Need help finding a 790i MB that will actually work

I am building a gaming rig and I am told I need a 790i board for my setup to actually work, but every one I see seems to have some sort of problem.

This one seems to have way too many DOAs and assorted other problems:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131274

and this one isn't Vista certified:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141009

most reviews say they had no problems but one guy did (and also mentioned a lot of people shared similar problems on the support site).


Those are the only two I could find. I don't know what to do, since I already have the rest of my build planned out. Please help if you can.

Setup:

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 3.2 GHz
4GB DDR3 Corsair Dominator Memory
4x320GB Barracuda HDD in RAID5
nVidia GeForce 9800GX2

I was told that in order to set up SLI and have DDR3, I need a 790i. See, I eventually will either upgrade to dual 9800s or wait for the 9900 series and go SLI with those, assuming they will be better than GX2s.

Vista Certified? Does it really have to be? That would never have crossed my mind if I were shopping for a board like this. This is the latest hardware and it's should work with the latest OS(ie: my 680i with Vista x64), no questions asked. My XFX 680i has been flawless at OC'ing my quad, I would def. go XFX if I were looking for a 790i. Unless of course there was a serious problem with that model that was well documented.

Edit: I just saw what you're planning to build with. A suggestion, if you're at the stage you have to ask this type of question, you might want to let a professional put together hardware like that.

baditude_df said:

Vista Certified? Does it really have to be? That would never have crossed my mind if I were shopping for a board like this. This is the latest hardware and it's should work with the latest OS(ie: my 680i with Vista x64), no questions asked. My XFX 680i has been flawless at OC'ing my quad, I would def. go XFX if I were looking for a 790i. Unless of course there was a serious problem with that model that was well documented.

Edit: I just saw what you're planning to build with. A suggestion, if you're at the stage you have to ask this type of question, you might want to let a professional put together hardware like that.

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Thanks, I was leaning towards that board myself but I was a little hesitant. And yeah, I'm definitely getting my pc guy to either put it together himself or walk me through it. I could put the components together from the guides I have, but I'm a little afraid to set up a RAID configuration and mess with the BIOS. I'm not even going to pretend to know the first thing about assembling a PC.


EDIT: It was actually the PC guy who was worried that the one board wasn't Vista certified. I didn't think it would be a big deal myself, but I think his job has him dealing with clients more concerned about price and stability than my needs as a gamer/ musicphile, so he probably looks for that kind of stuff automatically.

I don't know if you have the time for it, but it's really not that difficult assembling a PC or setting up a RAID array so long as you're able to read and prepare. In fact, I personally find the experience very rewarding as once it's up and running, you can take pride in knowing this was something you personally put together.

Also, is there any reason why you're not looking at evga for 790i boards? Out of the nvidia board makers, I like evga best because of it's lifetime warranty and ridiculously quick cross ship rma service.

EDIT: Also, are you fine with spending that much cash for your PC? I would think for most gamers and musicphiles, a much cheaper setup could be more than satisfactory.

Why would you go XFX? When eVGA has the exact same board (manufactured by Foxconn I believe) and has much better service than XFX, I would definitely choose eVGA of the 2.

Even though Im running an eVGA 790i Ultra SLI, this is more than just a biased opinion. BTW, running Vista 64 like a charm.

Grab a reference 790i from either XFX or Evga .. I went with XFX seeing as I don't need a lifetime warrenty as I upgrade ever 6-8 months .. 'Vista Certified' is a gimmick really, I'm running a nForce 4 board with Vista and that's fine + my 790i board loves 64bit Vista ..

Anubis_386 said:

Grab a reference 790i from either XFX or Evga .. I went with XFX seeing as I don't need a lifetime warrenty as I upgrade ever 6-8 months .. 'Vista Certified' is a gimmick really, I'm running a nForce 4 board with Vista and that's fine + my 790i board loves 64bit Vista ..

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Same as me, if it makes it through the few months I own it, great. I'll sell it to offset the cost of a new one. If it fries I might be willing to take the time to get it RMA'd, I might not. Evga has typically been known to have better quality control and service, but that is not really a concern for me. I go with what's cheaper, and in this case the xfx board happened to be over $50 cheaper.

If this is going to be your first build, you don't want to be doing it with a $300.00 Mobo, an QX9770 and 4GB of high end DDR3. Not to mention $600 graphics cards. The possibility of burning something is just too great.

Seriously dude you could get more than enough horsepower to game for half the cash you plan on dishing out for that machine. Try a couple of 9800GTX's if you want to go for an SLI setup. 790i would be the nvidia chipset board of choice. Maximize the amount you spend on the PSU, quality and power there are of the utmost importance. You can easilly overclock another quad core model that doesn't cost near as much as the one you are planning on buying. Memory, that's another issue, I have no clue about DDR3, but I would imagine the Dominator's won't be cheap but will give good performance.
Just my 2 cents, but that's alot of cash to be putting out.