Recommend a mobo for gaming

[monumentalz]

This will be my first time to build my own gaming rig, what can you recommend for a

motherboard, gaming monitor and PSU

to accomodate my specs? I read somewhere that i have to choose the right motherboard for my processor.

Processor: intel i5 3570K
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1600MHz
GPU: Radeon HD 7950

thanks.

 

[lt_dan_zsu]

get a z77 motherboard. Also get 8gb ram.

 

[manofchalk]

AsRock Z77 Extreme4
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H
ASUA P8Z77-V LK
Those are all the good gaming oriented boards, all roughly the same in terms of features. Get the one you like the look of and you wont make a bad decision.

Agree, double the RAM to 8GB.

Whats the budget on the monitor? If your after just a standard 1080p monitor, this will be fine.
ASUS VS248H-P Black 24". $160 ($20 rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236153

For a single card, a 650W unit will be plenty.
XFX Core 650W, 80+ Bronze. $80 ($20 rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207014
If your looking for dual Crossfire/SLI capability (which all the boards mentioned can handle), then get a 750W unit.

 

[monumentalz]

Thanks manofchalk, i would certainly put your recommendations on top of my list!
also pardon this rookie question, to clarify, are dual "Crossfire/SLI capability" mentioned for multiple monitors and video cards?

 

[manofchalk]

Crossfire (AMD cards) and SLI (Nvidia cards) is when you run multiple graphics cards in tandem to increase performance. The boards I mentioned will adequately support up to two cards running in Crossfire/SLI.
If you are running dual cards, you will want to be gaming across multiple monitors to take advantage of the extra performance. On a single monitor the performance will be bottlenecked if you are running any decent cards.

 

[manofchalk]

Actually, made a mistake. The Gigabyte board I was thinking of was the GA-Z77X-D3H, not UD3H.