Mobo's...what brand to buy

[Cheesypuff]

hey guys, I just wanted to know what is your fave brand of mobo's

I'm thinking about getting a asus or an abit mobo soon. Just wanted to see what ya'll opinon is before I make the purchase! thx in advance

[IrishSS]

Both are good choices.. with Abit getting the nod for overclocking and Asus for stability and quality, not to knock Abit in those categories though...

[Cheesypuff]

I'm not gonna be doing much of the OCing, so asus is what you reccomoend?

[Cantacuzene]

Asus is the best in my opinion. Others may overclock slightly better (and I do mean slightly) but none have as good an array of features or stability.

[theprod]

I am not that big of an OCER either, and the best price/options/perf I found was the ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe.


theprod

[speedracer120]

Asus for quality and stability.
Abit for all the extras that they think up.
MSI for when I'm short on cash, or building someone else's computer.

[bachviet]

Asus or Abit

[Grumpy]

I'm with Asus or Abit. You can go wrong with either boards. i slightly like Asus better because of its stability.

[Markel]

I've been an an Abit (KT7A-Raid) for a number of years. I had to update the bios a few times until a got a decent usb solution, but other than that I've been happy. I also agree that Asus has a better reputation for a stable product.

[ski]

Asus in every computer I've built for myself or anyone else :thumb:

DEFINITELY not ECS! The friends I have who've used them have had terrible times with instability on ECS boards.

[speedracer120]

ECS is a definite no-no.

[hapoo]

another thumbs up for asus

[Showtime]

Originally posted by speedracer120
Asus for quality and stability.
Abit for all the extras that they think up.
MSI for when I'm short on cash, or building someone else's computer.

Hey, I built my last rig with a MSI mobo and it worked great.

Some mobos worth mentioning are Intel, DFI, Albatron and Epox.

What kind of rig are you building? AMD or inhel? What kind of features are you looking for?

Intels are rock solid, expensive and not for oc'ing.
DFI makes colorful boards and has all the bells and whistles and have been getting great reviews all year.
Albatron comes in with nice price/performace.
My current board is an Epox and is stable with a lot of useful stuff (onboard sound, lan, IDE raid, USB 2). If I could stand the noise it OC's very nicely.

If I were you I'd check my budget, find what boards offer what in that price range and than read some reviews. You'll find that if your not oc'ing a lot of boards will run stable. So next you want to check for what stuff you want on the card. Some of the new onboard sound/lan/etc. on various cards are getting good reviews. That might be more important than using a mobo from a particular company.

-jel:halo:

[Cheesypuff]

I'm gonna be building an AMD rig, my current computer has an epox board in it, and it's crapping out on me, all my ps2 ports are dead for some odd reason, and my usb decides to crap out on me from time to time. Don't know what...could be windows...but oh well. It's time for a new board anyways. I've had this epox one for 3.5 years.

And I think I'm going with asus.
I'm thinking some nf2 chipset action with raid and sata action also. minimum of 4 pci slots, and 8x agp.

or do you guys think I should go for the kt600 chipset?

discuss!

[CynJon]

Definitely go with the nForce 2 chipset over the VIA. You can't go wrong with the A7N8X-E Deluxe is probably the most loaded board out there, with the Abit NF-7S being a close second. The Abit is a little cheaper, as well. Can't go wrong with either one. As long as those two boards are in your price range, I wouldn't look any farther. Make sure you get a board that will handle 400FSB so you can upgrade once the 400FSB Bartons get cheap...

[Merlin]

I have a gigabyte board and it seems to work well. I've used one from a compant called FIC and would say to avoid them.

[Devhux]

Yet another vote for ASUS (as if we need another one).

Aside from the ABit IT7-MAX board in my own system, every system in my house uses an ASUS board, and whenever friends ask for recommendations, ASUS is always my first choice.

I've worked with over 10 different ASUS boards, and all of them have proven to be extremely reliable. (My ABit's onboard LAN controller decide to croak on me, which is the only problem I've ever had with a motherboard).

[Markel]

Originally posted by CynJon
Definitely go with the nForce 2 chipset over the VIA.
Most of the recommendations I've read (at least when dealing with Athlon 64 MBs) say the opposite.

[Cantacuzene]

The Athlon 64 chipset for VIA is faster than the Nforce3. But for Athlon XP Nvidia is the way to go by far.

[mechmike0034]

PC Chips (heh):D