The Top 5 motherboard makers

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: R3MF

Originally posted by: Cerb

Originally posted by: Macro2
RE:"Shuttle (ok, i'm biased)"

I heard they aren't making motherboards anymore.

They haven't technically 'made them' for quite some time, if they ever did make them. Their newer ones are ECS, as easily evidenced by AMP connectors. Many companies use ECS/PC-Chips, but the QC appears to be very different between them.

have i got this right; ECS make the boards for Shuttle XPC's?

I'd think so. They definitely make the rest of them. AFAIK, they also make Abit boards. It shouldn't make much of a difference. Shuttle designs, Shuttle defines the manufacturing standards to be met, and Shuttle is responisble for quality control.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: AndreLi
could I get the top three chip set makers to help me decide on a good mobo.

SiS, nVidia, Intel, and now ATi.

The jury is still out on ULi's new one.

With VIA's recent SATA-II problem, I'd once again count them out.

With SiS, it will be rock solid, perform well, and have excellent drivers. That is, if you can find a board that suits your needs with a SiS chipset. It's much easier to do with Intel than AMD. SiS-based AMD boards tend be all low-end. There are few midrange Athlon boards sporting SiS chipsets, and no enthusiast boards, that I've seen.

nVidia is good all-around, and easy to get. The 4 SATA ports on the NF4 are quite a nice move, too, IMO. 2 SATA ports don't allow you to replace PATA--4 do. Their USB isn't quite as good as SiS or Intel, though it may have gotten better in the NF4 (I'll be doing my first NF4 build in a week or so, so haven't been able to see).

ATi's seem to do just fine.

 

[BTA]

SiS chipsets have been really solid since their 730 models. They were horrible back in the day, but then again anything slightly "different" on a windows 95/98 system back then and you were looking at problems. (mostly driver related).

I'm actually quite interested in ULi's new chipset that is coming out. Looks quite promising, especially if the motherboard manufactuers do it right.

 

[Farmer]

1.) Intel
2.) AMD
3.) ASUS

That is, of course, when Intel and AMD still made motherboards (I remember the last Intel board I owned was their CC820 board, stable, but extremely slow). Other than that, I have no idea. These guys have always been stable and simple to set up for me. Purchased and MSI this time around and was terrible. Can't say much about anything else.

I hope Soltek is on people's lists.

 

[tiap]

1 Tyan
2 Tyan
3 Supermicro
4 Supermicro
5 Asus

 

[cronic]

ASUS
DFI
ABIT

 

[n7]

DFI
Epox
MSI
Abit
Asus (though they seem to be getting worse & worse)

 

[11427]

Originally posted by: Macro2
RE:"Shuttle (ok, i'm biased)"

have i got this right; ECS make the boards for Shuttle XPC's?

I think many people would be suprised to find out who manufactured their mobo.
It's amusing to see some of thes brand A sucks, brand B is the best ever and both are manufactured by the same company. Foxconn, ECS, and DFI manufacture many mobo's with different "brand names"

 

[ChicagoPCGuy]

Originally posted by: 11427

Originally posted by: Macro2
RE:"Shuttle (ok, i'm biased)"

have i got this right; ECS make the boards for Shuttle XPC's?

I think many people would be suprised to find out who manufactured their mobo.
It's amusing to see some of thes brand A sucks, brand B is the best ever and both are manufactured by the same company. Foxconn, ECS, and DFI manufacture many mobo's with different "brand names"

YES! First, no one manufacturer is "better" than another per se. You have to look at each board on it's own merits. ASUS has put out some REALLY REALLY crappy boards lately, and EPoX is now putting out one of the best nForce4 Ultra boards you can get. If I had no choice in the matter of chipset or CPU type, then I would say Supermicro and/or Tyan have the best *track record* but they have both had trouble as well in the past. My current choice for an nForce4 Ultra board is the EPoX 9NPA+Ultra, but let's see what ATI and Sapphire are bringing us in a few days....the tables might very well turn. My choice for a Socket 754 nForce3 250Gb board would be the legendary Soltek K8AN2E-GR. I never saw a Socket 939 nForce3 Ultra board that I considered good enough to install and be happy with. Watch also for Tier1 or Tier2 based ULi M1695 boards -- things are going to get interesting!

 

[Andres3605]

*Asus
*MSI
*Abit
*Epox

 

[bgc99]

Abit KT7 RAID - had this with a thunderbird 800 but I sold it to a friend, eventually one of the caps blew up on it (it came from the era of bad caps)

Abit replaced my KT7A that had bad caps about a year and a half ago. It was well out of warranty at the time. They didn't charge me anything, although I did choose advance replacement so I had to put down a deposit that was later refunded when I returned the defective board.

I recently received a notice of a class action lawsuit settlement proposal, apparently they were sued over the bad caps. I don't know if that was in progress when I got mine replaced, but I was happy with the customer service what ever the reason.

BGC

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: 11427

Originally posted by: Macro2
RE:"Shuttle (ok, i'm biased)"

have i got this right; ECS make the boards for Shuttle XPC's?

I think many people would be suprised to find out who manufactured their mobo.
It's amusing to see some of thes brand A sucks, brand B is the best ever and both are manufactured by the same company. Foxconn, ECS, and DFI manufacture many mobo's with different "brand names"

Yes, and that's why I make mention of design and QC. The little things do make the brands different, even if they come out of the same factory.

A simple parts and design example would be the ECS K7S5A.

Some (1/10 or so from my experience) came with bad batteries. Replace battery. KTS batteries are not uncommon, but DOA batteries are.

Some couldn't run at 133MHz FSB. Super-glue NB HS.
That's right--they were so cheap they didn't even go for pushpins, but very thick tape! Super-gluing the corners cooled it better.

But any board you get with AMP connectors is made by the same people. That does not mean, however, that the same clock generators, capacitors, ICs, etc., were used, or that the same people gave the board a QC pass. You're paying for good design, good parts, and good QC.

 

[Stangs55]

1. DFI
2. Asus
3. Abit
4. Gigabyte
5. MSI