Which brand motherboard is best??

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damienb

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Hi all,

Can anyone advise me to which brand if motherboard is the best to go for? Im currently looking at an Intel one but would like to know if there are better makes.

The processor I have is a C2D E6600, does the mobo I choose need to have a minimum criteria??

Can anyone suggest some good ones?

Im looking for ATX, compatible with C2D, plenty of expantion possibilities, no graphics, SATA and ATA-100 with a decent amount of maximum RAM.

Any ideas?

Damien
 
For a Core 2 the GA-965P-DS3 isn't a bad choice, but it also depends on how much money you are willing to spend on a motherboard.
 
i would also recommend the gigabyte GA-965P-DS3, i just bought one after my 6-month old ASUS P5LD2 went out along with an E6600. i had a giga-byte MOBO in my old computer that i sold back in May to a friend. it is still running strong after 4 years
 
mhz said:
I don't recommend Intel go for MSI GigaByte or Asus
This is my point of view take it or leave it

But asus is my choice.Great tech support.
http://usa.asus.com/index.htm
Have a good read of it's features before decideing.
Most of all,decide what you want and need,then look at websites.
Then look for prices.

I just read you post again.Describe your cpu in more detail.
Might be time for both.Best way to upgrade.
 
The Asus P5W DH is solid. P5W64 WS Professional and P5WDG2 WS Professional are great too. Asus is king of Intel motherboards.
 
venger417 said:
i would also recommend the gigabyte GA-965P-DS3, i just bought one after my 6-month old ASUS P5LD2 went out

Oh no, don't scare me like that! :p


I would also recommend Asus. They have never failed me with their motherboards.

A great Asus board that meets your criteria would be the Asus P5N-E SLI:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131142
This is the one I would get if I were to upgrade at the immediate moment. It has SLI, C2D support (even quad), DDR2-800MHz, what more could you expect? Chipset ain't Intel though.

Here's the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 that has been mentioned, also a fantastic board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128012


They would both be superb choices, take your pick.
 
I would go with a reputable company. Examples: Abit, Gigabyte, eVGA, ASUS, EPoX and DFI.

Although unlike others I will not reccomend ASUS. The are way overpriced and offer similar performance to the other companies I stated. For your mobo choice go with an eVGA. It features an nVIDIA 680i Chipset meaning you get SLI, and the rest of there great features. By the way the eVGA has better overclocking potential and beats intels chipsets hands down. Either way go for a strong company like Gigabyte.
 
I use a GA-965P-DS3 with my core 2 duo.

i have an asus board in my 2nd computer.

I use intel boards at work and for a stock machine everything on board they seem to work to well.
 
All brands make bad ones. The top 10 make good ones too. ASUS has made some terrible boards, usually by releasing them too soon... but if you get a tried and true ASUS board that has been available tor at least 120 days, you will get a good one....
Others: Abit, DFI, Chaintech, FoxConn, Gigabyte, eVGA, MSI, some Intels...

ASUS tech support has really slipped over the past 15 months... I like most Gigabytes over others... then MSI... then ABIT, with ASUS fourth... or fifth.

ASUS is like the old Volkswagen beetle... Terrible car, but cheap to fix, so it developed a reputation of a great car... but it was nothing compared to Toyota... except in Sales.

I have seen as many failed ASUS boards as any other... perhaps more than some.
 
I just like ASUS because of my personal experience, I'm not under minding other boards. I've had Abit MSI Intel ECS, Asus boards are just built well especially when you push them real hard. They just seem to out perform! (to me) but I agree with the gay customer support recently.
 
Hi Damien

I build white boxes, and use a lot of MSI and Asus boards. Make sure your board supports your processor and is the right package type. Go to the boards's web site and see it they have a table listing the board models and the compatible processors for that board. I know biostar does. It will probably be under support or technical tab. AMD's site lists compatible boards for thier processors. I like Asus boards myself, but it depends on what you want. MSI has some very reasonably priced boards with video and sound on board if your a novice or not building a gaming machine. I have had very few problems with either one. Just did a couple systems with biostar boards but don't have any feedback on those yet. Check out the vendors web sites, they are usually very informative. Hope this helps.

Leasal
 
ASUS is, among others, a very reputed manufacturer of motherboards. Other brands that offer similar (I daresay better) quality mobos include ASRock, Abit, MSI, GigaByte and DFI. I myself am using an ASUS mobo (the P5WDH Deluxe) and it has been a solid performer for the past year or so I have used it.
 
Rage_3K_Moiz said:
ASUS is, among others, a very reputed manufacturer of motherboards. Other brands that offer similar (I daresay better) quality mobos include ASRock, Abit, MSI, GigaByte and DFI. I myself am using an ASUS mobo (the P5WDH Deluxe) and it has been a solid performer for the past year or so I have used it.

Isn't ASRock owned buy ASUS. If I remember right I read an article somewhere that said ASRock was ASUS budget motherboards.
 
I have the asus p5w dh deluxe and it is awesome. It's cool (temp wise), great OC'ing features, and is completely silent (uses heat pipes).
 
I use Biostar (people say they have ****ty support but i've -never- had a biostar fail, ever) in AMD machines and MSI in intel boxes. I had bad experiences with ASUS early in my computer building career, but from the reviews looks like I might have to give them a second shot.

edit: biostar is mainly a budget brand, their high end board selection is limited to the TForce series. They also use nVidia chipsets so <3
 
Hmm yeah of lately Biostar has been producing good mobos but their reputation is still not high enough to warrant a recommendation. I've seen 2 new ones fail here so I'm still not convinced. ECS is another company whose mobos are not worth buying. Too cheaply made to last, although I would definitely prefer one of theirs to an EMachine's! Those suck!
 
I fried two Asus LGA 775 mobos and one Asus socket 7 mobo. I fried the only ASRock I ever owned. Over all the Asus'es are much more free of the little querks that can drive me mad, like the cold boot issues with the ASRock DualSata2 I had. I'm happy with the DFI nF4 Ultra D I bought used on another forum to replace the it, but it has many other querks I'm just getting used to--what a amazing overclocker.
 
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