First off, I'm new here but everyone seems pretty knowledgeable so this seemed like a good spot to seek advice. It's about time for me to put together a new rig and even though I've always gone with AMD, I don't really like their processors right now so I'm probably gonna bite the bullet and do something based on LGA 775.

My plan is to start with a Core2 Wolfdale for now due to cost cost-effectiveness and upgrade to a quad that still fits the socket after they get cheaper and more relevant. That means I have to have something that will handle 45nm out of the gate.

I have no intention of going top dollar on this thing, but I don't want to skimp on the motherboard this time around 'cus that bit me in the backside last time (got stuck with AGP and 184 pin DIMM slots when everything was turning over to PCIe and 240). I'd like to be able to expand a bit over the next few years, gradually as needed.

I'll be using this box for a bit of everything; some gaming (preferably high-end to start with room to move up), media playback and streaming, video encoding (some editing as well), general web and office apps etc. Crossfire, in some capacity at least, seems like a good idea. I would also like firewire, plenty of SATA, eSata, and at least one accessible PCI slot for a stand alone sound card I have my eye on.

So far, I have it narrowed down to these two boards based on what I'd like to spend and features:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128336


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128346


I'm kind of leaning toward the GA-EP45-DS4P because i really like the on-board power and reset buttons and it's cheaper, but I'm concerned that a second video card will render the only regular PCI slot useless. Also, the current benchmarks I've seen suggest that the 8x/8x on P45 boards isn't really that crippling, but how likely is this to change down the road vs. the full 16x/16x of the x48?

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated, and thanks for tolerating my wall of text!

That's a no brainer for me. I'd go with X48 if I were to keep the board for a few years. I don't have access to X48, but X38 to me seems to use a bit less voltage than some other chipsets in terms of overclocking. That's a good thing cuz there's a bit more headroom for overclocking. I've used 2 X38 boards so far. Gigabyte & DFI.