Rate these mobo makers.... [Archive]

CAD4466HK

12-28-2006, 10:15 AM

Just trying to get a general feeling who is regarded well, etc....

I know jonny doesn't like these, as its true to say there are good and bad boards by makers, but this is for the makers in general...

anyway, here goes, on a scale of 1-10

Abit
Asus
aopen
asrock
Dfi
MSI
Gigabyte
Epox
Biostar
ECS
tyan
soyo
Supermicro

Are we suppose to rate these on a scale of 1-10:confused:
Doubt it, but here goes IMAO:{1 being the lowest}
Abit-6.5:I have a VT7 on my wifes machine and It's subpar Via chipset{PT 880} are ok:rolleyes: In general, I don't like their Soft menus and most of their new offerings don't like me;)

ASUS-8: I have several older mobos of theirs kicking around:D Newer mobos
are too picky on their ram for me and their passive cooling sucks too.

Aopen-6: They use to be the king of slot 1:p I haven't had much experience
with any of their newer mobo's.

AsRock-4: Utter shit in my eyes{any model}

DFI-1:I could write a book about why I don't like DFI mobos

MSI-8.5:I've used about 6 personaly, and I've used about 35 give or take, in client's builds. I like their BIOS options, better then most. But it does depend on what chipset you get, some are very good performance wise, others are too much bling with not enough balls.

Gigabyte-5: I've never met a Gigabyte mobo I didn't like for some reason or
nother,{I'm typing this up on one now}I give it about another 6 months to live.

Epox-5: Plain Jane no thrills mobos

Biostar/ECS/PC Chips-1:Shit mobos with shit BIOS's shit caps shit options
did I mention shit?

Soyo-5.5 Soyo Dragons use to be the shit way back when, I can't say anything about them now:o

Tyan/Supermicro/Intel-9: If you can get past the voltage and RAM issues
of these mobo's, then your golden.

Oklahoma Wolf

12-28-2006, 10:26 AM

Going by the boards I have, I'd probably give Aopen and Asrock both an 8 for general good build quality with the occasional bad cap or two (my Asrock has OST in a couple places, and the Aopen AK79G-Max had Lelon). My Epox 8RDA had bad GSC and Teapo caps all over - I'll give them a 5. Had another Epox in the days of the K6 - it was very problematic. Don't know if they've changed since.

The only real problem I ever had with the Aopen was the BIOS could never change CPU multipliers - design flaw in the board. It was and still is very stable, though I've recapped the few Lelons that were on it (the other ones are Chemicon). It was very hard to find this board in Canada - only one online retailer had it, and I had to fork out $230 in 2003 to get it.

The Epox is doing very well now too, now that its 20-something fried caps have been replaced. So far, no trouble with the Asrock. I may recap the OST's sometime in the future, but it's doing good for now. Most of the important caps are Chemicon.

I have an older Shuttle in my parts box - it too has questionable caps all over (all OST), but works ok albeit a little unstable having been used constantly for several years. It's one of those odd Socket A boards that still has an ISA slot and no AGP (onboard video).

One more motherboard maker to add - FIC. I don't know how they are lately, but I absolutely loathed my VA-503+. Nothing I tried could get that board stable, and neither the retailer (who was crooked) nor FIC would RMA it (FIC kept telling me to RMA through the retailer). Eventually I got the thing reasonably stable, and even managed to overclock with it, but reinstalling Windows got to be a regular habit.

SixIron

12-28-2006, 10:33 AM

Without assigning any numbers I'd rate Tyan & SuperMicro tops but like Jon said, they really are a different category.

Intel next, followed by Asus. Gigabyte & MSI & Foxconn would follow, then it really starts to get murky and into areas I'd probably avoid buying.

jonnyGURU

12-28-2006, 11:10 AM

Biostar/ECS/PC Chips-1:Shit mobos with shit BIOS's shit caps shit options
did I mention shit?

I agree with you on ECS/PC-Chips (same company.) But I don't agree w/ you on Biostar. Great, inexpensive, no frills board. Three out of four of my Socket A boards were Biostar.

CAD4466HK

12-28-2006, 11:29 AM

Well, let's say that I've had some really stellar bad luck with Biostar mobos:o

ianm2

12-28-2006, 12:30 PM

Isn't Chaintech out of business yet?

:D that sounds suspicioiusly like you wish they were

And doesn't Intel count for something or are we just talking AMD platform here?

I didn't want to list every one I could find, a HUGE list would put peeps off.

some great replies....

I like this one...

AsRock-4: Utter shit in my eyes{any model}

precisely what I was looking for... :)

how do you actually judge mobo quality? cap quality? or more to it?

jonnyGURU

12-28-2006, 01:03 PM

Re: Chaintech :D that sounds suspicioiusly like you wish they were

Nope. Not at all. It's factual information. They closed their US office at the end of last year and most of those folks now work for other mobo companies. The fact that they still do video cards and are now dabbling in RAM is news to me.

precisely what I was looking for... :)

how do you actually judge mobo quality? cap quality? or more to it?

Precisely why I don't like "lists." They're going to be based on individual's experience with a limited number of boards.

Take the differing opinion of Biostar that CAD and I have. And when I worked for TCWO, we used Biostar boards for our TRÜ builds and had a very low mobo RMA rate. But there's always going to be that person that had the bad experience that's going to tell you that it's the worse product on earth.

Cap quality? Dunno... My three Biostar boards had all Nippon Chemi-Con caps on them. But nobody considers Biostar "high end" by any stretch of the imagination.

I personally favor Asus. They give me a happy medium of price, performance and reliability.

Spectre

12-28-2006, 02:49 PM

Abit- Never really use them.
Asus-Good stuff for me in general
aopen-Never really use them
asrock-Makes some great oddball/niche products
Dfi- THe less said hte better.
MSI- Probably one of my favorites when you come down to price for what you get.
Gigabyte-Decent enough but I usually use an MSI at the same price point.
Epox
Biostar-GEnerally been good for me on low end builds.
ECS-NO. Just no.
tyan-I am real hit or miss on Tyan's.
soyo-DOn't use them and all my repair experience has been well bad.
Supermicro-Probably my favorite out of the group.
Shuttle-Again great niche product now. I used to love theri KT266A boards as well.

Oklahoma Wolf

12-28-2006, 02:56 PM

That reminds me, I have an ECS K7S5A too. Got it for free because it wouldn't boot at all. Got it working again, but it's full of awful caps so I won't be using it at all until a recap is done. And probably not even then - it'll be a backup board if anything.

ianm2

12-28-2006, 03:40 PM

Its a fascinating thread, I thought it may well reveal some interesting insights

Dfi- THe less said hte better.
.:lol:

hmm I used to recap hifi equipment, and that was a big pain in the ass. a Mobo recap is even more hairy:eek:

Thing is, caps ain't cheap, so with 50+ on a mobo, is it really worth it? you could buy a new mobo for the price.

I do see the solid aluminium caps now making an appearance and some hi end boards, dfi venus, and the latest asus and abit have them exclusively.

Seems dfi really polarise, some love, some REALLY hate.

The consensus on some of the nasty ones, ecs et al., is pretty unilateral. But interesting to see ECS using the nvidia 680 board.

Talking of ecs, I have a friend who spent, in USD worth, got to do a calc. in my head, as we are in pounds sterling in the uk, its just over twice as much atm., but well, $1700 on a new build, about 1 yr ago, and he got some of the shittiest, nastiest stuff you could ever nightmare of, and paid well over the odds....ecs mobo, icute case, qtec psu( that cost alone about $80!!!), he did also have a good few problems since, his ram was wrong, I recall he thought the mobo became donald ducked at one time ( same symptoms as my dfi, wouldn't boot upto windows), dunno what happened about that, must phone and see.

perhaps I should have labelled it differently, fave mobos?, or don't touch with a barge again?

Precisely why I don't like "lists." They're going to be based on individual's experience with a limited number of boards.

hmm yes its obvious really, you can get good models and bad from the same maker, and even good examples and bad ones of the same board.

and had a very low mobo RMA rate.

That's obviously again a very good way of judging a product, but unless you have some 'insider' knowledge, you do have to rely on either what takes your fancy, reviews or word of mouth.

Sadly, all these blistering reviews don't take failure or long term reliability/longevity into the equation

But there's always going to be that person that had the bad experience that's going to tell you that it's the worse product on earth.

C

just like yourself and dfi?;) could just've been extreme bad luck and not representative. Makes you wonder tho

Getting good reports about msi

Oklahoma Wolf

12-28-2006, 04:00 PM

a Mobo recap is even more hairy:eek:

It's not that bad, though I will admit to having a lot of soldering experience to go on ;)

MSI seems ok - got a P4 board from them in Dad's computer... working fine. However, I also have an old unreliable K7T Pro-2A with two bad caps on it. It's waiting for me to fix it too.

jonnyGURU

12-28-2006, 04:09 PM

just like yourself and dfi?;) could just've been extreme bad luck and not representative. Makes you wonder tho

Getting good reports about msi

Yeah. Four bad boards is just extreme bad luck. :rolleyes:

Also helps when the people you are asking are in the industry. Like resellers, etc.

I remember a time when Abit motherboards had a 25% RMA rate. But that was back in 2000. I've heard they've improved a bit. :D

Spectre

12-28-2006, 04:38 PM

Its a fascinating thread, I thought it may well reveal some interesting insights

:lol:

Everytime I open my mouth i piss off every DFI fanboy within hearing distance ;)

They just don't like hearing the truth.

ianm2

12-28-2006, 04:46 PM

You didn't pee me off, just made me smirk a tad, cos....

...I'm not really a dfi hardcore fan, I didn't actually realise opinion on them was so polarised, I only got one as of the stonking reviews, and it is a very nice board, ( I have 2, one died, the other I favoured more than my resident asus ) but the reliability issues do make me uneasy, I won't be getting another next time around. My guns are going for the nvidia 680i ( I like the idea that its not crammed full of other 'accessory' chips that all need drivers and stick their own half baked uselss utilities in them, plus you can tweak bios in windows, too, it seems a much more complete solution, so praps mobos are just beginning coming of age) when prices get less insane.

Even more stupid are the prices for the same chipset for the asus striker and abit board. Constently WELL over £200 ($400+)

Just to give an idea of how much we are ripped off in lil' ol' england, the cheapest evga 680i is around $150 ( £70+ uk pounds) more than the US price. Asus prices aren't so marked, tho'.

Tell you what actually suprises me about this whole shebang, I don't think I can find a mobo/graphix card maker that isn't based/owned in taiwan, normally, I associate things coming out of taiwan as utter junk ( I know loads of foreign designed stuff is made there/china for costs, and in some cases they can 'manufacture' to western stds, but I don't think of them at the cutting edge of R and D), yet it seems there are no places you would associate higher quality electronics design like say japan or even the usa/best european stuff) as r and d ing/making these things....strangely strange....

oicurafox2000

12-28-2006, 05:29 PM

I will only rate those mobo's that I have actually owned,not those I have built for others.

Abit-Only have had 2 boards from them. Socket A NF-7 and a 754 board. We all know about the NF-7 so I don't need to say anything about that,but the 754 board never did work. It did come full of RubyCon caps though.
Asus Had a 754 board,was kinda flaky,but came with nice features.
aopen Never owned
asrockHad a socket a board (K7V88) good solid board.
DfiHad three of their boards,all of which were horribly buggy. Coldboots,warmboots,SATA ports not working.etc. I havent messed with a DFi board for around a year,but I'm ordering the DFI RS482 INFINITY in a week so maybe the fourth time is the charm.
MSI Never owned
Gigabyte Never owned
Epox Great boards,stable,good OC options,good price. Owned a 754 and 939,and a socket a board. The socket A board died after a year. No clue as to why.
Biostar Starting with the TForce Series,BioStar started doing great things with their mobos. Not only with the components used on the boards,(Sanyo Caps)but their bios's are packed with great OC'ing options. I loved the 939,754 Tforce 6100 boards,but the recent AM2 6100 board is not good at all.
ECS Never owned
tyan Never owned
soyo This is a name I havent heard in awhile. I had a Soyo board back in the K-6 days. Had my AMD K6-300MHz chip at 450MHz with a few jumper changes.
SupermicroNever owned.

jtk

12-28-2006, 05:29 PM

I've had good luck with Aopen, Asus, and Gigabyte. I had some stupid issue with my Abit board that I can't remember now, but it was pretty much a fatal flaw. You'd think I'd remember something like that... Anyway it turned me off that company.

Bbq

12-28-2006, 10:59 PM

Abit: I'd give them an 8.5. They aren't exactly perfect, they're very good though. My AN8-32X was very fast, not too expensive, lots of bios option, but the bios was very confusing, there was a single rulycon capacitor (knock off rubycon), and uguru... yea.

Asus: 8. You pay a premium for an asus, their support sucks, and their boards always work.

DFI: 0. Not so much for the actual board, which would have scored about a 7.75, but for dfi street. Fuck you, communist_games.

Asrock: 10. I have only seen one other manufacture use the ULi chipsets, and nowhere near as efficiently as Asrock. I know of two 939 motherboards which support both agp and pci-e, but both of those use via chipsets, do not have the am2 add in board, aren't anywhere near as cheap, and just.. suck. The only issues are related to windows x64 drivers, and linux drivers. Aside from that, I highly recommend them.

MSI: 7. Their new boards are cheap and fast and reliable, but after the experience with the K8T Master (dual opteron, normal atx board), I'll pass on them.

ECS: 0. ECS stands for Extremely Crappy Systems. And they know that, too.

PC Chips (before they were bought out by ECS): 6. I had one. Better than some other boards I've owned, lacking in the OC department, but for the $10 I got paid for the board, it was awesome. Yes, I got paid to build a computer.

IWill: 9. These boards are fast, expensive, offer tons of options, and killer overclocking. The only problem is the lack of distribution.

Gigabyte: 8. The backplate on their K8 boards is enough to discourage me from buying one.

Adamantine

12-31-2006, 08:06 AM

Abit- 7
I've had a few of their boards. I RMA a KR7A-Raid and they sent me one some Rubycon caps on it (all around the cpu socket) which it didn't have before I sent it in. The last one I had was the IC7 max 3. Don't know about now, but they did me well back then.

Asus - 3 (they'd get a 8.5 if they actually had an RMA process)
I've only owned one board, A8N32-SLI. I didn't like it because it had a couple OC crippling bugs that never got fixed. I accidentally killed it by burning out a fan header and is now being RMA'ed to the store I ordered it from. Their support and RMA process sucks complete ass.

Dfi - 7
I've owned NF3, Ultra-D, AMD480x, NF590. I just bought the last two. They do have a good RMA process.

MSI - 6
Only owned one and it was before the bad caps era, no longer in use. I don't really like their board designs so I stay away from them. My friend had a neo4 platinum, it was ok.

Gigabyte - 5.5
The one board I owned had good features, but the bios sucked.

Epox - 5
One board from the bad caps era, all of the non Sanyo caps got fat, but it did last like 4-5 years though. It was ok, seemed like an Abit copycat though. Not very popular lately.

Biostar - I'd probably get a Tforce.

madmat

12-31-2006, 10:53 AM

It makes me giggle to see Asrock and ASUS rated separately when ASUS owns Asrock. What really makes me laugh is that ECS is building boards for Abit and ASUS and so many people are of the opinion that ECS can't build anything.

Back in '03 when I was doing the tech support thing we built PCs using MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS and ECS boards and the highest rate of returns was MSI followed by ASUS and Gigabyte (roughly neck in neck) and with ECS bringing up the rear. Funny thing is we'd easily see 3 MSI boards in for RMA to 1 ECS board and we sold 6 times as many ECS boards as all other three put together.

Would I own an ECS board? No, they have no enthusiast options but I'd recommend them to my simple PC user friends that only want a stable PC to do office apps and surfing the 'net.

SuperSix

12-31-2006, 05:14 PM

It makes me giggle to see Asrock and ASUS rated separately when ASUS owns Asrock. What really makes me laugh is that ECS is building boards for Abit and ASUS and so many people are of the opinion that ECS can't build anything.

While you are correct they pretty much own Asrock, the R&D teams and plants are different - which can indeed mean reduced quality. A little birdy tells me Asus has a decent-sized stake in ECS/PCChips as well.

Back in '03 when I was doing the tech support thing we built PCs using MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS and ECS boards and the highest rate of returns was MSI followed by ASUS and Gigabyte (roughly neck in neck) and with ECS bringing up the rear. Funny thing is we'd easily see 3 MSI boards in for RMA to 1 ECS board and we sold 6 times as many ECS boards as all other three put together.

My experience has been the opposite (been in computer hardware distribution for many years, wholesale and high-volume retail), but something to remember - Many people that buy the cheaper components tend to be less tech savvy - and that also drives up RMA returns, legitimate or not.

My favorite mobo manufacturer is Intel. Sinmple, rock solid, and somewhat reasonably priced. With the new D975XBX2, Intel has truly entered the OC market - but their follow thru and commitment to entusiasts remains to be seen. Intel's R&D is very thourough.

For AMD processors, Asus/MSI/Gigabyte are pretty much equivalent, with the exception that I think Asus tries much to hard to be first to market, and ships with very immature BIOSes.

Sir_ReeL

12-31-2006, 05:42 PM

It's difficult to rate a MB maker, as each iteration(as in the bridges and bios) is/are different.

That said, I rate Gigabyte the highest. And you can't knock Intel. They are usually have very mature Bioses when shipped.

I'm using a DFI Pro875 myself, although it is fine now, it was a bear to get stable.

I havn't used a late model Abit(or abit...) but the older ones were a bucket of ass. Saw many dead ones.

Wanted to like Asus, but I've never seen one without some problem or another. Too early to market without proper testing. Also lousy support.

I've always had warm and fuzzy feelings with MSI. Not the fastest, but they seem to always work.

ECS has the least tweaking options, but if you want an inexpensive, stock speed board, I would rate it *very* highly.

Those are what I have personal experience with, in no particular order. _ReeL

Bbq

12-31-2006, 09:53 PM

It makes me giggle to see Asrock and ASUS rated separately when ASUS owns Asrock. What really makes me laugh is that ECS is building boards for Abit and ASUS and so many people are of the opinion that ECS can't build anything.

Hmm, I've always wondered, I thought ECS built the pcb with a few minotr components on it for Abit, then abit's sweatshop factory puts the rest in, along with their stuff.. Asus, I thought they were oem'd by Foxconn, for some reason. Never thought it would be ECS.

ECS-branded ECS boards are reletivly stable (the one I had), but the overclocking options just lacked. I wouldn't buy one.

SuperSix

12-31-2006, 10:49 PM

Asus, I thought they were oem'd by Foxconn, for some reason. .

Ohhh no.. Asus & Foxconn are bitter rivals. Foxconn was sniffing around Gigabyte before Asus bought 49%.

It's a battle of market percentage.

I predict Foxconn wil buy MSI. Mark my words.

Foxconn does manufacture a good percentage (If not all) of Intel motherboards though.

Remember when some batches of Intel motherboards were made in Ireland? :D

Bbq

01-01-2007, 12:02 AM

Hmm, as bitter as Foxconn vs ECS?

Which brings me to a question: Does DFI make DFI, or does someone else make DFI?

SuperSix

01-01-2007, 01:44 AM

Hmm, as bitter as Foxconn vs ECS?

Which brings me to a question: Does DFI make DFI, or does someone else make DFI?

I'm not aware of a "battle" between ECS and Foxconn, I think they are on entirely two different levels. Foxconn is a HUGE contract manufacturer (Ipod, etc), and personally don't think they see ECS as a viable competitor.

I am pretty sure DFI makes DFI, although they are leaning more towprds their very profitable industrial motherboard line.
http://acp.dfi.com.tw/index_acp_us_noflash.jsp

I don't foresee them being in the enthusiast/end user/standard PC market for much longer.

ianm2

01-01-2007, 09:00 AM

That's precisely the impression I have about asus.

They have a price premium, and I suppose they are considered to be generally the top standard, yet everywhere I look I see reports that they are always first out, you just need to look to the 680 chipset, already 2 boards for intel and 1 for amd, for proof of that, and the amount of complaints about inadequate bios and testing.

And then they give piss poor support for their own failures to develop properly.

I have no idea why they have such a good reputation. There are countless user ratings saying that sort of thing, if you were looking for a new one, with the amount of bad feedback, you would never buy a single thing:eek:

Does anyone get peed with the makers websites being organised so dire, and so slow?

hmm commercial sector being profitable, the home user sector is a big of a cash cow, too. If anything, commerce can negotiate, too, whereas, joe bloggs in the street really has to pay the 'fixed' price.

Its interesting too when you get inside this thing, that you realise an asus (read any make for that) isn't necessarily an asus, its an amalgamation of many 'bits'.

madmat

01-01-2007, 10:11 AM

Commercial users don't care about price as it's a write off at the end of the year and the commercial segment buys multiple PCs per refresh as opposed to Joe Consumer who buys one or maybe two every so often (read that 6 months for extreme enthusiasts to a year or more for more money conscience users) so the mobo makers just love to see commercial accounts go through upgrade cycles. Imagine the revenue when Google replaces their servers or when Fed-EX or UPS go through and re-up their headquarters and disty centers. Now compare that to when a new chipset comes out in the enthusiast arena. They're liable to sell maybe the same to the entire enthusiast market for a chipset refresh as they sell to one commercial account for an infrastructure refresh.

jonnyGURU

01-01-2007, 10:40 AM

...but their follow thru and commitment to entusiasts remains to be seen.

Too true.. unfortunately.

I've met with Intel marketing guys, including the team "exclusively assembled" for the "gaming segment" and although they're smart guys and know their product very well, they have no idea how the enthusiast thinks.

I mean... they actually asked "why" about aesthetic characteristics of some parts as if they couldn't fathom why someone would pay more for something that would look "cooler", yet not enhance the performance of the build.

It's like their heads were stuck back in the beigh box days. :(

ianm2

01-01-2007, 10:46 AM

That beggers belief quite how naive some of the makers seem about what joe consumer wants or requires.

All they need do for research is simply ask people, or read magazine reviews/forums about what people think or for constructive advice about what/how to implement.

Its quite simple really, the people that buy things want things to do a specific thing/ a certain way, so why not simply ask them, and then do it?

I suppose that explains why a lot of things are a mixture of genius and grot, yet you do expect it in this day and age to be properly thought through.

Surely the best way to sell a shed load of things is to find out exactly what people want and give it to them? Sales and rave reviews would be guaranteed.

I mean... they actually asked "why" about aesthetic characteristics of some parts as if they couldn't fathom why someone would pay more for something that would look "cooler", yet not enhance the performance of the build.

I am afraid that's a professional engineer for you.

Function over form

( that tends to be a fairly stereo-typical german characteristic.

(one occasional english view of a stereo-typical german person is that of a perfectly technical emotionless being, rather like a spock character, its not true of course, they are just the same as anyone else) (as an aside, germans tend to view engineers as the highest form of working life, well above brain surgeons, they still aren't perfect, tho', VW, Audi, Mercedes and BMW's are still getting riddled with problems, esp now some have switched some engineering production to the far east, and trains and planes still crash, an interesting story to compare the german mindset and english one is that some british trains had problems with brakes a few years ago, a contract was put out to tender, and an english company was the cheapest, who said they could do it in around 3-4 days, the germans were asked why so dear? because it would take 3 weeks to do the job properly...enough said.)

( that came from a train driver neighbour of mine)

anyway, enough anecdotal stories, back on track......

however, all said and done, what is most important imo, is that something works, works out of the box, and works well, all other things are less significant over this primary goal.

The ideal of course is both form and function in perfect harmony.

jonnyGURU

01-01-2007, 11:04 AM

I have nothing against function over form. That's the way it should be. But if you can form that doesn't hinder function, that's fantastic!

I do have to admit I like the "blue flames" on the CPU VR's on Foxconn's... err... Intel's Desktop boards. :D

ianm2

01-01-2007, 11:16 AM

I That's the way it should be. But if you can form that doesn't hinder function, that's fantastic!

Totally agree, it has been a far east trait, tho' to go for bells whistles and flashing lights more, however, they are adapting, too, slowly. Things are all moving in the right direction, ' I THINK' ??? slowly.

Baron

01-01-2007, 03:40 PM

I have basically only used Abit boards, with my first one being the KR7A.
Then NF7-S v2 (now in sons machine), Asus A8V Deluxe, which was quickly sold and replaced by the Abit AV8 3rd Eye (I like the little Guru clock) and then the Fatal1ty AN8 Ultra for about the last year.
Since I have never had any problems with Abit boards, as they have always worked straight out of the box, then I see no reason to change my preferred maker.
Yup, they have all had a few niggles, like the placement of data cables for example, but once built, it doesn't matter any more.
I guess I am the sort of customer they want......:D

Fibbles

01-01-2007, 07:33 PM

I had a DFI board back when they were Diamond Flower International and it had serious issues. The change to Design/Designed for Innovation doesn't make me want to try again either.

All the MSI boards I've tried have had some sort of memory issue: either the tabs were broken on the slots and the RAM wouldn't lock properly or the board didn't like the RAM.

My Abit experiences have been good, even though their VIA based chipsets can be problematic. I had a very bad experience with an AX8 (VIA K8T890) frying both my 74gb Raptor and 300gb Maxtor SATA drives :mad: Switching to a KN8 Ultra fixed the issues (on RMA'd drives). My first Abit was the BH6: it started my computer obession :)

Same with ASUS. I'm running a P5W-DH Deluxe now and love it.

Even though I haven't used Biostar, I hold them in high regards. One of their boards will find its way into something eventually :)

Another maker not listed that I had a pretty good working experience with is Soltek. I've bought two of their boards (one socket 478 and one 754) in the past and they aren't bad, but their customer service is utter garbage! Their NForce 3 250 claimed to support 2 gigs of RAM (a single gig stick in each slot), but mine refused to boot with a 1 gig stick in any of the slots and the tech support response I got was my exact question relayed back to me as an answer. At first I thought they misunderstood, so I re-worded it and they responded with "1 gig OCZ stick not work in slot", which was an ultra condensed form of my question/complaint. Oh well. They don't do North America anymore, if they're still around.

ianm2

01-02-2007, 07:37 AM

I have just read the intel manual/spec data on the 975 board...why can't all things be written that way? I always thought american written manuals for anything were generally excellent. Looks like it may be an intel mobo for my next one in a few months.

How does a bad mobo kill your hd drive?:eek:

Its fascinating to hear peeps opinions on different items, thanks so far for all the good stuff.

Diamond Flower International, no wonder they changed the name....daft