Suggestions for i7 920 build

[NoKlu]

I want to build a i7 920 rig for general purpose and a little gaming. This will be my first build and I'm not that computer literate so I need a little help picking out a few things.I am going to use the Coolermaster Storm Scout case and a small ssd for the OS. I have a 500 gig Caviar black for the rest of the storage. I need some suggestions on the MB. EVGA and ASUS are the 2 I'm leaning towards but can't decide which one to go with. I own a BFG 260 Maxcore and in the future I might want to go SLI. I will also need at least 1 pci slot and preferably 2 that I can get at after the second card is added. After that I'm getting a little confused with PCI express, 2.0 ,X16 ,X8. If I get a board with only 1 X16 slot will it be affected by the other card in the X8 slot in SLI? Built in ethernet? For now I will be running stock settings but will do a mild overclock in the future. I have 32 bit XP now but will be going 64 bit W7 as soon as it is released. I will be air cooling. I'm looking for the most bang for the buck and sometimes the specs I'm reading aren't as clear to me as they are to you guys. Any Ideas.
NCIX.com - Buy Coolermaster Storm Scout Black ATX Tower Case 5X5.25 5X3.5INT 120MM & 140MM Red LED Fan No PSU - SGC-2000-KKN1-GP In Canada.

[rjbarker]

Good Board for $300...not a bad price
NCIX.com - Buy EVGA X58 ATX LGA1366 DDR3 3PCIE-16 PCI-E1 2PCI SLI SATA2 eSATA Dual GBLAN Motherboard - 132-BL-E758-A1 In Canada.

Great Support availailable evga.com

[NoKlu]

I wish I could get a look at them with a couple of video cards installed to see if there's any room for pci cards. I think that one would only have room for one but I could be wrong. That was the EVGA I was looking at and I hear the support is second to none.

[rjbarker]

^^^ That Board can handle Tri Sli (3 GPU's) and a Sound Card (I had that Board prior to my Classified)...onboard Ethernet (x2)

Here's the board
EVGA | Products

Here's the Support
EVGA Forums

[NoKlu]

Thank's for the links. From them I found that to run sli and still have access to pci and the express port you need to run the v cards in the first and 3rd slots. X16 is not supported in that 3rd slot. The classified board will run X16 in the 3rd slot and I was getting all excited till I saw it was a EATX card and it won't fit in the case I'm getting. How important is it to have both cards running X16? In the future? Btw Thank's for your help.

[rjbarker]

X16 in all PCI-E Slots won't make a noticeable difference for everyday use and minimal gains for Benching....its been awhile since I had that Evga X58 vanilla Board, but it seemed to me:
1. Top Slot and bottom Slot were X16 / x8
2. Top Slot and Middle Slot were x16 / x16 (but less breathing room)...I ran Top n Bottom slots.

Cheers

[NoKlu]

I looked at the pics again and I can use the top 2 slots for vcards and still have room for 1 pci and 1 express. Maybe earlier when I looked at the card and read in the forum about it I never had enough caffeine in my system. Those vid cards probably won't be any trouble in the first 2 slots, they should be designed to handle it. We have to wait and see what the 300 series cards bring as well. Do you have any input as to the SSD I should be looking at. I only want it for the OS so I don't need a lot of space. I understand some of the cheaper one's are not very desirable because of the chips used.

[rjbarker]

Those vid cards probably won't be any trouble in the first 2 slots, they should be designed to handle it.

That is correct..they're fine in the top two slots (I had my 280's in the top two just to test the x16 / x16 vs x16/x8 Bandwidth speeds..they are fine...but the GPU's do get hot when running 2 or 3 of em...therefore I preferred the space between...be sure that you get a "good Case with optimal air flow" if your planning multi GPU's as well as a good beefy (not cheap) Power Supply.

Check the Storage Thread...lots on info thier on SSD's....preference seems to be either Intel or OCZ
These are the 2 I'm presently eyeing up for my Primary Rig
NCIX.com - Buy Intel X25-M 80GB 34NM Postville 2.5IN SSD SATA Solid State Disk Flash Drive - SSDSA2MH080G2C1 In Canada.
or
NCIX.com - Buy OCZ Vertex 120GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD - OCZSSD2-1VTX120G In Canada.

Although 80 GB is "enough" for OS etc...I planned my Raptor 74 GB for OS only and its almost full in 8 months...bunch of stuff that simply was installed thier over the course (even though my games are al on my 640 GB Black).....with that said I'm leaning towards the Vertex 120GB...but you never know..I'm very close to purchasing one of em...

[JMCD]

I'm running a 60GB vertex with Windows 7 and 2 games, I'm sitting at 35GB used. But, I don't keep too many games installed. Everyone has different needs. Vertex series is a very good choice imo

[rjbarker]

^^^^ Yes I also forgot to mention that I lean towards products that have very good support Forums and very much like the looks of the OCZ Forum...very much like the Evga and Corsair Support forums.....you just never know when you need thoase services....