AM3 Motherboard Choice

[Super XP]

The same can be said for Toshiba, they have awesome products but customer support not so good. Kodak is by far the best for customer support IMO. As for mobo's I've never dealt with MSI, just Asus and Gigabyte. Gigabyte failed me but Asus was only average.

Gigabyte did replace the board for me with another one but "Woop's" they forgot to update the darn back-up bios though I do admit the board was a lot more stable with OC's than the 1st board I had. Perhaps it was a mobo problem but anyway I sold that off and got the Asus.

I still have the taste of bitterness in my mouth from Gigabyte. The only way they can convince me to buy one of there mobo's again will be Super Positive Reviews and a lot of them. They maybe just maybe I might take the pill and go with them.

 

[SoulTribunal]

The same can be said for Toshiba, they have awesome products but customer support not so good. Kodak is by far the best for customer support IMO. As for mobo's I've never dealt with MSI, just Asus and Gigabyte. Gigabyte failed me but Asus was only average.

Gigabyte did replace the board for me with another one but "Woop's" they forgot to update the darn back-up bios though I do admit the board was a lot more stable with OC's than the 1st board I had. Perhaps it was a mobo problem but anyway I sold that off and got the Asus.

I still have the taste of bitterness in my mouth from Gigabyte. The only way they can convince me to buy one of there mobo's again will be Super Positive Reviews and a lot of them. They maybe just maybe I might take the pill and go with them.

The key is to be properly objective (at least for me) is when I have a bad experience with something I give it time before I go back to them and see if the new stuff is better than the old.

I had some experiences with ASUS issues on my old A8N32-SLI board but I got over it and am glad I got my EVO's.

It all depends really but some of their boards (my 780G for example) aren't OC'ing boards so to give it a bad review on account of that is not fair IMO.
Mainstream is mainstream, performance is performance and should be kept as such.

I defend gigabyte only because I have had 1 fault out of 56 I think with the client builds on them. Same with Asus and Intel Boards themselves (which to be honest people don't give Intel the time of day on these types of Forums but their Customer support is 10/10 and their product is built to last).

ST

 

[eidairaman1]

Its ironic that people have had trouble with ECS but ive had a board and several customers had them and never had trouble.

 

[Chicken Patty]

That is why I recommend people to make their own decision based on their own research. Sure getting opinions is great but can be somewhat misleading.

 

[trt740]

I would get the MSI in this case its the best board they have made in a long time. I have recently built 3 computers using A2+/Am3 Gigabyte boards. They are solid and have great support but usually they aren't the top overclocker, but not near the bottom. They are old reliable. Msi isn't normally but this board from what I read is the exception.

 

[trt740]

Its ironic that people have had trouble with ECS but ive had a board and several customers had them and never had trouble.

for basic computing they are great, but not at all for overclocking.

 

[SoulTribunal]

for basic computing they are great, but not at all for overclocking.

Agreed. I use ECS for Corporate Builds Exclusively.
Excellent for that Genre , much like Biostar and ASRock. Just the OC leaves something to be desired.

ST

 

[PaulieG]

Agreed. I use ECS for Corporate Builds Exclusively.
Excellent for that Genre , much like Biostar and ASRock. Just the OC leaves something to be desired.

ST

Asrock and Biostar have really stepped up their game. Certainly not my first choice for a primary rig, but I do have a Asrock x58 Extreme in the "family" rig. Very reliable and stable board.

 

[MilkyWay]

Im surprised about ASUS i mean it was one time when all i heard was praise now i hear not so good.

Well my first and current ASUS board is fantastic, i really never noticed how a good motherboard would make a difference but it does. Its the M4A79XTD EVO, regularly gets mentioned as a top mid range board for AM3. Got a lot of features but to me there are the 800 series chipset around the corner so that kinda sucks.

My old MSI K9A Platinum crossfire board was solid but the feature set wasn't amazing and neither was the bios but it was reliable and that sometimes is all someone needs, hardware wise it wasn't anything special.

BIOSTAR and even ASrock are some of the best budget boards available.

EDIT: Personally i dont like Gigabyte i always think in that price range there are better boards, but they are a very popular brand at the moment!

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

I think you have a very small sample group for which you draw a conclusion. I personally have had less trouble with Gigabyte boards than any other manufacturer. To be fair though, most of my experience with Gigabyte is with Intel p55 and x58 boards.

Sigh I knew someone would take issue with my opinion. Are you saying I have to buy another board to have a good experience with Gigabyte? Three boards over about 3 years, is kind of a small sample group, but horrible service and disapointing products every time is beyond any kind of logic. Who the hell sends back the same DOA board a customer sent in for service, and then not want to compensate or help the customer. Maybe 3 is not their lucky number, or maybe their just a poor excuse for a manufacturer. Either way my opinion is the same, NEVER buy a Gigabyte product, nothing good can come of it.

 

[PaulieG]

Sigh I knew someone would take issue with my opinion. Are you saying I have to buy another board to have a good experience with Gigabyte? Three boards over about 3 years, is kind of a small sample group, but horrible service and disapointing products every time is beyond any kind of logic. Who the hell sends back the same DOA board a customer sent in for service, and then not want to compensate or help the customer. Maybe 3 is not their lucky number, or maybe their just a poor excuse for a manufacturer. Either way my opinion is the same, NEVER buy a Gigabyte product, nothing good can come of it.

No problem with your opinion. Just challenging it, which is part of what makes forums great. I do think you have tunnel vision. Nothing like forming an opinion on one bad experience. To each their own.

Oh, DFI and Asus have sent me back the same broken boards before. I've sworn they never took them out of the box.

 

[Chicken Patty]

And the above perfectly explains why you should do your own research. If you look around for enough opinions, eventually every motherboard manufacturer would suck.

 

[Super XP]

The key is to be properly objective (at least for me) is when I have a bad experience with something I give it time before I go back to them and see if the new stuff is better than the old.

I had some experiences with ASUS issues on my old A8N32-SLI board but I got over it and am glad I got my EVO's.

It all depends really but some of their boards (my 780G for example) aren't OC'ing boards so to give it a bad review on account of that is not fair IMO.
Mainstream is mainstream, performance is performance and should be kept as such.

I defend gigabyte only because I have had 1 fault out of 56 I think with the client builds on them. Same with Asus and Intel Boards themselves (which to be honest people don't give Intel the time of day on these types of Forums but their Customer support is 10/10 and their product is built to last).

ST

2 things. The board was a 790FX board graded for high OC's. I also had the board for about 6 months before I said the hell with it. Gigabyte told me they are going to release bios updates to resolve some board issues and after 6 months, absolutely nothing came out where as ASUS already released about 5 bios updates for there AM2+ boards at that time. Gigabyte is slow or they were slow with that board I had for some reason.

 

[SoulTribunal]

2 things. The board was a 790FX board graded for high OC's. I also had the board for about 6 months before I said the hell with it. Gigabyte told me they are going to release bios updates to resolve some board issues and after 6 months, absolutely nothing came out where as ASUS already released about 5 bios updates for there AM2+ boards at that time. Gigabyte is slow or they were slow with that board I had for some reason.

Must have been just a bad run, what specific issues did you have with it?
The FX boards I've had (DDR2 ones right?) did fairly well, but that was entry level OC'ing. The FXT was their DDR3 OC Monster.

Every Manufacturer has had good and bad issues with board regardless however. Its not fair to make one bad board turn you away forever. As my experience has taught me, Time matures designs. Hence my EVO's even after being soured by poor performance in the past.

ST

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

No problem with your opinion. Just challenging it, which is part of what makes forums great. I do think you have tunnel vision. Nothing like forming an opinion on one bad experience. To each their own.

Oh, DFI and Asus have sent me back the same broken boards before. I've sworn they never took them out of the box.

Yes 3 seperate problems with 3 seperate products as well as 4 calls and 3 posts for tech support, and 4 bad RMA experiences is clearly "1 bad experience" . I'm sure if I had the same problems with 6 or 7 boards or video cards, you'd iether claim I was lieing or say I hadn't had enough products to form a valid conclusion. I do belive you have tunnel vision on proving Gigabyte is nothing but bubble gum and rainbows. Nothing like forming an opinion on one good experience (I mean thats what were doing here is making broad generalization without knowing the other persons past).

If Asus sent back boards dead that sucks, and as I stated I had never used their RMA service, as every product I have bought from them all woked until I sold them or still work now. Four video cards a GForce 3, and a ATI 9600 XT, and a ATI 2900, and a ATI 4670, the last 3 still work day, and the GForce 3 I sold about 4 years ago and it still worked when I sold it. Also 6 mother boards a Asus A7N8X Deluxe, Asus K8N-E Deluxe, Asus P5K-E, Asus M4A785-M, Asus M4A785TD-M EVO. All worked perfectly until I sold them the Asus A7N8X Deluxe still works till this day it streams music wonderfully, the others I have sold except for the Asus M4A785-M, Asus M4A785TD-M EVO.

As for DFI I have only owned 1 board from them, and I sent it in when it was broke, and I got a working one back. :shrug:

To each their own.

 

[SoulTribunal]

Yes 3 seperate problems with 3 seperate products as well as 4 calls and 3 posts for tech support, and 4 bad RMA experiences is clearly "1 bad experience" . I'm sure if I had the same problems with 6 or 7 boards or video cards, you'd iether claim I was lieing or say I hadn't had enough products to form a valid conclusion. I do belive you have tunnel vision on proving Gigabyte is nothing but bubble gum and rainbows. Nothing like forming an opinion on one good experience (I mean thats what were doing here is making broad generalization without knowing the other persons past).

If Asus sent back boards dead that sucks, and as I stated I had never used their RMA service, as every product I have bought from them all woked until I sold them or still work now. Four video cards a GForce 3, and a ATI 9600 XT, and a ATI 2900, and a ATI 4670, the last 3 still work day, and the GForce 3 I sold about 4 years ago and it still worked when I sold it. Also 6 mother boards a Asus A7N8X Deluxe, Asus K8N-E Deluxe, Asus P5K-E, Asus M4A785-M, Asus M4A785TD-M EVO. All worked perfectly until I sold them the Asus A7N8X Deluxe still works till this day it streams music wonderfully, the others I have sold except for the Asus M4A785-M, Asus M4A785TD-M EVO.

As for DFI I have only owned 1 board from them, and I sent it in when it was broke, and I got a working one back. :shrug:

To each their own.

Just to understand what you're saying.

So is it wrong then that I have so many builds with Gigabytes boards that work perfectly? Does that make them Bad still? What if I thought what you did of ASUS boards? Does that make me a liar?

I'm just trying to understand your mentality on this issue. There will always be bad experiences with any type of service. Just look at how much Sapphire has changed their customer support over the years.

To each their own really I suppose. But GIgabyte is still listed at Tier 1 Manufacurer and if you have ever toured their Facility you would see they are a no-nonsense high quality manufacturer. And for the Record, they Owned ASUS for a while, and a lot of Technology that is in your ASUS boards is thanks to gigabyte (Not now but for a period of time).

ST

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Just to understand what you're saying.

So is it wrong then that I have so many builds with Gigabytes boards that work perfectly? Does that make them Bad still? What if I thought what you did of ASUS boards? Does that make me a liar?

I'm just trying to understand your mentality on this issue. There will always be bad experiences with any type of service. Just look at how much Sapphire has changed their customer support over the years.

To each their own really I suppose. But GIgabyte is still listed at Tier 1 Manufacurer and if you have ever toured their Facility you would see they are a no-nonsense high quality manufacturer. And for the Record, they Owned ASUS for a while, and a lot of Technology that is in your ASUS boards is thanks to gigabyte (Not now but for a period of time).

ST

You missed the point completelly, I can not begin to understand why people who like Gigabye, can't grasp the fact some people don't like them, or why it bothers them so much. They work for you great, congrats, I don't care. I don't like them, they have been nothing but trouble for me, and countering my experience with "There will always be bad experiences with any type of service" while true and I accept that, and expect some bad service here and there from all companys, is not a good argument to explain why every time my interaction with them was bad. My point is Gigabyte is very consistent in my experience, consistently bad.

 

[troyrae360]

Ive had a good run with my gigabyte board and would recomend gigabyte to anyone

 

[SoulTribunal]

You missed the point completelly, I can not begin to understand why people who like Gigabye, can't grasp the fact some people don't like them, or why it bothers them so much. They work for you great, congrats, I don't care. I don't like them, they have been nothing but trouble for me, and countering my experience with "There will always be bad experiences with any type of service" while true and I accept that, and expect some bad service here and there from all companys, is not a good argument to explain why every time my interaction with them was bad. My point is Gigabyte is very consistent in my experience, consistently bad.

I can grasp Perfectly what you are saying I am just challenging your Mentality on it.

I can understand that you can be soured by that. I'm not trying to sell you on them either.
Sapphire has yet to be redeemed in my eyes like Gigabyte in yours.

Thats fine on your choices.

ST

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

I can grasp Perfectly what you are saying I am just challenging your Mentality on it.

I can understand that you can be soured by that. I'm not trying to sell you on them either.
Sapphire has yet to be redeemed in my eyes like Gigabyte in yours.

Thats fine on your choices.

ST

My mentality is this, I feel that 3 chances to show me that you cna make a good reliable product and provide compitent and good customer service, is more than enough, I'm not willing to waste any more of my money and time to see if my experience would be different a fourth time. Soured is not even close to the word for it.
I dislike Sapphire as well.

Back to the OP's orginal question, you can't go wrong in my eyes with ASUS or DFI.

 

[Super XP]

Must have been just a bad run, what specific issues did you have with it?
The FX boards I've had (DDR2 ones right?) did fairly well, but that was entry level OC'ing. The FXT was their DDR3 OC Monster.

Every Manufacturer has had good and bad issues with board regardless however. Its not fair to make one bad board turn you away forever. As my experience has taught me, Time matures designs. Hence my EVO's even after being soured by poor performance in the past.

ST

Just instability. It would boot up when it wanted to. One day without OC it would pick and choose whether to support my new CPU or not. When it did not, clearing CMOS did absolutely nothing for me. Who knows, maybe the board was defective. I was bitter with Gigabyte due to the shipping also. I had to pay an arm & a leg just to ship the bloody think back. I don't know, I don't find them reliable anymore.

It was my first time ever to buy a gigabyte product and it will be my last. I'll stick with ASUS and DFI for now. Maybe sometime in the future I will consider Gigabyte, but until that time no thank U.

 

[PaulieG]

Yes 3 seperate problems with 3 seperate products as well as 4 calls and 3 posts for tech support, and 4 bad RMA experiences is clearly "1 bad experience" . I'm sure if I had the same problems with 6 or 7 boards or video cards, you'd iether claim I was lieing or say I hadn't had enough products to form a valid conclusion. I do belive you have tunnel vision on proving Gigabyte is nothing but bubble gum and rainbows. Nothing like forming an opinion on one good experience (I mean thats what were doing here is making broad generalization without knowing the other persons past).

If Asus sent back boards dead that sucks, and as I stated I had never used their RMA service, as every product I have bought from them all woked until I sold them or still work now. Four video cards a GForce 3, and a ATI 9600 XT, and a ATI 2900, and a ATI 4670, the last 3 still work day, and the GForce 3 I sold about 4 years ago and it still worked when I sold it. Also 6 mother boards a Asus A7N8X Deluxe, Asus K8N-E Deluxe, Asus P5K-E, Asus M4A785-M, Asus M4A785TD-M EVO. All worked perfectly until I sold them the Asus A7N8X Deluxe still works till this day it streams music wonderfully, the others I have sold except for the Asus M4A785-M, Asus M4A785TD-M EVO.

As for DFI I have only owned 1 board from them, and I sent it in when it was broke, and I got a working one back. :shrug:

To each their own.

From reading your post, I thought it to be one board with several RMA's. My bad there. However, I do not appreciate your tone in this thread, and I strongly suggest you change it.

 

[SoulTribunal]

Just instability. It would boot up when it wanted to. One day without OC it would pick and choose whether to support my new CPU or not. When it did not, clearing CMOS did absolutely nothing for me. Who knows, maybe the board was defective. I was bitter with Gigabyte due to the shipping also. I had to pay an arm & a leg just to ship the bloody think back. I don't know, I don't find them reliable anymore.

It was my first time ever to buy a gigabyte product and it will be my last. I'll stick with ASUS and DFI for now. Maybe sometime in the future I will consider Gigabyte, but until that time no thank U.

Fair enough mate, wasn't trying to sell you on them. Just understand.
I do sympathize with your experiences. I have had the same with MSI and Sapphire. It will be a while till I go back.
Oh, and BFG lol.

It happens to the best of us.

ST

 

[xtaticego]

Those boards only accept ATI video Cards I want a AM3 with nvida chipset. That is a rare Mother board to find any more. asus and msi have the 980a thats the only board i found thats newer that has the newest nvidia chipset.

 

[eidairaman1]

Those boards only accept ATI video Cards I want a AM3 with nvida chipset. That is a rare Mother board to find any more. asus and msi have the 980a thats the only board i found thats newer that has the newest nvidia chipset.

Im sorry dude but im not talking about Nvidia based motherboards here, I am asking for recommendations on AMD Chipset boards. Sorry for your bad luck but Nvidia has been having a very bad rap when it comes to making any chipsets.

ok Ive made Partial Decision Gigabyte 790FXT-UD5P or 790FXTA-UD5.

the 790FXT-UD5P has been on the market for some time, has 2x PCI E16 several PCI E1 Slots and 2 PCI Slots. The FXTA has 3x Full PCI E16 slots, and 3 PCI Slots, SATA 6 and USB 3.0, However when a video card occupies PCI E16 Slot 3, Slot 2 and 3 share the same bandwidth, so both those slots reduce down to PCI E8 slots for a configuration of 16x8x8.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128415

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128377&cm_re=GA-MA790FXT-UD5P-_-13-128-377-_-Product