I have bought a lot of asus products the last few years, though recently I have had a terrible experience with their customer service. So much so that I'm thinking of trying other brands, specifically for motherboards. I was wondering what others experiences have been with other brands of mobos (Gigabyte, MSI, Etc.). Which brands are most reliable? Hows their customer service compare? Stuff like that. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks guys!
Overall good brands for mobo's
- Thread starter boagz57
- Start date
cliffordcooley
Posts: 13,141 +6,441
I agree with JC713, even though I have a MSI motherboard. I've already had ASUS. Both ASUS and this MSI are giving me issues. They are probably both isolated issues, but have given me personally a rotten taste for either brand. I'll more than likely choose Gigabyte for my next motherboard. I've always heard third times a charm, maybe Gigabyte is my lucky number.
P.S. - Buying cheaper motherboards probably hasn't helped my luck any, but you would think $120 motherboards wouldn't BSOD or freeze either. And ASUS's website is the worst website I visit for drivers. It takes forever (pages render so slowly) just to get to the download page.
P.S. - Buying cheaper motherboards probably hasn't helped my luck any, but you would think $120 motherboards wouldn't BSOD or freeze either. And ASUS's website is the worst website I visit for drivers. It takes forever (pages render so slowly) just to get to the download page.
captaincranky
Posts: 19,684 +8,825
I'm not sure that Asus is enjoying the success, performance, or durability they once had.
With that said, (or perhaps just speculated), I reflexively choose Gigabyte for every one of my builds. Reviews here have concluded that Gigabyte boards are generally better at over clocking than all (?) other brands.
For me, (since I'm not a gamer or overclocker), the selling point is the all solid capacitors, and extra thick copper in the printed circuit paths. I realize, Gigabyte's "Ultra Durable" branding is a sales cliche, but it also seems to be a forthright and honest enticement.
I've built 5 PCs with Gigabyte boards, and all of them have booted on the very first try.
The biggest surprise for me is the Intel 915GAG in my eMachines T-5026. eMachines are notorious for having boards with bad caps, and self destructing very quickly. This board, (ostensibly Intel/Foxconn), is going strong in its 9th year, and as God is my witness, it has never blue screened on me. For me, that tells you something about the competence of Gateway's systems integrators, a job well done.
With that said, (or perhaps just speculated), I reflexively choose Gigabyte for every one of my builds. Reviews here have concluded that Gigabyte boards are generally better at over clocking than all (?) other brands.
For me, (since I'm not a gamer or overclocker), the selling point is the all solid capacitors, and extra thick copper in the printed circuit paths. I realize, Gigabyte's "Ultra Durable" branding is a sales cliche, but it also seems to be a forthright and honest enticement.
I've built 5 PCs with Gigabyte boards, and all of them have booted on the very first try.
The biggest surprise for me is the Intel 915GAG in my eMachines T-5026. eMachines are notorious for having boards with bad caps, and self destructing very quickly. This board, (ostensibly Intel/Foxconn), is going strong in its 9th year, and as God is my witness, it has never blue screened on me. For me, that tells you something about the competence of Gateway's systems integrators, a job well done.
GhostRyder
Posts: 2,151 +588
I prefer my Asus boards because of the quality, the ROG boards from them are just top notch. However, the MSI boards are pretty awesome as well in terms of looks and performance, they just don't scale as high as some of the asus and gigabyte boards in terms of overall features. Gigabyte are great as well, but I feel their top tier boards can get kinda pricey for what you paying for.
hood6558
Posts: 353 +110
Asus
Gigabyte
Asrock
MSI
EVGA
Intel
Biostar
ECS
This is my take on motherboard hardware/user experience quality, in descending order. Start with the brand with the highest market share and reputation (Asus), but if you don't like their price, features, color scheme, or whatever (customer service?) for a good fit in your build, go to the next lower company and look at their stuff, and so on, until you balance quality, features, price, failure rate, etc. and settle on the one board that stands out from the rest (for this build). Personally I put color scheme last on my list of priorities; a good looking rig that crashes constantly or has buggy firmware is not going to inspire anyone's confidence in my abilities as a system builder. As you go down the list, the percentage of reported DOAs and RMAs increases, so keep that in mind when considering the cheaper solutions. Don't try to use a lower-end board for overclocking or running high-end GPUs, you'll fry something, probably a capacitor or two.
Gigabyte is a good choice these days, they shipped almost as many boards as Asus last year, and their perceived quality may be even better (Asus' quality control has slipped these past few years).
Gigabyte
Asrock
MSI
EVGA
Intel
Biostar
ECS
This is my take on motherboard hardware/user experience quality, in descending order. Start with the brand with the highest market share and reputation (Asus), but if you don't like their price, features, color scheme, or whatever (customer service?) for a good fit in your build, go to the next lower company and look at their stuff, and so on, until you balance quality, features, price, failure rate, etc. and settle on the one board that stands out from the rest (for this build). Personally I put color scheme last on my list of priorities; a good looking rig that crashes constantly or has buggy firmware is not going to inspire anyone's confidence in my abilities as a system builder. As you go down the list, the percentage of reported DOAs and RMAs increases, so keep that in mind when considering the cheaper solutions. Don't try to use a lower-end board for overclocking or running high-end GPUs, you'll fry something, probably a capacitor or two.
Gigabyte is a good choice these days, they shipped almost as many boards as Asus last year, and their perceived quality may be even better (Asus' quality control has slipped these past few years).
misor
Posts: 1,427 +326
Lol. I'm a fan of ECS.
my functional desktop computers:
#1 ecs g41-tm, intel e5400, stock hsf, (dead NVidia 9500gt 1gb ddr2) NVidia g210 512mb ddr3, 2x2gb ddr2-800 Kingston value ram, 500gb hitachi sata1 hdd + 1tb hitachi sata2, windows 7 home premium sp1 x64, 5 years
#2 intel dh55tc, intel core i3-530, stock hsf, NVidia 9800gt 1gb ddr3, 2x2gb ddr3-1600 at 1333 gskill, 2x1tb hitachi sata2, 3tb Seagate sata2, windows 7 home premium sp1 x64 dual boot with windows 8.1 pro with media center x64, 4 years
#3 ecs h61h2 m12, intel g630, stock hsf, intel hd2000, 2x2gb ddr3-1600 gskill, 1tb seagate sata2 hdd, windows 8.1 pro with media center, 1 year
#4 asrock z77 extreme 4, intel i5-3570k, intel hd4000, cm hyper212 evo, 4x4gb ddr3-1600 gskill, 1tb seagate sata2 hdd + 3tb Seagate sata2 hdd, windows 8.1 pro x64, ~6months
I'm not an overclocker, don't know any real thing about it. with plan to overclock my i5-3570k when I can get my hands on an NVidia gtx 760 (largely unavailable in the Philippines).
my functional desktop computers:
#1 ecs g41-tm, intel e5400, stock hsf, (dead NVidia 9500gt 1gb ddr2) NVidia g210 512mb ddr3, 2x2gb ddr2-800 Kingston value ram, 500gb hitachi sata1 hdd + 1tb hitachi sata2, windows 7 home premium sp1 x64, 5 years
#2 intel dh55tc, intel core i3-530, stock hsf, NVidia 9800gt 1gb ddr3, 2x2gb ddr3-1600 at 1333 gskill, 2x1tb hitachi sata2, 3tb Seagate sata2, windows 7 home premium sp1 x64 dual boot with windows 8.1 pro with media center x64, 4 years
#3 ecs h61h2 m12, intel g630, stock hsf, intel hd2000, 2x2gb ddr3-1600 gskill, 1tb seagate sata2 hdd, windows 8.1 pro with media center, 1 year
#4 asrock z77 extreme 4, intel i5-3570k, intel hd4000, cm hyper212 evo, 4x4gb ddr3-1600 gskill, 1tb seagate sata2 hdd + 3tb Seagate sata2 hdd, windows 8.1 pro x64, ~6months
I'm not an overclocker, don't know any real thing about it. with plan to overclock my i5-3570k when I can get my hands on an NVidia gtx 760 (largely unavailable in the Philippines).
hood6558
Posts: 353 +110
I'm sure all the manufacturers I listed sell boards that satisfy most of their customers, or they wouldn't still be in business. The list is from my personal perspective, which was formed after many builds, upgrades, repairs, and overclocking/tweaking sessions, and reading thousands of reviews & user comments. The list is ordered by total user experience, not just quality of hardware - many problems are caused by shoddy firmware/software/drivers, some of which never get resolved by updates (they're too busy screwing up the next generation's firmware & software). Also, many boards do fine, until you overclock them and find out you got what you paid for. I want every system I build to perform the best it can within it's hardware's limitations, and that requires a board that performs as advertised, even if it's a budget build.
S
Shatarupa
Hii,
I would also like to suggest another name here, Biostar.Just came across a article today where they have won the "Best Buy" Award under the 10k motherboard category.Hope this helps!!!
I would also like to suggest another name here, Biostar.Just came across a article today where they have won the "Best Buy" Award under the 10k motherboard category.Hope this helps!!!
cliffordcooley
Posts: 13,141 +6,441
Biostar and ECS are the two brands, for some reason I just can't seem to get behind. I have no factual reasons or bad experiences with these two brands. However when I see these two names, I immediately visualize the definition of cheap. Coming from someone that tries not to buy the most expensive boards, I have a very hard time even considering these boards for what they mean to me. Whether it is a misconception or not, I cannot say.
What does that even mean?
![hellokitty[hk]](/community/data/avatars/m/169/169488.jpg?1355088591){kind=avatar}
hellokitty[hk]
Posts: 3,413 +146
Certainly a misconception... They both have the capability to and and have produced very good boards, though in general they haven't been targeting the high end price range very much, but are moving towards it (ex Gank series).
For motherboards and many other things, you should take it on a case by case basis.
captaincranky
Posts: 19,684 +8,825
People throw our pennies away here in the states. Just think what they'd do with single Rupees.....
cliffordcooley
Posts: 13,141 +6,441
Are they not valued more than a penny? (163 pennies ~ 100 rupees)
captaincranky
Posts: 19,684 +8,825
That's really bad news. Not only is the value of our currency down the toilet, but I was wrong in the process.
Still, in my own defense, it doesn't make sense to state all values in Rupees. It's like you ran out of carry over columns on your abacus. It is discouraging to think a run of the mill motherboard is going to cost you 10,000 of anything. It serves them right though. They should have stuck with the slightly less confusing British Pound Sterling. Meh, they'd probably still price a motherboard at, "10,000 pence".
Even more important than the currency exchange rate, is the relative pricing by individual item.
You could have a favorable exchange rate on the Rupee, yet still wind up paying more for the board than you would in the US. Supply and demand is the more relevant arbiter. If you don't believe that, ask DBZ how much s*** costs in New Zealand.
tomkaten
Posts: 304 +275
How many bitcoins is that ? 
On: I've mostly used Gigabyte boards in the systems I built, and I made a lot of them for friends, family and whatnot. Never had a complaint. Had some bad experiences with Asus in the past, but they're probably ok now. I have one MSI board as well, a cheap H61, works great though.
But, like people said, Gigabyte offers a bit more at almost any price point. E.g: Where Asus and MSI go with low end audio chips, Gigabyte uses middle tier. Same for network chips. The notable exception here is Asrock, but I've yet to buy a board from them, so I don't know how they fare stability-wise.
On: I've mostly used Gigabyte boards in the systems I built, and I made a lot of them for friends, family and whatnot. Never had a complaint. Had some bad experiences with Asus in the past, but they're probably ok now. I have one MSI board as well, a cheap H61, works great though.
But, like people said, Gigabyte offers a bit more at almost any price point. E.g: Where Asus and MSI go with low end audio chips, Gigabyte uses middle tier. Same for network chips. The notable exception here is Asrock, but I've yet to buy a board from them, so I don't know how they fare stability-wise.
Similar threads
