ASUS M5A97 vs. M5A88-V EVO

[tree319]

So I'm currently in a total deadlock between two mobos, the M5A97 and the M5A88-V EVO. The A97 is a little cheaper, and has UEFI bios, which is a major selling point for me. I'm a first time buyer and I'm a little worried about bios. However, the A88 has a GPU boost that could come in handy. I plan on overclocking and unlocking cores in the future.

The A88 seems to be a little easier to unlock cores with and boost my GPU, but bios worries me, and there isn't too much info out there on the board.

The A97 is a well known board that has great bios and good OC abilities. It does not advertise a GPU boost or Core-Unlocker, but I've at least read that it can unlock more cores if anything:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1078910/can-the-asus-m5a97-unlock-cores

How bad is the A88 bios? The UEFI reaallyy draws me to the A97. If you recommend any other boards, please know that I love the TPU/EPU switches ASUS offers, as well as the other auto OC and unlock features, so boards Sub $130 with those features would be awesome. I know auto OC isn't the best but it's good for newbies like myself 😛

Here's my computer's specs if it helps:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 960T
GPU: XFX Radeon 6850
PSU: Corsair TX650 V2
RAM: G. Skills Ripjaws 8gb (4gbx2)
CPU Cooler: CM Hyper 212 EVO
HDD: Hitachi 7200rpm 500gb
Case: NZXT Gamma

**NOTE- all parts listed above are final


Links to the 2 boards:
M5A97:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131767

M5A88-V EVO:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131733

 

[rage33]

Get the EVO, the bios is no big deal its basically the exact same as EUFI except it doesn't have the ability to use the mouse and looks less flashy. the EVO will have many more options for stable OCing