Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard
 

The Asus P6T Deluxe is a good value motherboard (which may be a little expensive for most) that works well and you can easily ignore the bits you don't want to use without losing out on the experience. It is an excellent backbone for some Core i7 shenanigans, despite the fact Asus could really do with a tidy up and consolidation in the future.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...s-p6t-deluxe/1