Mainboard Poll

[Coops]

When answering please think about this as an overall experience including things such as ease of setup and use, what issues you had and how long did it take to get fixed. So which of these board makers gave you the most overall satisfaction.

[Jonny2Bad]

Have used foxconn, gigabyte and asus boards in my builds, and although have moaned about my striker overall i find them easy to set up, use and adjust, the bios are very indepth and easy to overclock. So asus for me everytime at the moment. I would to have a go on a foxconn mars though as i have read good things about them.

[Coops]

Yeah the Mars is shaping up to be quite a good board. The early samples got slammed by some of the reviews sites, but since then the BIOS team has really got it up together and it looks promising. This board is being designed and driven by a new team within foxconn whos purpose is to design and produce high end gaming / overclocking boards.

http://www.quantum-force.net/

thats them

[Jonny2Bad]

You getting any in Coops? I could be tempted in to purchasing 1.

[Coops]

You getting any in Coops? I could be tempted in to purchasing 1.

Not sure if we will be stocking actually. I'll find out.

[Jonny2Bad]

Well if its as good as its supposed to be it should be in stock really! Cater for us hardware junkies :wink:

[teknokid]

Yup, well they got the 580mhz fsb with it :)
If i was you, wait for there new board if your going extreme.. it comes with a LN2 pot for the northbridge :)

[Nox]

Would of chosen abit, but from that list it can only be intel.

Asus would of probably got it if i didnt have one that blew up psu's - made it quite tough to set up in a room smelling of smoke :( oh and atleast their bios is half decent now...

Nox

[wuyanxu]

same, i want to see Abit on there!

of not, DFI.

to me, it's like (for Intel chipsets)
Enthusiastics: Abit, DFI (and eVGA for nVidia)
Main stream: Asus, Gigabyte

[teknokid]

asus top end boards are enthusiasts are they not? a lot of top overclockers use them..

[djgandy]

A lot of world records were done on MSI Boards too ;)

[k2150]

I have an MSI P35 NEO2-FIR board which is ridiculously cheap considering what it offers (P35, ICH9R, RAID, eSATA, Firewire, 12x USB2, 5x SATA, All Solid Caps, Silent Heat Pipe cooling, etc) all for £70, and very stable too in my set-up.

If we were talking best performer in terms of overclocking I would definitely say any of the DFI boards from the £65 Blood Iron up to £200 X48's they're all monster overclockers, I just can't find the model I want in the UK at the moment but a DFI will be my next purchase for sure.

So my vote goes to MSI for now.

[matz]

alot of people have thought that MSI hasnt improved, but since the last year they have produced some nice board with brilliant overclocking and the cost of them are brilliant, Q6600 3.2ghz on stock voltages :) im thinking of upping the volts later and try 4ghz :D

[Chewie]

You'll see the majority of F@H scores are done on MSI boards too i expect.

[Jonny2Bad]

alot of people have thought that MSI hasnt improved, but since the last year they have produced some nice board with brilliant overclocking and the cost of them are brilliant, Q6600 3.2ghz on stock voltages :) im thinking of upping the volts later and try 4ghz :D
Stock volts? What is your vcore running at?

[Founders]

I like Asus, ease of use, great OC'ing and not running hot like Intel chipset..

[supertech]

I am considering buying a Gigabyte motherboard for a AMD X2 cpu, and I have read some reviews and think gigabytes quite good, but not completely sure?

[Nelly]

Asus make nice boards their only let down is if you need to RMA a motherboard - waiting time is 6 to 8 weeks - terrible. :evil:

[Chris30]

I think i would have to stick with ASUS as they have taken me learning to overclock and not died.
My old MSI board that i gave to the parents has been running for 5+ years now so not bad i guess,
on the other hand an ABIT is7 mobo i had only lasted 18mnths not even overclocked.
Havnt used any others so cant say about them.

[Craig_T]

Always been satisfied by ASUS!

Not had any problems and motherboards always seem good quality, and don't look bad either!

[Soup Dragon]

had msi was ok, then tried dfi but cpu cooler wouldn't fit with dual channel ram! last 2 have been asus and had no problems so it is asus for me.:cool:

[Trifid]

Asus here althoguh think they make far too many models which results in the lower down ones feeling purposely capped in options.

[T1Cybernetic]

ABit ;)

On the poll thought i would have to say Asus, never had a problem with asus boards...

[DoubleTop]

Asus have been the ones I've been most satisfied with over the years. I am still a fan of the Asus barebones you can get, nicely put together, lovely and quiet and a great system for general browsing and 'older' family users ;)

DT.

[XFi]

ABit ;)

On the poll thought i would have to say Asus, never had a problem with asus boards...

Same here, shame they have gone under :( so i voted for Asus as thats my current board but im thinking i should of chosen MSI...

[T1Cybernetic]

Oh that's a shocker, i didnt know ABit had any problems ;) i must have missed that memo, what happened to them?

[AntiHeroUK]

Gigabyte boards have always served me well.

[Portes]

my vote is also for gigabyte, really good & stable stuff:!:. and their rma is much much better than asus, which is unacceptably long:sad:

[Topitoff]

Loved my Abit NF7-S
Had 2 MSI S939 K8N Neo2's - IMO best AGP S939
Then 3 DFI NF4 Ultra/SLi's - Kings of OC for PCIe S939
Now 3 Gigabyte P35/1's and an Asus P45

[MilkMan]

Gigabyte gets my vote on this one.
The new range of features and motherboards are soooo much better.

[MilkMan]

Is this MOTHERBOARD POOL actually working? :confused:
I was looking at the results, but its not adding up – something is wrong, unless it’s a cheat!

ASUS - Polls shows 41, but I only count 16
MSI - Polls shows 14, but I count 26
Gigabyte – Polls shows 13, but I count 20
Foxconn - Polls shows 4, but I count 6
Intel - Polls shows 2, but I count 5
ECS - Polls shows 1, and I count 1 – this is correct
DFI - Polls shows 0, and I count 0 – this is correct
EVGA - Polls shows 1, and I count 1 – this is correct
BFG - Polls shows 0, and I count 0 – this is correct
XFX - Polls shows 0, and I count 0 – this is correct

Total voters: 76, I count 75

Something is not right and it seems like ASUS is somehow “stealing” votes!
What's up with this! :?:

[Mechanics Fan]

Just had a look at the votes and noticed that I've been placed in Gigabyte whereas I voted for MSI (as far as I know as I've never had a Gigabyte board). So yes, something looks amiss :confused:

[White hot]

I always say you find out how good a company is when you have problems. Asus customer service and RMA suck! I now use a Gigabyte X58, and it rocks! The new bios they use is much improved. I think they have overtaken Asus for performance and are already better for quality. Not had any problems but I hear they have a repair centre in the UK.

[GeordieNo1]

"I always say you find out how good a company is when you have problems."

Funny, I think the exact opposite :D

[snograt]

Hmm, poll certainly is borked. At least it counts my sole vote for eVGA correctly :mrgreen:

[Willzo101]

ABit, i got my board cheap because they went under, and its doing just great :D

But going by the forum i'd say Asus due to my uncles awesome rig running an Asus Z7S WS which is a friggen nice board

[Yorkshire_Man]

Asus for me; P5Q Pro is a fantastic motherboard, the best i've had.

[TankJon]

Had an Abit AW9D 975X in my last PC and now using an MSI P7N Diamond 780i SLi. About 6 weeks after that the 790i burst out of no where and everyone hated the 780i all of a sudden. I think its a great board though, very stable and overclocks easily.

[explicit4u]

Getting ready to get my ASUS rampage II Extreme in a month or so because i have a lot of trust in ASUS and their really well designed board's.

[sammjj]

GIGABYTE rock!

until i get an Asus :p

[explicit4u]

GIGABYTE rock!

until i get an Asus :p

that's the spirit ASUS FTW!!!!!!!

[doug7131]

i have asus mobo's
upgraded from a gigabyte which had served me well but then i got a p5q-e a cople of weeks back and have alredy got my cpu way faster than on the gigabyte!!
ASUS ROCK!!
:)

[magichater]

ASUS is my top pick

[Peeej]

WOuld have chosen ABit but they're gone now aren't they. Asus is my second choice but have had no probs with them yet.

[najkb]

asus especially the new rampage II extreme, it has so many cool extras for overclocking

[kylzer]

Asus great solid boards never ever had a problem with them.

[stubbs]

I have the asus maimus formula best board iv ever had more extras than you can shake a stick at and most have come in more than handy at times.I would have gone with msi as i used these before asus but there boards seem very same old now with very basic fetures.

[kimandsally]

DFI for me, I overclock for a hobby, the DFI is strong and reliable, I had an Asus Maximus fantastic baord but no where near the fun of a DFI.
I am currently on a X58 X3 EVGA another strong board which has Evsata the DFI hasn't otherwise I would have had a DFI.

[Nelly]

Would be interesting if you did this very same poll this year & include other manufacturers not on there as their is a few.

Since 2008 I've tried two manufacturers I've never used before & my actual preference has definitly changed.

[simonmaltby]

I have tried most makes and like Asus although I have to say for the X58 chipset the EVGA board seems excellent

[Mike Gunnz]

Would have voted for the Biostar had it been on the list as their TPower I45 was excellent and showed that you didnt have to spend mega bucks to get high end performance.

As it is I voted for EVGA as my current 790i is pretty classy, but I did buy it 2nd hand.

Next board I buy new will be an EVGA. I'm not a fan of Asus as I've experienced too many cold boot problems with the P5K and Striker II Extreme, and their RMA service sucks big time.

[GeorgeStorm]

As above, where is Biostar?
Their new motherboards are the best for LGA775.
Used both the Hp and the i45, both great boards.
My vote goes to them.

[Ammok]

I voted MSi, but the abit and asus boards I've had were pretty good. Board I deffo did not like were pcchips boards, however, I have a novatech built desktop with one in and its still going strong.

[Aegis]

Have to agree here, biostar should be on the list.

I have 2 TA790GX 128Ms for amd cracking boards great overclockers.

Always used asus before thought they were the best, but these biostars beat them by a good country mile.

My vote is for Biostar.

[I3R0K3N7FEET]

asus are great<<

[Dano]

Would have chosen Abit if it was there...

MSI I've always found easy to setup and use, their live update always seems to work well.
Abit work well once you get the settings dialled in. (I miss my KT7aRaid)
Currently have a Gigabyte board which I hate, it has continual issues with the Jmicron Raid controller on it which I've yet to find a driver revision that solves.
Was also very impressed with the budget Foxxcon board I used in my mothers pc, rock solid and reliable :)

[skunksmash]

http://www.expreview.com/img/review/asus-p5k-premium/asus_p5k_premium_19b.jpg


:)SK

[OmegaStalker]

I have a gigabyte UD5 its an epic motherboard (except its colour scheme, seriously gigabyte get some black PCBs), the packaging was ok and have some decent goodies came with it but you know no extras to make it stand out only a wicked motherboard :p...

[Brad]

I think the UD5 color scheme is the best outa all the X58 mobos. White and blue is the new black in the modding world.

[Cnr]

My motherboard is currently an Asus P5K. It was easy to setup and it is simple to use.

[robyrantor2]

im not sure witch one best so i voted for one sounded best lol

[Task]

Voted for Asus because I only really have experiance with them and MSI main boards and I felt the bios was more in depth and easy to use on the asus board. Also when using the Asus mobo I required a bios update and this was very easy using a usb memory stick.

[snakedoc]

I had an Abit board once which failed after just over a year. I cant fault the old RMA peolle they had, they swapped it very quickly and FOC. Although Asus seem to make the best quality boards. Abit was a bit thin and had a few issues with Gigabyte boards in the past. Worse boards are AS rock or ECS.

[Toxcity]

I am a bit of a Asus fan myself. And also had the best performance with them.

[madmaca]

Returned to Asus recently after a few years on the dark side with DFI - Asus seems a lot more stable :)

[sharpapotheosis]

I have a dell. I hate it. No overclocking is allowed. grrr.
It makes me want to spend £40 on a new one, but then it's IDE and no new ones are, and in the end, what I would need to buy totals way over £100 :(

[anti5580]

I've always had Asus MB but my last board was a EVGA 680i and that was brilliant. Back to Asus now :)

[GeorgeStorm]

Biostar for me
But since its not there, and im about to get a Gigabyte, I went for them. :D

[molten]

I am really fond of EVGA these days, although their Europian department still has a bit of catching up to do when it comes to service/quality that their US division offers they beat just about every other manufacturer i have experince with. Those are ASUS, Intel, ABit (RIP), MSI.

The quality of EVGA's boards have always been good, they were mostly reference designs supplied/manufactured by Nvidia with an EVGA logo stuck on but they started doing FTW versions, those were always an improvement over the original design. Their latest round of X58 boards has been a new area for EVGA, designing boards from scratch (EVGA FTW's were 90% Nvidia reference design with a 10% sprinkling of EVGA magic). The original EVGA X58 3X SLI was great and EVGA worked hard to get the BIOS right, at one point they were releasing BIOS updates weekly. They then took Shamino onboard to design a "FTW" X58 and they came up with the Classified.

The only problem i have had with EVGA lately is the delay for release in Europe compared to the US, a month at most is not ideal but acceptable but the Classified took a bit longer than that and when it did arrive it was in very limited quantities, i was lucky and got one from the first batch but i feel for those not so lucky.

ASUS make good boards but their customer service is not great, they are slow to reply to support questions, when they do answer it seems to be someone based in Asia who can sometimes have a hard time understanding what you have written and a hardtime replying in such a way i can understand (this may be a rare incident and i was just "unlucky" or it may have improved but all i can go on is what i experienced), their RMA replacements canm take ages, it took a month for them to get me a replacement for a ASUS Maximus Extreme from the time they received it.

so my vote goes to EVGA

~(sorry for going on a bit)

[CraigN]

Asus for me, even tho they try to repair a lot of RMAs and it has taken time for them to come back to me i have either had a new board or a full refund. :trophy:

[H_a_p_p_y]

Always been an Asus man, but I also have a DFI X38 which have I been pretty impressed with :)

[ascendant]

Thanks for an interesting read guy's. Iv'e always had gigabyte and rated them quite high, but i am now in the market for a new mobo, and i'm erring between asus and biostar. This is gonna be a pain in the head tryin to make my mind up :think:

[EnglishLion]

I voted ASUS, my P5E3 Deluxe is fantastic and getting all the better now that I've treated it to a Q9550. I also have an Abit F-I90HD which is good but it doesn't have auto recovery function after bad OC, so lots of opening the case and CMOS resetting etc.

I like the ASUS BIOS PWM fan control functions too. I bought a Gigabyte for a mate's build once and it seemed good too but I didn't get play with it enough to know!

My old Dell (back in 2005ish) had a foxconn motherboard (Dell specific but made by foxconn!)

[UKGouki]

ive had asrock, evga, xfx, foxcon, gigabyte and asus yet asus has been the least hassles and easiest to set up in many of the builds ive done :D

[Mr. Lime]

Only board ive ever had is an Asus :D so they get my vote :D

[Jack Pepsi]

I've had a magnitude of motherboards the worst being MSI. This is my 3rd ASUS board so, again, they get my vote - plus the fact that this P5E3 didn't come with a back I/O shield, I emailed ASUS asking if I could purchase one and they sent me one for free!

[PhoenixRising]

Always been satisfied by ASUS!

Not had any problems and motherboards always seem good quality, and don't look bad either!

Same here. Their customer service is pretty good also. I had a bad Northbridge fan. I emailed them and they sent a replacement within a few days. No messing about.

[Jack Pepsi]

Same here. Their customer service is pretty good also. I had a bad Northbridge fan. I emailed them and they sent a replacement within a few days. No messing about.

*High five!*

^^

[promedia]

My opinion is as follows,

You can't go wrong with most Asus, Gigabyte or MSI boards.
I've been very impressed with my previous 2 Ggiabyte boards.

My preference is Gigabyte, Asus, MSI in that order.
I'm not fussy weather I go for an Asus or Gigabyte.
Certain MSI models have great features that other boards often do not have - but have never been necessary for the systems I require, so I've never really used them. I'd also heard bad things about some MSI boards, in the Pentium III / 4 days, burning out.

Jim,

[chrisjb]

I had a ECS board and it died on me after 4 months. I would say asus best

[Greenlizard0]

Asus.

Though motherboards have always been an odd one for me. I've never used onboard sound. And they often have lots of features and ports I don't use.

Often there are little things that I get used to and miss from one board to the next. Wifi add ons are a really good idea, and I regret not looking harder to find a replacement board with one.

[Furion]

Asus as i've only ever owned Asus :D

[mr. Strawberry]

why did i vote XFX :S

[aaron333]

Asus, all day every day.

[Jivemaster Funk]

I've owned Asrock (bad experiance) MSI (very good, but not so good these days I hear) and most recently Asus - but my best experiance was from a Gigabyte board. Best BIOS overclocking options I've ever seen. I still miss them. :(

[system7]

I've had an Intel which had no overclock options at all. A couple of Asus boards, which were really good for bios updates and overclocking. The Asus P5N-E SLI was an amazing cheap overclocking board! An Asrock 945 board was really difficult to overclock much, I ended up having to solder pins (BSEL pinmod) on the CPU socket to do anything with it.

I still enjoy delving into Asrock's range though. My G41M-LE is a great £40 overclocker:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=G41M-LE
It has DVI output and can overclock on cheap DDR2-800 memory, which is unique at the price point.

Nova have started stocking them again.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Motherboards/Asrock/

The Asrock G31M-S is no good for overclocking at all. No VCore adjustment. :mad:

The ASRock N68C-S UCC is a good little AM3 cheapie. Can unlock cores on Nvidia chipset. :thumbs:

The crossfire Asrock 870 Extreme3 and 890GX Extreme3 look excellent, and I hope Nova offer them. :)

http://www.asrock.com/mb/index.asp

[Kenman]

I've had most. The worst was an ATI which caught fire , and next is my present Gigabyte (never again) so back to either ASUS or MSI for my next impeding build. But having trouble finding a model which has all my required features, the nearest I can get, is without an IDE socket, as I use 2 ide CD/DVD/BL combo units both IDE you can understand my problem.

[Pendragonuk]

I normally go for ASUS but Gigabyte would come a very close second. This said more motherboards do what they do well enough. You pay your money and take you chose. I have not heard any horror story's about motherboards, not in resent years.