Motherboard recommendations for i7-950

[orianthi]

Okay with WoW patch 4.0.1, it got me excited again and ready to build my main 5-boxing machine. I have decided that the core i7-950 (LGA 1366) is the best cpu for the task (and for $$$). I haven't decided on the board yet but i need one based on X58 chipset with at least 2x (electrical) PCIeX x16, a good overclocker and in the $300 price range (lower the better).

I'm leaning towards this one because of the price (and looks) and somehow satisfies my minimum requirements (ASUS Sabertooth X58), link below. I've looked at rampage III, P6, some EVGAs, GigaBytes, ASRocks, FOXConn and MSIs but nothing clearly is on top.

I may go back to watercooling or the closed loop ones (Corsair H70) so overclocking is really on my mind. I love the new graphic tweaks Blizzard implemented in this lastest patch, it feels new (not much but at least to me) so i'd like to run them on max settings (except other effects of course) in a FTL environment (same settings on all clients/windows).

So what do you think is the best board for the i7-950 in the $300 range?

Newegg.com - ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

[EaTCarbS]

Newegg.com - ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

I love my motherboard, so nice.

[orianthi]

Thanks Carbs, i looked at that too and the difference is just $15 after all the discounts. Your board has [1] higher supported memory speeds, [2] more OC utility/features and [3] can host a 3-way SLI system but it's older and the sabertooth looks prettier don't you think?

[#1] I'm going to use my existing RAM and maybe add another 2GB for the 3rd channel...
[#2] The OC features of the sabertooth are more than enough for me...
[#3] I don't see myself using a 3-way SLI/Crossfire in the future (i already had enough troubles (2-way) with it (not supported by newer games, most of the time i've already beaten the game when support comes out))

There may be other minor differences and more bugs (newer bios) BUT i can't resist the urban CAMO look. I can always blame the fact that it costs $15 less if something goes wrong. It's already in the cart, shall i proceed with the checkout?

[EaTCarbS]

Both are really great boards.

[Tim]

I'm a huge fan of Gigabyte due to their dual bios. This means if you misconfigure your BIOS, it will boot up the second BIOS which protects you from any bios issues resulting in big deadlocks.

[Bubba]

I just got me a new system with a gigabyte board, 950 overclocked 20

[Tim]

What OC specs are you using?

I must be braindead as I can never figure out how to do a good OC and I pretty much have top line everything.

I need an OC "consultant"