Which motherboard? abit AWD9-max or EVGA nForce 680i SLI and Intel CPU

[swann]

Hello,
I currently have been running a Pent 4-2.8ghz, Abit IS7 motherboard, 1.5Gig corsair 3200 DDR. I was planning to buy some upgrade memmory and graphics card... and Windows VISTA,when I learned.... how out of date my system was(although I have been very happy with it the past years). Anyways, I am in the market to build a new computer, a gameing computer...and I have decided to build it myself(im trying to learn). I have done some reading and narrowed down 2 choices in CPU's and mother boards, I am hopeing you could help me make a decision...or make it for me...haha.

After, talking to some people and reading reviews.. I am haveing problems decideing over the ABIT AWD9-max or EVGA nForce 680i SLI mother board with either the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 or Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 ?
Reviews say Great things about both motherboards... with the nforce 680i looking to have greater specs and performance and customer service, but the ABIT sounding a bit more user/newby friendly and stable? or is this just me? The price differance between the 2 doesnt bother me... I am just looking for someone to tell me.... which is the better board ? The CPU's im looking at have about a $200.00 differance. Everyone seems to rave about the E6600, is the E6700 noticably worth the extra 200.00 bucks? I'm planning to Run the GeForce 8800GTX video card, and other than doing some hardcore gameing want to get into more multimedia applications. (if any of this makes a differance.) Anyways, as soon as someone makes up my mind about what to buy and or other recomendations on hardware to go with the above CPU and MB's.... I'll make the order

Thanks Swann

 

[NosBoost300]

well.. i'll help you out once i test my 680i and e6600 tonite!

 

[swann]

Awsome! Did you do the build yourself?


... the Intel extreme's sound awsome!.... can I.. should I wait/save up for this CPU instead of the way cheaper duo's, gonna spend days thinkin about this!!!

 

[schulz269]

I say the i680 and the e6600... i have even seen people get the E6300 up to 3ghz if your gonna overclock.. However if you have the money get the E6600 or you can save up and get the Quad core

 

[ThirdLeft152]

well i have a MAX and its nothing to overlook, i got my e6400 at 3.3ghz stable on air. however the 680i probably would be the better choice, and probably mine if i could choose again.

my MAX is rock solid though, no complaints here.

 

[aspire]

Also got the AW9D-Max, Its a great board and is incredibly stable, 3.6 24/7 on my e6600

Supports both sli and crossfire, something no other board does, and looks good while doing it lol

 

[swann]

Alright guys, so far I pieced together this. Still trying to decide to go ahead with the Core 2 Duo 2.6 now....or save for an Intel Extreme. If I go extreme, the build will cost me about 3000.00 all together, as I've priced things out so far. It just seems to make more sense to wait ... save and get the better CPU. I want something that will defentaly last me atleast 3-4years, and be able to set all my Gameing options to their highest details.
Anyways, I was going to salvage my current mid tower, but at this point i'm just gonna build a whole new system. Can anyone suggest full and mid tower's that will house all this stuff..and keep it cool. Theres just so many choices, I wanna get some more input from people that normaly look at "whats out and hot", because I have not clue. Also, what im looking into as far as fans and affordable cooling? I'm about spent after the MB,CPU,and video card. Is the sound-card, hardrive , power supply, I have chosen fine? I just read some quick reviews/ and top 10 lists..and came up with this....what do you think?

CPU=Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz LGA 775
Processor Model BX80562QX6700 . $999.99
OR
-Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Conroe 2.66GHz $512.00
Memmory=Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4D 2GB DDR2-800 XMS2- 6400 Dominator
Mother Board=EVGA nForce 680i SLI NVIDIA Socket 775 ATX
Power Supply=OCZ GameXStream 700W Power Supply
Graphics Card=GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit
Hard Drive =Seagate 320GB SATA-300 Hard Drive

Sound Card=Creative Labs X-Fi XtremeMusic
Case=SunBeam Tech Samurai Mid-Tower

 

[aspire]

Scratch the E6700, go for the e6600, The small clock difference doent justify the extra 200 bucks your spending on it.

Besides, with any halfway decent motherboard you can overclock from 2.4-2.66 with your eyes closed.

Instead of the ocz power supply, I would reccomend any of seasonics, above 550 watts or so.

Case wise, either the
Stacker 830
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119103
Gigabyte
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811233012
Stacker
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119042
Armor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133155

 

[NosBoost300]

i didnt read anything, but i'm going to say that the 680i is a beautiful motherboard.. and i love the way everything is laid out... it's even got a power button on it so you don't even have to have it in a case!!!! Everything is just sexy about it, its just too bad mine isnt working... imma try and give it another go tomorrow before i decide to RMA it.. because i really want this board to work... and with the CNPS 9700 on it... it was just gorgeous

 

[Cappy]

I got the eVGA i680 havent had the first problem with it .
Everything works fine no funky boot up problems .
Still burning in Tuniq Tower will be here soon