Why would I purchase a gigabyte P67 ud4 vs ud3 ud7 etc......

I've read some of the marketing materials and there is so much fluff I'm not sure which one I really care about as an oc'er. Basically the only thing I'm sure of is that the ud7 has 24 phases vs 12 on the rest but I'm not sure I need that many to oc a 2500k. After all I'm running an ancient 3phase 965p now.

I can't wait to upgrade.

Any guidance on hownbest to spend my money is greatly appreciated.

TIA

UD7 and UD9 boards are uber-enthusiast class. Do you NEED a Lambourghini? No. Is it definitely better than a Volkswagen?

If you're looking to viciously overclock the living snot out of your system, a super high end board with really awesome powerphasing definitely helps.

Personally, I've never run a greater than 8 phase board. Almost went 16 phase this time... took a bunch of ROG features instead. (ROG is ASUS gaming-geared motherboard line. Crosshair, Maximus, Rampage for P55, AM3, X58. You may want to look into the feature set and see if it's for you.)

Higher end boards also have things like extra LAN controllers, extra HD controllers, extra PCIE lanes via extra controllers, better chipset cooling.

Other wicked good boards exist if that's what you're looking into...

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130289

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...&cm_re=rampage_extreme-_-13-131-642-_-Product

Do you NEED them though? No. Are you planning to go for like a 4.8Ghz water-cooled-everything tri-SLI pwning monster? Get a top-tier board.

If you're going to build an X58 system, ASUS Sabretooth and P6X58D-E will both get you past 4Ghz and have a robust featureset. They're also significantly cheaper.
The Core i7 950 is the current bang for buck 1366 chip to get due to its high multiplier and low price.

this is good feedback thanks. Sounds like the UD4 is right up my alley.

I think there might be a little confusion in chipsets, P67 will be for Sandy Bridge (which is still NDA).

The Gigabyte UD series will still be stacked similar to what they are now. The low level UD-3 usually takes care of any consumers needs, anything more than that... is pure want. Doesn't mean they're not good boards (I've had both a UD-7 and a UD-9, in the X58 chipset), they're usually a bit unnecessary though.

Right. If you are looking for a mild, 4Ghz overclock, Im sure a UD3 will take care of you just fine. Besides, we have no idea how these boards will play out. There is no or limited bclk overclocking with the new CPU (Sandybridge). You have to buy a K series chip and use its multiplier so.......