Gaming Mobo - want to OC and possible SLI (LGA 1155/ Z77)

[zero koopa]

Ok so I know most everyone always says to get the ASRock mobo that comes bundled but honeslty I dont want a budget mobo. I would rather get an Asus or Gigabyte, so I have narrowed it down to these

Case: NZXT Phantom 820
CPU: i7 3770K boxed (purchased @ frys for 229.99 (microcenter price match ))
Cooler: Noctua NH-C14
Mobo:??????????
Asus P8Z77-V Pro
Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe
Asus Maximus V Formula
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3
Ram: Mushkin Backline 2 x 8gb 997069
SS Samsung 840 Pro 256 gb
HD WD Black Caviar 1 TB (I am going to have 2. One new and one from my old pc)
Power Suppply: Black Friday deal hopefully
Video Card: EVGA gtx 670 (one now, one more after 3 months)


Criteria I want:

I want to have a fast effective quiet machine.
I want to be able to hit 4.0-4.2 on air and have it stable.
I want to have the rig in SLI after 3 months
I need an optical out for my home theater
I want enough eSATA cables for 2 HDD 2 SSD and a blu ray combo.
I do not know if I was going to OC the ram but I could try for fun.
I want as many USB ports as possible. Right now I use:
2 keyboard
1 mouse
1 Xbox Controller
1 Reason ignition key
1 Line 6 pod X3
1 Webcam
1 iPod
1 Digital Camera
Total - 9
With my case, the flash card reader is in there so I will not need to hook up my camera.
I would rather have overkill on USB and keep them all neat vs. not enough.

I am not sure how the case fans hook up since the case has the fan control built in. I do
however like the fan xpert 2 of the Asus boards. One benefit of the Formula is the dual CPU fan control since I will be using the Noctua NH-C14.

My thoughts now:

As of now I am leaning towards the sniper due to the ability of SLI 16x 16X vs the rest of the boards being 8x8x. Plus, I really like the 1970's muscle car color scheme.

But I do like the wifi/bluetooth of the deluxe. I am just not sure if the deluxe can keep as steady of an OC as the formula for the same price.

Which one would you choose? Open to new boards as long as its not ASRock.

[OVerLoRDI]

The issue with aiming for dual 16x is that it is only possible through adapter chips. The PCI-E lanes are supplied by the CPU and 1155 cpus are limited to 16 lanes of PCI-E.

If you are using a video card from this generation, that supports PCI-E 3.0 plus an Ivy Bridge CPU you get 16 PCI-E 3.0 lanes. Split those lanes in half for 8 per card, 8x PCI-E 3.0 is more than enough for any video card today.

I'd recommend the Asrock Extreme4. Excellent overclocking and generally just a great mobo for the money. Check out the owners thread for more info:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2244331

[zero koopa]

I swear the anandtech forum has been either brainwashed by ASRock or its a great board. I just would rather spend more $$ and get an Asus or Gigabyte. Not to go off on a bizarre tangent but I mountain bike too. My first mountain bike was a 2009 GT Force 1.0. It had all the bells and whistels of the $4-$5k bikes with a price tag of only $1.5K. I road it and have broken the suspension linkage TWICE. The reason why I say this is because I would rather fork over an additional 100 bucks for the ease of mind and less headache of a budget company.

[OVerLoRDI]

Originally Posted by zero koopa

I swear the anandtech forum has been either brainwashed by ASRock or its a great board. I just would rather spend more $$ and get an Asus or Gigabyte. Not to go off on a bizarre tangent but I mountain bike too. My first mountain bike was a 2009 GT Force 1.0. It had all the bells and whistels of the $4-$5k bikes with a price tag of only $1.5K. I road it and have broken the suspension linkage TWICE. The reason why I say this is because I would rather fork over an additional 100 bucks for the ease of mind and less headache of a budget company.

ASRock makes a lot of great stuff at a price point that is hard to argue with. That is the reason we have all been brainwashed.

You can spend more if you want:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157299

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157328

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157322

[TechBoy101]

If you want Quiet why not go with liquid cool?? I saw one on sale this morning in a pre-Black Friday ad for $70. Gigabyte's sniper 3 has been out for a while, no? I know they had a new board come out UP4 or UP5 or something Z77X as well it has thunderbolt and I think those can all do SLI easily.

[rgallant]

Asus Maximus V Formula -this

I gave up on the x16 + x16 z77 once the chip switching was laid out , even the M5E with a plx chip will bypassed the plx chip when only 2 cards are used - not degrade the gpu's ,as mentioned pci-e 3.0 @ x8 + x8 will do for the next few generation's of gpu's.
-also asus delayed the M5F and M5E ,waiting I guess for retail chips before they built the boards, so could be viewed as second generation boards.

-mines been plug and play but I only run it @ 4.6 7/24 ,it's been so stable that I'm 2 bios updates behind and I don't think I need them for now.

"I do not know if I was going to OC the ram but I could try for fun."

- no point to oc ram when you can buy ram cheap that runs at 2400 using the xmp, IMO
-non xmp has tons of sub settings to adjust to be stable ,fun for some but not for me ,there's not a lot of speed up[if any] of the system ,for the time \ effort every bios update.

"I want to be able to hit 4.0-4.2 on air and have it stable."

-4.5-4.6 is a easy ,stable oc on most ib systems with your hardware. after that , start looking at a big increase in vcore on non golden chips maybe.

-good luck on your build

[pauldun170]

I went with as rock because of too many stories of flakey gigabyte and Asus z68 boards.

[snoylekim]

Asus P877-WS ...??

[red454]

My ASUS Z68 Maximus Gene-Z board has been fine for a year now. Nothing flakey about it for me.

Giving my current MB and processor to my son.

Just got a 3770K and will order a Maximus V Formula board next week.