New Motherboard Suggestions

[Tekt]

Hello,

I am in need of a new motherboard (preferably PCI Express 3.0 for future upgrades) and am inquiring as to which would be most recommended. These are my specs:

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) Classified ULTRA 3072MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM
PSU: SeaSonic X Series X-850 850W 80 PLUS GOLD Certified
HDD: Western Digital WD Black 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
SSD: Crucial M4 128GB

I need to order one ASAP as mine is defective so your input is appreciated.

[chazus]

You've got a sandy bridge CPU... Is your current board not under warranty? Is there any problem with it outside of being defective?

[Tekt]

It seems one of the two RAM slots I use is defective. I've done a memory test in the MSI motherboard's UEFI of the two RAM I use and it failed. After further swap testing it seems that one of the two RAM sticks I use fails in the blue slot but passes in the black slot.

What PCI Express 3.0 Intel motherboards could you suggest? Should I get an 1150 for future upgrades or stick to an 1155?

[chazus]

Again, is your current board under warranty? If not, is there a reason you can't just get the same one, so as to avoid any software reinstalls?

Secondly, if you get 1150, you need a new CPU too.

I would also try using Memtest to determine which sticks are bad, and in which slots.

[Tekt]

It is not under warranty.

The sticks are fine. One slot fails them all while the other passes them all.

[Killora]

There should be 4 ram slots, no? Just move it to a different channel. If only one slot is failing then the other 3 should work fine.

[Faithh]

There should be 4 ram slots, no? Just move it to a different channel. If only one slot is failing then the other 3 should work fine.

Even if it works fine, I would still RMA it or get another board but that's just me. My rive has dead onboard sound but could easily upgrade to a dedicated sound card but I haven't paid for a premium board with a dead sound chip so RMA is going to be my solution for example.

[Killora]

Even if it works fine, I would still RMA it or get another board but that's just me. My rive has dead onboard sound but could easily upgrade to a dedicated sound card but I haven't paid for a premium board with a dead sound chip so RMA is going to be my solution for example.

His board is outside of warranty, so there is no RMA. It's either deal with it or buy a new board.