Opinions wanted on best motherboard manufacturer

[wingman04]

Opinions wanted on best motherboard manufacturer for warranty service and reliability?

 

[RLGL]

ya gotta realize, one man's prize is another man's poison

The best, I have never had a board last more than 2 to 4 years. Currently trying Asus products.

 

[nerp]

You will get conflicting statements.

Here's the industry secret: the vast majority of boards are all pumped out at the same factories by the same people.

You're paying for design, BIOS programming skills and support.

I like ASUS, Gigabyte. I used to love EPoX but they went out of business like a decade ago.

 

[LoveMachine]

There are a few threads here at AT referencing bad experiences with warranty issues and ASUS. My experience with them was terrible. Unfortunately, the service dept of most electronics companies now are at the bottom of the totem poll as far as company priorities, so ASUS is not alone.

 

[jabjab90301]

I have only owned Asus boards and monitors. I like them both for the features and price. To me there bios/UEFI is the easier to navigate.

 

[NAC]

You will get conflicting statements.

Here's the industry secret: the vast majority of boards are all pumped out at the same factories by the same people.

You're paying for design, BIOS programming skills and support.

This. I think you should buy based on features and price, and read reviews on the particular board(s) you are interested in. My last two boards are ASROCK and I'm very pleased with them.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Asus has been the best for me over the years but if I couldn't get one I'd go with gigabyte.

 

[pcslookout]

Asus by far.

 

[techne]

You will get conflicting statements.

ya gotta realize, one man's prize is another man's poison

The only contribution I can give (a very small one) refers to a few PCs in the last ten years: I don't remember the manufacturers of the motherboards I had before that. Warranty service and RMA does not apply because I live in a peripheral country.

MSI for Athlon 64/X2 (2006) - Still working (on a daily basis)
ASUS M4A79T Deluxe (2009) - Still working
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO (2009) - Still working (on a daily basis)
ASUS E35M1-M (2011) - Still working (on a daily basis)
INTEL DZ87KLT-75K (2014) - Dead after two years of use
ASUS Z97 Deluxe (2016) - The one I'm using right now

 

[Sonikku13]

I prefer ASUS and Gigabyte, but since I'm going with a Xeon E5-2670 in August, then a E5-2690 v4 in 2020, I gotta find a new mobo manufacturer that supports those processors.

 

[nerp]

The only contribution I can give (a very small one) refers to a few PCs in the last ten years: I don't remember the manufacturers of the motherboards I had before that. Warranty service and RMA does not apply because I live in a peripheral country.

MSI for Athlon 64/X2 (2006) - Still working (on a daily basis)
ASUS M4A79T Deluxe (2009) - Still working
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO (2009) - Still working (on a daily basis)
ASUS E35M1-M (2011) - Still working (on a daily basis)
INTEL DZ87KLT-75K (2014) - Dead after two years of use
ASUS Z97 Deluxe (2016) - The one I'm using right now

Funny you say this. of all the boards I've had over the years, only one outright died way before it should and that was an Intel board. Their consumer desktop boards were notoriously unreliable.

 

[lukart]

I been using ASrock on my rigs and so far I cannot say anything about their Customer service I think thats a good sign ...

 

[DigDog]

it's not hard to answer.

Asus makes the best motherboards. they have bad tech support.

Gigabyte makes the second best, nearly as good as(occasionally better than) Asus. their tech support is average.


but really, these days ALL motherboards are good. it's really, really hard to buy a bad motherboard because the design technology has advanced so much; in fact, cheaper brands like ASRock, Biostar, and ECS have been used and recommended for many builds.

 

[Termie]

Asus for amazing UEFI, great software, but you pay for the name. Its higher-end boards are more compelling than their low-end stuff, which is just overpriced.

Asrock for great features for the price and the fastest boot speed in the industry.

MSI for good midrange boards, although the only board I had that failed over the past ten years was an early edition MSI X58 board that ran hot.

 

[Sheep221]

it's not hard to answer.

Asus makes the best motherboards. they have bad tech support.

Gigabyte makes the second best, nearly as good as(occasionally better than) Asus. their tech support is average.


but really, these days ALL motherboards are good. it's really, really hard to buy a bad motherboard because the design technology has advanced so much; in fact, cheaper brands like ASRock, Biostar, and ECS have been used and recommended for many builds.

Have to agree with this, high CPU integration made mobos performance-unrelated component and demise of chipsets like SiS, Via and nForce greatly increased the overall reliability. I think that all present companies making motherboards are based in Taiwan and are pretty similar to each other and more or less it depends on your selection of particular model. You are no longer able to buy intel boards tho, since they moved out of business in this sector.
ASRock is a company worth mentioning in the sense they advanced much more in recent years, not so long ago they made worst of boards for outdated platforms but now are making top end boards for hardcore overclocking and gaming and are in direct competition with MSI and Asus' flagship boards, my P67 based ASRock board has been rock solid for over 4 years, BIOS and Windows tuning utility is awesome and it overclocks very well.

 

[jabjab90301]

Anyone on an EVGA board? I have been looking at those.

 

[DrMrLordX]

but really, these days ALL motherboards are good. it's really, really hard to buy a bad motherboard because the design technology has advanced so much; in fact, cheaper brands like ASRock, Biostar, and ECS have been used and recommended for many builds.

That's true to a point, but then it can become false if your needs fall too far out of the mainstream.

If you are a user planning on running CPUs with high power demands (example: OCed FX 9590, OCed 5960x) then power delivery is going to be a huge issue. There are quality variations between boards - sometimes even within the same manufacturer's lineup. MSI was and still is infamous for dodgy VRMs on AMD motherboards.

That's just one example of course, but it's a critical one depending on the end-user.

 

[DigDog]

yeah but that's a specific need which also falls outside of the normal usage. if you want to do some crazy ass LN2 cooling and you buy a midrange cheap board, something's not right.

just a few years ago there were mobos whose FSB would just cap, you know, like at 300, and you could not OC past a certain speed because of that. you could genuinely say, "don't buy that board, it's crap". nowadays it's at most "that board lacks some features".

MSI was one of the last brands to git gud, and even they are now considered very good boards. (i have a msi on this rig)

 

[wingman04]

I have had good luck with Gigabyte, and once I had to RMA for boot loop and they fixed it in 2 weeks. I've read ASRock has bad RMA they like to deny it. Asus I heard also have bad RMA.

 

[DrMrLordX]

yeah but that's a specific need which also falls outside of the normal usage. if you want to do some crazy ass LN2 cooling and you buy a midrange cheap board, something's not right.

just a few years ago there were mobos whose FSB would just cap, you know, like at 300, and you could not OC past a certain speed because of that. you could genuinely say, "don't buy that board, it's crap". nowadays it's at most "that board lacks some features".

MSI was one of the last brands to git gud, and even they are now considered very good boards. (i have a msi on this rig)

Sadly AM3+ and FM2+ are still minefields. Things are better on the Intel side.

 

[waltchan]

Asus tends to discontinue board models early with almost no support after a few years. Very difficult to find parts. Gigabyte tends to stick one same model longer with different REV # each year. Long-term support in a Gigabyte is better than Asus.

 

[techne]

Funny you say this. of all the boards I've had over the years, only one outright died way before it should and that was an Intel board. Their consumer desktop boards were notoriously unreliable.

And even the miserable pleasure of saying "I'll never buy an Intel board again" will be denied...

 

[Puffnstuff]

Anyone on an EVGA board? I have been looking at those.

A couple of months ago I sold my last evga motherboard, a z97 ftw, and I will never buy from them again. Back when they first showed up they were fantastic with their x58 offerings but they aren't them same these days and quality has dropped. Look at their construction versus an asus or gigabyte board and see how they skimp on components such as phases and cooling. I will never buy from them again.

 

[Termie]

I love Evga, and run their video cards and power supplies almost exclusively, but their motherboards tend to be overpriced, poorly laid out, and with questionable UEFIs.

 

[jabjab90301]

A few years back it was between the the Asus Rampage 3 Formula or the EVGA X58 mobo. I decided for the Asus. Now that I am thinking of getting a X5650, I am glad I went with the Asus. The EVGA require a mod to accept the X5650 xeons.