Hardware Canucks - What motherboard for a 2600K and 6970? Budget of $300

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What motherboard for a 2600K and 6970? Budget of $300

This is a question from jaetot328:

Quote:

I was wondering what good motherboard should I use? i got a
i7 2600k
radeon 6970 (might cf/tri-cf in a few months),
kingston hyper x 4g(2x2) 1866mhz
coolermaster v6GT cpu cooler
SoundBlaster XFi Fatal1ty
Xtreme Gear 950W PSU
In Win Dragon Rider (will prolly change to Coolermaster Haf X)

I might also OC in the future.. my budget is $300.. I just cant decide which motherboard is good coz a lot of the customer reviews are confusing me. I was looking at the asus sabertooth but it only has 2 pciie 3.0 so i cant tri-cf.. i was also looking at the evga ftw p67 extended mobo.. But i cant see much reviews on amazon and newegg so I aint sure if its good or not.. I'm also looking at the ASUS Maximus IV.. i heard you can get it cheaper at ebay.. ohhh and I'm looking for a mobo that is black and red or just black colored.. I would really appreciate if you could recommend me something.. thanks

Really it's hard to go wrong with anything from the big three (ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte). I think your motherboard budget is too high though. I wouldn't even consider spending $300 on a motherboard for a mid-range platform (especially with LGA2011 around the corner).

At this point you should be getting a Z68 board though for the additional features. The P8Z68-V is very popular around here.

Thank you for posting my question in here and recommending me this site :)

And I forgot to add that i will also be upgrading my RAM to
"Corsair 16GB Vengeance1600mhz"
and PSU to
"Ultra U12-40841 X4 Gold Edition Modular Power Supply 1000W"

I will also be gettin a SSD but i couldnt decide which one yet.

I got a 22" Viewsonic Vx2250 Monitor
Cyborg R.A.T 5 Gaming Mous
Cyborg V7 Gaming keyboard

I have doubts if I'll go liquid cooling again.. I had liquid cooling when i first made this rig and last month it leaked and burned my Palit Gtx 560 ti Sonic and now my motherboard is faulty probably because of water damage. Booting is now longer that it used to be and at start up it seems like the computer is really slow. I'll have to wait for about 5 mins so it'll function properly.

save your $ n buy a maximus gene-z

its as good as the 300$+ boards

I say go with ASUS as well. Either the aforementioned Gene-Z or this one: Newegg.com - ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

$300 is way too much IMO. You really don't have to spend more than $200 on a Z68 board.

What about the evga ftw p67 or z68? Cause I might consider going crossfire and i also got a Sound Blaster x-fi fatal1ty titanium and the asus maximus gene is too small of a mobo..
if i ever go cf then the 2nd card would block the pciE x 4 slot at the bottom that i would be using for my sound card..
i would go for the asus pro but i would want my whole rig to be red and black.. Ive been monitoring the evga mobos at ebay and a lot are being sold at $140-180 so if i see one around that price should i grab it?
i really dont know the difference between a p67 or z68. and again thanks for the help guys. i'm a newbie when it comes to picking pc parts..
i'm just into gaming/video editing so much that's why im buidling a almost high end pc

oh and i posted the wrong RAM.. im only gettin 8G.. i really dont think i'll EVER get to a point where i'll need 16G

second that gene z wicked boards:thumb:

consider asrock boards. linus did an unboxing on the fatal1ty and the extrem4 gen 3.
I don't have one yet but I've heard their pretty alright.

I would go with a P8Z68-V, Z68XP-UD4, or even a P67 Sabertooth and put the extra $ towards a nice SSD. If you have the $ to buy a decent-sized SSD you are fine with P67. If you check our review section these boards are in there.