Which Has Better or Superior Quality? (Z87 Boards)

[rp_dxn]

In your opinion, which of the 3 board manufacturers has the highest quality? Only in Z77 or Z87

Gigabyte - Ultra Durable 4 or 5
MSI - Military Class III or IV
ASUS - 5X Protection

I want to include asrock but i constantly heard about their boards having thin pcb's.

Please let me know about your opinions.

 

[Tradesman1]

ASRock, then Asus, then GB, then toss the rest in a big barrel, once you leave the top three. Of the other mobo makers, MSI may have a bit of an edge on the others out there, but it's not much, they are still living on name recognition more than quality, QC is dragging them down more and more

 

[aatje92]

Well the Asusu Sabertooth is high quality if you're going for that i would get that one.

ASRock, then Asus, then GB, then toss the rest in a big barrel, once you leave the top three. Of the other mobo makers, MSI may have a bit of an edge on the others out there, but it's not much, they are still living on name recognition more than quality, QC is dragging them down more and more

I wouldn't place Asrock in that top list, their QC has let me down many times before.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Asus, MSI and Gigabyte are the big 3 ..... I give a small advantage to Asus over the other 2 .... Asrock is the "budget" option..... high on features, a bit light on ruggedness .... many complain about the thin boards warping. Until recently, max warranty was 2 years.

Asrock was an Asus subsidiary created to compete in the OEM (read low cost) market place and then was eventually spun off. Pegatron is the current owner of Asrock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus

In January 2008, Asus began a major restructuring of its operations, splitting into three independent companies: Asus (focused on applied first-party branded computers and electronics); Pegatron (focused on OEM manufacturing of motherboards and components); and Unihan Corporation (focused on non-PC manufacturing such as cases and molding

2012 MoBo Shipments in %

Asustek 22.2
Gigabyte 18.5 - 19
ASRock 8
MSI 6
Biostar 4.5
ECS 5 4.5

 

[Tradesman1]

Strange ASRock became #3 a couple years back and is right now climbing even higher, MSI has been dropping for some time, and their fiasco with the release of of Ivy Bridge didn't help

Excerpt from Digitimes:

Now, ASRock is one of the top 3 motherboard brand for 2 years. ASRock's overall performance has gradually drawn great attention worldwide.

Taiwan-based branded motherboards: Shipments 2011-2012 (m units)
Company 2011 shipments 2012 shipments
Asustek 23.2 ----- 22.2
Gigabyte 17 ----- 18.5 - 19
ASRock 7.8 ---- 8
MSI 7 ---- 6
Biostar 5 ---- 4.5
ECS 5 ---- 4.5

This year their figures are climbing faster as Asus and GB have had more criticism on support on QC

 

[aatje92]

Strange ASRock became #3 a couple years back and is right now climbing even higher, MSI has been dropping for some time, and their fiasco with the release of of Ivy Bridge didn't help

Excerpt from Digitimes:

Now, ASRock is one of the top 3 motherboard brand for 2 years. ASRock's overall performance has gradually drawn great attention worldwide.

Taiwan-based branded motherboards: Shipments 2011-2012 (m units)
Company 2011 shipments 2012 shipments
Asustek 23.2 ----- 22.2
Gigabyte 17 ----- 18.5 - 19
ASRock 7.8 ---- 8
MSI 7 ---- 6
Biostar 5 ---- 4.5
ECS 5 ---- 4.5

This year their figures are climbing faster as Asus and GB have had more criticism on support on QC

Uhmm idk why you think that but Asus and GB have far better QC and Quality overall than Asrock. MSI has reeally upped it's quality also for HAswell, so that's a fine choice too. Really Asrock is budget and flimsy i wouldn't recommend it to someone who's looking for a quality motherboard.

 

[Tradesman1]

Is that why MSI is having the same problems right now with the overly tight DRAM slots, this happened to them before, with the P67, sad part was they knew all about it and continued to sell the mobos, when they should have been pulled and those sold should have been recalled, when people called their support the techs would tell people thaey hadn't heard of any problems, just lying, there was review after review on the Egg and elsewhere of a number of their upper end models going into endless boot/restart loops.

And as said from what I've seen, the QC and support has been dropping the last couple years for GB and Asus, and I guess I prob see about 100 new mobos a year or so between builds and upgrading/tuning/training for folks

 

[rp_dxn]

Thank you everyone for the responses. i can see conflicting opinions and thats good...it looks like we have different experiences from these boards...

For now, i wouldnt consider asrock just like the others above... i really cant see any durabilty features advertised in their website whereas msi & gigabyte have been very successful in patronizing their ultra durable and military class brands

 

[aatje92]

Thank you everyone for the responses. i can see conflicting opinions and thats good...it looks like we have different experiences from these boards...

For now, i wouldnt consider asrock just like the others above... i really cant see any durabilty features advertised in their website whereas msi & gigabyte have been very successful in patronizing their ultra durable and military class brands

Don't forget the Asus Sabertooth . 5 years warranty

 

[rp_dxn]

Thank you everyone for the responses. i can see conflicting opinions and thats good...it looks like we have different experiences from these boards...

For now, i wouldnt consider asrock just like the others above... i really cant see any durabilty features advertised in their website whereas msi & gigabyte have been very successful in patronizing their ultra durable and military class brands

Don't forget the Asus Sabertooth . 5 years warranty

Of course in general i believe Asus boards are very reliable. The only problem i have with them on z87 boards are the horrible heatsink design and color except for their ROG series. Another problem i have with them is the price premium in which i could get a cheaper and solid board that actually does the same.

For the sabertooth boards, some say its not effective and it actually cause negative effect but im not sure.. for the design, sabertooth is the real deal!

 

[Tradesman1]

no doubt, and everyone has there own particular favorite brand they are happy with, I look to ASRock first and use them on about 30 builds a year, then Asus, then GB - I won't build on MSI or BioStar or ECS, if a client is insistent, I'll suggest he contact someone else...the potential headaches and support issues aren't worth it to me and that's from my experiences, not based on anything I've read

 

[rp_dxn]

no doubt, and everyone has there own particular favorite brand they are happy with, I look to ASRock first and use them on about 30 builds a year, then Asus, then GB - I won't build on MSI or BioStar or ECS, if a client is insistent, I'll suggest he contact someone else...the potential headaches and support issues aren't worth it to me and that's from my experiences, not based on anything I've read

Things that kept me away from asrock is that it has thin PCB's...thats why theyre cheaper although they pack a lot of features. i dont know im just really afraid of buying asrock, they may be reliable and fast in terms of performance, but for the quality and durability it makes me think "meh". also for its board design, brown pcb? isnt really my taste... But i do believe they pack a lot of useful features which others dont..They overclock well and the best bang for the buck.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Things that kept me away from asrock is that it has thin PCB's...thats why theyre cheaper although they pack a lot of features. i dont know im just really afraid of buying asrock, they may be reliable and fast in terms of performance, but for the quality and durability it makes me think "meh". also for its board design, brown pcb? isnt really my taste... But i do believe they pack a lot of useful features which others dont..They overclock well and the best bang for the buck.

My sentiments exactly. Gotta also remember.

1. Manufacturer's play to their strengths and Asrock's strength is what they are known for and that is their price structure. Asrock was created to compete in the OEM market..... When Asus created asrock, they were chasing dollars from all those bargain PC manufacturers who compete on store shelves in BestBuy where customers shop price only. Once asrock spun off as a separate entity, they went after the PC builder on a tight budget and that's the demographic which is their main target.

2. Only recently has Asrock started offering a 3 year warranty ..... mostly due to pressure from sites like this where selections were poo poo'd because thru P67, with rare exceptions, the best Asrock warranty was only 2 years. they are inching up the quality .... capacitor quality has improved for example but that's the result of reviewers pointing out the differences and users complaining.

When referring to Asrock, you don't often hear "It's a great board" .... but rather "It's a great board for its price". That's not a bad thing. It's just not the segment I generally build for.

 

[Tradesman1]

All good points, as I said, everyone has their own opinion and it's a good thing, I build more than most casual enthusiast because it's part of my business, and of those I network with (builders/consultants/other IT pros) the Rock's rep is growing - what I particularly like is far less mobos come DOA, and when I run into a major problem - i.e. when 32GB sets were becoming more common, had problems with the ROCK, Asus, GB because many mobos limited the tRFC advanced timing to 255 and many of the higher freq sets wanted to run 278 - 314, ASRock was on it and updating their BIOSs the other two Big two took a couple months or more, some of the other brands still limit the tRFC and I still see problems when folks try and run big sets