Intel MotherBoard and Asus

[Black Mage]

I'm having a little trouble deciding between the better motherboard brand. I'm looking at Intel motherboards which seem cheap, and the ASUS which are more expensive, and I'm not quite sure what the extra pricing comes from.

So does anyone have a preference and which motherboard is the best? Intel or Asus?

[rfruth]

The Intel boards seem more sparse than others (no PCIE slot, 2 not 4 DIMM slots etc) never used Asus myself but use a MSI and so far so good ...

[~LoKe]

Intel makes good high-end boards, but their entry level ones are..poor.

I would suggest sticking with Asus, or looking at other alternatives. The Abit IP35 series definitely holds up as a budget board.

[toupeiro]

I kinda stick by MSI boards because I've never ever had one fail on me *knock on wood*, but if I can't find the components I want for the right price, I fall back to asus. They make good boards

[jrusso2]

ASUS and MSI both are great boards. Intel boards are sturdy but not as configurable. Most enthusiasts would prefer ASUS or MSI to Intel.

But for pure regular use Intel is fine and they are usually reliable.

[mips]

Gigabyte, have not had a single failure in years. Had Asus & Foxcon die on me though.

[hardyn]

i have found MSI to have dodgy software support, at best; and after MSI abandoning software support after version 1.0 for a particular TV tuner i bought, i will never buy an MSI device again.

Moral of the story... Its all going to be a gamble, you just have to find something that has the features that you want, then hold your breath and jump in.

[tgalati4]

If you are going for an Intel Dual Core 2 processor, then it's probably a good idea to stick with an Intel chipset board and perhaps an Intel-made board. Its common for chip manufacturers to "bin" parts. Intel does it with processors. A 2.4 GHz processor is a 3 GHz processor that didn't pass stability tests. I would imagine that Intel also bins their north and southbridge chips as well.

Chipsets that don't make the grade get sold at a discount to OEM board manufacturers for low-cost PC's such as eMachines. I've seen an eMachines board fail with a toasted Intel southbridge chip after 2 years. Looks like binning to me.

I would guess that Intel keeps the best quality chipsets for their own boards. But the other posters are correct, Intel boards are not has packed or expandable, or as clockable. That said, Intel does make a variety of boards with and without on-board Intel graphics (which suck, but work well in Linux otherwise). Price is roughly double what you pay for cheap boards and perhaps 25% premium over Asus, and other premium board manufacturers.

Intel boards have a 3-year warranty. I don't know about the other manufacturers but I've seen 90 days to 1 year on the low end.

As computer timing increases, the margin for error in board design is less. This fact gives Intel an advantage, as they design a chipset and know how it works. Other manufacturers have to rely on Intel's published specs to design a board and hope it works. As problems crop up, it's the end user who ends up with the headache in getting a board to work properly.

I have a year-old Aopen multimedia board with an Intel i945 chipset that was given to me because it never worked right. Had to declock it to half (1.4 GHz) to get stable operation. Looking more closely, the heatsink on the graphics chip (North or Southbridge, I'm not sure anymore) was undersized and there was not sufficient airflow according to Intel's specs.

Memory timing for Dual Channel was also problematic with RAM at rated speeds. The board looked like it was rushed in production and the engineering was poor.

I built a new machine for a client with a Duo Core 2 with an Intel board and everything worked. I could definitely see the quality difference.

Just my 2 cents.

[rajeev1204]

I had two MSI boards failing prematurely ,It seems they cant withstand
coastal climates. I mean the place where i stay has some bad air quality (salt) and also their service here (india-bombay) is pathetic.
They took almost 5 months to give me a replacement board.!!

Never had a problem with ASUS boards.Seem to be of a higher quality.




regards

rajeev

[shafin]

If you want some control over your boards,go for ASUS.

[Black Mage]

Well I'm doing not a dual core, but a quad core intel processor, the BX80562Q6600 Kentsfield to be exact.

I've gone onto newegg and read the reviews. So far MSI is out the question, the review for those motheboards are terrible.

ASUS and Intel have mixed reviews, it seems that ASUS Bios has known issues but the motherboards work well. I'm still at the crossroad for pricing as my budget runs between $80 and $130 dollars. But I'm not sure of the quality of motherboard for either company at that price. Is there any specific models anyone would recommond?

[John.Michael.Kane]

One of these might be worth taking into consideration.

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA24085&RSKU=BA24085
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA23890
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA24443
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA23927

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127031
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127029

[daynah]

Asus. They live and breathe motherboards.

[Black Mage]

One of these might be worth taking into consideration.

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA24085&RSKU=BA24085
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA23890
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA24443
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA23927

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127031
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127029

I was just reading Gigabytes reviews and they are pretty good, one of th best things i've heard is no DOA's. Price is right too. Now if they have a good warranty plan and Linux drivers, its a done deal.

[John.Michael.Kane]

I was just reading Gigabytes reviews and they are pretty good, one of th best things i've heard is no DOA's. Price is right too. Now if they have a good warranty plan and Linux drivers, its a done deal.

http://rma.gigabyte-usa.com/DirectRMA/EndUser_Main.asp

Warranty Period by Product

# Motherboards

o All motherboards carry a 3 year limited warranty (First 2 years parts & labor, 3rd year parts only)

[mips]

I was just reading Gigabytes reviews and they are pretty good, one of th best things i've heard is no DOA's. Price is right too. Now if they have a good warranty plan and Linux drivers, its a done deal.

I spoke to a big local online retailer a while back and Gigabyte has the least returns with them. They also mentioned the warranty & the fact that they have a 2day swap out time for all Gigabyte motherboards. I've been using them for years and not one dead board so far, they get passed on and continue working.

[~LoKe]

Between $80-$130?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127031

[toupeiro]

... dude. you just had several people who run Asus and MSI tell you how good Asus and MSI are, So you don't know their quality because newegg isn't telling you that? lol, if you want to take newegg reviews over people advice here who have personally run several revisions of their hardware for decades, why are you asking anyone on these forums for advice?

knowing what I know about MSI and Asus boards, that seriously decreases the value of anything I will ever read on newegg. newegg is compUSA without a face, If you want some real hardware comparisons. Check tomshardware.com (http://www.tomshardware.com). Sorry if this is a bit curt, but I have the feeling I could spend some of my own personal time researching and recommending you a handful of good Asus, MSI, or Gigabyte solutions, and you would shoot them down based on some consumer rating on newegg. You can use whatever you want for a source of information, but its a bit rude to throw down multiple peoples vested recommendations because you read something on newegg. I'm always more than willing to help someone, but I don't like my time to be wasted. Good luck with whatever you decide to go with, and I hope it works well for you!



I've gone onto newegg and read the reviews. So far MSI is out the question, the review for those motheboards are terrible.
ASUS and Intel have mixed reviews, it seems that ASUS Bios has known issues but the motherboards work well. I'm still at the crossroad for pricing as my budget runs between $80 and $130 dollars. But I'm not sure of the quality of motherboard for either company at that price. Is there any specific models anyone would recommond?

[boast]

Well I'm doing not a dual core, but a quad core intel processor, the BX80562Q6600 Kentsfield to be exact.


not enough time to wait for the 45nm chips? :)

[mips]

not enough time to wait for the 45nm chips? :)

If we all keep on waiting for the 'new stuff' then we will never actually buy a pc ;)

[BDNiner]

I use ASUS and ABIT personally. The Dell computers we use at work all have Intel boards. I stay away from MSI and PC Chips since i have had a lot of issues with them.

[Black Mage]

not enough time to wait for the 45nm chips? :)

45nm chip is out, and is even further out my price range.

But do you think a 3.0gzh quad 45nm chip with a fsb of 1333mhz can utilize a DDR2 800 effectiently? Or should I alteast use DDR2 1066? And the motherboard supports both types of RAM.