ASUS vs GIGABYTE vs MSI vs ASRock Motherboards

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phoenix32x

phoenix32x

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I would very much like to get a good conversation going here with as many inputs as possible, but P L E A S E, no flaming.

Back in the day, Asus was "the" choice for top quality builds. They were very reliable, rock solid motherboards with the very best reputation. Second to none (except maybe the occasional very expensive Super Micro enterprise class boards).

Gigabyte was the second fiddle, and much like AMD vs Intel, had a hard following of what I would call fan boys. All in all, they had their problems, but were decent boards, but nowhere near what an Asus board was, but also nowhere near the price.

MSI (and Abit) was the inexpensive boards. They had nowhere near the quality components the Asus boards had, but they were also nowhere near the cost. If you were on a budget, this was the boards to get.

Asrock? Asrock who?


I have not built a new machine in a while (ya, ya, so I been busy). But my understanding is quite clear these things I said above are no longer true (from reading what feels like a zillion reviews).

I now see tons of customer reviews saying Asus aint what it used to be (except price), many problems, lots of DOA RMA, poor BIOS in early versions, poor customer support (hard to reach), etc etc etc.... This is not the Asus I remember.

I hear good and bad things about Gigabyte, pretty much the way it used to be (fan boys arguing), but I hae no idea the truth here on this one. Have they changed for good or bad or what? Beats me...

I hear decent things about MSI, but there is very little of it at all. Makes me wonder.

The Asrock. I hear they are just a rebadged Asus board. Pretty much the same thing you will get with an Asus board, except maybe a little higher DOA RMA, and way worse tech support.

I want to build a solid new machine, but have no idea what direction to go at all anymore. I read online reviews and there is very little mention to quality anymore (like the authors are afraid of making some company mad or whatever).

If you go to newegg and read customer reviews, all you will get is more confused. You will hear great things and terrible things, about pretty much every serious motherboard there. In fact, it almost looks like nobody is making top quality stuff you can for sure bank on anymore, and it is a crap shoot.


I trust the tech savy community (like the people here on this forum for the most part), and I am very much hoping many of you will help me (and others) out on this confusing area.

What is the truth now days? Who is good and who isn't?

And again, please, no fighting, because I am sure there will be differing opinions. But, if enough people reply, it will give a good feel for what the truth is for me and anyone else reading this thread.

THANK YOU in advance for your replies...
 
Solution
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i'll list some bad things first. i hope others point out good bits of each brand.
asus has problems lately. boards turning up warped, nitpicking with ram, double reboot/ reboot at bios, higher power consumption etc.
asrock used to be asus' subsidiary. they split off and are selling motherboards. they usually aim at budget segment. they also have warping issues.
i just read an article about some gigabyte x79 motherboards exploding components. gigabyte offered a bios fix that disables overclocking, lol.
msi has always been the one on the cheap. cuts corners and stuff.
biostar is also cheapo mobo brand, a bit better than ecs, but in the same rank nonetheless.
asrock, msi both suffer from the cheapass stigma. they're so cheap that people...
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I've been researching for a new build and the one brand that seems to get the best remarks is ASUS. Gigabyte and MSI appear to be hit-or-miss, with some people that love 'em and others that hate 'em.
 
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ASROCK has come a long way and gaining a momentum for quality reputation for their motherboards. Like you said Gigabyte is a poison-picked and ASUS is tops. I speak from experience and from the wire, have used all 3 brands over the past 5 years or so and run into very few issues (had to replace Gigabyte motherboard).

If overclocking is your thing, ASUS is my favorite, I personally like their interface, Gigabyte isn't bad either and i never tried ASRock.

All in all, i would go ASUS if you can spare the extra difference in cash.
 
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i'll list some bad things first. i hope others point out good bits of each brand.
asus has problems lately. boards turning up warped, nitpicking with ram, double reboot/ reboot at bios, higher power consumption etc.
asrock used to be asus' subsidiary. they split off and are selling motherboards. they usually aim at budget segment. they also have warping issues.
i just read an article about some gigabyte x79 motherboards exploding components. gigabyte offered a bios fix that disables overclocking, lol.
msi has always been the one on the cheap. cuts corners and stuff.
biostar is also cheapo mobo brand, a bit better than ecs, but in the same rank nonetheless.
asrock, msi both suffer from the cheapass stigma. they're so cheap that people sometimes turn away....
okau, some good stuff now.
afaik, asus boards usually use less vcore to oc intel cpus. they also use better quality components. they make the cpu use its clockspeed more aggressively, as if the cpu is running faster at stock. asus' board was used for amd fx 8150's world record breaking overclock, multiple times.
asrock afaik, offers the cheapest motherboard on the market with pcie 3 capability - asrock extreme3 gen3. some say their mobos are good overclockers (but might use more vcore to reach the same oc). their xfast usb deserves a mention.
gigabyte mobos are usually stable, overclocks cpu well, offers good cfx/sli cheaper than asus. more features at prices lower than asus.
recently, msi, biostar have been coming up with good boards according to the reviewers, they also price theirs aggressively. they're highly competitve in the entry level market.
even after all these are said... people will stand by the motherboards they've had success with. the preferences are still individual.
 
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big difference in the control Intel has over Foxconn in desiging/manufacturing the Intel-branded boards compared to the Foxconn-branded boards, Also, I am pretty sure Intel does not allow Foxconn to mimic the intel boards' structure to the Foxconn brand...
 
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Have had Gigabyte, Asus and now Asrock. Most impressed with my new Asrock (z68 Fatal1ty Professional), but that may be because it is new. And it was remarkably fast and easy to get up and running. Have a 4 yr. old Asus P5WDH Deluxe that is still rolling right along rock solid stable. If you need someone to hold your hand, no one has "good" tech support. Use forums in conjunction with your brain and you can troubleshoot anything. I found those Asus mobo forums that are sorted by specific mobo models to be invaluable when I was setting up my Asus board, and anytime I had a question.

Unless you intend to buy one of the new Gigabyte boards that has an acknowledged SMOKING problem...lol...you are fine with almost any of the brands.

Just read the forums here. 95% of all problems with all brands of motherboards are directly related to the USER.
 
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After reading the comments thus far, it looks like things have not really changed much at all then (with ASRock now filling in where ABit used to be), and most (but not all) problems being user (or software) oriented rather than bad hardware. Did I read that all correct?

Translation:

Asus still leads the pack in quality

Gigabyte is, well, Gigabyte (prince playing the king)

ASRock is good when it's good and terrible when it's not (like ABit used to be)

And MSI is the dark hose coming in the rear who even with it's much lower prices can surprise you once in a while.

That about how it stacks up? If not, please speak up...


As a side note, not that anyone asked, I am/was a seasoned system builder. I have just been out of the loop a few years for personal reasons. I did word the thread in such a way on purpose so as to hopefully help others looking around right now also, not just myself.

The MB I am looking at for my "currently in planning stages" build for my personal use is this board most likely

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131790

Please feel free to critic this board if I have made a poor choice...


 
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the usual:
search tom's or google its reviews...
you can only use the 'gen 3' stuff with an ivy bridge cpu. sandy bridge will run at pcie 2 speed. for ivb a z7x or h7x board would be better.
check it's qvl list for compatible ram and stuff...
it has no ps2 ports...
otherwise looks okay.
 
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I have heard alot of problems coming form memory support with ASUS. But alot of people swear by their boards.

Gigabyte I have never had any problems with my board and have had it for 2 years plus i bought when it was already 2 years old. I know alot a people with gigabyte boards and they never have had problems.

Asrock really dont know much about but I am considering a Asrock board for my new build.

I think EVGA should be tossed into the mix as well. Never had one personally but heard nothing but good about them.


MSI hit and miss defiantly not impressed by their reviews.


Biostar pretty much the same as MSI
 
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That is exactly the board i would choose if i was building right now and had the money... if money was not an issue, you might want to look into the deluxe version...
 
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Thank you all for the inputs, it did help me settle things down in my mind in what i was going to buy. I hope it will help others as well.

I picked a "best answer", but they were all helpful. The forum just lets you pick one, so.... But honestly, they were ALL helpful. THANK YOU!
 
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I can add some recent economy-minded build experiences:

Built a Q6700 quad-based system a little while ago (still a great little CPU) and used a Gigabyte board (EP43-UD3L) mainly for price / features.
I was quite impressed with the quality, and features of the board (durability, dual bios, OC tuning and HW monitoring tools). System has performed flawlessly for 2.5 years now.

I am currently building an i7-940 based system, and just had to RMA the MSI x58A-GD45 board back to Tiger. I decided to get the EVGA (131-GT-E767-TR X58) instead of getting a replacement MSI board.

I was not impressed with the MSI board, not only because it arrived with 1 dead memory channel, but the BIOS felt clunky, getting 6GB Sata setup was a pain, and there was no monitoring or tuning software provided.

I have yet to see whether the EVGA will be better. Would have gone with Gigabyte again without second thought, but could not find required specs available currently (Triple channel 1600 Mhz Memory, 6Gb Sata, 1366 socket). Will report later on the EVGA...
 
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