The UD7 X79 board is an excellent OCing board. I think the problem with the one that went boom was traced down to a firmware problem. If you get this board, just update the bios to the latest revision before you OC it.
I've built four X79 rigs and all of them on the ASUS Rampage 4 Extreme. Tom's is getting ready to run an article on the updated lithography SB-E CPU's. See -> http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] mshardware
The updated SB-E will be available to retailers January 20th. This hopefully will improve the often problematic SB-E OC'ing problems. We'll know soon.
The 4-WAY X79 MOBO's I'd consider: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme, EVGA X79 Classified, or Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7. So far the 'bug' is limited to in particular non-ASUS X79 MOBOs.
Message edited by jaquith on 01-12-2012 at 05:48:58 PM
IMO get the ASUS Rampage 4 Extreme, it's immune from the bug. Also, if possible I would RMA the SB-E and wait for the new and fixed version.
Oddly, since the Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 is listed as DEACTIVATED on NewEgg maybe it also had issues and was pulled. MSI definitely has the OC'ing BIOS bug so until I see otherwise I'm not recommending it either.
Trust me, the ASUS R4E is your best bet for an extreme LGA 2011 MOBO, edit - or any ASUS X79 maybe look at the ASUS P9X79 WS.
Message edited by jaquith on 01-12-2012 at 06:42:09 PM