Why does AT continually reccomend MSI motherboards despite the reliablilty problems?

[LED]

Each reviewer is entitled to their own opinion and I usually read a few mobo reviews before deciding and would not purchase 1 based of off 1 review and/or rating.

On a rating of 1-10 (best 10) If they're are 5 or 6 Mobo's in heat of the best rating (usually the case), then I don't really care which one I get as long as I know there is support.

After replacing a number of MoBo's on Rigs, I have yet seen 1 Manufacture that hasn't needed replaced from the Major Players after and before the warranty time.

Levis, Lee's, Wrangler are all good Jeans to me, just some brands fit others better 😛

 

[NesuD]

I used to use MSI boards exclusively then I had 2 in a row burn down on me for no explainable reason and 2 more that were simply flaky as hell out of the box. All 4 boards were different models. I felt that was a very bad streak across 4 different product lines so I felt compelled to explore other brands. I have since used Epox, Biostar, Soltek, Asus, and Gigabyte boards in various different builds and have experienced only occasional minor issues with some of them while the majority have performed very well. Everyone of the other brands are still in service some of them for 3 years now with no board related issues to date. I cannot bring myself to give MSI another whirl considering the track record I have had with them. I have also thought it strange considering my experiences with MSI boards all of which had excellent reviews here at Anandtech that they continue to get glowing reviews when that has definately not been my experience or that of many other users.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Mem

It's OK if it dies in 3-4 years. Really. But 6 months to a year?

(BTW, my issue was in fact with K7T Pro2(A) boards that gradually died)

Also, DaveSimmons, much later, Tom's did tests to verify that occured.

My experience has been pretty good,MSI K7T Pro died after 3 years of use( died after I sold it to a friend), and later my Epox 8KHA+ developed 11 leaking caps after 18 months,however all my boards including the MSI,Epox have been stable right up until the replacement time.

I would buy MSI,Epox again,buying a motherboard that`s DOA or goes faulty will always happen,no brand/model is RMA proof ,even Asus can`t guarantee that,infact I know somebody that had 3 dead ASUS boards in a row,bottom line is I always keep my options open(brand wise) when it comes to buying a motherboard and always use quality parts for PSU,ram etc...regardless of the board in question.

I have used a lot of brands over the years like Abit,MSI,QDI,ECS,DFI,Epox etc... and can say all have been very stable,you`ll always get somebody that does not like a certain brand or has bad experiences but it`ll always happen,btw I also had an AMD cpu go faulty after 6 weeks but that does not stop me from buying AMD still.

FYI Abit had the worst leaking capacitor problem, that`s why they were one of the first to change capacitor brands and actually do something postive in that department,but as I`ve already stated in my previous post virtually all brands were effected by leaking caps to a point.

The issues with leaking caps I understand. This issue turned out to be with the voltage regulators (sure enough, the most recent dead one had fine caps, but cracks on one of the voltage regulation ICs).

 

[novice]

I have had good luck with all the MSI boards I have used over the past 6 or 7 years from the old MSI-6309 Via Apollo Pro 133 boards (2) to my first socket A board K7T Turbo which is still running like a champ at my sister in law's, to the 2 KT-3 Ultra 2's running overclocked XP1700 T-Bred B's downstairs to my latest MSI, a KT6V-LSR, Via KT 600 board that I just installed in my wife's system and am currently typing on it. I have also used boards by Soyo, Biostar, Chaintech and am very fond of my Shuttle AN35N Ultra 400, my only problem with it being its' refusal to quit spontaneously rebooting with the cheap spektek chip PNY ram,( which by the way runs fine in the KT-3 Ultra 2). Maybe I am just lucky, but all my boards have held up well, (well maybe except my old Soyo, it was kind of a pain), but the MSI's have always been nicely featured, easy to install and set up and I appreciate their support on the web. I even successfully used their Live 3 update and flashed the BIOS to the new KT6V-LSR in windows! So count me in as an MSI fanboy, but I am also a Shuttle fan, and a Chaintech fan, too.

 

[magomago]

Never had an MSI, but my first A7N8Xd died a week after operation. It wasn't on my side, b/c i gotta replacement An78xd and this baby is doing just fine on its own ^_^ Though i can't overclock very far, but i don't have crazy fan setups like others. in fact right nwo i'm running with just a CPU fine and i idle at 41 and peak at 55 which is just fine and dandy for me, especially when fan speed is at 2300 RPM

but would I buy MSI? Not their dynamic overlcoking boards...if all of them are...then no! But for other things, why not?

 

[Megatomic]

While I don't favor MSI motherboards, I have had one running in my wife's system for almost 4 years straight now. It's a K7T266A Pro 2RU. That board has never given us an ounce of trouble. And I've only had 2 boards fail on me:

ASUS K7V (slot A board)
Epox 8RDA+ (socket A board)

I haven't owned one of either since they went belly up on me (both were RMA'd and both replacements failed shortly thereafter). Where am I going with this? It's all about perspective. IMO, ASUS is way overpriced and unreliable, with Epox you get what you pay for. 🙂