Which mobo fits best to this C2D system.

[AgamemnonZ]

I'm putting together a new system and have a really hard time selecting the right motherboard .

- The system will consist of:
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
- MSI GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB
- 1GB x 2 (2GB) PC6400 DDR2 CL4 (Kingston KVR6400D2N5K2/2GN)

some personal requirements:
- I don't want SLI/Crossfire.
- I will need 2 PCI slots free (so not blocked by vid. card cooler or some bad lay-out that prevents me from using 2 PCI slots). 1 slot will be used for my Creative X-Fi and the other for IDE Controller (see below).
- pricing range: low - 150
- It should deal with some overclocking (planning on putting the E6600 from 2,4 to 3,0 GHz; I want to keep the Vcore as low as possible).

I guess a mobo using P965 will be best. Or are the 680i / P975X a good option as well considering my system/requirements? What are your suggestions?


One other small question: These new mobo often only have 1 IDE slot. I have 4 IDE devices (2 HDD, 1 DVD-writer, 1 CD-writer). I guess I need some sort of IDE controller PCI-card. Any good suggestions on such a card? 2 devices will most likely be linked directly to the mobo IDE slot so this card can only have 1 IDE slot for the other 2 devices.

 

[AgamemnonZ]

Any ideas?

 

[deals33ker]

upgrade to SATA for the harddisks, and put the optical drives on the single IDE channel as master/slave

I use the ECS PN2-SLI2+, its been a good board for me
I'm stable @ 3.33Ghz on a E6400

 

[AgamemnonZ]

I don't wanna upgrade my HDDs to SATA because they are good and big enough atm and don't wanna have extra costs.

It also seems that the ECS PN2-SLI2+ is not coming out in Holland.

 

[jay2tall]

Here the Gigabyte DS3 Its hightly stable and great for overclocking with one PCIe slot and plenty of room between it and the PCI slots.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128042