i need some help deciding

okay so i'm gathering up all the pieces and parts to build a nice little machine.
but i cant decide between these two ASUS mobos.

either one would work for me. i just cant seem to choose.

ASUS Crosshair II Formula <newegg>

or

Asus M3A78-T <tigerdirect>

but if you guys/gals have any other suggestions im up to hearing them.
or any other help would be great.

well see thats what im having the problem with. i dont know if i want to OC or not.

i know if i go the OC route i really need to think about how to cool.
-fans or water cooling?
-is it worth it?

i don't know. i just want to hear your opinion's. the pros and cons of OCing, your experiences, etc.

i just plain need help now haha.

If you are looking at oc'ing you should look into the antec 900 case at the least or if you don't mind a bigger case go with the antec 1200. The case will move tons of air and is what i was gonna get for my build till i decided to hold off. On the cpu cooler look into the thermal right ultra extreme 120 that has the fan on the heat sink (hsf). You will see them talked about in forums as the "TRUE". It is the hsf to get for the i7 chip which means the cooling it would do for the quads or duals would be very nice, considering they run cooler until oc'd. You can gain some benefits in oc's but as for real world application you will not see as much. Hence if you want a gaming rig that is a beast go heavy on the gpu.

so going the no OC, but high-end GPU would be a fine gaming rig?

///edit

oh yeah i had this case in mind viva APEVIA X-JUPITER G-Type

okay well now i have most of what i want pretty much figured out. here's the list as of now.

still deciding on the mobo. its that asus one i posted earlier and an msi board. both are AMD sockets.

mobo:
1. Asus M3A78-T Motherboard
2.MSI K9A2 Platinum Motherboard

CPU/Processor:
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz

Video Card(s):
Diamond Radeon HD 3870 Video Card

///question/// im either going to crossfire 2,3, or 4 of these. i learned recently that with the MSI board i could crossfire 4 of them! give me your thoughts on crossfire tech. please. still dont really understand it fully.

RAM:
mushkin XP ASCENT w/ eVCI technology 4GB (2 x 2GB)

///note/// either 2x2048 or 4x1024 dont know how i want to do it.

HDD:
not linking cause its not all that crucial. but 2xWD Caviar Black 7200rpm 32mb cache sata 3gb/s

Case:
APEVIA X-JUPITER G-Type

///question/// how big of a PSU should i get? above a 1000W? or what? i know i would need above a 1000W if i crossfire 3 or more GPU's..

HALP GUYSES!

your choices seem to be fine. my only comment is that your case will piss you off in the end. I have the older version of that case and the door drives me crazy. unless they made some major changes. the led saying the temp won't be that bright; and the dorr gets anoying other then it makes it look clean. opening it to shut it on and put cd's/dvd's in gets to be a pain rather fast. you should be fine with the 4g's of memory. I would go dual 2gig if you can because you never know if you might want to upgrade to 6 or 8 later on.(4 slots for memory) Go with the MSI motherboard.

thanks josh!

now i found this here PSU - Thermaltake Toughpower W0156RU 1200W

too much power or what?

way too much power for what your panning to run. I would go 1k max

1k is what I was gonna use on a i7 of build with gtx295 in it. So you will be more than fine on power. I looked at the corsair 1k watt and it's modular so any cables u don't need you leave out of case. Also look at antec 900 case it will keep you running cool and they are a great company as far as quality.

I have an Antec 900 case if you want to buy it lol; i'm not using it ><
has a dead motherboard in it too!

PSU crossfire ready. or certified. ? whats the difference.

ati 4870 or 4870 x2? or the 3870 or the x2 variety.

4870 is the newer on ay?

crossfire ready or certified means that the psu can handle the wattage needed for the cards. just make sure that the psu has a 6pin and 6+2pin which would make 8 or 6 and 8 to power the card. Also the 3870 is the older version of the 4870 by ati. If you are lookin at the 4870 card i would look into the asus dark knight with 1gb. Make sure it is the one gig card and not the 512mb card cause that will make a huge difference in your game play. Also the asus card has a huge heat sink on it with a fan which is a nice plus to keep it running cooler. Side note i mentioned the antec 900 case cause it has a ton of airflow and is around 90-100 bucks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814121291
link to the card i was tellin you about. Looked at it first when i was gonna do my build then went to the 4807x2 then gtx295. Not doing it cause i don't wanna spend 2500 on a system and not really use it.

damn thats pretty. and you totally changed my mind !. all i gotta do now is pick out the PSU. and well run into a good chunk of money.

but ill be getting that next school semester. so thatll be fine. too bad i cant get it right away. :/.

final build cost. ~1500 before S&H.