Who makes the most reliable mainboards?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ruel Smith
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Ruel Smith

BP said:
I just had an ASUS P4C800E-Deluxe board go bad. It seems this is not an
unusual event: http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/8069/?o=40
I have real reservations about using this board again. I'm thinking I
should go with a board that, while it may not have as many features, is
much more reliable and well built. Does anyone have any info or links to
information on motherboard reliability ratings. Most ratings I've found
address features and price only. What brands do you have confidence in?
Click to expand...

Honestly, as long as you use a top tier board maker like Gigabyte, MSI,
Abit, etc, I don't think there's much difference in the component quality.
Each brand has certain boards that are stellar and some that are
problematic. Sometimes, you'll even have great luck with problematic
boards. I own a Gigabyte GA-8IRXP board that users had lots of reboot
problems with when overclocking. It's been a great board for me, and it's
overclocked to 3.0 GHz (from 2.6 GHz).

Don't believe in those comparisons, either. Tom's hardware had a love affair
with Gigabyte for awhile, then MSI. Also, the manufacturers give hand
selected samples to them, and even fudge things in the BIOS to get them to
run better. It used to be that boards would show up a couple of MHz hotter
on the FSB, but reviewers started getting smarter about that. Then, MSI
snuck in dynamic overclocking on them. It's all a game, just like the
nVidia vs. ATi war. They all cheat...some more than others.
 
I just had an ASUS P4C800E-Deluxe board go bad. It seems this is not an
unusual event: http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/8069/?o=40
I have real reservations about using this board again. I'm thinking I should
go with a board that, while it may not have as many features, is much more
reliable and well built. Does anyone have any info or links to information
on motherboard reliability ratings. Most ratings I've found address features
and price only. What brands do you have confidence in?
 
I just had an ASUS P4C800E-Deluxe board go bad. It seems this is not an
unusual event: http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/8069/?o=40
I have real reservations about using this board again. I'm thinking I should
go with a board that, while it may not have as many features, is much more
reliable and well built. Does anyone have any info or links to information
on motherboard reliability ratings. Most ratings I've found address features
and price only. What brands do you have confidence in?
Click to expand...

ASUS.
 
I just had an ASUS P4C800E-Deluxe board go bad. It seems this is not an
unusual event: http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/8069/?o=40
I have real reservations about using this board again. I'm thinking I should
go with a board that, while it may not have as many features, is much more
reliable and well built. Does anyone have any info or links to information
on motherboard reliability ratings. Most ratings I've found address features
and price only. What brands do you have confidence in?
Click to expand...

MSI

Bob
 
BP said:
I just had an ASUS P4C800E-Deluxe board go bad. It seems this is not
an unusual event:
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/8069/?o=40
I have real reservations about using this board again. I'm thinking I
should go with a board that, while it may not have as many features,
is much more reliable and well built. Does anyone have any info or
links to information on motherboard reliability ratings. Most ratings
I've found address features and price only. What brands do you have
confidence in?
Click to expand...

I have had good luck with Asus and MSI. Just remember to RTFM when setting
them up.
 
Also have had no probs with MSI boards, in fact I now use them in any PC
builds,

PT
 
ASUS, I have old asus boards that still work even after the cpu died. I've
had good luck with them but they tend to be expensive. I went gigabyte on my
last upgrade
 
I currently have a SOYO motherboard in my home system. I built two
identical systems at the same time and they are both running error-free: no
system hangs (related to the mobo that is...software is a different issue).
Both systems are AMD based (not knocking Intel here, just giving info).
Haven't found anything I can't do yet with this system....but I'm sure
there's plenty I haven't tried (wink).

Anyway, there is one down-side I can mention about SOYO (this is a biased
because I was very impatient at the time - for various reasons, many not
related to the experience itself): I had to do some dealings with the SOYO
tech support folks and wasn't real happy about a few things. It seemed to
take an inordinate amount of time to get my problem solved (won't go into
details). I am a computer technician by trade - 12 years experience. To
make a long story short, I had to replace one of the motherboards during
initial system setups because one of the new boards was bad (it happens).
Short of my lack of patience with their tech folks, I've got plenty of
confidence in their product.

I've also used Abit boards in the past, but I'm not up to speed on their
current boards, so I won't comment. My past experiences with them has been
all good.

Intel boards are not as bad as everyone seems to think (giant industry isn't
normally liked very much) but I wouldn't build a home system for myself
using an Intel board: I don't have enough faith in their ability to perform
well as a gaming system..mostly they seem to be geared toward office-type
work.

So there you have it - my humble two-cents worth.

Here's hoping you lots of luck.

-TomClymer
 
RTFM?

: BP wrote:
: > I just had an ASUS P4C800E-Deluxe board go bad. It seems this is not
: > an unusual event:
: > http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/8069/?o=40
: > I have real reservations about using this board again. I'm thinking I
: > should go with a board that, while it may not have as many features,
: > is much more reliable and well built. Does anyone have any info or
: > links to information on motherboard reliability ratings. Most ratings
: > I've found address features and price only. What brands do you have
: > confidence in?
:
: I have had good luck with Asus and MSI. Just remember to RTFM when
setting
: them up.
:
:
 
Hey, thanks for the input. The consensus here is ASUS, MSI, with honorable
mentions for AOpen and Soyo. That will narrow the search parameters.
The guy that replaced my mainboard will only use Intel boards. He sells
systems and has "never had a problem with the Intel boards". OK.

Now the $189 question. Would YOU reinstall the P4C800E-Deluxe board that
ASUS will be RMAing back to me?

: I currently have a SOYO motherboard in my home system. I built two
: identical systems at the same time and they are both running error-free:
no
: system hangs (related to the mobo that is...software is a different
issue).
: Both systems are AMD based (not knocking Intel here, just giving info).
: Haven't found anything I can't do yet with this system....but I'm sure
: there's plenty I haven't tried (wink).
:
: Anyway, there is one down-side I can mention about SOYO (this is a biased
: because I was very impatient at the time - for various reasons, many not
: related to the experience itself): I had to do some dealings with the
SOYO
: tech support folks and wasn't real happy about a few things. It seemed to
: take an inordinate amount of time to get my problem solved (won't go into
: details). I am a computer technician by trade - 12 years experience. To
: make a long story short, I had to replace one of the motherboards during
: initial system setups because one of the new boards was bad (it happens).
: Short of my lack of patience with their tech folks, I've got plenty of
: confidence in their product.
:
: I've also used Abit boards in the past, but I'm not up to speed on their
: current boards, so I won't comment. My past experiences with them has
been
: all good.
:
: Intel boards are not as bad as everyone seems to think (giant industry
isn't
: normally liked very much) but I wouldn't build a home system for myself
: using an Intel board: I don't have enough faith in their ability to
perform
: well as a gaming system..mostly they seem to be geared toward office-type
: work.
:
: So there you have it - my humble two-cents worth.
:
: Here's hoping you lots of luck.
:
: -TomClymer
:
: : >I just had an ASUS P4C800E-Deluxe board go bad. It seems this is not an
: > unusual event: http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/8069/?o=40
: > I have real reservations about using this board again. I'm thinking I
: > should
: > go with a board that, while it may not have as many features, is much
more
: > reliable and well built. Does anyone have any info or links to
information
: > on motherboard reliability ratings. Most ratings I've found address
: > features
: > and price only. What brands do you have confidence in?
: >
: >
:
:
 
BP said:
Hey, thanks for the input. The consensus here is ASUS, MSI, with
honorable mentions for AOpen and Soyo. That will narrow the search
parameters.
The guy that replaced my mainboard will only use Intel boards. He
sells systems and has "never had a problem with the Intel boards". OK.

Now the $189 question. Would YOU reinstall the P4C800E-Deluxe board
that ASUS will be RMAing back to me?
Click to expand...
<snip>

Why not? Check the revision number and Bios to see if it is more current
than what you sent in. if it is a higher number then you have the
proverbial 50/50 chance. Otherwise, if you must spend the money get
something more current if you don't want to take the chance.

S
 
BP said:
Hey, thanks for the input. The consensus here is ASUS, MSI, with honorable
mentions for AOpen and Soyo. That will narrow the search parameters.
The guy that replaced my mainboard will only use Intel boards. He sells
systems and has "never had a problem with the Intel boards". OK.
Click to expand...

Huh? I saw quite a few thumbs up for Gigabyte...
 
ChangeGuy said:
ASUS, I have old asus boards that still work even after the cpu died. I've
had good luck with them but they tend to be expensive. I went gigabyte on my
last upgrade
Click to expand...

All my systems use gigabyte boards. I had one problem with a dodgy
northbridge fan, but you get that with a lot of northbridge fans
regardless of manufacturer (a crap feature that manufacturer's should
know better than to use). A Zalman northbridge heatsink solved that
problem nicely.


--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
Kids stuff?...what happened you get a shock whilst playing at building a
machine with an asus board?

Nvidia indeed........... now there's gaming kids stuff..........
 
I just had an ASUS P4C800E-Deluxe board go bad. It seems this is not an
unusual event: http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/8069/?o=40
I have real reservations about using this board again. I'm thinking I should
go with a board that, while it may not have as many features, is much more
reliable and well built. Does anyone have any info or links to information
on motherboard reliability ratings. Most ratings I've found address features
and price only. What brands do you have confidence in?
Click to expand...


Reading through that thread, it seemed that a lot of the people with
problems were trying to get by with power supplies less than 400watts.
I wouldn't use less than a 550 watt power supply today.

All motherboards seem to have some issues; usually from the chipset,
the bios, or a cheap component part.
 
Reading through that thread, it seemed that a lot of the people with
problems were trying to get by with power supplies less than 400watts.
I wouldn't use less than a 550 watt power supply today.

All motherboards seem to have some issues; usually from the chipset,
the bios, or a cheap component part.
Click to expand...

I'm wondering if boards, by any maker, that have many features (10 pounds of
manure in a 5 pound bag) are more prone to meltdown than a simpler, plain
vanilla board.
 
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