Advice on Z68 board...

[jcro9909]

I am an amateur in the PC building community and am currently specing out for my order. I am looking at building a Intel Core I5 2500K system as it seems this will be the best "bang for the buck"

I have found a TON of posts regarding which mobo to use but to be totally honest as an amateur I just dont understand why I would use a particular mobo. So I guess what I am asking of you guys is to steer me in a solid direction as to what I want to buy and why...I guess my main question is do I get signifigant benefit by buying a more expensive mobo vs buying an entry level board? I will probably eventually try some basic overclocking but I dont forsee any serious performance attepts made.

I am looking to spend around a 1000$ and am primarily a MMO gamer. I play on a 40 LCD TV most of the time.

Here is a basic list of what I am looking at purchasing so far.

Intel Core I5 2500K Processor
OCZ Modstream Pro Power Supply 700W
Intel 320 Series 80Gb SSD
Radeon 6950 1GB or Nvidia 560ti
Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium

Anyone want to take a stab and help a newbie out? Thanks in advance!

I guess in a perfect world Id get a good name mobo for around 150$ or less. I would consider spending more if you feel I need it and would get a good performance boost as well.

 

[Promethus]

I recommend this one, it's a gen3 therefore it will be fairly futureproof, it'll be compatible with Ivy Bridge and PCIE 3.0 when they come up.

ASUS P8Z68-V/Gen3

 

[HostileDonut]

Well, if you are spending $1000 on a PC, improve that PSU. just because it says 700w, doesn't mean it can support 700w of power. That PSU supports 550w on the 12v rails. I would get a Corsair, Antec, XFX, Seasonic, or PC Power and Cooling PSU. As for the motherboard, spending around $150 can get you a pretty decent motherboard. I would get this board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128507 I know it's a bit more than $150, but it is a great board. It has a great cooling system and many power phases helping in the OC part of the system. It is also a z68 platform, and has SLi and CF to future-proof your build some more. It is also made by GIGABYTE, a very reliable board maker.