MSI or ASUS??

Acer99

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Need help choosing between:
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra 4DDR-DIMM 3PCI 4PCIe SATA Raid Audio GB-LAN Socket939 ATX

and

MSI K8N NEO4-FI nForce4 Ultra 4DDR-DIMM 4PCI 3PCIe SATA Raid Audio GB-LAN Firewire Socket939 ATX

Not planning on overclocking, just need the fastest mobo for gaming. GFX card I plan on getting is the radeon x1900xtx.
 

TabrisDarkPeace

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When gaming mobo makes jack all difference.

Heck, you could run a : http://www.foxconnchannel.com/products_motherboard_2.cfm?pName=6150K8MA-8EKRS ; and put the money saved into the best CPU and Video Card you can afford, and ultimately get better gaming performance.

They all use the nForce 4 chipset, so they all perform very closely.

A Radeon 1900 XTX / GeForce 7900 GT on the above board, or the two you are looking at, when paired with the best CPU you can get will give equal (typically within +/-3%) performance in gaming, and other applications.

Saving money buy only getting a mainboard you need, and going to the next higher CPU and Video card makes more sense for a gamer.

Also once onboard video is disabled, it does not hurt performance at all, it just sits there making the system easier to resell to 'Joe Average', but you can keep the expensive video card.

This was an example only, there are 100's of boards out there, all with very close performance.

Do you need SLI or something ?
 

Acer99

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Nope, no sli or crossfire. Just need the fastest mobo thats in the same price range as the mentioned msi and asus.
 

TabrisDarkPeace

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Personally an Abit fan myself - http://www.abit.com.tw.

MSI and Asus both support 'dangerous' dynamic overclocking, incorrect PEG Link Mode defaults, etc, which leads to problems down the track every time. Sure it is 3% faster in benchmarks, but you pay for it eventually. Asus used to be good, 2-3+ years ago. MSI made CoreCell, and that was a fools idea. Dynamic Overclocking = Instability, and then people add static overclocking to the dynamic overcloking and wonder why it isn't stable. :roll:
(11+ years experience in IT hardware talking here btw).

If you are not after SLI, and just want to replace old video with new (better than going 2, what will be mid-range, cards in the long run) why are you looking at those boards ?

You're aware 3 x PCIe x16 slots is just going to run 1 x PCIe x16, or 2 x PCIe x8/x16 on the two outermost slots right ? - As in it doesn't give you 3 x PCIe x16 slots you can all use at once.

Consider saving $140 (give or take) on mainboard and investing that $140 into CPU, Video Card, and/or RAM.

Not that I am recommending, or suggesting it, and for example purposes only I'll re-use the above board. As it is one of the 'cheaper' (cost wise) ones on the market, Consider having a look at the benchmarks here:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1865

Remeber to look at the benchmarks with equal video cards for it though. :p

You'll notice a very small gap between it and most other boards performance wise. (Bear in mind other boards might be preoverclocked +3%, and 100 MHz FSB on them is really 103 MHz FSB - Which is easy enough to do on any mainboard btw). 8)
 

Acer99

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Im not going for a oc firendly board, nor sli, crossfire as mentioned. Both asus and msi are valued at around $100 here in sweden which is a pretty sweet price considering what you get.
But i'll prolly go with the asus, as most mainstream mobos perform pretty much the same and asus have always been very stable when it comes to motherboards.
 

frost_fenix

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i vote ASUS. i have an MSI and im swapping it for an ASUS. ive been an ASUS fan for a while, they make good stuff. i just couldnt find one in stock and bought an MSI now im selling the MSI and running back to the ASUS. :)
 

Datman

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I already did that swap, but it was an Intel setup. MSI to Asus and for the same reason as FrOsT_FeNiX.
It does run better with the Asus board in.
 

GlugGlugHic

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Did Asus fix the chipset fan problem on the A8N-E though? They were prone to failure. I had a replace one after 3 months with the Zalman fanless via RMA. Another couple of months the cache and SATA controller hardware failed on the board. I had to RMA the whole A8N-E back and opted for the DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D.

I realize that Asus in general is better than MSI, but not sure that particular board is all that it is cracked up to be.
 

Datman

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GlugGlugHic Wrote:
Did Asus fix the chipset fan problem on the A8N-E though? They were prone to failure.
I was talking to a guy in a computer shop near by, he said they just replace the fan chipset cooler with the Zalman when they sell them, they fail within about six months time.
Got a mate with the A8N-E, it's about six months old now, it wil be interesting to see how much longer the fan goes too.
 

frost_fenix

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i know a guy who had a fan go out on his asus board and he called ASUS who sent a replacement fan without him having to send in the whole motherboard. i thought that was pretty cool. so even if the fan does go out it shouldnt be hard to get a replacement. :wink:
 

Datman

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I wouldn't do much without the fan working, probably not recomended to run much or anything at all, there's not much cooling without the fan. I would say grab one of these northbridge coolers so you don't have to worry about it. I'm running the zm-nb47j on my computer.

ZM-NB47J or ZM-NB32J/K
http://www.zalmantech.com/
 

INeedCache

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Foxconn boards are very good, and they are worth your serious consideration. Don't let the overabundance of Asus fanboys which this forum has cause you to overlook them. I've been selling computer parts, building custom machines, and servicing all kinds for a number of years, and I have seen my share of issues with Asus boards, and their support. I'm not saying they aren't any good, because they are. I just don't believe they are the magical, mystical boards that most here think they are, especially if you're not going to overclock, which is one of their stronger points. Probably the best boards you can get come from Fujitsu-Siemens.