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ASUS,MSI or ASROCK

I'm very happy with my current ASUS mobo. My last one on my i7-930 rig was also ASUS and was fantastic.

Although, the ones I bought were higher end, around $200.00. I'm not sure how their budget stuff is.
 
I'd say there's no best one among those three, a lot depends on one's preferences as to brand and features vs. price. There are those that won't touch an MSI, for instance, and some that swear by Asus and those that swear at Asus.

Really depends on budget first, and if you're budget constrained, I'd suggest also considering Gigabyte. (Personally, I'd drop the MSI off the list and replace it with Gigabyte.)

But I'd still consider Asus and AsRock first, then Gigabyte, but I'm biased towards Asus/AsRock.
 
You can't really make a comparison between those terms, it's all about personal preferences, budget, etc.
What you can actually compare it's the market share of those companies, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the biggest pie equals better products... anyway, here's some real data of motherboard shipments:

gigabyte1.jpg
 
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I recommend Asus based on the general opinion. I myself usually go for Asus hardware, but I have to say that, of all the hardware I've used over the years, only Asus gave me trouble. I had an old FX5200's cooler die on me, an the motherboard it was on also gave up the ghost after 4 years. I'd say it was luck of the draw though.

Reliability is all about the averages. Because you can have a MSI last forever, and an Asus die after two weeks.

Gigabyte is also know for their quality control. ASrock is basically Asus' lower brand. They are pretty good as well. Do avoid MSI though, unless you find a good deal. I had one of their mobos for 6 years and it didn't go south, but I was never too happy about their build quality.
 
Ive been an Asus fan for 15 plus years, but for the z87 chipset I would go with ASROCK's Formula series any day of the week over a compete Asus ROG series motherboard which IMO has generally overall a lot of bugs both hardware and software related.

ASROCK's OC Formula series though is absolutely top notch. Highest quality in terms of overall hardware and its software is really good too, not loaded with a ton of bloatware, nor do you pay the stupid premium for "ROG" advertising.

ASrock for the record is not Asus's "lower brand" that is a huge misconception.
 
Between Asus, GB, and ASRock, I choose by features, but also check to make sure there isn't a buggy BIOS issue or something for a given series or model (GB took until about Sandy Bridge's maturity, FI, to finally iron out their EUFI bugs).

I haven't used a high-end MSI board in ages, but low-end seem to be have too many minor issues for me to want to save money v. GB or ASRock by using them. The components are fine (though the AMD VRM deaths are disconcerting); it seems to be on the software development and/or QA testing side of things they are cutting the corners.

ASRock has excellent BIOS fan control, with 4 or 5 set points, so I really like them for quiet machines. You can use the Windows tool to experiment, then set the BIOS to those settings. I also like the, "Good Night LED," option, for making those bright blue indicator LEDs tolerable. The only quality issue I've seen is that they don't always use the stiffest pins, so their header pins seem to be easier to accidentally bend than others.
 
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I bought my Gigabyte motherboard almost 6 years ago and it's still going strong. Not a big sample, I know, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Gigabyte motherboard again. So that's my pick 🙂
 
ASrock = good BIOS, good compatibility, good features.

Definitely NOT Asus, at least not for m/b. Reasons?

1. Zero support for anything but Windows - in other words, if you buy Asus you will have to marry Microsoft. Else they won't warrant any hardware or BIOS specs.
2. Buggy BIOS - at least they've fixed some now.
3. Incompetent technical support.
4. Lousy documentation, including incomplete manuals (incl. ROG), antiquated compatibility charts, useless release notes, etc.
5. Extremely bad warranty service in the US - search the web for plenty of horror stories.
6. Overpriced.

Mind you, I only refer to motherboards. I'm very happy with my Asus Xonar Essence sound card (as long as I don't need their warranty or technical service).
 
Ive used Asus, EVGA, Asrock and Gigabite recently and of the cards I like the EVGA the most due to customer support followed by ASUS/ASrock since they are one in the same.
 
Biggu said:
followed by ASUS/ASrock since they are one in the same.
Click to expand...

They are not one in the same.....

As for Asus the last place I worked for gave up on them. We used to buy motherboards every two years and the failures increased every year and gosh help you if you have to use their RMA department.

I personally have used Asus, Gigabyte, Intel, AsRock, MSI, Biostar so I have no loyalty I just look for the best board for my money. Asus is a great board but like I said if you get a bad one in the US you have a heck of a wait to get it fixed and 80% of the times we got them back and they were never touched and had the same problems 5 weeks+ after we sent them in.
 
Ahh good call, Just researched it a bit more and yea at one time they were a spinoff of asustek but now they are separated.
 
I have 2 Gigabyte boards that have served me very well... they would be my first choice even though it seems they are usually a few dollars more than an equivalent board from someone else.

I had a recent budget build... I picked an ASRock bottom-barrel H81 board, it turned out to be a pretty decent board, I would look at ASRock again if budget was a consideration.
 
First choice Asus, but If I can't afford that MSI has never let me down and has always had the features I need at a decent price.

Asrock, Although inventive, has let me down twice in terms of actual smooth gameplay.

Gigabyte seems to have been very up and down in terms of performance and overclocking recently but that can vary from chipset to chipset as well as model to model. I've only read from reviews and benchmarks so no first hand experience but I would avoid them myself If I was looking for a new motherboard.
 
I used to use asus but have mostly soured on them; The last 4 mb i purchased (over last 2.5 years) have been msi, asrock asrock asrock (the third asrock was doa but amazon replaced it and the replacement has been fine; the last one was a few days ago - h81m-itx (another mini-itx build).
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the msi board had one fatal flaw - the connectors were behind the second video card slot and extended too high making it difficuilt to add a second card; however the company realized their error and very quickly released a revision that moved the connectors.
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both msi and asrock were responsive to email (asrock took a couple of days but did respond). the second asrock board i use in my file server (extreme4 with 8 sata devices - 6 disks 2 optical) and it has done ok but the south bridge gets very hot (too hot to the touch) when the raids are being checked so i worry about eventual failure - though it is 2.5 years old.
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In 20 years I've had one DOA (the asrock mentioend above); one possible failure but not sure it was the mb - a 5 year old thunderbild system with albertron mb developed instability issues after being shipped.
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only other components that have failed are:
fan in antec psu (they sent me a new psu but shipping the old one back was $7)
a dvd drive during the infamous bad cap years
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guess i've been lucky - esp given the nubmer of hard-drives i've plowed through.
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i lean towards asrock recently because they are cheap but over the years i've been very happy with msi and so I tend to show slight loyality tilt towards msi when they have a board with the feature set I need (for the recent mini-itx build the asrock was better aligned towards the target user but the msi had more ports (esp usb3.0) which most folks would prefer.
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I've heard mostly good things about gigabyte but never had one. I think if I built a new game system today I would likely go with msi and a new server system asrock or maybe gigabyte. Quite frankly i'm kind of pissed at asus (not so much because of their motherboards but because the tf700 tablet was a total dog - they used bad ssd storage as in very very very slow killing the tablet usability).
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But also i've not been very excited by their recent motherboards and custoemr support is very weak. On the positive side for asus they have pretty decent user forums (msi is weak and asrock doesn't exist).
 
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Over the last 15 years most of the boards I have had failed in 1 to 3 years.I now have 2
Asus boards that have made it to 3 and 4 years. The failures: Intel, Biostar, Abit, also I have forgotten the brands of the first builds.
 
powerhouse65 said:
ASrock = good BIOS, good compatibility, good features.
Definitely NOT Asus, at least not for m/b. Reasons?
1. Zero support for anything but Windows - in other words, if you buy Asus you will have to marry Microsoft. Else they won't warrant any hardware or BIOS specs.
2. Buggy BIOS - at least they've fixed some now.
3. Incompetent technical support.
4. Lousy documentation, including incomplete manuals (incl. ROG), antiquated compatibility charts, useless release notes, etc.
5. Extremely bad warranty service in the US - search the web for plenty of horror stories.
6. Overpriced.

Mind you, I only refer to motherboards.
Click to expand...

This:thumbsup: Asus left me with a very bitter taste service wise.
 
I have built countless computers using about every motherboard manufacturer at one point or another. Realistically each and every one of them has produced a poorly designed board and also a few amazing gems with the remainder being decently average.

My favorite motherboards have come from Asus and MSI, but I have built more computers with Gigabyte motherboards than both combined. (see formula below) ASRock is less preferred than those other 3, but they do make solid products, I just do not like their warranty support model.

For me who's best varies by generation and price point. I usually narrow down to what features I need and price point I am willing to pay. Then I find the top 3 or 4 motherboards that meet that criteria and compare professional reviews to further research and determine which likely suits me best at that point in time. No manufacturer has a slam dunk every time.
 
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