Ivy Bridge Motherboard Recommendation

[Esparko2]

Hello,

Sales are looming over the horizon and I'm planning on doing a new computer build. I admit I don't know much about motherboards so I'll just ask for advice on what to get.

The basics of what's going to go along with the motherboard are:

Intel Core i7-3770 3.4GHz
Nvidia GTX 660
8 GB RAM

I'm not going to do any overclocking.
I will do some serious stuff on the computer such as gaming, video rendering, etc

I also read that some Motherboards need a BIOS update to work with the new Ivy Bridge processors?

Thanks for any help!

 

[vailr]

You'll get recommendations from others for Asrock's Z77 boards, but I prefer Gigabyte boards.
More $$'s, but Gigabyte's Z77X-UD5H board would be a good choice.
Note: any brand of Z77 board should run fine with any Ivy Bridge CPU.

 

[kleinkinstein]

Yup, go with the UD5H

 

[Esparko2]

Well, there's this UD5H for $135
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813128545R

Then there's a jump to this UD5H for $180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128545

What would be the difference between these two? The cheaper one doesn't have any reviews at all.
The cheaper one also has this "OPEN BOX" thing where it says:

"Newegg only guarantees your receipt of the Open Box product with the purchase of this item. Any accessories MAY OR MAY NOT be included. Newegg will NOT send you any missing accessories, even if it is required to use all of the item's functions."

What does that mean exactly? That they might not send everything with the motherboard?

 

[vailr]

"OPEN BOX" would mean: the retail cardboard box, the motherboard itself, and the anti-static bag. Any other item (such as the I/O plate) from the "full price" board kit could be missing. Or: you could get lucky...