Help me choose a Motherboard?

[SeriuzBuzinez]

So I am going to build my own gaming rig very soon, now there are a few things I would like, BUTTT the one big problem ...... I DUNNO WHAT MOTHERBOARD TO BUY???

There are so many of the damn things, preferably I would like one which is capable of doing Dual Crossfire at full 16x speed. Also my budget is around (£300 - £400) - ($480 - $640)

Below is a rough idea of what would be going on the motherboard

Case: Cooler Master HAF X Gaming Tower Case - Black (RC-942) (Would this case even fit dual 7970s??)

CPU: i7-3770k

GPU: AMD 7970

RAM: 32 GB minimum

PSU: 850w - 1000w

So I guess it would have to support that at the minimum, also I am building on a budget so I will only have 1 gpu to begin with, then I will buy the second one and watercool everything, do you think this is a good idea?

[Jackson889]

IF you want something really good.. Go with Asus Extreme Rampage ROG board or Gigabyte G1 sniper series. I think MSI got one of their board pre-overclocked certified as well. Three of them would be a good choice.

Also HAF is a good choice and it will fix 2 7970 in there without any doubt.

Good luck

[SeriuzBuzinez]

IF you want something really good.. Go with Asus Extreme Rampage ROG board or Gigabyte G1 sniper series. I think MSI got one of their board pre-overclocked certified as well. Three of them would be a good choice.

Also HAF is a good choice and it will fix 2 7970 in there without any doubt.

Good luck

Thanks for the quick reply!!

[haybe]

Using i7-3770k limit yourself with 4 dimms slots, which is a maximum ram capacity of 32gb. The Asus rampage series is only for x79, x58 chipsets, which is not the same socket for i7-3770k. The gigabyte G1 is also not for i7 3770k. You will need a z77 motherboard, according to your extremely huge amount of budget for a motherboard, you seem to want the best of the best, and you also want your 7970 to run at full pci 3.0 16x speed ( which is not important to the performance ), the Maximus extreme 5, p8z77-premium, gigabyte up7 or the asrock extreme 11 will all allow your 2 7970 to run at full speed. They are extremely prestigious motherboards the cream of all z77 motherboard. All are well built and provide great overclock plenty of features.

[Guest]

May we ask what exactly you're building this for? Unless you state high end audio or graphics work, there isn't really a need for that much ram, let alone the 1Kw PSU.

[SeriuzBuzinez]

Using i7-3770k limit yourself with 4 dimms slots' date=' which is a maximum ram capacity of 32gb. The Asus rampage series is only for x79, x58 chipsets, which is not the same socket for i7-3770k. The gigabyte G1 is also not for i7 3770k. You will need a z77 motherboard, according to your extremely huge amount of budget for a motherboard, you seem to want the best of the best, and you also want your 7970 to run at full pci 3.0 16x speed ( which is not important to the performance ), the Maximus extreme 5, p8z77-premium, gigabyte up7 or the asrock extreme 11 will all allow your 2 7970 to run at full speed. They are extremely prestigious motherboards the cream of all z77 motherboard. All are well built and provide great overclock plenty of features. [/quote']

Hmm I thought the i7 - 3770k was one of the top Ivy Bridge CPUs, didn't know it would limit me, but I understand what your saying about it being the wrong socket for the CPU I want to use, and yeah I just want to try and future proof as much as possible within a reasonable budget really ... I think out of what you have mentioned I would go for the Maximus extreme 5.

May we ask what exactly you're building this for? Unless you state high end audio or graphics work' date=' there isn't really a need for that much ram, let alone the 1Kw PSU.[/quote']

I want it for gaming mainly, will probably be doing some video rendering as well. I just don't want to have to upgrade it much once putting it all together!!

[Guest]

I want it for gaming mainly' date=' will probably be doing some video rendering as well. I just don't want to have to upgrade it much once putting it all together!! [/quote']

You certainly don't need 32gb of ram then. 16 will be more than adequate but 8 is also fine. A 750w PSU such as a Silverstone Strider Plus or Corsair Ax760 (if you have the money) will be fine. Motherboards; I'm an Asus guy so there are other options but either the P8Z77-V pro or the Sabertooth - the V Pro comes with Wifi where as the Sabertooth does not but is more aesthetically pleasing.

If you're getting a K series processor then you're most likely going to want an after market cooler such as a H80i or H100i otherwise something like a D14 from Noctua for a passive air system. If you are going the passive air cooler route, get low profile RAM instead. Personally I think you'll also be okay with just a 3570K as its for gaming.

[SeriuzBuzinez]

I want it for gaming mainly' date=' will probably be doing some video rendering as well. I just don't want to have to upgrade it much once putting it all together!! [/quote'] You certainly don't need 32gb of ram then. 16 will be more than adequate but 8 is also fine. A 750w PSU such as a Silverstone Strider Plus or Corsair Ax760 (if you have the money) will be fine. Motherboards; I'm an Asus guy so there are other options but either the P8Z77-V pro or the Sabertooth - the V Pro comes with Wifi where as the Sabertooth does not but is more aesthetically pleasing. If you're getting a K series processor then you're most likely going to want an after market cooler such as a H80i or H100i otherwise something like a D14 from Noctua for a passive air system. If you are going the passive air cooler route, get low profile RAM instead. Personally I think you'll also be okay with just a 3570K as its for gaming.

Hahaha yeah I know the RAM is definitely going overkill, I will probably just get 8 - 16 gigs to start out with really, And thanks for the heads up with the motherboard, I would like something with built in wifi, but then again I would rarely use WiFi anyway so it's not a must. I am probably going to watercool the pc because I want to OC the CPU and just want it to run as quiet as possible!!!

[Guest]

I want it for gaming mainly' date=' will probably be doing some video rendering as well. I just don't want to have to upgrade it much once putting it all together!! [/quote'] You certainly don't need 32gb of ram then. 16 will be more than adequate but 8 is also fine. A 750w PSU such as a Silverstone Strider Plus or Corsair Ax760 (if you have the money) will be fine. Motherboards; I'm an Asus guy so there are other options but either the P8Z77-V pro or the Sabertooth - the V Pro comes with Wifi where as the Sabertooth does not but is more aesthetically pleasing. If you're getting a K series processor then you're most likely going to want an after market cooler such as a H80i or H100i otherwise something like a D14 from Noctua for a passive air system. If you are going the passive air cooler route, get low profile RAM instead. Personally I think you'll also be okay with just a 3570K as its for gaming.

Hahaha yeah I know the RAM is definitely going overkill, I will probably just get 8 - 16 gigs to start out with really, And thanks for the heads up with the motherboard, I would like something with built in wifi, but then again I would rarely use WiFi anyway so it's not a must. I am probably going to watercool the pc because I want to OC the CPU and just want it to run as quiet as possible!!!

What's your total budget and what country are you in?

[tp95112]

Any motherboard should do, motherboards arnt a huge factor in performance anymore. Find a mother board that is atx if you want to Crossfire or SLI in the future. The haf X is more then enough to fit 2 7970s even for 3.

[Dim]

Using i7-3770k limit yourself with 4 dimms slots' date=' which is a maximum ram capacity of 32gb. The Asus rampage series is only for x79, x58 chipsets, which is not the same socket for i7-3770k. The gigabyte G1 is also not for i7 3770k. You will need a z77 motherboard, according to your extremely huge amount of budget for a motherboard, you seem to want the best of the best, and you also want your 7970 to run at full pci 3.0 16x speed ( which is not important to the performance ), the Maximus extreme 5, p8z77-premium, gigabyte up7 or the asrock extreme 11 will all allow your 2 7970 to run at full speed. They are extremely prestigious motherboards the cream of all z77 motherboard. All are well built and provide great overclock plenty of features. [/quote']

Hmm I thought the i7 - 3770k was one of the top Ivy Bridge CPUs, didn't know it would limit me, but I understand what your saying about it being the wrong socket for the CPU I want to use, and yeah I just want to try and future proof as much as possible within a reasonable budget really ... I think out of what you have mentioned I would go for the Maximus extreme 5.

May we ask what exactly you're building this for? Unless you state high end audio or graphics work' date=' there isn't really a need for that much ram, let alone the 1Kw PSU.[/quote']

I want it for gaming mainly, will probably be doing some video rendering as well. I just don't want to have to upgrade it much once putting it all together!!

3770K will not 'limit you', LGA 1155 will.

When you have your money, here is an idea.

Case is fine. Get two 7970s. 850w is enough for dual-Crossfire. The ASUS Maximus V Formula motherboard is quite good (up to 3-way crossfire). CPU is fine. Get a CPU cooler such as the H100i (or your preferable CPU watercooling unit).

If you want top-line good-looking RAM, I recommend 16GB of DDR3-1600 Corsair Dominator Platinums. If you don't care about looks, 8GB of Corsair Vengeance 1600 is enough.

16x and 8x don't make a difference in terms of GPU speed on the PCIe slots.

Get a solid-state drive, such as a Samsung 840 Pro.

[mgsstar]

The P8Z77-V motherboard is a great choice and supports dual gpus. It also has wifi built in which is good. :)

[Azzah44100]

Unless you do 3D work or video editing you don't need 32Gb of RAM, if you are only using it for games then you shouldn't need more than 8gb. You can get anything you want with that price range, something to suite your color scheme just make sure it is a 2011 socket and you are going to be fine.

[Xploda]

IF you want something really good.. Go with Asus Extreme Rampage ROG board or Gigabyte G1 sniper series. I think MSI got one of their board pre-overclocked certified as well. Three of them would be a good choice.

Also HAF is a good choice and it will fix 2 7970 in there without any doubt.

Good luck

That certified MSI board is the MSI Mpower I believe. Very nice board indeed.