Motherboard madness!!

I think I am reaching the analysis paralysis stage of the computer build. It's been a long time since I built PC's and all the latest motherboard choices are very confusing. So many brands, a few different chipsets, and lots of identical-looking boards with tiny, tiny differences. Where do you start and how do you pick a decent motherboard for photo editing (non-gaming)?

Here's what I am looking for:
- support Intel i5 or i7 (overclocking not a factor)
- don't care if on-board GPU or not (going to run dual monitors)
- easy to work with
- reliable, good support
- price around $150

Looks like ASUS, Gigabyte, ASRock, and MSI are the popular brands on Newegg. What are some good choices for a PC to mostly run Lightroom and Photoshop?

Here's my build list so far: http://secure.newegg.c​om …x?WishListNumbe​r=25811268

goto the Mother Board manufactures website and look at the little details.. How many SATA3 6gb/sec speed... How many USB 3.0 ports.. how many PCI express slots that run at 16X not 4x or 1x

some boards have 2 SATA3 and 4 SATA2 ports..

check your video card power supply requrements.. 430W is at the bottom of the scale..

just read some details.. looks like your covered

Everything looks pretty good, if you're not going to be gaming. I've been using an Asus Sabertooth for the past year and its been a great board. I bought it mainly for the the 5 year warranty and it's military spec components, plus it just looks cool =D.... I noticed "reliability" was something you were looking for so i just thought I'd put that out there. ASUS, Gigabyte, and Asrock all have quality boards for your budget, I would not buy an MSI board though.

Also, you might want to get the i5 2500k instead of the 2500. It's only $10 more but has built in on-board graphics, which is convenient if your gpu were to go bad and you were stuck without one.

ceazeone wrote in post #13702909
Also, you might want to get the i5 2500k instead of the 2500. It's only $10 more but has built in on-board graphics, which is convenient if your gpu were to go bad and you were stuck without one.

The i5 2500 also has graphics. I think all the Sandy Bridge processors have it. The "K" designation just means it's unlocked, which I don't really need.

At that price, Id be going with the Asus Z68 V LE. Used a few and like them a lot. +1 to an internal USB3 header as well for cases that have USB3!

http://www.newegg.ca …13131773&Tpk=z6​8%20v%20le

Well if you want to use the integrated graphics on the i5 then your best chipset options are H67 or Z68. Z68 is higher performance, but it's going to cost more. If you plan on getting a video card (which I would suggest, it doesn't have to be anything fancy, but a dedicated graphics card is ideal in higher end rigs) then I would go with a P67 based board.

As for brand, stick to ASUS.

So since you don't care about integrated graphics, I would go with a ASUS P8P67 board.

http://www.newegg.com …aspx?Item=N82E1​6813131770

timeasterday wrote in post #13704315
The i5 2500 also has graphics. I think all the Sandy Bridge processors have it. The "K" designation just means it's unlocked, which I don't really need.

Not only are the "K" processors unlocked, they have better built in graphics. Regular processors use Intel HD 2000 graphics while the "K" processors use HD 3000 graphics. If you don't plan on using a video card, you will be better off with a "K" processor.