I need to figure out what motherboards are the highest quality but also the audio quality and support for more than one gpu setup such as 4- way SLI.
well first of all, we need to know which cpu you wanne use. For 4 way Sli or 4 way CF i would recommend to go with socket 2011. ivybridge - E.
I think the best audio quality you will find on Asus ROG boards. because they have a supreme FX soundchip onboard.
Im also a fan of msi´s xpower board the Big bang. But asus rog will have a better sound chip.
Also a good board in my opinnion will be the new Asus X79 -Deluxe board.
+1 MisteryAngel
a budget if you have one would be nice to know right away to because you have a ton of options when it comes to audio especially if you want to dish out the money for some extra peripherals.
Update and let us all know :-)
I plan on putting an intel i5 3570K cpu in my system since it doesn't have hyper threading because the i7 has hyper threading support which would probably be an overkill if I just plan on using my system for gaming
I wouldn't be too sure about 4 cores for gaming, Battlefield 4 uses up to 8 cores in game. It certainly uses my FX-8350's 8 cores.
http://www.bf4blog.com/battlefield-4-retail-gpu-cpu-benchmarks/
Totally different architectures. Quad core i5 is perfectly fine.
Z77 platform is not made for 4 way sli or CF.
offcourse a quad gpu setup is totaly overkill, but like i said above if you want the ability for 4 way sli/cf then you need to switch to socket 2011.
Did you already purchase the 3570K or are you going to buy the CPU?
As noted my MisteryAngel Z77 has limited PCIe lanes as such you would need a board that offers a PLX that enables multiplexing. This would allow you to run 3 way or 4 way GPU configurations.
Board would be
Maximus V Extreme
P8Z77 WS
If you are looking a board that enables multi GPU support as well as oustanding on board audio you should look at the Maximus V Formula.
With that in mind there are lot of factors you should consider when evaluating board whether it be UEFI quality and support, fan control functionality software and more. That being noted this should help in getting the ball rolling.
Also keep in mind that once you go past 2 GPUs scaling in games begins to see considerble varaition so you really want to keep in mind that the games you are looking at would have a improvement vs getting a faster single GPU or 2 faster gpus for SLI.
Hope this helps.
Nope havnt purchesed the 3570K yet
if you're considering quad gpu you really need to go with server/workstation parts, also with that much gpu power an i5 would probably be a bottleneck depending on the use, but unless you go with a low end xeon or opteron there isn't much weaker than an i5 in server chips
If you didn't purchased it yet, I would suggest you look at the i4670k as a good i5 possibility. I know that the overclocking capability of the 4th generation of processor is not as good as the i3570k, but it is still a better processor if you are not looking at OC.
If we come back to your question, I have used mostly Asus for my builds and I have not been turn down at any points.The board are usually a little bit more pricy than MSI, but they usually are more stable in the long run. I have kept my Asus P5N-D with my Q6600 for a long time before upgrading recently.