Choosing the right motherboard - so frustrated!

TheBigCheese · 28 Nov 2009 at 11:34

Hi guys

I wonder if someone could advise me of the best motherboard to get, I don't think I'm looking in the wrong place but the boards I am looking at all seem to be the same thing!

I am looking at getting an i7 920 (with overclocking in mind though I've never done it before), with 6GB RAM, but the motherboards all seem to be the same.

What I need is:
As many SATA connectors as possible - it will be used for a lot of video work.
PCI and small PCI-X connectors for expansion cards.

Only one PCI-Ex16 for graphics cards - I will just be putting one 8800GTX in there, I don't need any more graphics power, it's all CPU grunt I am requiring.

All the boards I'm looking at seem to be tri-sli with very few expansion slots, or crazily expansion slots that are blocked by parts of the motherboard (I'm looking at you Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5), or by an overhanging big graphics card.

Does anyone have any recommendations for good quality, reliable, OC friendly boards that offer something a bit different? I'm getting a bit despondent.

chiLLZ · 28 Nov 2009 at 13:35

Not sure about this, but I have read that you can use the pci-e x16 connectors for adapter cards with smaller pci-e connecters like x1 or x4, so the ud5 has 10 sata connectors and two extra pci-e x16 connectors and one usable pci connector whith the 8800gtx installed.

pumaz · 28 Nov 2009 at 21:06

Don't get the ASUS P6TD Deluxe it's sata ports are a mess, I bought one but wish i went with a UD5. Don't get me wrong it's a great clocking board (i'm running at 4GHz). Sorry still angry about this board

TheBigCheese · 28 Nov 2009 at 22:28

Thanks for the posts guys.

I'm not quite sure what you mean chiLLZ, I would assume that you can only fit cards in there with full length connectors (the same size as a graphics card), is that what you mean?

Thanks for the warning pumaz, I'll take another look at the UD5 boards.

I would like a setup that is good for overclocking, I've never OC'd anything before but from what I've been reading the 920 seems to have loads of potential if it can be tapped so being able to overclock it well would certainly be good!

chiLLZ · 28 Nov 2009 at 23:57

I mean that you can install any smaller pci-e expantion card into a full length pci-e x16 slot. That would allow you to use the two remaining x16 slots for something other then video cards which might give you more options.

I have a pci-e x1 sound card in a pci-e x4 slot, and have read about others doing this with x16 slots too.

read about it here under the form factors section:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

Most x58 boards overclock well, the asus, gigabyte and evga ranges are very popular it seems