LGA 1366 Motherboard Decision

[ProgenitorVirus]

Hi there, I'm building a shiny new i7 PC soon, and just wanted to get some input.

Primarily I'm looking at 3 Motherboards

ASUS P6T Deluxe V2

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD7

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R

I'm leaning towards the GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD7 at the moment, but have some questions.

So, I've been looking around and ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 seems to have some very promising reviews, however it lacks Sata III and USB 3.0

The two GIGABYTE boards have the exact same specs as far as I can tell, but I have some concerns:

First, is one substantially better for OCing between the two? .2 or so GHz difference or anything like that isn't that important to me, but .5 would be.

Second, can anybody find any REAL differences between these boards?

Third, I've heard some stuff online about SLI, USB 3.0 and SATA III not getting along very well at all. Pretty much I've been hearing, that if you use SSUSB for USB 3.0, then in SLI you forfeit your 16x 16x (What I'd be using) with 8x 8x which is unacceptable to me.

These boards are $150 difference in price, which is insane, but I'd be willing to pay if the UD7 was significantly better for OCing, or UD7 didn't have those USB/SLI issues while UD3R, or w/e. And for the ASUS, is forfeiting the SATA/USB worth it, when I can get a seemingly better board for $100 less?

 

[dejo]

I have an asus p6t del and the gigax58a-ud3. I think the asus board is smoother while booting up but you will be limited to 2 video cards unless using single slot wide. the giga ud3 that I have just flat out blows the asus out of the water on the oc side of things though. with the asus I can get to 217bclk and no more no matter what. with the ud3 I have had it at 235 bclk on the same i7 920 and both on air. I also have an asus p6t that wont pass the 217bclk either. if you are looking for performance I would easily choose the giga board. but the asus does seem alittle more user friendly.
the difference bewtween the ud3 and ud5 and ud7 are basically the number of phases for power and some better cooling options on the ud5 and even better again on the ud7. if you are planning on upgrading to the new hex core with the board you purchase today I would look into the p6t del or the ud5 or the ud7 as the power delivery should be more reliable for the more demanding cpu. but I can say that I love my ud3.

 

[reap3r]

I've had only good experiences with the Asus P6T as far as overall user friendliness and stability.. However it is true that it does have issues when trying to push BCLK past ~210, just as dejo said.. If you're looking for higher levels of overclocking then go for either one of those Gigabytes imo.

 

[ProgenitorVirus]

So I'm almost positive to go with the UD5 or 7 then, sounds good to me, but can anybody answer the questions about the SLI/USB 3.0 issues? Does having SSUSB enabled kill SLI (16x 16x > 8x 8x)?

 

[dejo]

I think that is only on the p55 boards as there arent as many available lanes for the usb/sata for do their thing at full width elsewhere. I think you still have 16x16x8 for nvidia. I am also pretty sure that the ati cards automatically go to 16x8 when crossfired or 16x8x8. dont quote me as I am not positive on this, but fairly confident.

 

[jazon1]

check out this board it has sata3 and usb3 and the board is a great overclocker its what i own http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131614
oh yea and this board will support the new 8 core cpu's when they come out

intel 920 [email protected](on air)
6 gigs corsair dominator ddr3 1600
ASUS P6X58D Premium w/ sata3 and usb 3.0
hdd WD raptor,(soon to be ocz vertex turbo 60gig)
corsair tx750 psu
nvidia 9800+ x3 sli
windows 7 x64