Motherboard Rankings list

[cockeyed]

Top 3 ranked motherboard companies: Abit, Asus, Epox. See the complete list here: COMPLETE LIST LINK

 

[Barrei]

Your selections are bogus!!

 

[bozo1]

Of course that's only one persons opinion. (the ASE guy)

 

[Fisher999]

:disgust: Who ARE these people who posted to ASE Lab's motherboard poll??? SOME of them must be taking some SERIOUSLY STRONG
DRUGS!!!!! :frown:

 

[cockeyed]

<< Your selections are bogus!! >>




These were not my selections! The top 3 were based on an overall score by ASE Labs.

 

[ShinSa]

<< Of course that's only one persons opinion. (the ASE guy) >>




Actually there was a simmilar trend on the Anandtechs KT266A roundup.

 

[AA0]

That is something I wrote. The results surprised me a little, because I ranked each topic separately with absolutely no biased, didn't expect abit or epox to be that high, thought some others would be a little higher. This isn't my opinion who is on top, its just the way the ranking ended up, I could have altered them to suit my liking, but that wouldn't be fair, would it. I almost decided to weight some factors more then others, but decided not to.

I've been dealing with motherboards for a long time, since the p1 days, and know quite a bit about the companies. Most people jump from brand to brand based on different models, but to tell you the truth, most companies make similar boards from model to model. The exceptions are FIC, Soyo mainly, they seem to jump from low to high end a lot.

I've got a surprisingly high amount of positive comments from vendors like epox, and chaintech, even though they are ranked low. They want me to change my opinion, but I don't think I will right now. I did use the anand roundups as only a small bit of the data included in the article too, must be a dozen other sites I visit in there too.

Anyone that says my views are wrong are fine to do so, I know many people having hissy fits over their favourite company not "scoring" well, but overall rank really isn't the best factor. There are separate scores for each company, in 8 categories, and if you think my judging in a category is off, then tell me. Everyone has a different need for a board, and maybe someone likes the stability more then features, or some just want value. I ranked everything evenly, because I don't think it is fair for me to decide what you think is important.

 

[Odoacer]

Uh-uh-uh. That list is DEFINITELY bogus. I'm sorry, but I don't think it gives a very fair representation of most of the companies out there. The ranking system isn't the only thing that bothers me, the scores that some of those brands have is just plain wrong. Sorry for being so harsh but i had to say that.

 

[CraigRT]

<< So next time you are confused about which board to get, and why, you have an unbiased opinion to help you. Asking in forums will only yield a bunch of zealots recommending one brand constantly for no reason >>



LMAO... last time I checked.. I only recommend things based on a reason, or maybe even 2 :Q ... whoever wrote that SUCKS.... the list sucks, and the person is a freaking knob. :disgust:

 

[RalfHutter]

Does anyone have any constructive criticism of this review? Comments like "it sucks", "it's bogus" don't make it clear exactly what's wrong with this guy's results or methodology. Are people pissed because their favorite company isn't rated higher? I'm no MoBo expert so give me some input as to exactly what is wrong with this guy's review.

 

[cockeyed]

RalfHutter: I think you hit the nail right on the head. The boards I've owned include: Abit, Asus, Epox, Soyo and Tyan, my current board being a (P4-i845-DDR) Epox 4BDA, which is solid as a rock. Based on my experiences with these, I would generally agree with the report, at least for the boards I've owned. The one area that could cause some distortion is "performance." The ranking has a wide spread from 1 - 9 which would make it seem like a big difference. The problem with this as I see it, is that the performace difference over this spread might only be several percentage points, which in reality, only a benchmark program would show. Maybe a note in the report should point this out as is often the case in motherboard reviews on tech sites.

 

[CoDerEd]

Those all can not be number one at the same time.
If all of those were scored the same, than there is no point to make the pool/review.

Try it, if you like it than keep it, if it sucks it's easy RMA or Ebay.
Come on people, grow up, you don't want to be cusing among
us just because a review. Do you...?

peace

 

[RobsTV]

I would say they are really close on the rankings.
Nice to see them put ECS down at the bottom where they belong.
Looking over all the individual boards remarks, and as I said, they seem to be on the money, or close enough to it.
The results posted are also fairly close to waht all the other web sites state in reviews of boards.
Sure some may not like the results, but don't kill the messenger over the message.

I like how they sum it up:
"Asking in forums will only yield a bunch of zealots recommending one brand constantly for no reason, and they don't even take into consideration your needs. Decide for yourself, you'll be happier that way."

 

[conlan]

<< Asking in forums will only yield a bunch of zealots recommending one brand constantly for no reason, and they don't even take into consideration your needs. Decide for yourself, you'll be happier that way. >>


Heh, i liked that too, it would apply for the Video section of any Forum as well

 

[Compellor]

That list appears to be just a "motherboard popularity" contest, as ABIT and ASUS sell a lot more boards than the other vendors. Take look at the number of posts on the amdmb.com forums and you'll see what I mean. Also, from this list regarding Shuttle motherboards:



<< Overclocking:
This is something that shuttle just doesn't do well. They are not the worst, but they often lack good FSB controls, and voltage modifications. In addition to that, their FSB just does not raise that high. They have never, to my knowledge, done anything original further this area of their boards. But at least they still give for some extra performance. >>



This is a completely bogus statement since the Shuttle AK35GTR is the only KT266A mobo that I know of that offers a core voltage up to 2.3v without doing any mods to the mobo.



<< Performance:
Shuttle boards are rarely performers, usually they fall into the middle of bunch. Their boards often follow the reference designs. The constantly poor performance these boards obtain shows little for the thought and design that go into their products. >>



Again, a completely false statement. Has this person even used a AK35GTR? The many reviews I've seen have shown this mobo to be one of the fastest KT266A motherbords available. Anand even awarded it the "Bronze Award."

I'll agree that ABIT and ASUS are top of the line, as I've used them both and had great sucess with them. Overall it's a good article, but definitely has some serious flaws in it.

 

[AA0]

for the performance, yes, it was very hard to make this judgement. I took basically every review I could get from super 7 to now, and looked how each of theirs performed in comparision to others, so even though supermicro might suck in performance compared to an asus board, they aren't that bad. You have to decide for yourself if its something you want to have. Consistancy was also part of the mark, many companies don't seem to be able to keep making good boards.


As for the shuttle board. Shuttle is changing their boards lately. This review is not about the last 3 or 4 models, but the last 5 or more years.
Take a look at the AK35GTR , it does not overclock well, even though it has massive voltage adjustments. Just because the options are there, doesn't mean the board can overclock. Thats why even though some companies like chaintech put o/c options on their boards, I gave them awful marks, they just don't get the results.

as for performance for shuttle boards, most of the time they don't perform well, and the AK35GTR isn't an exception. Its a decent board, but not the best performer. I highly disagree with anand's decision to give it a bronze, just look at the numbers, they don't add up to give it that award. There are at least 2 or 3 other boards in that round up that o/c better, perform better, have the same onboard stuff, or better, some are priced similarily too. It just isn't justified.

For all those people that say it sucked, I really don't care about your opinion unless you tell me why it does. When chaintech emailed, at least they didn't say it sucked, but they tried to convince me otherwise, and I did change some of their scores when I found out what happened to their website the day I tried to test it.

 

[Prfstrkr]

I don't really think this is an OBJECTIVE ranking list... according to my memory about a random article from PCWORLD, the list should roughly look like this:

1st Tier ? Asus.MSI
2nd Tier ? Abit,Epox,Aopen,Tyan
3rd Tier - Gigabyte,Intel
4th Tier - Soltek,Iwill,VIA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
others ? FIC, Shuttle, Soyo, DFI, Acorp, Supermicro, Chaintech, ECS, NMC,BIOSTAR,Legends,etc......

This ranking,according to that article, was voted by about 3,8000 ppls based on reputation,return rate, performance,stability,productivity,etc... It's been there for a while

 

[Compellor]

<< There are at least 2 or 3 other boards in that round up that o/c better, perform better, have the same onboard stuff, or better, some are priced similarily too. It just isn't justified. >>



That's too bad you see it that way, as the Shuttle AK35GTR has gotten rave reviews on practically every other hardware web site that has reviewed it. It's even beaten the ABIT KR7A on many benchamarks:

ABIT KR7A-RAID vs. Shuttle AK35GTR

This is just one article, but the reviews for this mobo have been very positive. Your entitled to your opinion, but I still think you're wrong on this one.

 

[AA0]

you still have to remember the original Kt266 boards, there were 2 versions. the first released was incredibly unstable. I have to judge all the boards, not just the one you like Most of shuttle's boards are that good, cheap and reliable usually, but still hard to compete with a board priced with the likes of abit or asus. It is a good board, but since VIA boards don't have to be changed much with chipset revisions, most boards are really good.


MSI number 2? I don't think so, people may buy them, but that is just a poll, not a analysis. 99% of the people that vote, know very little about motherboards really, and just chose a brand they like. That isn't a really fair, objective comparision at all.

MSI doesn't have overclocking, so they score low, same with performance. They are a good all around board, but not the best of the best. Also, their history of boards failing on them hurts their score. As I already said, there are rankings on individual categories, if you disagree with the rankings, tell me why. You might love the features of MSI boards, and for you, it could be weighted 4 or 5 times higher then something like overclocking.

 

[Denali1]

Personally, my experience with most of these manufacturers extends back to the days of the 80286. I generally agreed with his list. I was disappointed to see that his history on some manufacturers, such as DFI and Soyo, wasn't extensive.

I was particularly sad to see no mention of Soyo buying out M Technology, gutting the company, and leaving its users in the dirt. I think the ethics of a company are as important as their products. But then, I digress.

Either way, I find it to be a pretty decent article.

Just my $0.04 ($0.02, adjusted for inflation),
D

 

[AA0]

Some brands I know much better then others, and soyo isn't one of my strong suits. I've known about them for a long time, but never use their boards much, they just don't stand out.

DFI I know quite a bit about, what more would you want included? I was kinda tired at that point in writing.

 

[mothman]

AAO

I think you did a great job.
I find no fault in your approach and conclusions.
You put a lot of work into this and I appreciate it.

I've been working with computers for a long time.
Built my first computer from a kit 26 years ago and haven't stopped.

I have read countless reviews on motherboards (& computer hardware
in general) for years, in print and on the web (since 1994) and have
to say your results agree with what I've read and my own personal
experience.

Keep up the good work

Thanks

 

[AA0]

thanks, it was posted on slashdot, so I've been busy all day

 

[Useless2]

I have to agree with the review too. I paid more attention to the comments which were pretty accurate rather than the scores which are somewhat subjective.

 

[RobsTV]

Everything is subjective. You just have to look at the points that "matter to you", and decide from there.
For example, if you do not overclock, then performance of a stock board would be more important
than a board that has lower performance, but is a great overclocker. Overclockability would be a useless
feature for someone that doesn't overclock. Stock performance would be a useless feature for those users
that do overclock. Many reviews put the Epox stock boards at a lower performance than many other boards,
but when it comes to overclocking, it usually surpasses all other boards in max top end stable performance.