Opinion on MSI motherboards?

[Nick5324]

i've noticed in the past a lot of people on here have had problems with them. I have had 2, a KT133 based board, and now a nforce 2 ultra 400 based board. I've had 0 problems with both of them. Just my .02

 

[oldfart]

Mayday, mayday, we're going down
Anyone remember when faulty MSI motheboards crashed Anandtech? They were replaced with Asus.

 

[psyconius]

I was having problems with an ECS K7S5A purchased from Fry's as an open box merchandise.. Went and got an MSI mobo(forgot which model, was an nForce chipset) and had no problems, other than the glitch that doesn't allow them to be hard reset, which is only slightly irritating and can be fixed with BIOS update I believe

 

[Gagabiji]

My MSI MOBO is just fine...

 

[Fern]

I've had at least two, never a problem. The last one I purchased is a KT3 Ultra-2. I like that mobo. It's been replaced in my gaming rig by an Abit NF7-S.

The KT3 seems more stable and less buggy, so I'm putting that into a computer at the office (upgrade).

I'd definately buy another MSI

 

[BTSpope]

my kt6v msi board is hella more stable and less buggy than my last 2 abit boards

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

i think many of the MSI kt133 gripes in here are more to do with the chipset, i still to date have issues with my Abit kt133...

the south bridge is horrible :\

 

[sandorski]

I'm on my second MSI mobo(k7n2-l NForce 2), my first was a K7 Master(AMD 761). The K7 Master was rock solid stable for 16ish months running 24/7 at 100% CPU load(SETI and UD), then it began to get flakey. It ran a couple more months with the occassional lockup, then one day it just shutdown and that was it. Fortunetly, there was a 2 year warranty for it so MSI replaced it with no hassles. During the RMA process(about a year ago) I bought my current MSI mobo and it has also been rock solid running 24/7 100% CPU load(SETI).

2 of 3 other systems in the house also use MSI mobos(1 k7n440-original NForce, 1 other k7n2-l) and are fine(though the k7n440 is plagued with heat issues). In my experience, MSI mobos are rock solid, at least for a time, probably best for those who upgrade their mobo on an annual basis and don't want to pay a Premium price. If you want 3-4 years from your mobo, get an Asus.

 

[nick1985]

^ for a few more opinions

 

[Maximilian]

My K8T Neo has been fine.

 

[Kaieye]

I wouldn't touch MSI products as much as Asus equipment. I like Abit mb's and albatrons and those are the two I use mostly. MSI sells defective stuff(knowingly - leaky capacitor problems) to justdeals.com so scr*w them. Asus mb(if you get a defective one)are coming back with bad issues so their warranty on paper is just as valuable as toilet paper( the last four mb's sent back for issues covered under warranty all came back with refurbished mb's that were messed up.

 

[Jayczar]

The company I work for is an MSI partner, so I have dealt with hundreds of
their boards. The Intel chipset boards have been the most reliable and the SiS
chipsets are by far the worst I have ever used from any manufacturer.

Although I do use an MSI K7D-MASTER in my home server but I generally stay away.

 

[Lyfer]

Good stable boards = MSI. (Just don't exect to overclock much)

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Lyfer
Good stable boards = MSI. (Just don't exect to overclock much)

(waits for someone to link to any review that noted stock overclocking of recent MSI P4 boards)

 

[JBT]

Had an MSI KT3 Ultra2 it lasted about a year then stopped working at 166fsb =( it was okay I doubt I would buy another though.

 

[SilentZero]

All I can say is my first impression isn't the greatest.

Today I recieve my first MSI board, the K8T NEO-FIS2R for the AMD64 3400+.
I opened the box and examined the board.....and the heatsink on the VIA K8T chipset was hanging off. One of the small plastic pins that holds it on came off and it was only connected by the 2nd pin. I reattached the heaksink, checked to see if there was still thermal grease on the chipset and am praying that come tomorrow when I do the build everything works properly!

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: AWhackWhiteBoy
i think many of the MSI kt133 gripes in here are more to do with the chipset, i still to date have issues with my Abit kt133...

the south bridge is horrible :\

I don't think VIA is responsible for voltage regulators going tango uniform. And if Iwill could pull a great board out of the KT133A (the KK266), MSI surely had the capacity.

 

[MichaelZ]

MSI is very reliable. I would be weary of overclocking them though. They do not like increased voltages as the capacitors used are rather cheap compared to the other good mobo makers.

 

[Bassyhead]

never had a problem with my MSI nforce board. i did replace some bad caps myself, though.

 

[jdogg707]

The only problem I have had with an MSI board is that my K8T Neo FISR2 has a bad floppy connector, but I can live without that.

 

[caz67]

I bought the 875P neo, and i had nothing but problems.

I sold it and bought the Abit IC7 Max 3

 

[psteng19]

I have used at least 7 MSI motherboards and have had one from Newegg arrive DOA.

All have been rock solid and I don't overclock.

1 x KT133
3 x KT133A
1 x KT333
2 x KT400

 

[AIWGuru]

I had a top of the line for the time MSI board although I can't remember the model name. I had some infinite loop problems at first but they were the result of the crappy VIA chipset and via's drivers resolved the issue A YEAR LATER.
Anyway, I really liked the red colour for my windowed case. One thing that I didn't like were the post reporter lights. They kind of ruined the internal case lighting. Also, one of hte back plates has four lights on it. I don't like that.
The PCI slot bracket things for USB2 and 1.1 (there were 2) are the same that they use today and they're a big problem in some of the cases that I put them in. Because of their weird shape they don't fit in some.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: psteng19
I have used at least 7 MSI motherboards and have had one from Newegg arrive DOA.

All have been rock solid and I don't overclock.

1 x KT133
3 x KT133A
1 x KT333
2 x KT400

1 DOA out of 7 boards is to many for me...

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: psteng19
I have used at least 7 MSI motherboards and have had one from Newegg arrive DOA.

All have been rock solid and I don't overclock.

1 x KT133
3 x KT133A
1 x KT333
2 x KT400

1 DOA out of 7 boards is to many for me...

But then, that could have been a little bad luck.
Some DOA's are inevitable.