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Mass Motherboard Review
Niscenus writes "The folks at AnandTech are buzzing about this article originally posted here at CS. It's an extensive comparison of motherboard manufacturers, which is great for people who want to build their own system."
All the biggies look to be here. Good timing for me since I'm planning on
building a system in another month or so.
Quick Reference
Conclusion
Top Ten.
1st - Abit,Asus
3rd - Epox
4th - Iwill
5th - Gigabyte
6th - Tyan
7th - VIA
8th - MSI
9th - FIC, Shuttle
11th to 20th (in order) Soyo, Aopen, Soltek, DFI, Acorp, Intel, Supermicro, Chaintech, ECS, NMC.
There you have it, the top motherboard manufacturers there are, all summed up. Personally, I prefer Asus boards, I have bought quite a few, and used all myself. I don't consider price, as motherboards are just too important. To be honest, even though DFI might be rated low, they have a high stability rating, and since its hard to tell how well they perform by human eye, if you own one, you'll be very happy. There seems to be a growing trend for cheap motherboards out there, and I don't like it one bit.
You might hear that AMD is unstable from a lot of intel zealots, but the real problem is people are buying extremely cheap motherboards, there are major problems and issues popping up on the forums from this. Just look at the recent boards, ECS's SiS board must have set a record for number of problems, Soyo, MSI, and Shuttle sold a lot of boards, and they really are causing a lot of problems. From what I've seen on forums, there are few complaints about Asus, Epox, Abit or even Iwill boards (with the exception of the initial Epox shipping error).
Remember, just because your chipset is good, doesn't mean your motherboard will be. The boards RAM timings need to be perfect, and cheap boards making 4 DIMMs available is just major problems. So do yourself, and everyone else a favor, don't be a cheap ass, pay a little more and get the quality boards. Even though I know most of you will say "I bought 10 Shuttles or ECS boards and never had a problem" It still doesn't mean the boards are good, and it doesn't mean you won't regret it in the future. For people that say VIA chipsets are unstable, or anything to that matter, these are the people you should never, ever take advice from. Why? Simple, they buy the cheapest boards possible, and while VIA chipsets aren't perfect, they are 100% stable, and its the motherboards which aren't stable.
If a manufacturer is not on this list, then avoid them. They obviously don't like to send out boards for review, and there is most likely a reason for it. I've excluded a lot of names that show up occasionally, and review very poor the few times they are done.
So next time you are confused about which board to get, and why, you have an unbiased opinion to help you. Asking in forums will only yield a bunch of zealots recommending one brand constantly for no reason, and they don't even take into consideration your needs. Decide for yourself, you'll be happier that way.
Previous page - Acorp
"It's technical in a psychometric kind a way" -- C. Parish
As a Retail level tech i spend most of my days answering questions, Some good, and as you would expect some i just roll my eyes at and walk away. It's good to see someone out there has done a pretty comprehesive review of ALL mobo makers. I personally use Asus and MSI. I've had the best experience with both, not to say i've never RMAed a board by either (1 to each company) but as i see it in the years i've been doing this i've installed well over 5,000 mobos. As with any product the makers of mobos do run into issues, like certian runs of a problem board, i've seen at least 1 bad board by every one if theose companys listed, some i've sent them all back (see:Soyo), so it's good judgment to do a little asking around before you buy. Don't jsut listen to one opinion you'll hate that friend, co-worker, relative later for giving you bad advice. I do agree with most of the findings in this article I'd personally rate MSI a bit higher, and shuttle a bit lower but then again that's just my opinion/experience..another word to the wise.. Where you get your board will have a great effect on your buying experience. Stick with well known companys with good return policies. You will one day get a bad board, trust me when i say this, what happens after you figure out the board is flawed and needs RMAed means alot. Some companys will tell you that your SOL and need to send it back to the maker for replacment which is all fine and dandy but can take some time. (around 6-8 weeks)where as the supplier can get you a ned board in a week. Someone now needs to do a comprehesive write up about the suppliers and we'll be all set.
Just Limin' Mon
I have very bad experience with Epox boards: a friend of mine bought one, and even the parts that were on board had interupt-conflicts with each other. Really horrible design.
But come on, let's be honest: Something that works for me (with my hardware) doesn't have to work for you and vice versa. This review is purely useless!
What do you do when you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant?
I dunno who told these jokers that ECS make underperforming boards, but it's a lie. It is true that they don't have some of the more popular overclocking features, but for stability and performance their boards are up there with the "big boys" at often less than half the price. I wouldn't use anything else in the machines I build for clients OR myself.
Did these guys just make the shit up? I mean, just do a quick google search for 'ECS motherboard' and read the reviews. Look at the benchmarks. Better yet, drop fifty or sixty bucks on one and try it yourself. I am an Asus convert, and I'm never going back. I've got a Windows box that has been up for almost six weeks. WINDOWS! SIX WEEKS! THANK YOU ECS!
And no, I do not work for ECS, but I have had this debate a dozen times IRL and the performance/stability argument is quite simply a load of crap.
Good to hear Abit is on the top! I built a killer system based on the Abit KT7A, and its an awesome board! It has more options than I need, and they didn't make the BIOS friendly, which is good for us geek types that like to tweak. I plan on purchasing another ABIT board when I build my next system.
For those looking at a KT7A, it is an older board. However, the specs on Abit's site are outdated. As of rev 1.3, the board theoretically could go into the 2ghz neighborhood. I'm currently running a 1.4 t-bird.
Strong points (my own, not from the article):
1. BIOS tweaking, BIOS tweaking, BIOS tweaking. This board has the most in depth BIOS setup I've ever seen, with the ability to overclock your system in 1 mHz increments.
2. Stability, even at OC speeds.
3. Board features, such as 4 USB headers, chipset cooler, temperature sensors galore, plenty of fan headers.
4. Nice thick manual.
5. No problems running linux on this board.
My conclusion: Abit good.
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
I've been following a few candidate mobos for the system I'm building and the best place to hang out seems to be here. There are quite a number of people experiencing problems (which is what you're likely to need help with, not how great it is) so it's a good place to gather insite on the boards you are considering.
Of course, keep a critical eye on what you read, as some people's problems aren't related to the hardware, but inexperience or what they're trying to do which may be beyond recommendation by mfrs.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
One simple basic thing works fine on all the Asus, Epox, Gigabyte, and Tyan motherboards I've ever worked with, and failed on all the Intel motherboards I've worked with. That thing is the PS/2 keyboard port when either not connected at boot/reset time, or connected to an electronic KVM switchbox which has not selected that machine at boot/reset time.
If the keyboard is not plugged in at all, and then you plug it in later, it doesn't work. Linux sees a keyboard device, but no keypresses ever get through until you reboot (and Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't work).
If the keyboard is plugged in to the electronic KVM switch, and the switch has not selected that machine at the time, then it gets even worse. Something (BIOS or chipset) just hangs. Video sync comes up but the screen is blank except for a cursor. When the KVM is switched over to that machine, still nothing. If you move the mouse, sometimes it will start up and BIOS will initialize and boot the system. However, the keyboard and mouse ports are now transposed electically or logically in the chipset. Mouse movements go in as garbled keypresses, and real keypresses occaisionally tickle mouse logic.
It's not a fundamental chipset flaw that I can see, as I have some cases of the same chipset on both Intel and ASUS boards, and the ASUS boards work fine. It might be how the chipsets are configured by the engineers, though I personally suspect the BIOS is the major culprit.
As a desktop, this is OK. As a server, this sucks. Even the rack mount Intel ISP-1100 (TX440 motherboard, BX chipset) has this problem, and that machine is clearly intended for the server market. I have contacted Intel support and after the issue was bounced around several engineers, it finally came back as "Not supported with a KVM switch" and they just dropped the issue.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
these guys obviously did a lot of research. from the article (on Gigabyte):
;-)
Stability
Their boards are being focused on reliability and stability. The dual bios option is just one sign. From personal experience, I've noted their boards to have a high degree of stability. They aren't extremely stable, but they are far above average. Their stability during their performance market days was questionable.
Rating: 7.5/10
funny. a review from Tom's Hardware pissed all over the dual bios saying it caused more problems than it fixed, making stability a very touchy issue.
Seems to me this article was written by a couple of DIY'ers who've heard the term "overclock," but never "benchmark." Oh, and as for history???? I sure as shit hope they don't tell everyone to run out and buy a 3Dfx board "because they were the original high-end 3D graphics board maker"
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
You can tell the writer worships their arse.
Going on about Abits history of great stability/support/reliability etc.
Bullshit, just a couple of years ago Abit had worse RMA rates than bloody PC Chips/ECS, AT 10%. Ontop of that Abit charged a RMA fee
(even when it was 100% their fault) of $20, forcing retailers to charge an extra $2 on every Abit board to make sure they didn't lose out on the 10% that failed.
Mind you they're improved since then, the box I'm typing this on has a Abit board.
I was a little dissapointed that the article didn't mention some of the higher end motherbard manufacturers like SuperMicro. If you want to build a really stable and reliable system most of these Tiawanese specials are a little lacking.
I was trying to get the onboard via8233 sound chip to work, and not getting anywhere.
I emailed Epox tech support, and someone emailed back in about 4 hours with ALSA drivers attached and instructions on how to compile and configure. Crank ON!
Admittedly, the sound chip appears to suck anyway (mp3s are fine, but sound in Tribes 2 is horrible - on my Athlon 1600XP). But you have to congratulate their tech support for jumping in with the ALSA drivers. I was expecting to be told to use the kernel drivers (which don't work) and seek support in newsgroups...
>I have a 1.47Ghz processor on my K7S5A...
:-)
You're lucky then.
These people haven't been so lucky.
This person seemed to think installing a hacked BIOS would solve the problem. It did. A perusal of ECS' site shows they've improved upon PCChips service (they provide BIOS updates for the K7S5A, so I'm assuming they didn't pirate this BIOS, or they've learned to hack it properly), but as of December/January ECS motherboards with the incompatible BIOS were still streaming into the store I worked at. The K7S5A BIOS support page doesn't list a specific 1.4 ghz fix, but it looks like they fixed it just in time for this year (BIOS V.01/11/09). I guess 3 months waiting time isn't too bad.
Perhaps with the BIOS fix this board isn't junk, but long-term reliability is definately not a trait associated with PCChips products, IMHO.
A lack of testing advertised features (and XP support was advertised on these motherboards) is sure proof the company doesn't care for its customers. This occasionally happens to name brand companies (Abit comes to mind) but is, in my opinion, the status quo for PCChips and their cronies. Maybe ECS will eventually escape the bad name of their suppliers -- they are providing far more support for their products than I expected to see.
As with all things, only time will tell. Perhaps in a year or two I might be able to forgive ECS prdocts for being PCChips knockoffs. We'll just have to see!
Anyways,
Whip out that soldering iron and fix it yourself the manual way if you choose.
The FAQ will probably help explain this problem better than myself.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC