[vernong1992]

Originally Posted by Andyf

The ABIT is an excellent choice. Other notables in this category are

Asus P5k Deluxe
MSI P35 diamond
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R or -DS3L(budget choice)

All of these boards use the P35 chipset which is tried and proved, overclocks well, and doesn't break the bank. I believe the top two are certainly capable of Crossfire (ATi's Dual GPU system, which works much better than Nvidias equivalent, SLI, particularly at higher resolutions) and maybe the MSI as well.

There is the newer, gaming oriented X38 chipset, notable versions of which include:
Asus P5E
Asus maximus extreme
Gigabyte GA-X38 series

and various other offerings. These are generally more expensive and not as mature technology. There is the consideration that some are compatible with DDR3 memory, or both DDR2 and 3, which is something to think about.

Coming out in the future is the X48 series. I would stay clear for now: expensive and untried


As for SLI, if you want to go down that road, there are the 650i, 680i and 780i chipsets. 650i is quite old.
680i is prolly a good bet, I would go with the EVGA offering, but there is also the Asus Striker extreme, which has some nice features, but not recommended if you are going for 4slots of RAM (very picky on RAM) and is expensive.
The 680i series are certainly not as reliable as the p35. Many problems coming from that chipset

You could wait for 780i, which is more like a 680i+, but again, new tech so prices will be high, and you don't know about any problems that might arise.


I'd say stick with cheaper, tried and tested stuff, when it comes to picking Mobos.

the 680i also prevents upgrading to the Yorkfield processors