Um what? lol Like I said I don't know much about all this stuff.Care to explain how motherboards work? I thought thats just what connected everything to each other.

Applications that require NVIDIA - NVIDIA 3D and several proprietary microscopic image capture systems I use.

Video cards for gaming are hard to pin down. If you take average FPS from all games (Tom's Hardware) it looks like this. Red is approximate price based on current Newegg pricing.

Probably a pretty good guide but it does show that price is not a true indicator of performance. In general though it does show that SLI and Crossfire configurations do not seem to deliver enough to justify their price. Single boards with doubled architecture and more memory seem to do more for less money and complexity. *9800GTX+ 1GB was not tested but has been placed where the 9800GTX SLI 512MB was because of seperate testing that showed similar performance. Note prices are for comparison only and are usually based on the current price in USD of the cheapest model at Newegg.

Even after that, this is just and average of all games. If you take a look at individual games and performances the result vary depending on game and graphic setting based on how the specific card architecture handles the component, (texture, no. of figures etc). Although of the cards discussed, the HD4870x2 ($425) most often did the best, that was by no means always the case. Sometime the 9800GTX+ 1GB had a better frame rate and on rare occasions the 9800GTX+ 512 beat it (??). The GTX280 1GB ($315) quite often outperformed the more expensive HD4870 x2. The GTX260 never beat its bigger brother the GTX280 but sometimes can so close, in one case .8 frames, to defy the $90 price difference.

The Asus is only $70 more expensive than the cheapest.

In that you get.

Ease of use/Installation.
Better audio hardware.
Better technical support.
Better system stability when using more power, we're talking 125W TDP CPUs here not 65W.
SLI support for flexibility.

"We are proud to present the ASUS P6T-Deluxe with our Gold Editors Award. We highly recommend this board for beginners and advanced users alike. The Deluxe is not perfect, no board is, but it was by far the easiest board to use on a daily basis. Regardless of whether we wanted to setup a stable 24/7 folding machine or push the board to its limits trying to reach a new overclock record in the labs, it was a simple process to do either. We especially liked the ASUS BIOS as it is very informative, lists out the min/max and standard settings for the major BIOS options, and makes it possible for new users to quickly get the most out of the board. Yet, it still retains enough options to satisfy most tweakers and always recovered from settings that made us look for the clear CMOS button on the other boards.

When it comes to performance, the word balanced was the first thought in our minds. The P6T Deluxe offers the best video performance of the boards we tested while providing class leading performance in the majority of our application benchmarks. The board also features an array of options including Serial Attached SCSI controller support, SLI and CrossFire, very good on-board audio capabilities, eSATA and Firewire, and enough USB ports to make one forget about needing a hub. Based on the layout, this is the board we would recommend for 2x SLI or CrossFire users, plus you get the bonus of class leading video performance."

@Grampy.

Those are some very odd numbers. Do you have a link to the source? I'm curious what the test parameters were (hardware, drivers, etc...).

@ Grampy, compiling every number together doesn't give you a full picture because there are many games which are tested at that resolution which do not stress the GPU component very highly and this tends to bring the results indicatively closer than they actually are.

You have to take into account the consideration that the GTX 2xx class GPUs have an excellent balance between memory size, bandwidth and GPU performance. This means they can make use of the extra memory effectively and deliver higher and more stable performance. Furthermore the architecture itself is better suited to accelerating workstation type software such as photoshop.

 Yes. I've checked out those Tom's numbers just recently. From the overall average FPS chart you get the impression that a 8800/9800 GTX would be better than a 4850, but when you check the games individually the numbers don't add up - even Tom's Hardwares own numbers show the 4850 is considerably faster than 9800/8800.

Will this help him? No.

- Ease of use. Well, he won't be assembling it and it will only be done once.

- Better audio hardware. Only audio enthusiasts (i.e. not normal people) can actually tell the difference between the standard integrated audio and anything else. It will all sound the same.

-Better technical support. So what? He'll never have to use it as he doesn't plan to do anything special with it, and unless you O/C motherboards don't go wrong.

-Stability on higher TDP - again, this is O/C related. Even the cheap motherboard is completely certified by both Intel and the manufacturer to run the rated TDPs, or it is false advertising and you can replace the board under warranty. Stability beyond normal paramters isn't necessary as, again, no O/C is being done.

-SLI support - ALL motherboard support the GTX295, which is the only SLI solution worth buying*.

- First bold: why would a non-O/C user even look at the board settings? You turn on the power and view a brief splash screen - and that's all the exposure a user needs. Normal users will never need to tweak settings.

-Second bold: He won't even use the integrated graphics.

- Third bold: All motherboards perform the same on average. I challenge you to find a review with a board performing more than 2% better than the others in the majority of the tests. Any difference is statistical noise.

- Fourth bold: Name one of those features that other boards don't have that he is likely to use. There aren't any.

- Fifth bold: Again, any board will do CF or GTX295. Any they'll all perform exactly the same. The integrated graphics won't be used.

*9800GTX+ SLI is too weak, GTX260 SLI is more expensive and worse than the GTX295, GTX285 SLI is extremely expensive and won't really outperform the GTX295, and GTX295 SLI is stupid.

I should also say that I may record guitar and make songs on said machine. The sound Quality is important to me. I listen to music all the time. I make music also.

Buy a discrete sound card.

The complete test series is at Toms Hardware, I extract data from the sum of all FPS benchmarks at 1900x1200
Sorry, would have gotten back to you sooner but tied up with that day job.