Need recommendation for motherboard

[Haole Boy]

Aloha everyone, My bench machine just died, so I'm thinking about building a new machine. This machine will mainly be used for creating disk images of customer's drives before I start working on them (using an external docking station connected via eSATA). So, I'm more interested in I/O throughput than I am in a screaming fast CPU and many GB of RAM.

I'm thinking of storing the customer disk images on a RAID 5 array (feel free to suggest alternatives) so I want maybe 4 to 6 SATA III internal connectors on the motherboard. I'm a one-man shop so I don't need an array on the network.

Also want USB3 built into the motherboard and available on the back panel and possibly front panel connectors

I'll also need 2 eSATA ports on the back panel (2 slot docking station, each slot takes an eSATA port.)

I'll probably run Windows 7 or 8 as I use Drive Snapshot for my disk imaging.

Your input is greatly appreciated, and since I'm pretty sure I haven't thought of everything, any and all feedback is welcome.

Mahalo,

Harry Z.

 

[Haole Boy]

Anybody?

 

[mrapoc]

I personally like Asus boards. No direct recommendation however sorry!

 

[Bootman 650]

How much are you looking to spend?

 

[ohio_grad_06]

One poster said Asus. They have a good name, but I've not had great experiences on their boards. My personal preference is Gigabyte. Even their low end boards seem to hold up good for me. But Asus or Gigabyte should do well for you. Both have a good rep and should serve you well.

 

[mrapoc]

I'd say avoid asrock and the other budgety brands. Gigabyte or Asus are solid choices.

 

[jbartlett323]

I would go the other way, and recommend AsRock, and recommend against Gigabyte and Asus. Have had many, many issues with the latter, and almost zero issues with the former. Just about everything in my shop runs AsRock these days, and I have sold 50+ to customers in the last year. Have had 1 failure, and I still think something external caused the failure although I couldn't prove it.
Point is really though, yeah stay away from "budgety" boards, pick a name you trust. We all have different experiences, and not many will have an exact model to recommend..