Asrock, PC Chips, motherboards Etc.

[HDTVMan]

What does everyone think of Off Brand motherboards like ASROCK, PC Chips and such. You know the motherboards that are really cheap but never get reviewed.

How are they months down the road?

I know they usually dont overclock but what on the cheap end of these do you recommend or not recommend?

Looking at 939 and Athlon XP mobo's for doing generic stuff.

I have had 2 chaintec and on Epox mobo die off since they are old I was thinking on going generic in brand but I guess I cant judge them too well since I had 3 more used brands die off in the last year.

 

[cubby1223]

PC Chips is the worst motherboard company I have ever seen. Don't even get me started, I could write endless pages with my own personal experience working with quirky PC Chips motherboards. My favorite Newegg review of a PC Chips motherboard goes like this: "I love this motherboard, i got it about 6 months ago, worked great untill the other day. just died. I liked this board soo much that im going to get another one."

As for ASRock, I do have to admit I am an owner of a stable ASRock motherboard, though you still have to choose wisely. Any socket A SiS chipset with onboard graphics is likely trouble. Mine is a SiS748 chipset without integrated graphics.

 

[HDTVMan]

Originally posted by: cubby1223
PC Chips is the worst motherboard company I have ever seen. Don't even get me started, I could write endless pages with my own personal experience working with quirky PC Chips motherboards. My favorite Newegg review of a PC Chips motherboard goes like this: "I love this motherboard, i got it about 6 months ago, worked great untill the other day. just died. I liked this board soo much that im going to get another one."

As for ASRock, I do have to admit I am an owner of a stable ASRock motherboard, though you still have to choose wisely. Any socket A SiS chipset with onboard graphics is likely trouble. Mine is a SiS748 chipset without integrated graphics.

You bring up a good point are there any chipset number to totally avoid?

 

[Aenslead]

Well, I for one, as a system builder, rely more on PC-Chips/ECS than on ASRock (which is a subsidiary from ASUS, just as PC-Chips is from ECS) and have found them to be most stable. It is true that once 3 or 4 years ago, they where the worst thing you could buy, but as of now, they are very good products, and like them for stable, entry-level computers.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: HDTVMan
What does everyone think of Off Brand motherboards like ASROCK, PC Chips and such. You know the motherboards that are really cheap but never get reviewed.

How are they months down the road?

I know they usually dont overclock but what on the cheap end of these do you recommend or not recommend?

Looking at 939 and Athlon XP mobo's for doing generic stuff.

I have had 2 chaintec and on Epox mobo die off since they are old I was thinking on going generic in brand but I guess I cant judge them too well since I had 3 more used brands die off in the last year.

Asrock and ECS motherboards get reviewed all the time, maybe your just looking in the wrong places.

You can check out some reviews of Asrock motherboards (sis746fx, sis748 and sis754 using lots of game benchmarks)here and a huge amount of reviews for Asrock and ECS motherboards HERE.