Who are the big-name mobo manufacturers?

[Jim Bancroft]

I mean, who are the top-notchers, the ones who put out the best quality boards and stand behind them with updated drivers and solid return policies if something goes wrong?

I'm not desperate for white-hot overclocking ability with my board....not that there's anything wrong with it of course if it's there. More interested in the name brands who don't use questionable manufacturing standards or cut corners in QC.

 

[Rhin0]

In my experience Abit has been just what you describe. Top notch stuff. May not always be the fastest but it is always close enough you'd never tell. Have used over 15 Abit mobos and never a problem. They usually have good features just like other companies and leave little to be desired.

Sometimes their selection is strange though. Like right now they don't have a s939 nforce3 board. Maybe because I guess they'll just to nforce4. That is ok though the K8T800 AV8 is just as good as an nforce3 or nforce4 as long as you don't need any of those features.

and although I have had some problems with ASUS they seem to put out a wonderful product also. They are about the only two names I can trust in mobos.



I must say MSI's latest offering looks good but I won't take the chance of that nightmare.

 

[gxshockwav]

asus is pretty damn good...better than abit I reckon, but that's a personal opinion.

other manufacturers: msi, soltek, aopen, epox, intel, dfi, albatron, chaintech...probably some others I missed.

But out of all of 'em I think asus is the best overall.

 

[Seemann]

I made pretty good experience with Elito-Epox (my EP-8KHA+ stills rocks): Good board, rock-stable, good price, good speed, good support. Other good manufactures are of course Asus, MSI and maybe Abit and Gigabyte. I think it depends also on the board himself, nearly every MoBo-maker has released some not-so-good-boards.

 

[Jim Bancroft]

Thanks, guys.

Is Epox a solid brand? I've only heard of them recently and wasn't sure. Also, does anyone know who the big boys are, in terms of sales? I'd assume ASUS is #1, followed by Abit, but I'm not sure....

 

[gxshockwav]

Epox makes pretty good boards. I have an Epox 8KDA3+ and it is rock solid...def. one of the better boards for a64 754 platform.

 

[Seemann]

As I mentioned above, at least here in Germany the support is quite fantastic. A huge page here (www.planet3dnow.de) has a motherboard-database. Every user (most of them are well-informed power-users) has the chance to report is experience with several boards. Due to the high participation you can derive a tendency if the mobo-maker sucks or makes good boards.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: gxshockwav
asus is pretty damn good...better than abit I reckon, but that's a personal opinion.

other manufacturers: msi, soltek, aopen, epox, intel, dfi, albatron, chaintech...probably some others I missed.

But out of all of 'em I think asus is the best overall.

No.. Asus is better than Abit in terms of quality. Trust me.

You forgot Biostar. I only say that because you mentioned AOpen.

I like AOpens cases and optical drives, but recently I switched from using Biostar boards to AOpen boards because my supplier couldn't get me the board I liked. My problems went from having one problem for every 50 builds to one problem for every 5 builds! HORRIBLE! The board LOOKED nice enough, but I've had problems with everything from the SATA controller to the on board LAN. The only problems I've had with Biostar is... well.... Hmm..... None?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Shuttle makes great boards too. I have built a lot of systems with them in the last 2yrs or so and haven't had one die. They overclock very well too, my AN50R runs my C0 3000+@2.4ghz for 10 months+ now rock solid despite lacking a pci lock. Shuttle equals great price/performance IMO.

 

[Rhin0]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU

Originally posted by: gxshockwav
.

No.. Asus is better than Abit in terms of quality. Trust me.

Not true in my experience, quite the opposite actually.

I know everyone has a bad board now and then and then there are companies that release BAD products because of being rush to market etc. Everyone company has one now and then. I won't even buy an MSI, Epox, etc etc... Abit or ASUS

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: Rhin0

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU

Originally posted by: gxshockwav
.

No.. Asus is better than Abit in terms of quality. Trust me.

Not true in my experience, quite the opposite actually.

I know everyone has a bad board now and then and then there are companies that release BAD products because of being rush to market etc. Everyone company has one now and then. I won't even buy an MSI, Epox, etc etc... Abit or ASUS

Well, I said what I said based on the fact that when I worked at TCWO we had picked up the Abit line three different times and had to drop them again and again and again because their RMA rate was so high it was COSTING us money to sell the product line. We had an RMA rate of 10-20%. Asus, Biostar, MSI, Epox and a bunch of others only had a 2-3% RMA rate typical. The only motherboard we sold that even came CLOSE to Abit's bad reputation was Soyo and they had an RMA rate of 9 to 10%. The only reason why we hung onto Soyo is people like the boards and Soyo took care of their warranty issues where Abit would just send you a use, supposedly refurbished board, that had some other problem 50% of the time.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU

Originally posted by: gxshockwav
asus is pretty damn good...better than abit I reckon, but that's a personal opinion.

other manufacturers: msi, soltek, aopen, epox, intel, dfi, albatron, chaintech...probably some others I missed.

But out of all of 'em I think asus is the best overall.

No.. Asus is better than Abit in terms of quality. Trust me.

You forgot Biostar. I only say that because you mentioned AOpen.

I like AOpens cases and optical drives, but recently I switched from using Biostar boards to AOpen boards because my supplier couldn't get me the board I liked. My problems went from having one problem for every 50 builds to one problem for every 5 builds! HORRIBLE! The board LOOKED nice enough, but I've had problems with everything from the SATA controller to the on board LAN. The only problems I've had with Biostar is... well.... Hmm..... None?

I really like Biostar, too. Lately all my builds have been Biostar NF2 IGP uATX based systems and I've had to make ZERO support calls on any of them, some have been in service for several months now. And some of these machines are being used heavily by people who we all would call newbs. I'm really pleased with these boards so far.

 

[mapen]

When I was younger I wanted cheap boards that would overclock to the max.

But now I look for quality, stability, and support, and performance to a lesser degree. My vote is for ASUS for the best balance of these traits. Abit is my second choice for boards.

If you want to save a few bucks, or are an avid overclocker, then there are the other guys. Seems like DFI LanParty is the current performance leader for overclockers.

Are SuperMicro and FIC still in business? For the sake of completeness, I mention these. SuperMicro is known for making stable, boring boards. And FIC was known for making cheap junk, to be bought only if you really wanted the cheapest board out there.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Of course they're still in business!!! http://www.supermicro.com and http://www.fica.com.

Supermicro may be known for be boring and being stable, but all they make are dual Xeon boards for God's sake! What do you expect? I don't think FIC has done anything worth while in 6 years.

 

[mapen]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
Supermicro may be known for be boring and being stable, but all they make are dual Xeon boards for God's sake! What do you expect? I don't think FIC has done anything worth while in 6 years.

Interesting, I didn't know SuperMicro now only makes dual Xeon boards. In college I worked for a company that built computers for home and office users almost exclusively with SuperMicro boards, since they were supposedly so dependable. At the time, SuperMicro made all manner of single processor Intel P3 and Celeron boards too.

 

[jonnyGURU]

That was a while ago. Essentially, the way SuperMicro's path has been is if it's something you would build an Intel based server on, SuperMicro makes it. For example, they used to make Socket 7 boards. Remember when we'd actually build a server around one of those?

 

[CraigRT]

Soltek is my favorite.... solid products, good tech support.... great company :thumbsup:

 

[mapen]

.

 

[classy]

Asus makes the best boards overall. I don't even think there's much of an argument.

 

[w00t]

ASUS,ABIT,EPOX,and GIGABYTE and the top of my head i still want to say DFI but i know they arent that big o ya and msi

 

[bim27142]

aaahmmm... when it comes to quality, don't forget intel...