Motherboard for new build

[Bearcat]

Hi all,

My nephew BigGuy and I were discussing motherboards for the computer he wants to build. I chose an Asus board for the PC I built last summer, but after reading about the problems JayCub encountered with his Asus board I was wondering about some other options. So if anyone has an opinion one way or the other about motherboards, please feel free to post here and let us know.

Thanks, Bear

[A Guy]

I too chose Asus, and with no problems. But many will also suggest Gigabyte as well. I chose Asus over Gigabyte. A Guy

[hal9000]

I have tended to choose mostly Asus for personal stuff as well over the years but all of them seem to have had minor bugs and niggles. My skt 775 P5K-E often resets the BIOS for no apparent reason and the 2 skt 939 boards before that both had major issues with the infamous ULI chipset. Helped a friend try to pick an Asus board (he likes Asus as well) for an AMD x6 1090T a few weeks back. Just about every review we came across spoke of some sort of minor problem. If you can get a board to work without issue, they are pretty bulletproof though.

Although some people may scoff, Asrock have always made decent low to medium end boards and they are now bringing out some great high end ones as well. Used many different Asrock's and can't remember having any failures at all, or even issues like the ones which seem to beset many Asus boards. Currently looking at the Asrock Z68 Extreme4 board myself.

Have used and owned a few Gigabyte boards as well and I have to say, they're pretty good. They do often give you more goodies for you money than Asus (like Asrock do) and have been solid and reliable as well to go with it.

As for MSI, not really used much of their stuff so can't really say much about them, but I certainly wouldn't rule them out. A friend used a couple of their cheapo boards and they've been rock solid over the years and my 6 yr old Megabook's still working perfectly, but apart from that...

I think the moral of the story is that all major motherboard manufacturers put out pretty decent offerings these days and you really won't go far wrong with any of them. Everyone will have good tales and horror stories to tell about all brands. Find some boards you like of whatever brand, and do as much research as you can. I'm in the process of looking for a Z68 mobo at the moment and am trying to do just that.

[Raymond]

Asus for me too, although I have no idea what would be the exact model that I will be looking for until my desktop needs an upgrade.

I used to be a fan of MSI motherboards. Do search for some reviews on that.

[Bearcat]

Thanks for your input guys! It helps to give us a starting point for doing some more research.

[JayCub]

I was unlucky Bear and would liked to have been told what the problem had been, i read a few complaints but i really like how solid the board is, and it's running really well at the moment, they are in the process of releasing a new board that uses quad band memory for the upcomming 2012 chip, i got a quick look at it through overclock 3D and im waiting for the full review... Asus make great boards and so do Gigabyte...

Overall i got the board sent back and repaired so i can't complain... would i use Asus again, yes but i would do more homework and look for any complaints before i bought... although you will always see them, many are down to the builder also..

[Bearcat]

Thanks for your input Jay. I think doing one's homework is the key here also, but I wanted to get some opinions from people here on the forum too. My Asus board seems to be pretty solid and I don't have complaints about it so far, but its up to BigGuy to make the final decision.

[hsakarp_kahtap]

You can choose MSI or Gigabyte also there are also nice built .

[Bearcat]

Thanks for your input Prakash. We will definitely be looking at those Motherboards as well.

[BigGuy]

Hey Uncle Bear, thank you for posting this thread! Now all I have to do is decide which one I like best.