Guys I about bit the bullet and bought a Maximus IV Extreme a second ago. They are in stock at the egg, but prolly already sold out.
I'm looking for a board that will work great for a 24/7 system but still have some fun when I wanna toss in the benching hdd and rip it up. I just can't seem to find a board that isn't bugged to hell and back in one form or another. The only thing that talked me out of the Maximus is that it's E-ATX spec width and I gotta fit it in a small case. Plus the darn thing is expensive as all get out.
What I really want:
- Nice slot layout since I'm leaning towards getting a 580 Direct CU 3-slot monster and still want to use my sound card.
- The ability not to loose random USB/eSATA ports if I wanna plug something in the last slot.
- Not completely full of random bugs.
- As mature BIOS as possible given the new platform.
What would be nice:
- Cheap as possible so I can swing for a 2600K too.
It's either downgrade the CPU or get a weaker GPU.
- ATX form factor.
- EFI BIOS rather than the old school stuff.
- Ability to run my Hypers
Pretty much that leaves me with just a handful of boards and a couple alternates.
Giga UD7
Maximus IV Extreme
P67 Deluxe (has PLX chip for USB/eSATA lanes
Asus P67 Workstation board that Rick and Witchdoctor didn't like.
Asrock Extreme 6 - alternate since it's getting high praises for being the least buggy board out right now.
What do you guys think? Basically I'm trying to squeeze all of this into a tiny Fractal Design Define R3. I hate how few PCIe lanes P67 has since all of these nice new periphrials rely on PCIe lanes to be used.
