Whats a good affordable mobo for overclocking, Intel socket

GIGABYTE P35-DS3L

or the MSI P35 NEO-F not bad as well for the price.

Any suggestions on mobo with 2 pci express x16 slots so i could run XFIRE? just looking at my options atm

the P35/P45 with 2 PCI-E 16x but when run in CF mode it wont do 2 x 16x
only the X series of the RD700 can do 2 x 16x in CF.

but the X38/48 will put your AFFORDABLE requirement out of the conclusion. the P series OC better for the price, of course the X can do better dont dont really justify the price difference i think.

so inorder to do crossfire i need the X series mobo?

no you can do CF in P35 as well. but depend what cards you will use.

CF works on a p35 with 2 PCI Express slots but both won't run at x16, they'll both be lowered to the second slots x8.

What he meant was that doing Crossfire on a P35/P45, most likely it will be x8/x8 mode instead of x16/x16 on the more expensive X38/x48. With less lanes, performance may be limited some.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/ [...] index.html

Using cards as powerful as the 4850s, you will see a drop in performance.

It depends on the resolution you are using as well, you start to see the impact of the lower bandwidth of 2x8 vs 2x16 at 1600x1200, with significant impact starting at 1900x1200 and higher. Do a google search on 4850 Crossfire reviews, there is one done by a site that tested for this with a P45 board vs an X48 board.

See someone beat me to it. The article shows it well.

anything under 1920x with load of AA 8x wouldnt make a difference. so dont worry about it OP.

GA-P35-DS3L

Agree. I have a DS3P simply because I need more than 4 SATA ports and a DS3R wasn't available where I live.

+1 for a gigabyte board.

Another vote for Gigabyte...
I'm running a GA-P31-DS3L
It's cheap and very overclockable.....a little short on features but suits my needs.
I would have got a GA-P35-DS3? but wanted to keep my upgrade as cheap as possible.

If your going to use a 45nm cpu last time i looked on newegg they had asus p5k pro for $109. They work with the new processors quite well. mine is doing prime95 as I write this. E8400 4ghz/2000fsb. been going for 2.5 hrs..... max temp 63 deg. (real temp 2.60)(air cooling) 1.18 vcore. 1.47 fsb. 6 sata ports- crappy audio (curse of onboard audio )

The gigabyte boards are fantastic too.
They all seem to be pretty flexible these days.
If you are going to purchase two video cards then why not get only one now and spend more on a better crossfire/sli board and get the 2nd card when you can afford it? Especially if buying oem license operating system.
If you already have the cards then disregard above statement.......