Need helping choosing motherboard for i5 system

[Killadelphia]

I have been reading reviews and forums on P55 motherboards for the past couple of days and I am having a lot of trouble making a decision. I have all the parts for my build minus the motherboard because I had an ECS P55H-A which developed a boot problem on the day I got it so I am currently waiting for the RMA to go through with Newegg so I can buy a new motherboard.

The specs of the parts I have already (sitting on my desk :-/) are:
Processor: Intel Core i5 750
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600 7-8-7-24
Video: Sapphire Radeon HD 4890
Cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus

I was hoping to be able to get a good stable overclock for this system maybe around 3.8GHz. PCIe 8x - 8x capability would be nice for the future just in case, but is not essential. I also need firewire as I have an external audio interface for recording. It's obviously also important that the cooler fits onto the board without making anything else useless. The motherboards I have been looking at in my price range (I'm a student) are:

MSI P55 GD-65 (Has PCIe 8x - 8x)
Gigabyte P55M-UD4 (Has PCIe 8x-8x, but is mATX will the Hyper 212+ fit?)
Gigabyte P55-UD3R (No Firewire, but can buy a PCI card with savings)
ASUS P7P55D

The MSI seems to have the best feature set of the bunch with regards to the price, but after reading various forums, a lot of people seem to have a hate on for MSI especially with regards to support and some people say there are a lot of DOAs.

Any suggestions on which brand or solution you think would be best when it comes to performance and dependability would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[MarkOne]

Originally Posted by Killadelphia

.
......a lot of people seem to have a hate on for MSI especially with regards to support and some people say there are a lot of DOAs.
.......

My Gigabyte P55-UD3R work very well. I don't even need Firewire.


What is a DOAs.............. I build hundreds of PC every year . I see only one DOA in my life... a simple hard reset fix a lot of board that look DOA. If you read the rating of people on a place like new egg read the 3 and 4 eggs to look at problem.... all the 1 eggs are from noods

.

[martin_metal_88]

Originally Posted by MarkOne

My Gigabyte P55-UD3R work very well. I don't even need Firewire.


If you read the rating of people on a place like new egg read the 3 and 4 eggs to look at problem.... all the 1 eggs are from noods

.

UD3R is a fine board that's true. Most of the time, on newegg people are telling that they are hogh tech lvl but their issue is so stupid and so easy to fix:P if we were beleiving all these moron every people would be a tech.

[ayah]

You should never trust reviews on a retail site.

[Raserei408]

Of the motherboards listed, I would take the P7P55D. It overclocks very well and has some good features. I myself am looking at the EVO for my next motherboard, but that seems to be a bit out of your price range.

[Soultribunal]

Gigabyte for sure if it was me choosing.

I am in love with their boards and have never had one issue to date.

Very solid Contender in the P55 i5 Genre.

ST

[Eldonko]

I would go with a UD4P. IMO it is the best board in the $180-190 price range and it OCs quite well.

[martin_metal_88]

I am the only one who find wierd that Asus is the best seller but...Every heavy OC user use GA, EVGA, DFI which have better board at better price. Well...Eldonko is right. If you are looking for extra sata and want some more OC headroom then the UD4P is a must have. I think choosing a board is for quality and feature. Gigabytes already have quality so now just look at what spec you are looking for. Good phase+good VRM cooling around the CPU for OC, Then look for how many sata you are looking for + the way they are placed if you want cable management. How many PCI PCI-e and PCI1x you are looking for expension card, USB+firewire etc. In all these categorie the UD4P is the winner for budget VS features. The UD3R is also the best second choice if you can add a fire-wire card later.

[geokilla]

The Gigabyte and MSI has my vote.

Do you need firewire?

[Killadelphia]

Thanks for the advice guys. I ended up going with the ASUS, from reviews it looks to be just as overclockable as the UD3R and it has firewire on board. A part of me is thinking I should have just gone for the UD3R and bought a firewire card though. I would have loved to have gotten the UD4P that was my first choice before the lack of money came into play.