Socket 775 motherboard advice!

[Duke_]

Hi All,

I'm looking for a replacement motherboard to have some fun with while waiting for socket 2011 or Ivybridge to become an upgrade possibility. I'm currently using a Striker II Extreme but have fallen out of love with it for a couple of reasons (listed below). It's a pretty precise specs so any suggestions very welcome!

Socket 775 (using a watercooled Q9550)

Able to take a full watercooling block (similar to those produced by EK)

DDR 3 - able to handle 8GB (4x2GB Corsair XMS3) - the Striker II Extreme won't handle all 8GB and remain stable - lots of BSODs despite bios tweaks.

I'll be using an OCZ Vertex 2 SSD with it so it needs to be an Intel chipset (the Nvidia chipset on the Striker II Extreme I have does not support TRIM). Despite relying on garbage collection it has become pretty sluggish at times. My ageing Althon X2 with Intel X25m beats it on load times...

I'll be using an ATI 5970 (also watercooled) but following upgrade next year I might go back to the dual 8800GTS so SLI is good but I think only the Nvidia chipsets supported SLI at this point in time - if this the case then I'd rather ditch SLI capability for an Intel chipset.

The watercooling system is all copper blocks so ideally any other blocks would be copper but this is a minor point if I can find the right motherboard.

Any questions / suggestions welcome - thanks very much!

I'm hanging on because to my knowledge an upgrade to an i7 isn't going to do me any gaming favours compared to a watercooled quad Q9550 - stop me if I'm wrong and I'll move thread

 

[Duke_]

For most games i dont think you would see any huge difference. for the most part, its more to do with gfx card. Personally i would keep the single 5970 instead of the sli 8800s just for temperatures. The gigabyte UP45-UD3 is a decent board. only ddr2 though/

Thanks for the reply and reassurance on sticking with my current setup. Unfortunately a DDR2 Mobo is not what I'm after

 

[Duke_]

Thanks Micky - that's good to see, the i5 is clearly better overall but it if I'm mainly using the PC for gaming I'm not sure I can justify the upgrade to a completely new platform given the relatively close gaming benchmark results. Any suggestions for mobos welcome!

 

[Duke_]

Thanks Idle, but that's not quite what I'm looking for - it won't take the 4x2GB or RAM for a start.