Sorry. Kinda busy recently w work and some other stuffs.
Will update once i free.

-pWs-

for chip it varies accordin to ya budget. either old skool x2 (there are 45w version which is more energy efficient) to x3 or even x4, however, d latter still kinda steep in price, so if ur plannin to get a quaddy or triple core but short of budget now, u can always go for low end x2 1st since they're very affordable nowadays. 

as for board, 780g or 770 based mobo just fit d bill well for mid range level, brand wise either biostar, gigabyte or even abit. dfi for sure will burn a hole in ya wallet, but what u get in return is d satisfaction. 

just my 2 cents... 

dfi sucks? if that's d case most of us here have had a bad taste. 

mind to tell which model u used b4? 

of all d x2, f3 is d best but u can hardly find 'em nowadays. 5k b.e are known to clock between 3.1~3.3GHz i reckon, but as usual batch plays a big role there. 

I've used 2 DFIs.
The 1st was a NF4 LP Ultra-D.
That board was a pain in the arse the first 2 months i got it.
However, after some tweaking, a lot of reading from forums, it works like a charm and i started falling in love with it.

My 2nd DFI is Ah_Khoo's ex DFI.
I can say, so far this is the easiest plug and play board i've used.
Plugged in everything, booted 3.2Ghz on 1st boot.
Very minor ram tweaking. If i have HPR i think no tweaking needed at all.
The board had been superbly stable as of today, i've never crashed even once running on 3.2Ghz...

So basically, it differs from Models. The LP 590 SLI seems to be a problematic one i heard. There were quite many issues with it.

Btw, if you want a nice proc, check out garage, Xixo's ex F3 is now on sale.
Better grab it fast, that should outperform any average BEs when it comes to OC.

i've good time with my ex-NF590 SLI..it's really serve me well..
but last end up rma coz of my greediest..overdose voltage when i try to push my BE to 3.6Ghz..

BTW..that's my 1st expensive board...