Which is the best motherboard manufacturer to buy?

[Deleted member 24505]

Maybe I need some caffeine, but what does an ancient board and CPU result have to do with helping the OP? How does your experience with that old hardware help when the OP is looking to buy new?

He asked what is the best motherboard manufacturer, i gave an example of why i said Asus in my reply "Asus for me"

 

[EarthDog]

Not sure why I was called a moron. I simply asked a (good) question...

I guess I still do not find the association of an ancient mobo and your anecdote of it running a high FSB (which varies, even by the same board mind you) relevant to the OP... I'm glad that 10 year old board worked well for you though.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Not sure why I was called a moron. I simply asked a (good) question...

I guess I still do not find the association of an ancient mobo and your anecdote of it running a high FSB (which varies, even by the same board mind you) relevant to the OP... I'm glad that 10 year old board worked well for you though.

Maybe it's the way you asked it read it again. Him buying new had nothing to do with it. He asked what is the best motherboard manufacturer. If someone asked what is the car manufacturer and the reply was ford because i find them reliable and frugal on petrol that would be a relevant reply would it not? maybe you just do no understand referencing previous experience with products as to their reputation be it good or bad. Any question starting with maybe i need some caffeine is not a good one imo

 

[infrared]

Opinions have been stated, lets move on now, no point in carrying on.

Edit - another vote for Asus while I'm here, I've always had a good experience with asus boards. Z170 pro gaming, prime B350 plus and Crosshair vi hero, all served he really well. And many older boards, but I do see Earthdogs point, quality can vary over time, but imo asus is still up there with the best.

 

[Wolvyreen]

I have opened a Build Thread now here: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/new-build-with-decent-budget.253836/

 

[Ramo1203]

I think there is no BEST motherboard manufacturer. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. The best motherboard manufacturer depends on what are your criterias for that.
I think the most important thing is to look beyond the brand and look at the product in detail. The VRM's are a crucial part of the motherboard for example.

 

[NoJuan999]

As previously stated, every MB manufacturer has it's strong and weak points.
I recently bought an Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming mb because it fit my personal needs and taste and I got it for 90 USD.
I am very satisfied with it and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good mid level Ryzen board.
That being said, I also liked the MSI B450 boards and definitely considered the Tomahawk and Carbon Pro.
Ultimately you need to determine what features you need and then read as many reviews of the various MB's that meet those needs.

 

[Caring1]

The way I read the title, he has buckets of money and wants to buy the company.

 

[Midiamp]

A bit late to the party, but yeah, no one particular good motherboard maker. I changed from Asrock AB350 ITX to Asus B-450-i, with the same setup and memory kit (Corsair Vengeance RGB 3000Mhz). The Asus is just downright bad! Plenty of lock ups and general instability. Finally changed to MSI B450, no problem whatsoever. Forced me to change form factor, but at least I'm happy.

For Intel though, Asus motherboards are probably the best around.

Do your research well in this hobby and don't throw money around, most likely you'll find better value by digging around.

 

[trickson]

It depends really. I have had great luck with a MSI 970 MB I found at Goodwill it is the one running my FX rig in sig.
I have 2 msi MB's and 2 Gigabyte MB. I have used Asus but nothing recent.
If you are asking for an opinion, Mine is with MSi then I go to Gigabyte then Asus.
my opinion on the best mb?
The MSI X470 Gaming Plus an absolute monster can't wait for this MB to get 3 way Crossfire set up it!

 

[Mr.Scott]

Abit is (was?) my fave.
Am I right, fellas?
Who's with me out there?
Fun Fact: DFI entry into the OC market was initially made possible by Abit engineers whom defected.

Actually, it was one engineer, Oskar Wu, and the progression was from Epox to Abit, and then to DFI.

Wow, Trickson, you're alive. lol

 

[trickson]

Actually, it was one engineer, Oskar Wu, and the progression was from Epox to Abit, and then to DFI.

Wow, Trickson, you're alive. lol

Yep I am!
OYG DFI I remember them! They were the best of the best back in the day now they are no longer.

You ever going to post that R15 extreme score? LOL......

 

[Mr.Scott]

You ever going to post that R15 extreme score? LOL......

It's been up.
And you know it because you were logged in at 12:27 AM.

 

[trickson]

It's been up.
And you know it because you were logged in at 12:27 AM.

Can't log in anymore lol. Yeah that was impressive but still Ryzen is far better or why would ANYONE need anthing other than that one?
So congrats on your small victory. Still doubt it is faster than the Ryzen chip in fact know it isn't.

One test make not a champion.

FYI even my FX8300 beats up on my Ryzen 3 1300X in some benchmarks.

 

[EarthDog]

Can't log in anymore lol

You should be able to... I'll PM you here as this is off topic.

 

[Vario]

I prefer ASRock, had good experiences with them.

 

[trickson]

I prefer ASRock, had good experiences with them.

I don't know ASRock aways seemed so , you know so cheep and lame. I think it is the name more than any thing for me. Really I do, I must admit I have never had one. Because of the name. so yeah the name sucks.

 

[John Naylor]

Most folks have preferences but they are rarely based upon actual facts / data. Among the factors one might consider are:

Reliabilty - For the most part this is based upn statistically significant aecdotal evidence and forum posts about other user's aneccdotal experiences, This is pretty much the proverbial "fool's errand"; we have been building PCs for over 25 years and all of ur experience combined does not constitute anything resembling statistically significant quantities. Be Hardware was the one site that had the resources to supply this data and hey recently stopped doing so. RMA rats have declined significantly over the years and if there's any facts that remain valid after watching them this long they are:

a) The difference in RAM rates between brands is statistically insignificant
b) Whomever is sitting at the top doesn't stay there very log.

Here's results from 2014

- Gigabyte 2,51%
- MSI 2,65%
- ASUS 2,86%
- ASRock 2,99%

and 2017

• Gigabyte 1,48%
• ASRock 1,55%
• ASUS 1,59%
• MSI 1,63%

And while the differences between brands is statistically insignificant. it is worth looking at the distribution for notable "bad models" and also which platforms you might choose:

• 5,71% ASUS Z170I-PRO Gaming
• 5,59% ASUS X99 Strix Gaming
• 4,70% MSI B150M PRO-VDH D3
• 4,17% ASUS B150I PRO GAMING/WIFI/AURA
• 3,81% ASRock FM2A58M-VG3+

Performance / Build Quality - Over the years, various manufacturers gained deserved reputations for performance and build quality ... For a long Time Asus always seemed to be able to edge a percentage or two extra speed over it's competitors. Asrock was well known for short warramtees, thin boards and bad caps; Gigabyte was well known or the robust power deliver systems. These mindsets persisted long after those views ceased to be true. Asus lost the performance crown with Z87 / Z97 and during that time MSI was winning the top performance crown; AsRock's quality got better and it's warranty got longer and Gigbyte's power delivery looked mush like everybody else's. By Z270, everyone was pretty much on equal footing. with the only notable difference being Asus mid range offerings $100 - $150 "cheaped out" with low end audio and LAN subsystems. While veryone else was using ALC 1150 for example, Asus only offered ALC 887 and 892 in this space. Another thing that happened just before then is Asus farmed out much of its design, support and RMA pocessing Pegatron (Asrock's parent company). They still make Asus laptops, but what else they are doing or Asus has been kept pretty close to the vest. All i can say or sure is that emails for tech support and RMAs stopped coming from pegatron.com

Today, I have no real issues in this respect from Asus, Gigabyte and MSI .... Im still a bit shy of AsRock as we bar too many scars....albeit they go back a bit, latest experience was 2013. We do see a significant difference in quality and performance which the chipset target user. Looking at Intel for example, what you typically get on Z series board goes way beyond the noted difference between the Z versus the B and H series chipsets. In short it goes way belong the ability to OC and SLI. There are exceptions obviously but generally:

-Z Series = OC ad SLI Ability, 100 page manual, MoBo Utilities for OC and fan control, LCD 2 digit display and LED 's for troubleshooting, 5-6 fan headers, ALC 1220,
-B Series = No OC ad SLI Ability, 30 page manual, No MoBo Utilities, Beep codes for troubleshooting, 2-4 fan headers, ALC 1220,

When ya find a B series with all that stuff, the price is similar to the Z

BIOS & Manuals - Asus rules here .... MSI has gotten close, Gigglebyte and ASrock are waaay behind.

Tech Support - Again, can only go by my own experience here but no one is gonna make you happy. Whether it's a RMA or just a tech question, nobody get's an A. Asus used to rule here, and I don't know what they did after we were getting emails responses from pegatron.... but there dysunction is worse than politicians in DC. Most contact is ignored, when you get an answer it's nonresposive to the questions asked. MSI is good at responding, responses are useful most of the time. In my experience Gigabyte is very attentive, but always feel I could get closer to an answer than most of the techs.

I short, Id forget about what brand makes a better board cause there's no answer there. Every vendor has some great boards, every vendor has some clunkers. Every data source has some minefields. Looking at newegg user reviews for example, you have to laugh when the rants obviously points to user lack of knowledge. But there's no evidence that stupid people are attracted to only one brand. When I look at these, if I see less than 50+% of a model's users 5 eggs or > 20% throwing a 1 eggs rating, I'll cross that one off the list .

Here's the 390 boards we have have on our recommended list for gaming builds in the $175 - $200 space ... and we'll see how what we liked resonated with others by looking at those ratings

1. MSI 390 MPG Gaming Pro Carbon (71% 5 eggs / 7% 1 egg) ... Love / hate factor is little over 10:1
2. Gigabyte Z390 Aurus Ultra (58% 5 eggs / 12% 1 egg) ... Love / hate factor is just inder 5:1
3. Asus Z390-A Prime (49% 5 eggs / 15% 1 egg)... Love / hate factor is just over 3:1

I don't have any AsRock boards on the list .... again, pain from previous scars I guess is more my bias than a current evaluation / reviews but if i can manage to set that aside the As Rock Tai Chi would have the best chance of making the list (67% 5 eggs / 14% 1 egg)... Love / hate factor is just inder 5:1. One thing you have to be conscious of is that the more users spend, the more they bitch. So at $100, I dude might say "I plugged it in, it worked ... 5 eggs !" I guy spending $500 might get less than the Memory OC he expected and throw a 3 egg rating ... so expect numbers to drop at the high end.

Be aware that getting that RoG doorknob hanger will cost ya about $50 as anything with the RoG moniker is usally that much higher than the comparably equipped board from competition. On gaming oriented boards, we use a lot of Giganyte and Asus TUF series .... Gaming builds have mostly been going MSI with about 25% Gigabyte, mostly the Auros line. Favorite board in recent years = MSI XPower Titanium Series.

 

[trickson]

Most folks have preferences but they are rarely based upon actual facts / data. Among the factors one might consider are:

Reliabilty - For the most part this is based upn statistically significant aecdotal evidence and forum posts about other user's aneccdotal experiences, This is pretty much the proverbial "fool's errand"; we have been building PCs for over 25 years and all of ur experience combined does not constitute anything resembling statistically significant quantities. Be Hardware was the one site that had the resources to supply this data and hey recently stopped doing so. RMA rats have declined significantly over the years and if there's any facts that remain valid after watching them this long they are:

a) The difference in RAM rates between brands is statistically insignificant
b) Whomever is sitting at the top doesn't stay there very log.

Here's results from 2014

- Gigabyte 2,51%
- MSI 2,65%
- ASUS 2,86%
- ASRock 2,99%

and 2017

• Gigabyte 1,48%
• ASRock 1,55%
• ASUS 1,59%
• MSI 1,63%

And while the differences between brands is statistically insignificant. it is worth looking at the distribution for notable "bad models" and also which platforms you might choose:

• 5,71% ASUS Z170I-PRO Gaming
• 5,59% ASUS X99 Strix Gaming
• 4,70% MSI B150M PRO-VDH D3
• 4,17% ASUS B150I PRO GAMING/WIFI/AURA
• 3,81% ASRock FM2A58M-VG3+

Performance / Build Quality - Over the years, various manufacturers gained deserved reputations for performance and build quality ... For a long Time Asus always seemed to be able to edge a percentage or two extra speed over it's competitors. Asrock was well known for short warramtees, thin boards and bad caps; Gigabyte was well known or the robust power deliver systems. These mindsets persisted long after those views ceased to be true. Asus lost the performance crown with Z87 / Z97 and during that time MSI was winning the top performance crown; AsRock's quality got better and it's warranty got longer and Gigbyte's power delivery looked mush like everybody else's. By Z270, everyone was pretty much on equal footing. with the only notable difference being Asus mid range offerings $100 - $150 "cheaped out" with low end audio and LAN subsystems. While veryone else was using ALC 1150 for example, Asus only offered ALC 887 and 892 in this space. Another thing that happened just before then is Asus farmed out much of its design, support and RMA pocessing Pegatron (Asrock's parent company). They still make Asus laptops, but what else they are doing or Asus has been kept pretty close to the vest. All i can say or sure is that emails for tech support and RMAs stopped coming from pegatron.com

Today, I have no real issues in this respect from Asus, Gigabyte and MSI .... Im still a bit shy of AsRock as we bar too many scars....albeit they go back a bit, latest experience was 2013. We do see a significant difference in quality and performance which the chipset target user. Looking at Intel for example, what you typically get on Z series board goes way beyond the noted difference between the Z versus the B and H series chipsets. In short it goes way belong the ability to OC and SLI. There are exceptions obviously but generally:

-Z Series = OC ad SLI Ability, 100 page manual, MoBo Utilities for OC and fan control, LCD 2 digit display and LED 's for troubleshooting, 5-6 fan headers, ALC 1220,
-B Series = No OC ad SLI Ability, 30 page manual, No MoBo Utilities, Beep codes for troubleshooting, 2-4 fan headers, ALC 1220,

When ya find a B series with all that stuff, the price is similar to the Z

BIOS & Manuals - Asus rules here .... MSI has gotten close, Gigglebyte and ASrock are waaay behind.

Tech Support - Again, can only go by my own experience here but no one is gonna make you happy. Whether it's a RMA or just a tech question, nobody get's an A. Asus used to rule here, and I don't know what they did after we were getting emails responses from pegatron.... but there dysunction is worse than politicians in DC. Most contact is ignored, when you get an answer it's nonresposive to the questions asked. MSI is good at responding, responses are useful most of the time. In my experience Gigabyte is very attentive, but always feel I could get closer to an answer than most of the techs.

I short, Id forget about what brand makes a better board cause there's no answer there. Every vendor has some great boards, every vendor has some clunkers. Every data source has some minefields. Looking at newegg user reviews for example, you have to laugh when the rants obviously points to user lack of knowledge. But there's no evidence that stupid people are attracted to only one brand. When I look at these, if I see less than 50+% of a model's users 5 eggs or > 20% throwing a 1 eggs rating, I'll cross that one off the list .

Here's the 390 boards we have have on our recommended list for gaming builds in the $175 - $200 space ... and we'll see how what we liked resonated with others by looking at those ratings

1. MSI 390 MPG Gaming Pro Carbon (71% 5 eggs / 7% 1 egg) ... Love / hate factor is little over 10:1
2. Gigabyte Z390 Aurus Ultra (58% 5 eggs / 12% 1 egg) ... Love / hate factor is just inder 5:1
3. Asus Z390-A Prime (49% 5 eggs / 15% 1 egg)... Love / hate factor is just over 3:1

I don't have any AsRock boards on the list .... again, pain from previous scars I guess is more my bias than a current evaluation / reviews but if i can manage to set that aside the As Rock Tai Chi would have the best chance of making the list (67% 5 eggs / 14% 1 egg)... Love / hate factor is just inder 5:1. One thing you have to be conscious of is that the more users spend, the more they bitch. So at $100, I dude might say "I plugged it in, it worked ... 5 eggs !" I guy spending $500 might get less than the Memory OC he expected and throw a 3 egg rating ... so expect numbers to drop at the high end.

Be aware that getting that RoG doorknob hanger will cost ya about $50 as anything with the RoG moniker is usally that much higher than the comparably equipped board from competition. On gaming oriented boards, we use a lot of Giganyte and Asus TUF series .... Gaming builds have mostly been going MSI with about 25% Gigabyte, mostly the Auros line. Favorite board in recent years = MSI XPower Titanium Series.

WOW thanks for the dissertation!

 

[Vario]

I don't know ASRock aways seemed so , you know so cheep and lame. I think it is the name more than any thing for me. Really I do, I must admit I have never had one. Because of the name. so yeah the name sucks.

They were a value manufacturer years ago, but not any longer. For Z370, they some of the best power delivery design. Z370 Extreme4, Z370 K6 Fatal1ty, Z370 Taichi, Fatal1ty Pro Gaming i7. These all had the same VRM design as the Taichi. Other board manufacturers only had a few good boards, ASRock had an entire lineup from budget midrange up that could run the 8700K easily and probably 9700K and 9900K.

I've also found they have very good memory support.
Their customer service is fantastic, I have emailed requesting clarification of bios settings and they have a machine on their end with the same motherboard version, bios version, cpu, and ram to duplicate my issue. They respond pretty quickly.
AsRock and Nick Shih have also released bios versions for running 8th gen Coffee Lake in the Z170 OC Formula which is really cool.

 

[freeagent]

This is just my opinion, just based on my experiences.. and prejudices.

Asus is my brand for motherboards. Ive had the best luck with them, and their premium line of boards are the business, while their midrange boards are just that.

Gigabyte would maybe be a runner up, but even though it had a premium feel but it just didn't deliver, compared to Asus.

MSI, Assrock.. back in the day they were bottom feeders, right up there with chaintech and others.. not surprised to see the complaints in this thread that I have seen so far. Mediocre.

I would maybe consider higher end Asrock now, just because Asus owned them for a bit and built them up a little. I did own one EVGA mobo, and it sucked.. but that's going way back. Abit was awesome. I miss them.

This post is based on my limited experience.

 

[John Naylor]

A good analogy is what is your favorite / best sports team ? The answers rarely include the sports team that wins / won the title. And the best team doesn't always win the championship game. What is te best sports team ? The one with the best numbers (won - lost records) . The largest % answer you get will be the "home team" which is expected but when it's not, we can really see how this plays out. When I 1st became disillusioned with pro Football for example, began to get interested in college football. Among my social group we all chose our team in the early to mid 70s. All of us are still fans of the teams we picked back then. Some of thm wenthalf their games, some went to the title game. If you look at pickup truck owners.... their loyalties are never based upon repair rates, cost to own or any real data ... it's cause their grandaddy had a [insert Ford, Chevy, Dodge here interchangeably] , Dad had a [insert Ford, Chevy, Dodge here interchangeably] and their 1st truck as a hand me down of the same [insert Ford, Chevy, Dodge here interchangeably] model. we knew it was the best cause Dad said so.

When we all 1st got into PCs, we asked these questions, we were at the time awed by the dude with 10,000 posts and he said [insert brand name here], we bought one it worked, it became our favorite brand. We are all better served if we ignore subjective statements that are not based in fact. For example, when ya see a poster with the RoG logo as their avatar, you should be inclined to consider than the fanboi might be biased. One comment I remember "Asus is better, MSI has poor QC" ... OMG, on what basis can anyone support that statement ? Are there RMA rates higher ? (Didn't look). Are forum complaints higher (Didn't look) . Are newegg ratings lower (didn't look). This is obvious bias. If you can't support it, it ain't real.

We were strictly an Asus shop for 10 years. Not out of loyalty but because when ya read the reviews they came out on top, year after year. I remember the Sabertooth, reviewers went gaga over it and it had greatr numbers. Then, like with sports teams, one dynasty ends and someone else rises to the top. In the Z87 .... Z170 era things changed. One web site overclockers-something had a table of all the Z97 boards and the top 3 performance wise were MSI boards. The $400 Asus board I had in my box was 2nd forom last. Sites like Anandtech was talking about new MSI MoBo features, performance and value and writing headlines saying " the MSI Z170A SLI Plus redefining the baseleine at $130" ... The Titanium line was not only getting great reviews but board owners were throwing 5 egg ratings at it on newegg to the tune of 90+%

https://www.anandtech.com/show/10236/the-msi-z170a-sli-plus-review/9

"It’s a new standard, and any motherboard up to $180 should easily be worried about what extra is being offered. " Quite a statement for a $130 board. On the GFX card front, Asus was topping the charts all the way up thru the 600 series but since then, MSI has been dominant.... Performance Rankings TPU test results (by fps) :

2080 Ti
MSI Lightning Z 236.7 fps
MSI Gaming X Trio 226.6
EVGA FTW 225.2
Asus Strix OC 225.0
Zotac Amp 221.5
MSI Duke 220.5
EVGA X Ultra 218.0
Founder's 216.5

2080
MSI Gaming X Trio 180.2 fps
Asus Strix OC 175.0
Zotac AMP Extreme 177.7
Gigabyte Gaming OC 172.2
Palit Gaming Pro OC 172.7
Palit Super Jet Stream 171.7
Nvidia FE 169.0

Sure, the differences aren't large but they have been consistent ... looking at the 2080 Ti, and not wanting to pay the price premium for the Lightning, the MSI, EVGA and Asus are closely grouped and after looking at those 3, sound and cooling become secondary considerations. looking at RMA rates... no complaint:

• Zotac 1,13%
• EVGA 1,19%
• Gigabyte 1,19%
• MSI 1,29%
• ASUS 1,30%

Nobody stands out there ....and every reporting period there's a new ranking.

Let me emphasize that I am not saying that MSI has the best MoBo ... we have different manufacturers at the top in each price niche. With GFX cards, most of the selections for this generation's upper end are MSI .... for lower priced cards, not so much. These will have no bearing on next gen rankings. In summary, what I feel confident saying is that:

- MSI supplanted Asus as the MoBo performance winner for a while after Z87, especially w/ Z97. Since Z170 - Z270, there's no significant difference in performance between any manufacturer based upon published test data.
- In the GFX card upper end space, MSI is winning the "top dog" status more often than anyone else of late .... the margin is small but a win is still a win. The passive cooling and sound levels are big in decision factor. At the lower to mid range, other manufacturers have taken top dog status.
- I have yet to see any broad based claim about MoBo brand name superiority supported by any documentation. All data points otherwise. The differences in RMA rates between MoBo manufacturers is statistically insignificant.
- Pay more attention to models than brands... for every vendor, there's some great models, there's some clunkers. Each price category should be considered individually.
- We don't make any recommendations till a new board or product is out 3 months ... While performance and quality generally remains consistent generation to generation, last year's
champion model ABC 1000 might be next year's dud.
- No ones (certainly not mine) anecdotal experience is relevant in and of itself. When ya got 50 or so people with experience with a particular board, the data begins to get statistically significant. "I have this board and it had these problems" is valid comment. "I never had this board but I wouldn't buy it cause they are ow quality" is not.

When Z390 broke, after reading the reviews the 3 boards we listed as "likely candidates" for our recommended products list ($175 - $200) were

1. MSI 390 MPG Gaming Pro Carbon
2. Asus Z390-A Prime
3. Gigabyte Z390 Aurus Ultra

Looking at user reviews on newegg, by the time we start doing 390 based builds in May, that ranking will likely change. Looking at just that info, w/ 71% 5 eggs / 7% 1 egg ratings and a love / hate factor of about10:1, it would seem there's reason enough to leave Gaming Pro Carbon at the top. Gigabyte Z390 Aurus Ultra (58% 5 eggs / 12% 1 egg and love / hate factor of 5:1 seems worthy of the No. 2 spot. The Asus Z390-A Prime and AsRock are running tight for Spot No. 3. But before the list gets made, we'll sit down, discuss latest reviewes, user comments and other data will be evaluated to finalize the list.

 

[Vario]

NewEgg reviews are a poor way to assess board quality.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I think there is no BEST motherboard manufacturer. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. The best motherboard manufacturer depends on what are your criterias for that.

This. What you also want to consider is your purpose and primary use for the system. Different usages will change what your needs are. Find a board that meets your needs.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Now just find the one with the best RGB lights on it.