Need help deciding on a Motherboard

Good evening,

Over the past few months I have been slowly building my new rig while at the same time giving time to see if the new PD CPU's would hit the streets but since we still don't have a date I decided to finish my build and proceeded to order an AMD FX-8120 and now all I need is the MB.

Regarding the MB I have narrowed ed it down to these 4 boards:

1- Asus M5A99x Evo (This was my original choice, but now it looks like the new Rev. 2 boars are coming out)
2- Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 (don't mind if it doesn't have UEFI Bios, I'm old school anyway )
3-Asrock MB-990 Extreme 4 (like the idea of having legacy IDE plus it looks like a solid board with lots of features)
4- Asus M5A99FX rev. 2 (just recently became aware of this MB)

I also have a Sapphire 6870 but i'm not 100 % sure that I will do a crossfire, at least not in the near future, but I do want have the option available just in case I decide to do it later on; I also have 8 gb of Corsair, 1600 mhz, vengeance ram .

I'm planning to do some mild overclocking on the FX-8120, maybe pushing it to 4Ghz or as high as I can get it by just pushing up the multiplier but the most important thing for me, above the overclocking potential of the MB, is stability and reliability.

I do have a max budget of US$ 160.00 (Amazon Prices).

Would appreciate any help since I would like to order my board by Friday the latest and If you guys think that there is a better option than the ones I described above please let me know.

Thanks,

MadMax

Sabertooth is a great MB from all the reviews I have been reading, but I'm trying to stay within my budget because what started out as a budget rig has already grown out of proportions and I'm not in the US so I have to pay duty taxes on everything I buy and the higher the price the more duty tax I would have to pay.

In other words, by the time I buy that board and get it to my house, between shipping to my country and duty tax, I would have paid around US$ 250 to 260.

But thank you for your suggestion.

Regards,

MadMax

Thank you for your suggestion, but unfortunately I'm currently living outside the US and it could get a bit complicated with the shipping.

Actually Asus was my first pick of the lot, originally started out with the M5A97 Evo since I was not thinking of doing crossfire, but suddenly that board has disappeared and the few places that still has them are asking some ridiculous prices for them, then the M5A99x evo started going down in price plus it gives me the option for crossfire so I decided to get that board until I found the Asus M5A99FX rev. 2.

The problem with the Rev. 2 board is that currently there aren't very many reviews nor have I been able to contact someone that has one so that they can give me their opinion on the board plus I also use Linux and since this is a new board with tons of features designed for Windows 8, II'm a bit afraid that I might have some issues regarding the compatibility with Linux OS.

Nonetheless at this very moment I'm keeping it on the number 2 spot on my list while the M599x is number 1, unless I can find a review on the Rev 2.

One thing I did notice on the Rev 2 board is that it seems Asus has stepped up on the NB cooling setup which now looks more robust plus they have a new 6+2+2 power phase which is a step up from the traditional 6+2 phase; now all I need is to find a good review on this board and I'm set.

Regards,

MasMax

Thank you for your advise Xerosnake, since I started buying parts for my rig on a monthly basis, I was able to investigate at my own Pace before making a buying decision. For cooling I have a Corsair H100, most will argue that it was not a wise decision and that I should have gotten a high end air cooler that would have given me the same cooling results (Noctua, Silver Arrow, etc.) and would have been less expensive and last a lot longer, but I really wanted to try water cooling so I bought the Corsair knowing exactly what I was getting into...when it fails, I'll go to either an open loop system or get a high end air cooler.

Actually when I started picking parts for my rig I intended to build a budget machine thus , based on so many good reviews and it's great price/performance potential, the first cooler that I intended to buy was the Hyper 212 evo, but not investigating is almost as bad a over investigating..the more I read different forums and reviews the more I changed my original configuration and from my original budget machine I now have something that is totally different then what I originally intended to build; I know that it is not a high end machine but then again you could hardly call it a budget rig.

Also upgrading parts affected my original budget the same way and that is why in the end I need to keep within my budget...just glad my wife can't see the bills or I'd be in a lot of trouble..heck I don't even wanna think about it :D

Regarding the boards I have chosen, I think all of the will handle up to 140 watt CPU so I think that part is covered.

Btw did u see that the Sabertooth Rev. 2 is out? looks really sweet but currently over us$ 200 on Amazon.

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I also read that post and it seems like it really is a good board, also been reading some reviews on Amazon and Newegg but I don't take those too seriously; anyway I think that I will take a gamble on that board and order it.

Once I have it all setup I will probably post a review on it.

Thanks for your input really appreciate it !!!!