New Build - Is this motherboard worth it??

[Manutd871]

I'm planning of building a new gaming rig based around the parts listed below (all from newegg) and I am wondering if the ASUS motherboard is worth the price. I was having a hard time finding a good AM3 mobo that supports the DDR3 1600 that didn't have BIOS issues for the ram or other know problems (I saw Gigabyte mobos had a good amount of issues but I could be totally wrong??).

I would really love some feedback on the ASUS mobo for the price (comes in a combo with CPU for $335) and other suggestions for motherboards that have minimum problems and would work with the parts I have listed, and that allow future upgrades and maybe another vid card in a year or so (trying to avoid 'end of life' technologies?).

Also, I have a couple questions if anyone has time to give me a little help:

1) I saw in an article that AM3 motherboards will be more compatible with future CPU's compared to the other AMD motherboards (like a AM2/AM2+/AM3) is this true?
2) What is the difference between when the memory standard of a mobo is DDR3 1600 compared to a DDR3 1600(O.C.)

Thanks in advanced!! Everything is appreciated!

PARTS:
SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ955FBGIBOX - Retail

ASUS M4A79T Deluxe AM3 DDR3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 ... - Retail

OCZ OCZTFRZTC Freeze Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound - Retail

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ - Retail

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

 

[Crashman]

When you say "AM2/AM2+/AM3" motherboards, what you're actually referring to is AM2+ motherboards. AM2+ motherboards are backwards compatible with AM2 processors, and AM3 processors are backwards compatible with AM2+ motherboards.

Th M4A79T Deluxe is a good board. I have a slight preference for the 790FX-GD70 however. See the review:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/790fx-socket-am3,2277.html

 

[buzznut]

That's a recommended overclocking board. Its a nice one.

Some mobo's come with the capability to run DDR3 1600 memory, other boards will boot with DDR3 1333 which can be overclocked to 1600 speeds. What's the difference? not much. With AMD processors, I would go with the lowest latency.

As far as furture-proofing goes, AM3 is the standard moving forward so yes, its true.