I am considering this board as a replacement for the system in my sig. My major question/problem is that I need an x16 PCIe slot for my video card and an x8 PCIe slot for my Raid card. Can the 2nd x16 slot be used independently for my x8 Raid, an Areca ARC-1220 in sig (with my video, eVGA 7900 GT KO RoHS in the primary PCIe slot). (This works great with the LP UT Expert in my sig).

And, (assuming that it can) -- what CPU chip do you recommend for best OC? I'm considering the Q6600 as a tried and true great OCer and the Q9300 which seems to beat it in benchmarks at lower clock speeds -- but other suggestions are welcome. I'm not a gamer -- this is for number crunching, video processing and conversions, and PVR (watching HD programs from my computer on my TV).

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and comments!