Gaming MOBO Recommendations

[muman]

Greetings, I was building a new gaming computer. With the help of fellow forum members(thank you SO MUCH) I have narrowed my specs down to

E6750 CPU
x1950 PRO GPU

Now my question is what is a solid mobo with good stability, performance, OC, upgradability. Also what are the best brands? Gigabyte and ..? (I won't really need raid, SLI, nor integrated graphics)

Also, are basically all ram choices similar? Any point in getting DDR3 vs DDR2? Any recommendations for games like Counterstrike source?

I wasn't going to upgrade my case and 450w PSU, but any good reliable value cases/PSU's out there?

Also, anything else I"m missing? I have an audigy z2, any need to upgrade the soundcard?

Best Regards,
Thank you all so much!

 

[Maziar]

go for DDR2 , the difference between ddr3 and ddr2 inst much also ddr3 is ovepriced for now , my recommendation :

ASUS P5K
ASUS P5K-E
GIGABYTE P35 DS3R
GIGABYTE P35 DS3L
ABIT IP35 PRO

 

[muman]

Thank you so much maziar, what are the difference between the mother boards you listed above? are gigabyte the best? or asus? or abit?

 

[muman]

For instance, what is difference between DS3r and ds3l? also what is difference between p5k,p5k-e?

 

[BUFF]

DS3R has ICH9R, DS3L is DS3 "lite" so is a despecced DS3 (worse sound codec, fewer SATA)

if you don't need firewire, RAID, SLI etc. abit's IP35-E is a very good contender.