Best Motherboards of 2016: Enthusiast, extreme, workstation and budget picks

[beachbowi]

I am using Asus motherboards for the last 10 years, Xeon servers, x79s x99s etc and I haven't got serious problems with them. But I should spend some time trying other brands... I am unimpressed with the software support that Asus has, I also found that their OC profiles are always over the top... Customer service is bad and their website is slow... They don't even have a notification system for new drivers in the xeon -x79 -x99 mobos. Even for critical bugs... I wander though if they are all the same ...

Gigabyte rocks!

 

[alexnode]

Gigabyte rocks!

Next upgrade I'll have to try Gigabyte.

 

[xLegendary]

AsRock as underdog, surprised me quite a lot these last years. Ever since I ditched MSI, had couple of them so buggy that I decided to try them. Rock solid boards! If we talk about overclocking they are kings and since with them you don't pay the premium brand name, you actually get a lot for the money you pay.

 

[commanderasus]

It is all a matter of "What are you using the computer for?" That is the first thing I ask clients. You don't need the fastest system just to surf the net. I use what ever board suits the clients needs. Asus or Gigabyte are my main choices. If you build the system correctly they will last a long time. I have a Asus Commando motherboard that is still running for internet surfing. Only replaced the power supply and put a better GPU in it. Buy what works for you and if you can't assemble it yourself, find someone who can that you trust.

 

[lripplinger]

The Asrock board is already a failure in my professional opinion. I would never buy that board for the simple reason that it has a fan over the Intel chipset. That crap fan introduces a point of failure into the workstation environment it is supposedly targeted at. That fan on there reminds of motherboards way back in the day that had chipset fans. They always failed and sound like a lawn mower. I find myself questioning that choice.

 

[burnt-toast]

Most Extreme Motherboard
MSI X99A Godlike Gaming Carbon.........Why does this say $600 in the text, and $330 in the PRICE ?

 

[NightAntilli]

Why no B550?

 

[Madmaxneo]

@misor Thanks for your feedback. Amazon pricing can fluctuate as it did for the cheap Intel motherboard so we've adjusted the expectation from ~$50 to about $60-65 which is what's selling for at the moment.

@Questors User scores are not a perfect measure, it's another data point we like to consider and show to users. Depending on the type of product we give it more or less weight in our evaluation for putting articles like these together. However, it's been noted thanks to your feedback that particularly for motherboards, Amazon may be mixing a whole product line under a single score.

As for other comments regarding Asus. I like Asus motherboards, too, have owned a few over the years, no doubt Steve has tested dozens of them, but I'm sure that #1 Gigabyte pick comes as the result of the more extensive testing we did back in November: https://www.techspot.com/review/1073-intel-z170-motherboard-roundup/

This thread is a little old but I was led here by someone responding...lol. In regards to Gigabyte, my current build is a Gigabyte but only because I could not find any other available x570 board for a decent price. After I got this board I came across the Gigabyte reddit forums and all I can say is wow. There are barely any positive reviews in the last few years on gigabyte for anyone who has had to work with their customer service. In fact in all of my research I have discovered Gigabyte has the worst reported customer service over any other motherboard manufacturer out there. The bad reviews of their service goes back many many years.

It might be cool to get a review of the best customer support in the PC enthusiast market. In fact I feel that would be so much better than just reviewing products and may actually create a better atmosphere for consumers in due time.

 

[Madmaxneo]

Next upgrade I'll have to try Gigabyte.

If you already have then good luck and I hope you never have to deal with their customer service. If you have not please do some research into their customer service. There are so many more reports of bad customer service with Gigabyte than any other MB manufacturer out there.

 

[Julio Franco]

Why no B550?

We're working on that.