What is the Best mother board/CPU combo for Gaming?

How deep is your pocket?

for the sake of discussion we'll say pretty deep.

In reality i would like to spend about $400 - $500

For that kind of dough you could get a fairly decent bare bones system.
As for a mobo $200-300 would be far enough. That, of course doesn't include anything else.

if you will read the first post, i need a Mobo and CPU. I want to spend $400-500 on both.

Apparently $$$ isn't much of an issue.
Games are CPU intense. Check your fav. games for min. CPU requirements, plan ahead 6-8 months for increased requirements. System ram min/max is dictated by your OS. While reading also check video ram needs as well. It won't matter much until you decide on a board match for your CPU.
I've worked on and repaired a lot of systems but I've yet to see any appreciable gain on the more expensive boards.

>>>What is the Best mother board/CPU combo for Gaming?
>>>if you will read the first post
There's nothing there that suggests a NEED for anything. Just something that you WANT. Not quite the same thing.

ok here you go then

4Gb ddr2 RAM, 160Gb HDD, 500 GB HDD, 800W PSU, 2 DVD-RW, (All SATA) 1 floppy drive, BFG 8800 GTS, Creative soundblaster.

Duh, pardon! Are we talking apples or oranges here?
That's unknown system info, doesn't say anything as to any game's min/max requirements.

I really dont know what your preference is, as for me I have both worlds in one machine an Intel motherboard with built in Graphics accelerator that supports openGL I can run my counter strike and its a dual boot system it runs on Apple X86 10.4.8 with CORE IMage and Quartz Extreme supported and its processor is 2.66 Core 2 DOU 2GB DDR2 667mhz with 1033 FSB 4 sata ports 1 sata LG writer, 1 120GB SATA for WINDOWS and 1 SATA for APPLE OSX, firewire card ,and I am now in the process of Installing a PCi express video card that will both run on my Apple and my Windows, I have An Imac G3 SE/dv for general use for it serve my purpose.I have also is a ECS motherboard with 2.66 dualcore with 512mb of memory, for house use, and my OLD reliable P3 800mhz with 512 which has serve me for years as with my Imac G3

junt