Building My PC 3 - The Motherboard

Case: Check
Fan: Check

90% of the motherboard decision I attribute to Newegg. My decision is easily recreated given that I wanted to be around $100. To try it yourself select Motherboards->Intel ->LGA 775->Top Sellers->$100-$200. The GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R is at the top with a recent Winner of Customer Choice Award icon. I pinned that down early on, and as I gathered more information I barely wavered. That was a welcome happening considering how I thrashed about on the processor and video card decisions.

Tomshardware recommended the next Gigabyte model down for the $625 gaming rig they built. I took that as a nod towards the Gigabyte brand, but wondered if I should downgrade my choice. As it turns out along the way they encountered a problem where the processor cooler (that I also ordered) prevented them from dropping RAM into 2 slots. The model I chose looks like it has a slightly different layout that should avoid such motherboard calamity.