Another shift in the PC industry?

[hat]

I take a look at the news here a lot... not always all of it, but most of it. It seems I hear a lot of people saying that ASUS has gone down in quality and Gigabyte and MSI are climbing.

[de.das.dude]

true. asus has gone down in quality indeed. my mobo crapped 4 times in 2 years
but as far as i know the others are still worse.


yay for chinese manufacturing.

[MxPhenom 216]

Originally Posted by de.das.dude

true. asus has gone down in quality indeed. my mobo crapped 4 times in 2 years
but as far as i know the others are still worse.


yay for chinese manufacturing.

Gigabyte is easily higher quality then Asus. MSI is climbing though on their quality. MSI is really just hurt by their customer service from what I hear.

[entropy13]

Originally Posted by MxPhenom 216

Gigabyte is easily higher quality then Asus. MSI is climbing though on their quality. MSI is really just hurt by their customer service from what I hear.

MSI's customer service are "country-dependent" though, or at least "country- or region-dependent." Over here they're equally good, those three, because they have "local partners."

[Widjaja]

I remember the days when ASUS took a sharp nosedive in QA when they started a new factory in China in 07' I think.
They pulled themselves up from then but still not what they used to be before then.

My Brother had a NB pop off one of his MBs and the onboard audio has died on his latest motherboard.

For some reason when I set the BIOS to use XMP RAM profile it also overclocks my CPU to 3.7Ghz.

MSI have definitely come a long way with their products and now have quite a good reputation amongst PC enthusiasts.

I think Gigabyte are about the same as they have always been.
Overall they were and still are pretty consistent with their quality.

[Chevalr1c]

Am I alright if I keep my list being, MSI, Sapphire, EVGA, ASRock, Gigabyte (not necesarilly in that order)? I mean, anyone not recommending one of that list? I lost track quite a bit on developments on the mobo market.

[entropy13]

Originally Posted by Chevalr1c

Am I alright if I keep my list being, MSI, Sapphire, EVGA, ASRock, Gigabyte (not necesarilly in that order)? I mean, anyone not recommending one of that list? I lost track quite a bit on developments on the mobo market.

EVGA is not recommended over here because they are much more expensive and the long-period warranty is not valid here, just the "shorter" 2-year warranty.

[FordGT90Concept]

MSI in the USA has been good/great for at least a decade. Everytime I had an issue, MSI was easy to work with. Most of the time, there is no issues at all. MSI is also one of the few on the forefront of pushing EFI BIOS out there and, as more systems obtain drives with more than 2TB, EFI (and GPT) become increasingly more important.

[HammerON]

My personal opionon is that MSI and Gigabyte have really gained some ground (as well as ASrock), however I still find that ASUS has been my go-to motherboard. Reviewing Cadaveca's reviews I have been impressed with other manufactures though

[LAN_deRf_HA]

If asus is tanking in quality of components that's one thing, and a thing that's not really limited to them or pc parts.

Design wise they've never been better.

[WhiteLotus]

I think Gigabyte are doing/did quite well with their Ultra Durable series.

[entropy13]

Maybe the change with Asus has something to do with separating themselves a bit further from Pegatron itself?

[MasterInvader]

I don't see why "ASUS has gone down in quality", they are always my first choice

And until I start finding real "problems" with the quality, service, rma etc, I couldn't care less about the other brands "fanboys" shouting "Asus is ........"

[lilhasselhoffer]

It is strongly dependent upon the product.

Gigabyte has generally had poor quality for me. Sometimes it's just a USB port that doesn't work, and other times the BIOS is completely borked (lga775 to lga2011). The thing is, they have an absolutely crappy showing with their lga2011 series products. From poor VRM, to locking basic features (to prevent overclocking), to absolutely ineffective "overclocking" applications; Gigabyte is absolutely sucking at lga2011 (I'm on my third board in less than a year).


I had problems with an AsRock DOA, but they eventually got me a replacement. It's been rock solid from day one. I went with ASUS years ago, and their lga775 offering was surprisingly solid.


So, I can't see a "change" occuring. Regular crap from Chinese assembly, insufficient QA, and generally stupid design are prevalent. None of these things can be addressed without fundamentally changing how things are done. I'm just seeing regular failures, given that sockets have, at most, 36 month lives (18 months per Intel tick or tock). The rush to get something out the door is great, and "a few" defective goods is acceptable given the profit margins.

[NC37]

All makers have problem boards/etc. Read reviews before you buy. Usually you'll recognize which ones have trouble. If you see a similar issue pop up more than once then its a good idea to do a search on it to find out if that model really is more of a lemon.

Traditionally I've had good success with Asus and Gigabyte while poor with MSI and Asrock. But the last board I bought was Asrock because I heard they improved quality a lot since departing from under Asus.

Before that I had gone with Gigabyte boards for awhile. Why did I switch and take the chance on Asrock? Because Gigabyte, while good to me, lacked features I wanted. The BIOS they used was also behind the others. Then finally, yes I did find their overclock feature and really overall tweaking features to be rather bland. They've improved some but still not super.

But ultimately...made in China does suck and there is no real way to avoid it.

[Bow]

I made the jump from asus to msi and have been very pleased with the boards and service.

[m1dg3t]

Most of these companies make MORE than just MoBos, factor those into the equation as well

Do i need to repeat what prolly sparked this thread? lol

[Steevo]

MSI lost me years ago over a chipset heatsink and fan.
Asus has been good.
AsRock has been hit or miss.
Gigabyte is very model specific on quality.
Intel boards have been rock solid for me.


I have tried a few of the cheaper boards from some MFG's for cheap builds and been pleasantly surprised by what they can do with $50 when you don't expect anything. Then you buy some high end boards and have complete crap luck.

[Easy Rhino]

Originally Posted by hat

ASUS has gone down in quality and Gigabyte and MSI are climbing.

that is the perception. i don't know if it is true or not.

[Radical_Edward]

We use ASUS at work for all workstation builds. We get a bad mobo now and again. Otherwise they seem to do the job okay.

I use only MSI boards for my personal builds and builds for my friends. They've always treated me correctly and I haven't had any problems with their motherboards that weren't my own fault.

[solofly]

Asus sells the most boards, plain and simple. (and there is a reason for that)
I never had to RMA an Asus board in the 30 years I've been doing this and I go through them like socks...