 750w psu
others:
2x sata2 SSD, creative sound card and 3 sata2 HDD for storage

So I want to upgrade and I was thinking like mentioned before:
MSI or Asus gtx 690
a new mobo for the gtx 690/pci-e 3.0
I'll swap the psu with modular one, probably corsair 850W gold, mine is non modular.
Noctua NH-D14 cpu cooler
Corsair 256MB SSD perfomance pro

So my idea was to upgrade the mobo so I could use the pci-e 3.0, I haven't had a chance to update myself about hardware lately so I wasn't aware of the need for Ivy bridge requisite for pcie 3.

After reading your comments I think maybe I should just keep my mobo for now and get another ssd or something instead.
I don't feel like upgrading the cpu as well, not too much gain there I assume. (Don't yell at me if I'm wrong)  

(sorry for double post)

you're cutting down the grfx power consumption by approx. 25% moving from a SLI 560ti to a 690. (159*2 compared to 274)


and since you are using 5 drives, even with getting a modular PSU i don't know if it will relieve any cable management; you're already using a lot for the peripherals. honestly i don't know what to tell you; that rig looks great and i cannot recommend a cost effective "upgrade".

I read somewhere, Tom's I think, that in order for a build to truly use the benefits of PCI 3.0 they have to be running two 690's. The reason has to do with lane allocations with two cards instead of one.

Good point!  

my upgrade is "free". I get the parts and my work gets the bill  
I'll put 1 of the sata2 ssd in a laptop, it's a 128GB and I need more space.
I also have another pc just standing there with no psu..so I can put the modular one there and see if I can find a use for it.
Maybe I'll end with just getting the ssd and the cpu cooler  

Thanks for your replies peeps, it's been food for thoughts!