Does your Megahalem have a socket 1156/55 fitment?
May I ask why a £290 motherboard?
If it's mainly for gaming a 2500K processor will do nicely.
Much cheaper RAM on This Week Only:
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £65.99
I assume you have all the other components?
It's all nice kit - but do absolutely need the £290 Z68 board? You can get nice Z68 boards like this which fulfil pretty much all the key functions of the UD7 at around half the price. Also, if you don't need the Z68 specific features (SSD caching, Intecl Quick sync) then you would do well to go with a nice P67 board like this - which is even cheaper.
In terms of RAM, I would look at this kit, it saves you £24 and the real-world performance difference between CL8 and CL9 1600MHz dual channel DDR3 RAM on a SB system is tiny.
Memory timings has little effect on Sandybridge performance.
In that case I would look at this board. It does SLI/CF at x8/x8 and supports SSD caching. However, it doesn't have access to the graphics core like some Z68 boards - so Quick Sync isn't available.
I have the Asus P8P67 Pro motherboard and its a really nice board to work with, not had
any problems with it at all.
If you want a board that's in stock now then try this:
MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 (socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £139.99
None of the issues that some have had with the Asus boards and will overclock just as well as any.
The MSI P67A-GD53 is also a fantastic board at £109.99 but it's out of stock.
If you won't be needing SSD caching, Quick sync and completely discount MSI P67 boards (which are really nice) - but do want SLI/CF (at x8/x8 speeds), good overclocking and ASUS or Gigabyte brand then I would suggest going for this board. Anything more expensive doesn't sound like it is required.
You've got a 120GB SSD thrown in for the same money
Still going for the 2600K?
Looks good.
Just make sure your Megahalems has LGA 1155 mounts. If not you can buy them separately for ~£6.
If your spending £150 on a Z68 board, it seems silly not to choose the ASUS P8Z68-V PRO as it has all similar features but it has integrated graphics, which the GIgabyte lacks, so if you ever have a problem with your GPU (touch wood) then you've got a backup, and you will also have Lucid Virtu which will switch between the integrated and discrete graphics to give you the best mix of performance and power consumption.
That's just my opinion though![]()