Asus vs Gigabyte: your knowledge and experiences?

[autumn_suns3t]

Really don't know whether to pick an Asus or a Gigabyte (speaking of models with equal or ≈ price).

I think each brand has their strong and weak points.. but would like to know what those are.

I also wonder.. if 5.000 hours rated capacitors means the mobo will die after 5.000 hours the PC is turned on.. is just this what's counted as hours?
Gigabyte's are rated for 10.000 hours.. does this mean their mobos will last doubly? Is it capacitors exhaustion the primary cause a mobo gets done?

 

[Charlie98]

You might as well add all of the Big 4 to your poll... ASRock and MSI, too. They all have strong and weak points, depending on the model and each individual board for that matter. I personally like Gigabyte boards, I have 3 of them running right now... but I wouldn't hesitate to pick one of the others if it had the correct feature set.

 

[autumn_suns3t]

You might as well add all of the Big 4 to your poll... ASRock and MSI, too. They all have strong and weak points, depending on the model and each individual board for that matter. I personally like Gigabyte boards, I have 3 of them running right now... but I wouldn't hesitate to pick one of the others if it had the correct feature set.

They all have models with same features I think. As this is my first build, I have no idea how they'll perform in real. Why do you pick Gigabyte everytime?

 

[Charlie98]

They all have models with same features I think. As this is my first build, I have no idea how they'll perform in real. Why do you pick Gigabyte everytime?

Luck of the draw... my first build had a Gigabyte board in it and I liked the way it was built so continued on with it. I bought an ASRock budget board for a build, not really expecting much, and was very impressed with it... so I consider ASRock as well when looking at boards. If I would have picked Asus or MSI, for example, for my first board, I would probably have continued on with that brand (unless something went wrong.)

Thing is, you get what you pay for... you buy a 'cheap' board, that is to say a bottom of the lineup board from any manufacturer (all 3 Gigabyte and the ASRock boards I have pretty much fall into this category) and you have serviceable boards with not too many frills, spend a little more money... you get more board features. You first need to determine what it is you are looking for in a board... and see what everyone is offering.

 

[master_shake_]

ASUS is the best mother board company for gpus i use gigabyte.

 

[autumn_suns3t]

Luck of the draw... my first build had a Gigabyte board in it and I liked the way it was built so continued on with it. I bought an ASRock budget board for a build, not really expecting much, and was very impressed with it... so I consider ASRock as well when looking at boards. If I would have picked Asus or MSI, for example, for my first board, I would probably have continued on with that brand (unless something went wrong.)

Thing is, you get what you pay for... you buy a 'cheap' board, that is to say a bottom of the lineup board from any manufacturer (all 3 Gigabyte and the ASRock boards I have pretty much fall into this category) and you have serviceable boards with not too many frills, spend a little more money... you get more board features. You first need to determine what it is you are looking for in a board... and see what everyone is offering.

Both Asus and GB have relatively low, relatively high, and top grade offers, I see Gigabyte offers more cheap models, Asus is the n.1 for very expensive ones, but they both have many models in the $110-170 that's where my interest is .

From a thorough read of their sites (and all models speechs) I see Asus gives more comfortable settings/options, Gigab. stresses on durability and solidity.
I'll read some review, and then pick one of the 2.
Thanks for your answer.

 

[Spungo]

My Athlon II and Phenom II computers can't install Windows from a USB stick. I thought it was a problem with AMD chipsets, but google searches suggest the problem only applies to Gigabyte motherboards.
2 thumbs down for Gigabyte :thumbsdown::thumbsdown:

Also, the integrated video on my Athlon computer doesn't work. The computer crashes almost immediately after getting into Windows. Is it AMD's fault? Again, no. The heatsink on the integrated video is only held on with 2 weak springs, and I seriously doubt it has thermal paste. No wonder the thing crashes. It overheats immediately. Were the people at Gigabyte smoking crack when they designed this motherboard? Also, the sound in my Phenom II computer doesn't work anymore. I had to buy a soundcard just to get some basic sound. I don't know if that's Realtek's problem or Gigabyte's problem.

The one positive thing I can say about Gigabyte is that the motherboards still work overall. They will still run a CPU, they will still run a PCIe video card, they will still run a PCIe soundcard, they will still run SATA hard drives. I'll try to avoid Gigabyte in the future, but I'll still buy one if the price is really good.
I still see Asus as a good brand. I've never really had any issues with them.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I have used both asus and gigabyte motherboards and if they have the features you want you won't go wrong with either of them. I've also had to rma with both of them and gigabyte was actually better to deal with the last time I had to do it. Asus sent my xonar dx2 back in nonworking order and actually sent it to the wrong address.

 

[PingSpike]

Everyone has different experiences. I typically buy budget boards for the most part. My opinion is that Asus is overrated and doesn't deserve a price premium these days. They aren't bad, I just don't believe them to be superior to other offerings. I generally don't buy Asus boards because they usually have unimpressive offerings when I'm shopping and since I don't really believe there is anything special about them they just don't get selected.

I own two gigabyte boards and those are the only two I've ever owned. I don't really have any issues with them. They seem reasonably well built and solid and I usually find something novel about some of their offerings.

I've owned several asrock boards and my main machine has one. Asrock's main draw has been that they do things others don't generally. That was why the 939-dualSATA2 got me to buy from them in the first place. Aside from that I usually thought their layouts were a bit strange but since they were doing strange things sometimes I didn't really blame them. Their bios updates usually have a lot of options even if they are kind of buggy, but from reading on the internet they seem very hands on in fixing and updating their bios whereas most companies seem to do fairly little beyond the minimum once the boards are released. I never thought of Asrock as high end, but my most recent purchase just feels janky. So much crackling noise as I screwed it down that it actually scared me. And it seems like the SATA ports aren't attached well since I couldn't find my disks until I fiddled with unplugging and plugging in the cables. Unsettling and I never really thought that about previous boards I owned. Its a z77 pro3. I'm not done with them since it still works fine but I don't think they'll be my first choice next time.

I've owned a lot of Biostar boards since they're usually pretty cheap. I've never had an issue with any of them, save their layouts are sometimes weird. They actually seem pretty solid.

Some people love MSI. I will never buy another MSI motherboard. I've gone back to them a number of times because they often have the cheapest boards that meet my needs. I have never owned an MSI motherboard that didn't have some kind of problem. I'm not talking about DOA its usually something weirder like strange instabilities or a half working piece of hardware. Last time the onboard NIC would blue screen the PC during large file transfers. I've learned the hard way enough times and will pass on this brand even in hot deals now. I just don't want to deal with them anymore.

 

[Charlie98]

Everyone has different experiences. I typically buy budget boards for the most part. My opinion is that Asus is overrated and doesn't deserve a price premium these days.

I kind of feel the same way with Gigabyte; for a comparable board ASRock usually comes in a little less expensive than the equivalent GB board, that's why I picked up the ASRock board I spoke about above and even after reading a bunch of negative reviews on NE. You are correct, everyone has different experiences.

...but they both have many models in the $110-170 that's where my interest is .

That puts you up in some pretty hefty mobo territory, largely unnecessary unless you are planning some sort of specialized build. You can get a reasonable mobo for sub-$100 and a very good mobo for sub-$150... but it all depends on what you want to do with it.

 

[autumn_suns3t]

That puts you up in some pretty hefty mobo territory, largely unnecessary unless you are planning some sort of specialized build. You can get a reasonable mobo for sub-$100 and a very good mobo for sub-$150... but it all depends on what you want to do with it.

I don't want to overclock. Still.. there are things like multiple copper layers in the PCB, gold plated socket pins, stainless still/silver plated outputs, more PCIe, good audio chip (I know it can't compared with a real sound card.. but this last one isn't needed for me), Japanese long-lasting capacitors.. it's to get this, and hope I won't need to change mobo for many years/won't be bothered by any trouble, that I am considering a Z(87/97)X-UD3H (even the BK special series, shipping after 1 week of server grade tests, which means no DOA risk and high-binned mobo, as they sure sell as normal version boards failing it lol).

I need a DisplayPort output, and it's cheaper to pay for a mobo with it than getting a GPU with it; I absolutely want an Intel network card, bluetooth and wi-fi.. getting a mobo with all of this costs less than a cheaper board and buying very good adapters separately.

As for ASUS, I am considering Z87 Plus, PRO V Edition, PRO, and Expert (this one just because Amazon gives a heavy discount in my country.. selling it = the PRO).
ASUS seem to provide more comfortable options.. I mean things like apps for interacrion between the Pc and smartphone and much more, on the other hand they look less sturdy, a little careless to customers, they aren't made in Taiwan any more (unlike Gigabyte), they have me pay for heavy SLI/Crossfire support that I'll never use.

You may wonder why I aim at Z87 and not Z97: well, having to include m.Sata/Express Sata, looks like ASUS/Gigabyte either raised prices or took away some other features to compensate in terms of cost.. for instance GB's Z97 iteration of their UD3H model lacks the DisplayPort.

Thanks all for your feedback, especially Puffnstuff.. what you said is valuable for me, never we know the true face of a brand like when we need customer assistance.

 

[Cerb]

multiple copper layers in the PCB

Necessary, and not special at all.

gold plated socket pins

If not required, standard

stainless still/silver plated outputs

Never done, and not a good thing (silver). Nickel is standard, gold is common, and gold is not necessarily better (quality of the underlying plate, usually nickel, and the material it is being applied to, are what matters).

I need a DisplayPort output, and it's cheaper to pay for a mobo with it than getting a GPU with it

Why can't they standardize on DP, like the big OEMs? I hate that. Optiplexes and Elites, at least, have been coming with 2 DPs for a few years, now, standard. White box companies need to suck it up and tell their customers to buy adapters, IMO, because DP is already starting to displace DVI, and on high-end monitors, we're finally seeing VGA disappear, as well.

 

[biostud]

I've never had a motherbaord go bad on me, but then again I've never owned an ASUS board.. j/k