Are there any real good motherboards out there?

[ingeborgdot]

I have been looking at newegg for motherboards as I am thinking about building another computer. Are there any good ones out there? According to the ratings there are too many bad eggsI am not a gamer but I need a good motherboard because I work it hard with video editing. I like a well built board but there seems to be so many negatives toward them unless you want to pay 300 for one. Anyone care to comment on this.

 

[LinkedKube]

You have to understand that "user error" should be applied in some of those bad eggs. People break things sometimes not even knowing it.

We need a budget in order to help you. Otherwise I'd go with Asus personally, they've never done me wrong.

 

[raybay]

Depends on the use for which the board is chosen. For high end gaming, the choices narrow quickly... but the video graphics card, powe supply, and memory are equally important.
I am not an ASUS Fan because we have been unlucky and have had large numbers of early failures of ASUS, but am very happy with MSI, EVGA, ECS Elitegroup, BIOSTAR, FoxConn, DFI, ABIT, Sapphire, SuperMicro and Tyan.
FoxConn is a favorite because of their reliability.
You might enjoy the monthly motherboard reviews at TomsHardware.com or AnAndTech.com... very, very detailed.
The problem with motherboards is there are too many new releases every month, and it takes weeks or months for the bad problems to be corrected, or for new problems to appear under use.
For gamer boards, your choices are much more limited... ASUS, Biostar, EVGA, and MSI are better...
No company consistently makes good boards. Pressing a good board takes several revisions. So a smart builder waits until a motherboard has been out for six months or more... particularly ASUS.

 

[ingeborgdot]

As I said I am not a gamer but video editing is hit very hard.
$200 is about the most I want to go on a board.

 

[raybay]

The best for graphics editing are made, or labeled, by ASUS, Biostar, EVGA, and MSI
Nobody has experience with more than just a very few, so any opinion would be biased...
You might want to take a look at the indepth motherboard reviews at TomsHardware.com
Then get a board that has been out at least six or seven months so the bugs are known. EVGA and MSI both make great boards for the money...
Also, sites such as NewEgg sell boards that have user reviews that can be helpful.
You can also find out a great deal by searching for motherboards on Windows Live Search.
More critical are the processor and the video graphics card... so then you look at sites that evaluate the tools... such as Photoshop user sites.

 

[ingeborgdot]

I already have an ati 4850 card for my computer. I just want the coolest running cpu to work with. If that is amd or intel I don't care.

 

[AlbertLionheart]

You could try gigabyte with their copper cooling on some of their boards. Personally, and bearing in mind that I build 3 or 4 bespoke systems a week, I would stick with Asus or Gigabyte as I have had trouble with all the others.at one time or another.

 

[ingeborgdot]

I have never owned an Asus myself but have built some machines with that mobod. I do like some of the new ones but was just wondering what others thought about reliability of them. What I am finding like I thought is that there is much bias with the answer to this question. What is one of the better Asus boards out there and the same with the Gig.

 

[AlbertLionheart]

I offer you my opinion based on two things; first that I build new bespoke systems and cannot afford to go out fixing them if they break and two, I also repair systems and very rarely see these boards in for repair.

 

[raybay]

But I suppose you don't see EVGA, Biostar, FoxConn, MSI another top drives either. Motherboards seldom fail... except the new ones do. CPU's almost never fail.
But the other hardware that attaches to them is a bigger problem. The biggest problem we see with ASUS has to do with inadequate or inaccurate manual and instruction... usually in ASUS less than 7 months old.

 

[AlbertLionheart]

MSI boards I do see and usually failed capacitors. FoxConn are not so common this side of the pond and I have never seen a Biostar or EVGA.
It maybe that I rarely read the Engrish in the manuals that I don't have a problem with it!

 

[ingeborgdot]

How long have the 1366 boards been out?

 

[raybay]

Have not seen an MSI board with bad capacitors for four... going on five years, and saw ASUS boards with bad capacitors at about the same rate back them... Hard to fault them when the capacitor manufacturer was to blame and they didn't know... Ours were all replaced or repaired for us despite no obligation to do so.

 

[nazartp]

I don't build computers for living, but can attest for the following:

ASUS board - almost four years old, first used on a gaming machine, now in a Linux file server for home network and still going strong.
Gigabyte - had a couple of those, no problems whatsoever.
ABIT - had about four of those, not sure if they still sell mobos, but I like them for their POST displays right on the board, saves a lot of time troubleshooting and counting beeps.

Must agree with the rest of the gang here - any reputable manufacturer typically produces reliable motherboards. The features that are usually (comparatively) faulty/buggy are usually some innovations found in the highest end motherboards, e.g., built-in wi-fi.

 

[LinkedKube]

I've had an Asus P5n32 premium sli edition, Asus P5k3 deluxe and an Asus Rampage Extreme, the first one listed failed after a year or so, but that was my fault. I have friends with higher end foxconn boards and they failed. I hear good things about the lower end boards though. I also think Gigabyte almost goes hand and hand with Asus.

And 1366 boards have been out for a few months now and some were shipped earlier for review. Dont even think about wasting your money with those unless you're picky like me and like to run everything with no hickups. Not saying that 775 chip sets cant run things very smoothly because I own 2 of them. There's just a lot of headroom on the core i7's.