New hardware (Motherboard + Ram)

I posted this around a couple of other forums so rather than type it out again i will quote myself

Depends what you want to do. Essentially the ud5p sports the 790fx chipset which allows 2 gpus to run with 16x pci lanes. You could say money and just opt for the ud4p which runs on the 790x allows for dual gpus but they run at 8x each instead of 16. Every thing else looks decent, can't really comment on Asus boards anymore as most of them are over priced for what you actually get. Both of the Gigabyte boards(ud5p and ud4p) will allow you to unlock the other cores as long as they aren't totally cirppled. Furthermore if you don't plan on using xfire there is no use paying a primium for dual 16x lanes if you are going to stay with a single GPU.

To be honest the main goals are to run crossfire @ 16x and try and unlock the extra cores on the cpu (If possible)

If the cores are crap or don't unlock then x16 crossfire is going to be my win/win situation

Alright well then since you've narrowed it down yes you'd want either board sporting the 790FX chipset, all it's going to come down to, between the Asus and the Giga is extras/board layout. Haven't looked my self at which boards have dual lan or how many sata,+++ extra features between the two but I'm sure you have. So just pick the board that you are more happy with layout wise, feature wise, and power management wise, not sure between the 2 how many phases they are using for cpu management power, although I'm sure you've looked, the one thats higher will probably overclock better. I must say though over the years and all the reviews I've read on Asus boards, they always do tend to overVOLT on cpu voltage compared to other boards. Makes me question the actual quality and price they boast for such boards.

Forgot to mention i am also over clocked currently 4.1GHz at just over stock voltage 1.4v on the two cores and it seems stable enough but i figured if i can unlock an extra core or two i was going to leave it at stock for a while as i would be getting enough extra MHz without having to push it any higher lol (For now) as i am pretty greedy when it comes to MHz.

Anyway, i am not ordering till tomorrow and i have a billion more reviews and things to check through, I'll post my decision though like a good boy

I've owned both Asus and Gigbyte mobos and have been happy with both, personally I would pick the Asus here, soley for the 4 PCIe x 16 slots vs only 2 for the Gigabyte, chances are that you won't ever do Quad CrossfireX - but for the same price you might as well get it. Also I just had a Deluxe series mobo from Asus recently for a client and it overclocked like a banshee from outer space.

Well after a billion reviews and researching as much as possible i finally settled on the Asus M4A79T Deluxe with the G.Skill Ripjaw (2x2GB) DDR31600MHz!

So far so good, it flies and with unlocking the other cores on my x2 550 i now have a fully working 3.1GHz triple core cpu...

nice choice - I put that in a client's new gaming rig (the mobo) and it screams along (dual gtx 275s don't hurt either lol)