Asus or DFI, can't decide

[cloudhopper]

Hi,

i'm unable to decide between to mobos and i hope to get feedback from some owners or people that are "in the know".

This will be my first real OC for myself and the last time i OC'ed anything was back when CPUs came in slots not sockets.
The target would be a Quad Core Intel with a Speed of 3 maybe 3.2GHz with 8GB of RAM and taking advantage of ATIs 4870. I'm not a huge fan of having Liquids near my electronics, so the lot will be aircooled.

Here is the setup as it's currently planned:
- Intel Q9450
- OCZ QuadKit 8GB DDR2 800 Platinum CL4
- Sapphire Radeon HD4870 (and please if somebody could launch a 1GB model.....)
- Scythe Mugen

And now the motherboards that i'm torn between and hoping to get some input on:
- Asus Rampage Formula
- DFI LanParty UT X48-T2R

I'm a long term Asus customer, had their (top-end) boards in my computers for years now, i like the BIOS, i like the quality of the board and i never ever had one single issue with them.
DFI on the other hand, always attracted my attention, but as i never intended to OC the computers, i never bought one.

But now as i want to OC, the DFI gets more and more of my attention. Especially as the cooling solution on the UT version fits my needs perfectly, keeping in mind that i want to aircool the system, the externa heatsink is a nice idea.
What i have been warned of though, is that the DFI BIOS tends to be a bit complicated for a first time overclocker and the Asus will be easier to use. I have seen screenshots and guides for the BIOS and it appears ok to me.

So the core questions would be:
- how hard is it to achieve what i want with the DFI compared with the Asus?
- will the RAM work on the DFI or would i need to look for something different if i decide to go with the DFI?

Cheers for the feedback!

 

[auscanzukus]

If you want to play on a mobo, get Rampage. If you want to play with a mobo, get DFI. Can't be simpler than that.

 

[jitpublisher]

I prefer the DFI. Although, unless the sites you saw with the DFI BIOS had about 39 screen shots, you have not seen everything there is to see in the DFI BIOS.
It is okay though, like you say. Most stuff you won't need to mess with, but if you really like to tweak, my god the settings just go on and with page after sub-page after sub-page of variable settings for every little thing you can think of(and a lot you haven't thought of), including in depth voltage adjustments for practically everything on the board.

Both boards are solid though. It's pretty much just what the auscanzukus said.

 

[cloudhopper]

Thanks, this would be confirming my initial tendency towards the DFI then.
The information i refer to is mostly from clunk.org.uk where i spent a lot of time over the last days reading his reviews of various DFI products.

One questions remains though, will my choosen memory, the OCZ quad kit run on the DFI?
I only found something about OCZ not working on the DFI, is that something in general or on freak occurence?

 

[modtech]

Generally x38/x48 boards sometimes have a grudge against certain RAM, which is not limited to one brand and is pretty random. But there's no reason for alarm, you shouldn't run into this kind of problem if you update the bios and set the correct voltage manually.

 

[auscanzukus]

Or if the 4 sticks won't post, clear cmos, try each stick of ram in each slot until post, set up memory in bios.