Which MOBO for new Gaming Rig?

[Draiko333]

Hi all,

I'm currently looking to build a new gaming rig and I'm having trouble deciding on which motherboard to use. Hoping some of you can provide some input and opinions. I've looked at benchmarks and reviews and get mixed results all the time.

First of all I should mention I plan on using an i5 760, with either 2x Asus Radeon HD 6870 or 2x EVGA GeForce GTX 460 FTW, and 4 GB of DDR3 1333 RAM.

I don't know anything about overclocking, and I don't know if I would ever try as I'm afraid of damaging my computer. I did however notice some of these boards come with some sort of auto-OCing feautres (Asus TurboV EVO and MSI OC Genie). I might give those a try if they're safe enough to use 24/7 without melting my computer. I have been told already though that these features aren't recommended... so I might skip on those.

Now for the boards:

ASUS P7P55D Deluxe = $132.64
Gigabyte P55A-UD4P = $162.92
MSI P55A-GD65 = $149.99
ASUS Sabertooth I55 = $151.84

As someone who is a noobie to OCing and computer building in general; what's the recommended board? I intend to order through NCIX and have the computer built before arrival, so if you wish to recommend a different board than the ones I listed just make sure it's available through NCIX.
(Prices are from Pricebat as NCIX does price matching).

Thanks in advance for taking the time to help!

P.S. If anyone has any recommendations for a computer case under $100 which will provide sufficient cooling feel free to pipe in! As it stands now I'll probably be getting the NZXT Hades.

 

[Halogen23]

If I had to choose between the boards listed, I would probably choose the Sabertooth. Yet, I think these two boards are worth looking at:
ASUS P7P55D PRO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131405
MSI P55-GD65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130239

Overclocking can be intimidating at first, but once you understand the underlying principles it just becomes fun. What you will quickly learn is that the practice the the 'Dark Art' is really just knowing how things work together on the motherboard and is quite safe, if done properly. The guys here on AT are sure to give you a hand and are probably some of the most knowledgeable on the subject.

I second your pick for a case. From what I can tell its a bit loud, but you probably cant find such a well cooled case for less money.

 

[Draiko333]

If I had to choose between the boards listed, I would probably choose the Sabertooth. Yet, I think these two boards are worth looking at:
ASUS P7P55D PRO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131405
MSI P55-GD65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130239

Overclocking can be intimidating at first, but once you understand the underlying principles it just becomes fun. What you will quickly learn is that the practice the the 'Dark Art' is really just knowing how things work together on the motherboard and is quite safe, if done properly. The guys here on AT are sure to give you a hand and are probably some of the most knowledgeable on the subject.

I second your pick for a case. From what I can tell its a bit loud, but you probably cant find such a well cooled case for less money.

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately NCIX does not offer either of those boards (They have the ASUS P7P55D-E Pro and the MSI P55A-GD65 however). Not sure what the difference is exactly. :\

A loud case kind of concerns me... but then again the case I have now sounds like a jet engine so it's nothing I'm not already accustom to I suppose lol. Thanks for the input.

 

[Halogen23]

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately NCIX does not offer either of those boards (They have the ASUS P7P55D-E Pro and the MSI P55A-GD65 however). Not sure what the difference is exactly. :\

A loud case kind of concerns me... but then again the case I have now sounds like a jet engine so it's nothing I'm not already accustom to I suppose lol. Thanks for the input.

I wouldnt worry too much about the noise of that case... the people who reviewed it seemed like they were having to really look for faults. Seems that NZXT cases as of late are quite excellent and, if you're not satisfied with how loud your system gets, you can always just get a fan controller or some new fans.

 

[Termie]

I'd go for the Gigabyte. I have the Asus P7P55D Evo, and there are some problems with the bios on all the P7P55D models. If you do decide to go for the Asus, check out this forum: http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P7P55D+Deluxe&board_id=1. Apparently, a new Bios has just been released, and you'd want to install it as soon as possible. It fixed some overclocking problems related to Speedstep.

By the way, Turbo V is not stable. Anything you can do with it you can do in the Bios more reliably. You can use it for some general guidelines as to the voltage increases you'll need (it automatically increases voltages on various components as you pick target overclocks), and then try these in the Bios yourself.