Most Reliable High End Motherboard?

[edwardv]

My HP Media Center PC has over time gotten really slow, I've done several complete reinstalls but the system shows no improvement in speed. It was very fast for about a year, then the performance started to degrade.

At first I thought it was a virus or trojan, this does not seem to be the case. I've come to the conclusion that the actual motherboard components have started to fail. I find myself in the market for a new system.

I've decided to build it myself, (the HP is the only system I've ever bought new, what a disappointment) and I am looking for advise on a new motherboard. What I want is the most reliable high end board I can find. It can be based on either an AMD or Intel cpu. I have a slight preference for AMD, purely on a cost basis. Any advise? Thanks in advance.

 

[StrangerGuy]

First, we need your PC specs.

Second, how do you know your motherboard is actually failing? Most of the time a failing motherboard simply won't even be stable for use.

Thirdly, if you just want a stable system, price alone is not a guarantee of stability.

 

[Harvey]

As StrangerGuy said, we need to know about your hardware. If you have an underpowered CPU, too little RAM or onboard video, the overhead of Media Center software and HP's own bloatware can slow a machine to a crawl once you start trying to do anything that demands system resources.

 

[edwardv]

1. Specs:

The system is a HP Pavilion Elite e9240f Desktop PC.

It has a 3.0-GHz AMD Phenom x4 945 processor a 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4650 graphics card, 8 GB RAM, and a 1TB (1000GB) 5400RPM Serial ATA hard drive. Also has 1 rewritable DVD, 1 blue ray disk and a two tuner media card. I've added a 32 gig SD card for use by readyboost.

2. Why I believe the system is failing:

HP was unable to resolve my issues with this system despite months of effort including paying $100 for escalated support. While HP would not admit the system was faulty nothing they suggested improved the performance of the system. This system was at one time quite fast; now even after a complete reinstall of the OS it locks up becoming unresponsive very often. To make sure I did not get a virus or trojan I installed on the system the Avast antivirus software before the first connection to the internet. The only software installed besides Avast was Firefox. I also turned off all the eyecandy running a minimal system without even a wallpaper.

3. "Thirdly, if you just want a stable system, price alone is not a guarantee of stability." Agreed, however I don't understand your point here. I want a high end motherboard. I want it to be reliable. That's what I am looking for, I don't want a low end system, I've a laptop that fills that niche quite well, (although currently its more responsive than my desktop). Are you saying I can't get both, (surely not)?

As part of my reinstall I removed all of HP's bloatware, (this is something I did when I first got the system as well). I also got rid of all Office software, all the Symantec software, all the games, and all the other unneeded bloatware I could find as well.

Monitoring task manager at times the system is unresponsive I've found that the CPU usage rarely goes above 10% and is often under 3%. I've never seen more than 2.5 gig of ram in use. After my last reinstall I never enabled the use of the Media Center software, never connecting the turner card, the system is still slow.

In hunting for possible virus, trojan's, etc, I've run AVG, Avast, Search and Destroy, Hijack this, CCleaner, Rootkit Revealer, Ad Aware, and Adblock Plus in Firefox.

I've spent far too much time trying to get this system up to speed. Its time to move on.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Evga a1 mb's have a lifetime warranty and excellent support. I would recommend one of their classified series intel mb's for your system. Also don't skimp on your other components like the ram and ps if you want it to remain reliable.

 

[nenforcer]

This is the problem of doing a complete reinstall using HP's restore software. It reinstalls alot of crap that even clearing out your add/remove programs there may be possibly thing still left around on the hard drive.

What OS are you running? Have you considered just purchasing a plain OEM DVD install for Windows 7 or even XP?

That will not include any unneccesary software.

 

[tcsenter]

Open administrator command prompt, enter:

chkdsk /r

When asked to schedule a disk check, select Y, then restart. Might take a few hours. When complete and Windows reboots, check Event Manager for the chkdsk log (Wininit) and look for bad sectors.

 

[edwardv]

I ordered a new oem copy of Windows 7 64 bit home premium last night. I'm currently running Ubuntu on the system. Ubuntu worked fine until it downloaded its updates and rebooted. At which point it would no longer connect to my wifi router.

When I get the new OS I will do the install on a new hard drive. Depending on the results I may wait on the motherboard a few more months to maybe six months or so.

 

[tcsenter]

Latest drivers for your hardware:

ATI/AMD Catalyst 10.7 Suite (chipset and graphics)

Realtek HD Audio

Realtek GbE LAN

Atheros Wireless a/b/g/n LAN (if applicable)

Hauppauge Tuner Card (Windows Update - change settings to offer optional and recommended downloads)


Some Microsoft stuff you'll want:

Visual C++ 2008 SP1 (x86)

Visual C++ 2008 SP1 (x64)

DirectX Runtimes Redistributable (June 2010)

System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7 x64 (takes about 30 minutes to install)

 

[edwardv]

Latest drivers for your hardware:

ATI/AMD Catalyst 10.7 Suite (chipset and graphics)

Realtek HD Audio

Realtek GbE LAN

Atheros Wireless a/b/g/n LAN (if applicable)

Hauppauge Tuner Card (Windows Update - change settings to offer optional and recommended downloads)


Some Microsoft stuff you'll want:

Visual C++ 2008 SP1 (x86)

Visual C++ 2008 SP1 (x64)

DirectX Runtimes Redistributable (June 2010)

System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7 x64 (takes about 30 minutes to install)

Thanks for the info.

I've in the meantime completely reinstalled the OS. Its still the same version, Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium, but without HP's crap. (Newegg then put the OS on sale after I received it.)

I've updated the system using Windows update, but not the specific items you list. I will do that.

In addition to the OS I also purchased Two Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive only to find that when they say bare they mean bare, no cables and I will need an adapter to connect the power. So OS is installed on the old drive. Tested the old drive and found no errors or problems, it is a somewhat slower drive though, a WD 1 TB green drive.

Software installed is, Firefox, avast! Antivirus free, InfanView, and VLC media player, that's it. System remains intermittently unresponsive. When it works its fine, its just that it locks up for seconds to minutes at a time. I've not installed any media center software or used the tuner.

Note the system locked up six times writing this post, three times when I clicked on Preview Post.

 

[edwardv]

Open administrator command prompt, enter:

chkdsk /r

When asked to schedule a disk check, select Y, then restart. Might take a few hours. When complete and Windows reboots, check Event Manager for the chkdsk log (Wininit) and look for bad sectors.

Done, no problems found. It took hours.

 

[Athadeus]

I would do what you were originally thinking and just build one yourself with very good quality parts and run it stock or near stock speed for the best reliability. The question is how high end do you want to go?

Socket AM3, 1156, or 1366? All are equally reliable, and have similar performance/$ though AMD can lead in value depending on application, while intel leads in performance past a certain (very high) price.

Also, just a thought since you didn't mention your use, but have you considered an Apple?

 

[edwardv]

I would do what you were originally thinking and just build one yourself with very good quality parts and run it stock or near stock speed for the best reliability. The question is how high end do you want to go?

Socket AM3, 1156, or 1366? All are equally reliable, and have similar performance/$ though AMD can lead in value depending on application, while intel leads in performance past a certain (very high) price.

Also, just a thought since you didn't mention your use, but have you considered an Apple?

I believe I will go with an AM3, if only to use the cpu in this system. If I reuse the parts I have I need only a new MB and case. Its going to have to wait though I've blown the budget for this month.

So lets see:

1. I still need to decide on a MB.

2. Use the cpu in the HP, a Phenom II X4 945, not the fastest but it should be viable. (Upgrade when current fastest X6 cpu is available in lower power envelope.)

3. Use the two optical drives from the HP.

4. Use the video card and tuner from the HP. The video card is my lowest rated component in the HP, but I don't have a good upgrade option that would work on the current MB, I can only fit a single wide card.

5. I don't know if the wireless card will work in the new system, its a tiny card in the HP.

6. Use the two new Seagate 1.5 TB drives in the new system, configure as raid and set as the system drive. Reuse the old WD 1 TB as the d drive.

7. Use the current keyboard and mouse.

8. Use the media card reader from the HP if possible?

9. I've a year old 1000w power supply that I have never used.

There maybe other stuff usable.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

5. It's probably a PCI-E x1 card which would work fine
6. See if you can return those hard drives because they've had reliability problems in the past and are outdated
8. As long as it uses a USB header

 

[JSt0rm]

maybe bad ram? Try pulling sticks of ram out and see if the system is stable. Try running memtest. Sorry your having problems.

 

[edwardv]

I've not managed to resolve this issue, but I seem to have reduced the frequency it occurs somewhat, (maybe by 30-40 percent). I checked Task Manager and noticed that I never use more than 2 gigs of ram, (I've 8 gig on the system). I decided to turn off my pagefile, memory usage increased to about 2.2 gigs of ram after reboot, and system response seemed to improve slightly. I then went to Task Manger and on the Processes tab set the priority of explorer to high, and of dwm.exe to above normal. I then also increased the priority of Firefox to above normal as well. Seems to help some. Purely subjective of course and its only been 4 hours, we will see what happens long term.

I also checked in Device manager if any devices needed their drivers updated, one did.

 

[theevilsharpie]

System remains intermittently unresponsive. When it works its fine, its just that it locks up for seconds to minutes at a time. I've not installed any media center software or used the tuner.

Note the system locked up six times writing this post, three times when I clicked on Preview Post.

In my experience, when a system completely hangs for seconds or minutes at a time, the culprit has usually been the storage subsystem (disk, DVD, USB mass storage, etc.). If this is the case, information about it should be recorded in the System section of the event log.

Given that your system was able to complete a full chkdsk without issue, I'd start by unplugging the DVD drive, your ReadyBoost drive, any USB disks attached to the system, etc., and see if performance improves.

 

[edwardv]

Did a firmware update on the hard drive, so far no lockups, its been about an hour.