Motherboard

I am going to put together (or have put together) a PC to do music, mostly MIDI (but these days the bounds are blurred) with some audio.

I did a search here on motherboard, but did not really get opinions that were up to date.

As suggested in an article somewhere on CW's site, I will probably not go for the ultimate, but need opinions on a MoBo that has expansion slots with variety and number, is a good solid MoBo etc.

I will also be doing video and 3d cartooning. That's why I may need a few slots. At least Soundcard, decent graphics card, possibly a capture card, although that could be in another PC and simply transfer the data.

This unit will be standalone, not networked, no internet, no everything except  what I need to do that stuff. I envisage having a portable HD to transfer to and from if needed. Safety would be by erasing the drive often and scanning every file on it before going to the music PC. I suppose I could have non-resident AV on there....??

I was thinking of using an Intel I7 2.8 Ghz unless I get told otherwise.

Looking forward to what could become a bunfight!

What you say makes sense. That's why I said that I was looking at the i7 CPU, so that might give a clue. I think after reading a few messages here, I will stick with Intel.

I think my question may well be "What boards should I avoid?" Are there boards with known issues?

OK. Thanks for that direct recommendation. As I live in Australia, I will probably find that the outdated i7 920 is the one I can get!