Help me find a motherboard

[Bush]

I need a mobo for a desktop I'm building. Im using an AMD Phenom x4 965 with an AM3 socket. I don't really know what to look for, but I know ASUS is a good brand. Integrated GPU would be nice, and I would like at least 4 ddr3 ram slots and 2 PCIe 2 slots. Beyond that I'm not sure what I need; feel free to enlighten me . If possible, could you refer me to one on Tigerdirect.com? That's where I'm getting my parts, so I'd like to bundle the shipping and keep it down. Thanks guys!

[nevermind1534]

You should also check newegg (and micro center if you have one nearby). I'm really tired, so I won't get you any suggestions right now, but I probably can after school.

[jdmlight]

Gigabyte is also a decent motherboard manufacturer. Stay away from brands like ECS - even though they're cheap, they're not worth your time. Also, Newegg often (read: almost always) has free shipping, so the shipping wouldn't cost you any more to buy there in all likelihood.

I'm going to assume that you want full-size ATX, not micro-ATX. (if that's a bad assumption, there are still good micro-ATX boards out there)

At this point, you should get a motherboard with USB 3 and SATA 6gb/s for future compatibility. This looks to be a promising motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H
And here's a comparable ASUS board:
Asus M4A87TD
Can't go wrong with either of those imho, they both seem to fit your requirements well.

[nevermind1534]

You will probably also want a standalone video card, as well, if you're going to have a nice computer.

[Bush]

Well, I have decided to use an Ati card, so I will be wanting Crossfirex compatibility. And I have seen that some motherboards dont support two pcie16x speeds at once, can anyone elaborate on that?

[jdmlight]

Well, I have decided to use an Ati card, so I will be wanting Crossfirex compatibility. And I have seen that some motherboards dont support two pcie16x speeds at once, can anyone elaborate on that?

I'm not as familiar with AMD, but I know with Core 2 Duos you couldn't have two PCIe x16 slots, so motherboard manufacturers would do some workarounds. So long as it's at least x4 on the second slot, you'll be fine. (though something with dual x8 would be better than something with an x16 and an x4)
Here is an Asus with a Crossfirex-compatible chipset:
ASUS M4A78T-E
And here is a Gigabyte with a Crossfirex-compatible chipset:
GIGABYTE GA-890XA-UD3

Here's the compatibility chart I used to find a Crossfirex-compatible motherboard:

Spoiler:

[Bush]

Hmm, that asus seems pretty good, if i need usb 3.0 i could get a pci card

[Bush]

Alright I have decided on an Ati HD 5770. I would like to have a board that allows crossfirex with x16 on both slots. The newest SATA and USB revisions would be a plus as well. And like earlier, it needs to be AM3. Would this be a good board for all that? http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=4296" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jdmlight]

Alright I have decided on an Ati HD 5770. I would like to have a board that allows crossfirex with x16 on both slots. The newest SATA and USB revisions would be a plus as well. And like earlier, it needs to be AM3. Would this be a good board for all that? http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=4296" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The second slot of that motherboard (the gray one) is x4 electrically but x16 physically. Which is not what you want for Crossfire, particularly with 5770's.

As far as I know, you can't have 32 total lanes of PCIe with the current AMD chipsets, so you would want a board with dual x8's (which I've read in researching Crossfire compatibility for this thread won't make much of a difference at all for the 5770) like the Asus I posted above.

You should try this: use Newegg to browse, then look it up on Tigerdirect. There's like a 90% chance that Tigerdirect will have the same motherboard, and Newegg's web site is far superior to Tiger's imo.

[Bush]

"1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
Note: For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot. The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When PCIEX8 is populated with a PCI Express graphics card, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode."

Is that what I'm looking for? I'm assuming this means both will use 8x if used at the same time.

[jdmlight]

"1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
Note: For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot. The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When PCIEX8 is populated with a PCI Express graphics card, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode."

Is that what I'm looking for? I'm assuming this means both will use 8x if used at the same time.

Yep! That's what you're looking for. (and yep, that means both will use 8x if used at the same time)

From what I've been reading, the jump from 8x to 16x is only really noticeable on the much higher-end cards like the 5870/5970, and even then it was only a few FPS difference. The difference between 4x and 8x is noticeable though. (which is why you want two x8 slots)

[Bush]

Ok sweet thanks!