motherboard brands

[ryan7962]

Hi all im new to this forum and was wondering which motherboard brands are really good and which are not so good. And alsoi bought a luckystar k7mkle motherboard and people on another forum says the motherboard is not that good. And just wanted to get your opioin on my luckystar k7mkle motherboard

thanks
ryan

 

[Zim Hosein]

ryan7962, first off welcome to the forums, you'll learn a lot here, I have. As to your question, it all depends on what you are looking for. Personally for AMD systems, I like Epox, for Intel systems I liked Intel branded MB's; both of my opinions come from past experience. Hope this helps

 

[flawedexistence]

My experience has been with Asus and Intel boards. I have never had any, that is, zero problems with either brand. Welcome aboard!

 

[kgraeme]

Welcome to the forums.

Ranking mobo brands is an interesting game. Most people's experiences are fairly limited, mine included, because we either don't build a huge array of systems or we continue to trust the brand or brands that have worked and we don't experiment. FWIW, here's my list:

Top tier:
Intel
ASUS

Second tier:
Abit
MSI
Gigabyte

Third tier
Epox
Chaintech
AOpen
Shuttle
Soyo
ECS
AMD
Iwill

Fourth tier - A curious mix of crap and pure stability
Luckystar
FIC (mostly OEM)
DFI (mostly OEM)
Soltek
Transcend (OEM)
Tyan
Azza

I'm sure my list will generate some debate, but it's my view of the mobo world. The list is generated as much based on popularity as stability. The Top Tier with Intel and ASUS is because Intel only makes reference boards that run exactly to spec and no more. ASUS has always been the leader at making a great, but expensive version with overclocking features and more. The Second tier and Third tier might intermingle a bit more in some people's minds. I sorted them this way based on how big a player the companies are more than how reliable a given board is. There are many third-tier companies that make boards that are easily first-tier quality. They just may not do so consistently. Then there's the fourth tier. I threw this together from the names you hear once in a while, but they are brands that people around here don't use that much. Some of the companies may be crap, but several are focused on the OEM market. That means they focus on stability more than features. In that respect, they could be considered Top tier with Intel if it weren't for the lack of name-recognition.

 

[ryan7962]

i got the bad motherboard then lol

 

[Synergy3618]

I have had a Luckystar super socket 7 mobo for over 3 years without any problem. Most people in the US never heard of Luckystar, so they just assume it's crap. Mobo manufacturers make money by volume through the OEM channels, not by their high-end, overclockable models. If I remember correctly, the biggest three in terms of volume are Asus, Gigabyte, and ECS. All the mobo brands in the US have to meet the quality standards, otherwise they'll not survive at all.

Kgraeme's ranking is more of a reflection of people's brand awareness in the US, not necessarily a reflection of performance or quality. So don't feel bad about your choice. What's important is the warranty from the mobo you bought, and how easy to get it fixed/exchanged under warranty.

If you don't overclock your mobo, you don't need to buy the top of the line models to impress your friends since they'll be out of date in six months anyway.

 

[FatClemenza]

Ryan, if your board works and does what you want it to do, I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over it. The bad thing about building your own system is that you will never be satisfied with it or content for very long!

 

[ryan7962]

well i get the case on wednesday then everything should work. I to used to have a super socket 7 motherboard made by luckystar the 5mvp3 board i believe, but i used to get a blue screen all the time

 

[kgraeme]

Originally posted by: Synergy3618

Kgraeme's ranking is more of a reflection of people's brand awareness in the US, not necessarily a reflection of performance or quality.

Yep. I have no opinion on Luckystar other than I know that it has been around for quite some time and isn't popular as a retail board in the U.S. The OEM market is an interesting one since there are big players in the OEM world that never get attention in the enthusiast market. OEM boards need to be absolutely reliable. Companies use them in their computers and need to know that they can stake their reputation on them. What they don't want is to have a board that has lots of jumpers and BIOS settings for various options. That makes these brands/boards much less popular with home builders but they are generally more stable which is quite popular with OEMs.

 

[Booster]

I've seen some LuckyStar moboards... All I can say they compare well with ECS in terms of price/performance/quality. But ECS does a much better job issuing BIOS updates and fixing bugs. That's the only difference, IMO.

Which brands are good? I think quite many. ASUS (I woudn't ever consider an Intel moboard), Gigabyte, Aopen are the brands I trust. And here are not so good moboards IMO (FWIW, of course):

Acorp
ECS/PCChips
Manli
Super Grace

People report a lot of problems with these boards. Mainly b/c their makers don't seem to update BIOS files frequently, if at all.

 

[Mem]

ryan7962,welcome to AT forums,most members here stick with well known brands like Asus,Epox,MSI,Abit,Gigabyte ,so these are a good place to look for very good board models,btw Asus is the most expensive so you might want to look at the cheaper brands they`re just as good (I`m using MSI and Epox boards at the moment with zero problems).

 

[mastay]

Manufacturers tend to vary on motherboards and even by time. For example, Iwill and Shuttle both made really good stuff at points, but then Shuttle seems to slump back into mediocrioty while Iwill seems to have problem selling more than 2-3 mobos at a time. For kgraeme, why did you rate SOYO so badly? I always thought that SOYO boards come with lots of options and seems stable overall. I figure SOYO is at least as good as MSI or Gigabyte. Also, LG makes some decent stuff. I have had LG cdrw and cdroms and they all seems okay. Interestingly enough, one of teh reviewers at overclockers.com uses a luckystar in his tests.

 

[kgraeme]

Originally posted by: mastay
For kgraeme, why did you rate SOYO so badly? I always thought that SOYO boards come with lots of options and seems stable overall. I figure SOYO is at least as good as MSI or Gigabyte.

My list was intended to generate some debate. As I said, it's as much a list of popularity (marketshare) as anything. One of the problems with almost anyone here trying to answer the question is that few individuals have tried every board from every manufacturer. Some may have tried a wide variety of manufacturers, but they might have tried a company once, had a bad experience and won't try them again. I know personally I won't buy Iwill again. Does that mean Iwill sucks? I don't know, I just know that the one board I got sucked and the support for it wasn't great either.

My rationale for going with marketshare instead of absolute quality is simply the assumption that marketshare is determined in part by repeat customers who felt the quality was worth buying another one. Some vendors fluctuate in quality. Abit for instance has had it's ups and downs, but they've always been a strong presence in the market.