ASUS,MSI or ASROCK

[Hi-Fi Man]

I wouldn't get a newer MSI if you want high quality VRMs. Allot of their VRMs on many of their lower/mid-range boards are low quality and have been for a few years now.

 

[jpk]

I have an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX V1. Had it for around 2.5 years. Started to have problems with the onboard sound. Contacted ASUS support and was sent my replacement board before sending back my defective board. All very smooth and no issues whatsoever. The Sabertooth has a 5 year warranty, two more than their ROG boards last I saw. Aside from the audio issue the board had performed flawlessly and the new board is working great as well. I really like ASUS and I've owned several makes of boards over the years.

ASrock = good BIOS, good compatibility, good features.

Definitely NOT Asus, at least not for m/b. Reasons?

1. Zero support for anything but Windows - in other words, if you buy Asus you will have to marry Microsoft. Else they won't warrant any hardware or BIOS specs.
2. Buggy BIOS - at least they've fixed some now.
3. Incompetent technical support.
4. Lousy documentation, including incomplete manuals (incl. ROG), antiquated compatibility charts, useless release notes, etc.
5. Extremely bad warranty service in the US - search the web for plenty of horror stories.
6. Overpriced.

Mind you, I only refer to motherboards. I'm very happy with my Asus Xonar Essence sound card (as long as I don't need their warranty or technical service).

 

[Maximilian]

Asus/Asrock are solid.

MSI too but they soured me with some of their older boards lacking an offset voltage option. Every other manufacturer had that, some as far back as the original i7's!

What do you guys mean asus only supports windows? Ive got an asus board running linux in my server, should I be worried?

 

[Matt84]

I think it is a much of a muchness really. I've had ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock and over the last 17 years have had good ones and some shockers from all of them.

Currently I run an ASUS board and couldn't be happier. I've just upgraded my media center to a Gigabyte H81 and lets just say it was definitely built for the AU$68 price. This does not mean Gigabyte boards are rubbish, in general I have found them in recent years to be very good, on par with ASUS overall.

Pick (shortlist) some boards based upon the features you want from a range of manufacturer and then research them like crazy to find their advantages and their faults before you commit to purchase.

 

[-slash-]

ASRock, MSI, Gigabyte for me.

I have six ASRock mobos running right now. Five at work and one personal one with a 2500k at 4.6ghz. The UEFI is a little odd, but their newer boards have improved on this. I will be using the ASRock Formula for my next build, such a sexy board. I have a MSI 750i SLI still running in my HTPC, never an issue. Going on 6+ years now. Gigabyte is one I will not hesitate to try out if they offer something I want. Too many horror stories about ASUS to want to try them.

 

[JManInPhoenix]

"Best" is in the eye of the beholder.

Absolutely. My current rig has MSI. I have not used Gigabyte or Asus but would not have a problem trying them out on a future build based on their rep from people I know.

I used Intel boards for several builds in 2004-2006 with no issue. My build from last Summer is a MSI Z87 board and has been pretty solid. Probably because I am running Linux but I could not get the onboard ethernet to work (I installed an Intel ethernet card and that fixed that issue). I would still buy MSI again in the future.

 

[vshah]

i've used asus exclusively since my first build (A7A266)
followed by a P4C800 Deluxe
A P4P something
3 others i can't remember
most recently a P6T Deluxe V2

no issues on any of them, never had to RMA or do warranty service though.