Crappy Motherboards?

[RadiclDreamer]

Why do people use them? I'm talking about companies like

Biostar
PC Chips
ECS
Chaintech
Shuttle

etc etc

I wouldnt mind if it were just the performance being low, but the reliability of them are just horrid

 

[Blazer]

Why do people use them? I'm talking about companies like

Agreed dont know that answer either

 

[dderolph]

Price is probably the main factor. Seems likely, doesn't it? But, I can't completely agree with your view of motherboards from these companies. I've been using an ECS K7S5A PRO mobo since March 2004 with an Athlon XP 2200 and 512MB PC2100 RAM. No problem whatsoever with stability.

 

[n7]

Why do they use them?

Well, because ECS & Chaintech, for example, make some great value boards, for those who do not need all the bells & whistles.

Reliability is relative.

You may have had bad luck with those brands, but others have had good luck.

 

[V00D00]

If a motherboard goes bad, it's most likely going to happen within the time you can RMA it.... I don't see any problems with those manufacturers.

 

[BentValve]

User error is probably more common than bad motherboards are.

 

[justly]

"I wouldnt mind if it were just the performance being low, but the reliability of them are just horrid"

Usually budget priced motherboards are coupled with unreliable power suplies, memory, you name it, all for the sake of saving a buck. That is why these brands get this bad reputation for reliability. Of course there are some exceptions to the rule but they apply to those "reliable" brands as well.

I have owned (or have neibors that own) reliable computers built on at least 3 of the brands listed. If a reliable system is all you need (not an overclocking monster) then these brands will work fine if you dont shoot yourself in the foot by using the cheapest memory or power supplies you can find.

 

[fsstrike]

My chaintech motherboard is good, no complaints.

 

[neoreturns]

Shuttle, Chaintech and Biostar all make good boards....

 

[CraigRT]

out of those mentioned, tho only one i'd use would be shuttle, but not all chaintech, biostar boards are bad.

while ECS and PC chips are complete and utter garbage.

 

[stelleg151]

I return a similar question back at you: Why pay $80 more for a few bells and whistles that you will probably never need? My chaintech has been working wonderfully, helping me bring my CPU to significanly faster than yours, when I payed less for my board and my CPU.

Not trying to flame, just make a strong argument for solid value boards.

 

[live2game]

He just has too much money that he dosen't relieze that Value boards are great why to save money talk to me i have been using a Mach Speed for about 2 years now and it works great

 

[RadiclDreamer]

My main 3 boards I use (out of the 7 pcs I have here at the house) were not purchased for the bells and whistles, they were purchased because of the reliability that the manufacturers have shown.

My Intel D865GBF and D875PBZ have worked flawlessly since the day I got them, and my A8V Deluxe has done pretty well (nowhere near as stable as the intel, but its a VIA chipset so what can you expect?)

 

[Cygni]

(nowhere near as stable as the intel, but its a VIA chipset so what can you expect?)

Uh.... what are you doing thats causing ANY modern motherboards to crash? Especially a K8T800Pro based board! I have K6-2 machines that havent rebooted in months... Yes, Intel boards tend to have high reliability, but we arent in the days of Socket 7 here.

 

[cubby1223]

Because they have model boards that work and work very well. What's the alternatives? ABit? Class action lawsuit. Gigabyte? Have seen two recently with blown caps. MSI? Also seen one with blown caps.

In a year & a half, I've built around 15 systems with Biostar's mATX nForce2 board. No one has come back to me with any problems so far.

My own machine I have an ASRock w/ SiS748 and I do play a lot of intense games, and it's been rock solid for 1.5 years so far!

PC Chips and their off-shoot Amptron are the only companies I avoid like the plague - people buy them because they're cheap. >$35 for a Socket A PC Chips board from Newegg compared to ~$70 for the cheapest nForce2 board w/ integrated graphics from one of the "quality minded" manufacturers (Biostar has the cheapest, then I think it's MSI).

 

[Insomniak]

Was about to say, ECS and Chaintech make some great bargain boards.

Largely, I guess people use lower tier hardware because of the pricetag...

My last system was based on an ECS K7S5A, and I never had a single problem with it...Depends on the model I guess.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Originally posted by: justly
"I wouldnt mind if it were just the performance being low, but the reliability of them are just horrid"

Usually budget priced motherboards are coupled with unreliable power suplies, memory, you name it, all for the sake of saving a buck. That is why these brands get this bad reputation for reliability. Of course there are some exceptions to the rule but they apply to those "reliable" brands as well.

I have owned (or have neibors that own) reliable computers built on at least 3 of the brands listed. If a reliable system is all you need (not an overclocking monster) then these brands will work fine if you dont shoot yourself in the foot by using the cheapest memory or power supplies you can find.

I agree. I have used a cheap generic VIA board with my P3 733MHz and it is one of the most stable motherboards I have ever seen. Maybe I'm lucky but just because the boards are cheap compared to the likes of Asus (In fact I think Asus are overpriced) doesn't mean they are crap.

 

[Regs]

I guess for people who don't need onboard SATA/RAID and Gigabyte LAN and firewire or have the need for overclocking. But most of the mobo's listed above are notorious for incompatibility issues with a lot of brand name RAM modules.

 

[LouPoir]

Biostar and Suuttle make excellent motherboards. You are correct on the others.

 

[KamiXkaze]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
Why do people use them? I'm talking about companies like

more than likely because when you have fery little money those are the ones most people get.

KxK

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: Cygni

(nowhere near as stable as the intel, but its a VIA chipset so what can you expect?)

Uh.... what are you doing thats causing ANY modern motherboards to crash? Especially a K8T800Pro based board! I have K6-2 machines that havent rebooted in months... Yes, Intel boards tend to have high reliability, but we arent in the days of Socket 7 here.

I'm not saying that its unreliable, im just saying its not as stable as my D875PBZ....

 

[justly]

Originally posted by: Regs
I guess for people who don't need onboard SATA/RAID and Gigabyte LAN and firewire or have the need for overclocking. But most of the mobo's listed above are notorious for incompatibility issues with a lot of brand name RAM modules.

I realize that some people (hardcore gamers/enthusiasts) WANT those features but can you really say that they are NEEDED by even an average gamer or non-enthusiasts. Broadband internet is often limited to 100Mbps (sometimes even 10Mbps) by a cable modem or other hardware, does overclocking really help someone thats not a heavy gamer or media encoding fanatic, for these same people how noticeable will the speed difference be between SATA and PATA?

These changes are welcomed, but far from needed by a lot of people.

Incompatibility of name brand memory is not limited to specific motherboard manufactures either.
In a Tomshardware article 3 out of 10 boards pass a memory compatibility test two of them are listed by the original poster as being "horrid"

Even Anandtech did a memory guide on the Intel 865PE & 875P based motherboards because of "the severe memory-related issues that have plagued these motherboards". This article covered boards made by Asus, Abit, DFI, MSI, Gigabyte,Epox and a few others, these are the "reliable" brands and are not suposed to have "compatibility" problems (according to some people). Now if you look at this article and say there were not many "compatibility" problems,then you need to be aware of what was said later in the atricle "motherboard manufacturers have been diligently working on their BIOSes and it shows; memory compatibility and performance is much better today than it was one to two months ago" and this "Initially we had the most problems with Corsair's modules, but thankfully motherboard manufacturers were able to come through with solid BIOS releases that remedied all of these issues".
To put it simply NO brand of motherboard is exempt from compatibility problems some may have a better track record or provide faster updates to fix their problems but for the most part even those with bad reputations aren't as bad as people make them sound.


cubby1223, I didn't know they made Amptron anymore. I hadn't heard that name in a long time. I had one of those close to (oh let me think) 10 years ago.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Where are you seeing compatibility mentioned in the above posts? I see RELIABILITY but not COMPATIBILITY, I realise they are spelled similar, but they are TWO DIFFERENT WORDS!!!

 

[Texun]

I'm not sure who makes good or bad boards anymore... it's relative. People who want bells and whistles go with top names and brag about how fast and stable they are. I've done the same thing, but I have a $29 Acorp board running 24\7 with Win2K and 512 megs of ram, HD Controller and 5 drives with absolutely zero problems. I expected some form of stability problem to show up but it's over a year old and has been as stable as my ASUS and Abit boards. I also have a Shuttle AN35N-U which has been fast and perfectly stable. I've built 4 other AN35's for friends who are exceptionally happy with their machine. None of those have tons of bells or whistles but for now I don't need them. I'm beginning to wonder if the cheap no-frills boards are really that bad.

 

[justly]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
Where are you seeing compatibility mentioned in the above posts? I see RELIABILITY but not COMPATIBILITY, I realise they are spelled similar, but they are TWO DIFFERENT WORDS!!!

I was replying to Regs comment when he said "But most of the mobo's listed above are notorious for incompatibility issues with a lot of brand name RAM modules"

I guess you don't understand that a motherboard cant be reliable if its not compatible.