Best Motherboard money can buy!

[rashhashan]

Hey guys so heres the run down...
1) i will be running 2-3 Radeon HD 5870s
2) i am a noob at overclocking but i learn fast so i will be
3) water cooling will probably be a must given the OC
4) I am planning on using an Intel Chip... probably i7 Extremem Edition ( Best Money Can Buy)...unless someone can give me a good reason to go AMD
5) if i have missed some aspect plz tell me

So with all that said what mobo would you recomend...oh yea and heres my case
www.ttlevel10.com/

thnx guys,
Rashhashan

 

[saint19]

Hi newcomer and welcome to the Tom's hardware forum.

Since u have one of the most expensive case in the market, I think that for u isn't a problem go for one of this two.

1- ASUS P6X58D Premium
2- GIGABYTE X58A-UD7

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums
Well,instead of 2 HD 5870s you can go for a single 5970 which performs about 10% slower(which isn't much) but its cooler and quieter and has less power consumption and also 3-way CrossFire doesn't scale very well.
Also i don't think you will need an i7 Extreme edition,since you want to OC then go for something like i7 930 and OC it and save some $.
As for motherboard,i agree with SAINT,those are good choices

 

[Henry Chinaski]

In my opinion ,this mobo is the new queen: ASUS RAMPAGE III EXTREME (for i7 9xx cpu).

Here you have a review:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-rampage-iii-extreme-review/

 

[Lmeow]

I'd also have to go with the ASUS Rampage III Extreme.

 

[capt_taco]

Most important things to remember:

1. Crossfiring three cards is not worth it; the third card hardly adds any performance
2. Crossfiring three cards is not worth it; the third card hardly adds any performance
3. Crossfiring three cards is not worth it; the third card hardly adds any performance

Once you've got those three things covered, you can put the extra $400 you were going to spend on the third 5870 back in your pocket and go looking for a 1366 board with just two PCIe x16 slots, because you don't need more.

Also, you probably don't need water cooling unless you're going all-out with overclocking. And if you're new to oc'ing, there's an excellent chance of screwing it up (either the water cooling or the massive overclock attempt, or both).

You can probably spend about half the money you're talking about and still end up with just as good a computer. There's basically no use at all for a triple-5870 setup or an overclocked 980X. Rather than spend $2,200+ on the CPU and video cards alone, get them for half the price later and just get the next-best right now, which will still max out anything and everything you could run on it.

 

[Henry Chinaski]

Most important things to remember:

1. Crossfiring three cards is not worth it; the third card hardly adds any performance
2. Crossfiring three cards is not worth it; the third card hardly adds any performance
3. Crossfiring three cards is not worth it; the third card hardly adds any performance

Once you've got those three things covered, you can put the extra $400 you were going to spend on the third 5870 back in your pocket and go looking for a 1366 board with just two PCIe x16 slots, because you don't need more.

Also, you probably don't need water cooling unless you're going all-out with overclocking. And if you're new to oc'ing, there's an excellent chance of screwing it up (either the water cooling or the massive overclock attempt, or both).

You can probably spend about half the money you're talking about and still end up with just as good a computer. There's basically no use at all for a triple-5870 setup or an overclocked 980X. Rather than spend $2,200+ on the CPU and video cards alone, get them for half the price later and just get the next-best right now, which will still max out anything and everything you could run on it.

http://benchmarkextreme.com/Articles/HD%205870%20TriFire/P1.html

 

[Henry Chinaski]

The Gigabyte's answer to the ASUS RAMPAGE III comming soon:

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UDP7 (or UD9): http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2010/4/13/gigabyte-ud9-motherboard-pictures-surface.aspx

It has an extra NF200 over Rampage III extreme

 

[exela]

Oh boy , that Gigabyte it's a beauty!

 

[capt_taco]

http://benchmarkextreme.com/Articles/HD%205870%20TriFire/P1.html

Yeah -- and the point is ... ? That pretty clearly shows diminshing returns from the third card. Not to mention the (many) cases where you'll find a three-card setup actually giving SLOWER performance because a game doesn't like it.

I certainly wouldn't waste my money on that, especially at the super-high end -- where plain old 2-way crossfire already overkills everything, a $400 card today costs $200 tomorrow, and you have a number of options for doing just as well for a lot less money.

At least from a practical standpoint, I don't see how you'd notice any difference between the setup the OP is talking about and one that costs $800 less, unless you place special importance on being the local benchmark king for a couple months.

 

[randomkid]

Oh boy , that Gigabyte it's a beauty!

I would say beastly...