Where do MSI motherboards stand? Any good?

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Shephard

Senior member
Nov 3, 2012
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Ok guys I didn't want to bump my old topic because it's labelled Asrock maybe no one cares about it anymore.

Where does MSI boards stand?

Specifically MSI Z77A-GD65

how does it fair against these 3 boards you guys recommend all in the same price range.

ASUS p8z77-V LK
Gigabyte z77x-D3H
Asrock z77 Extreme 4

I notice MSI board only has 2 USB 3.0 ports... All the others have 4 minimum.

what is your opinion on MSI
 
mikeymikec

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
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I would probably go for ASUS. MSI had more bloaty capacitor issues back in that day (and I'm aware of two builds I've done with MSI boards with bloaty capacitors, dating 2005-2007, which should really have missed the capacitor plague - not cheap boards either!), and since then I had been reading up on VRMs and power phases, and a site with users reporting their board problems had MSI with a massive reported share of VRM issues. My feeling is that they moved on from one cheapo set of components to another.
 
Charlie98

Charlie98

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2011
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That's funny, I was going to ask the same question... they look like pretty full-featured boards for the price.

...and what is 'Military Class III' apply to?
 
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Shephard

Senior member
Nov 3, 2012
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what does bloaty capacitor mean?

also I have same question as Charlie98. They say the motherboards are military class?
 
mikeymikec

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

Ignore the marketing speak. 'Military class' could mean just about anything, like it sits in a military office, but the first thing that springs to my mind would be hardware durable enough to go into an aircraft for example, so heavily shielded against interference. Which may be useful... if you're planning on building an F-22 running Windows :)

Also, ask yourself why it would be "Military Class III"... apart from the possibility that they had labelled older boards as "Military Class" but wanted this one to sound better.

A quick bit of googling suggests that they might use better components on 'military class' motherboards, but better than what?
 
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mkmitch

mkmitch

Member
Nov 25, 2011
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Did a build in February with the z68gd55 and no problems at all. Went through a lot of reviews and research before I bought this one and paired with 2500k. Easy overclock.
 
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Shephard

Senior member
Nov 3, 2012
765
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ok thanks mkmitch I want to know who else has built with these boards.

if possible the one I mentioned.
 
X

Xonim

Golden Member
Jul 13, 2011
1,131
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Short answer: Run far, far away if you haven't purchased yet.

Long answer: I'm 0/2 using MSI boards, and I have several friends who have had nothing but trouble with theirs. I first tried using an MSI board when AM2 processors were cool -- worked for a couple months before it died, RMA'd and got a warranty replacement, that board died after about the same time. Replaced it with a cheapie BioStar because it was all I could afford at the time, still works to this day.

Second try was with a mid-high range X58 board -- I only tried one model, but I swapped it THREE times at MicroCenter before I returned the fourth board and paid the extra money for an eVGA. First one had a bad RAM slot, second one wouldn't post, third one had a different bad RAM slot (so I know it wasn't the same one I returned), and with the fourth one the system crashed every 15-20 minutes. Swapped out for the eVGA board and never had a problem.

I run exclusively Asus boards now in my own builds, if I need a cheaper/budget type board, I'll go for a Gigabyte. I won't touch AsRock, and I definitely won't touch MSI.

That being said, I love their TF3 video cards, have had nothing but good luck with those :biggrin:
 
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theman12

Junior Member
Jan 12, 2002
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I have had 3 Msi motherboards in the past and to this day will never buy one again. To me they just are not well built and have alot of issues.
 
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Shephard

Senior member
Nov 3, 2012
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dang only 1 positive review that's not good.

I never hear anyone talk about MSI motherboard so I thought it was worth a topic.

Maybe best to just stick to ASUS what I know. Or asrock extreme 4.
 
crazymonkeyzero

crazymonkeyzero

Senior member
Feb 25, 2012
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If on a budget, get Asrock, not msi. Asrock is like the "poormans asus" these days.Actually tbh, quality of Asrock is vey similar to Asus as well, only thing lacking is the good uefi, which asus does best, hands down.
 
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Shephard

Senior member
Nov 3, 2012
765
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I know everyone speaks so highly of Asrock Extreme 4.

But how do you call it poor mans ASUS?

I thought all new motherboards since z68 has UEFI?
 
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theman12

Junior Member
Jan 12, 2002
5
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For me I was burned by MSI back in the day. Had a K7T266 Pro mainboard and a kt333 ultra board and they did not last even 2 years without some sort of problem. Yes it was a longtime ago but it made me swear off MSI permanently. To me the products are crap.
 
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bononos

Diamond Member
Aug 21, 2011
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Shephard said:
I know everyone speaks so highly of Asrock Extreme 4.
But how do you call it poor mans ASUS?
....
Click to expand...
The perception that Asrock is a cheaper Asus because they both used to be the same co. and Asrock had mostly low end board with older interfaces to capture the low end upgrade market. Now Asrock is more of a separate co. and has high end mbs so its an outdated view.
 
SparkyJJO

SparkyJJO

Lifer
May 16, 2002
13,357
7
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I'm running a gigabyte board right now but I've had no problems with my past MSI boards. I've seen boards of all makes around that 2005-2007 range have bad cap issues so it wasn't isolated to them. I just recapped an Asus from that time period actually. A lot of them used UCC KZJ and KZG caps, which while UCC is generally a good cap maker those two series of caps are junk. Sadly they were widely used across a lot of boards. They wouldn't always fail by bloating, sometimes they'd just quietly die and make you wonder what is up with your motherboard.

Of all the boards I've had and used for other people's builds, Asus has been the least reliable for me. Usually stupid stuff. My all time favorite board is still my old Asus however. I haven't had to RMA any Gigabyte or MSI boards yet, or Foxconn for that matter but I only have used one or two of those.
 
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dma0991

Platinum Member
Mar 17, 2011
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I came in here to say that the MSI Z77A-GD65 is as good as any other board you could buy for the same price.
 
mikeymikec

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
19,914
14,156
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ASRock also had loads of capacitor problems a good few years ago. Considering how people recommend them these days, I guess they don't.

I think basically ASUS wanted the same cut of profits that other companies which were willing to use dodgy components, so they spun off ASRock in order for it not to affect their own brand. A nearby local company that used to build PCs used to use cheap Gigabyte and ASRock boards all the time, and if the PC was say 3 years old and was acting very weird, there was a good chance that I would open the case and find bloated capacitors.

I've certainly seen one ASUS board with a bloated capacitor (I can't remember if I have seen any more), but after 7 years one was very slightly bloated and the system wasn't showing any symptoms of it.

I agree with kleinkinstein's ranking of board makers.
 
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Shephard

Senior member
Nov 3, 2012
765
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well it seems everyone has their own opinion.

If anyone has built with those 4 boards I have mentioned above I would like to hear from you.
 
Torn Mind

Torn Mind

Lifer
Nov 25, 2012
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Shephard said:
well it seems everyone has their own opinion.

If anyone has built with those 4 boards I have mentioned above I would like to hear from you.
Click to expand...
I have an ASrock H77M. The parallel and COM headers work(because of picked up free parallel printers), SATA ports work, DVI works, it can POST, USB 2.0 headers work. Also, a bad PSU might actually be the true cause of mobo failure and system instability.
 
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