Whats a good motherboard for new gaming build

[igotdoggied]

im just wondering if this would be a good board for an i5 2500k gaming build also will be using a radeon 7950 gpu and xfx 750 pro xxx psu. if there is a better board around the same price as this is my first build not sure about z68 p67 and x79 not sure which i should go with. also $260 for board is my limit for this build.
one other thing what is ssd cacheing thoughts are welcome and needed

 

[inzone]

ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
$204.99 and free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131790

ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
$189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131806

ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
$179.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131792

ASRock Z68 EXTREME4 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$184.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157264

ASRock Z68 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$174.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157250

GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD4 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$209.99 and a $20 rebate makes it $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128507

GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3P LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128506

MSI Z68A-GD80 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
$229.99 and a $40 rebate makes it $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130610

MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
$189.99 and a $30 rebate makes it $159.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130611

MSI Z68A-GD55 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
$169.99 and a $30 rebate makes it $139.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130622

These are all Z-68 chipset motherboards and the ones listed are all good choices and if you were to choose any of them you would have a good motherboard. If you have intentions of getting the Ivy Bridge cpu at some point then I would go with a motherboard that supports the Pci-e 3.0 since you do have the 7970 which supports that Pci-e slot then you would need the motherboard and cpu to complete the components that are needed for that.

SSD caching is that if you have a regular hdd and you have a motherboard that supports SSD caching (Intel smart response technology) the you would need a 20gb or 30gb SSD and it would act as a cache for the hdd and speed things up. It will work on any SSD that is 64gb or less. Another option to that would be to get a SSD as the boot drive and just have the OS on it and the rest on the hdd would work even better and you don't have to go through setting up the SSD caching. In that case a 90gb or 120gb SSD would be a good size to get.

 

[igotdoggied]

thank you ssd as a boot drive is what i was told to get so ill need to get a 90 or 120 that works

 

[inzone]

Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F90GBGT-BK 2.5" 90GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
$149.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233205

Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F120GBGT-BK 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
$184.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233191

Here are a couple of choices for SSD's.