Hardware (Motherboard) Reliability?

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  1. Posts : 2,736
    ...
       #1

    Hardware (Motherboard) Reliability?


    Socket 939 Motherboard just failed. Looks like some exploding capacitors ...

    Haven't researched motherboards in years. Used to be ASUS and Gigabyte were reliable manufactures, but seems their stuff is just as cheap as FoxConn?

    Is there a reliable manufacturer of motherboards (Brand?) and who does the best job?

    What would be an economical replacement / upgrade motherboard / cpu / memory?

    Say for 1) $50, 2) $100, or 3) $150?

    Looking for opinions on good hardware. Have never owned ECS, but have a ASRock. Looked at Biostar, MSI, and PCChips?
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  2. Posts : 349
    MS Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
       #2

    Asus and Gigabyte are still reputable. Not sure where you got that information from.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #3

    iseeuu said:
    Socket 939 Motherboard just failed. Looks like some exploding capacitors ...

    Haven't researched motherboards in years. Used to be ASUS and Gigabyte were reliable manufactures, but seems their stuff is just as cheap as FoxConn?

    Is there a reliable manufacturer of motherboards (Brand?) and who does the best job?

    What would be an economical replacement / upgrade motherboard / cpu / memory?

    Say for 1) $50, 2) $100, or 3) $150?

    Looking for opinions on good hardware. Have never owned ECS, but have a ASRock. Looked at Biostar, MSI, and PCChips?
    None of them are as reliable as the average refrigerator or pocket knife.

    All manufacturers have what they regard as an acceptable rate of failure and DOAs. That rate is probably higher than you would like. They'd rather deal with the failures than spend the money necessary to make the products more reliable. It's a calculated decision designed to maximize profit---as you would expect. Profit margins are small and they don't want to add on $25 to improve the failure rate.

    There isn't much you can do about it.

    Just roll the dice and hope.

    Generally, the more highly regarded brands are Asus, Gigabyte, Intel, and Asrock--in no particular order. You can have a disaster with any of them, as Google will show you within 30 seconds.

    The most bang for the buck is probably in the mid-range, say $150 US from a US vendor. Above that, you get into features and doo-dads that don't have a high correlation with failure rates.

    Supermicro motherboards arei said to be quite reliable, but they are not cheap and are usually intended for servers. And I hear their support is geared toward businesses and corporate users rather than individual home users.
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  4. Posts : 2,973
    Windows 7 Professional 64bit SP1
       #4

    Motherboard manufacturers: Asus, MSI, Gigabyte..........can't go wrong. Everybody makes a dud here and there, EVERYBODY! Pick a board from any of those guys and you'll be ok.
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  5. Posts : 1,379
    Win7 Pro 32-bit, Win8 Pro 32-bit
       #5

    Used ASUS only MBs for years -- and then, they stopped putting out updates for my 939-chipset board very early in its life. So, I switched over to using others, primarily, Gigabyte. Have found them to be every bit as reliable as ASUS. Also have a couple of MSI MBs now, and found them to be the same.

    Unless you go for the really high-end, bleeding-edge boards, I think you'll find that all of these three vendors have the same reputations.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 2,736
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    Thread Starter
       #6

    UnknownReverent said:
    Asus and Gigabyte are still reputable. Not sure where you got that information from.
    Had an ASUS A8V-E Deluxe .... just died as soon as out of warranty.

    This computer I am typing from is built on a Gigabyte ga-k8n ... has 4 DDR slots but will NOT boot with 4 gigs of memory. My son-in-law bought the components for a pair of these as gaming computers. He gave me this one after he became disillusioned with its performance. With SLI, I can connect 4 monitors (only have three) but with two video cards I can heat the whole house without using the furnace.

    In between, I have had two FoxConn manufactured MBs. They also died (exploding capacitors) but lasted longer than the ASUS.

    The ASRock board I have is just flakey. Don't really have a use for it now, maybe XP?

    So in answer to your question, my information is from first hand use of a variety of MBs.
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  7. Posts : 2,973
    Windows 7 Professional 64bit SP1
       #7

    Asus, MSI, Gigabyte........for how many boards they make and sell, they probably still have the fewest problems, per capita.
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  8. Posts : 2,736
    ...
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Thank you:
    UnknownReverent
    ignatzatsonic
    kbrady1979
    Mark Phelps

    I appreciate your taking time to voice your opinions. Since I an on a tight budget, I will keep looking for something with two cores in the used market on a ASUS or Gigabyte board.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #9

    iseeuu said:

    So in answer to your question, my information is from first hand use of a variety of MBs.
    You don't have a lot of choices. I'm not sure what you expect to learn from this thread since there are horror stories about all brands.

    You can refuse to buy any brand that has given you trouble if you like. I can understand that.

    That leaves you with a set of other brands, most of which are likely to be less reliable than those that have already disappointed you.

    You can also decide that your particular experience with a brand has no connection at all to the brand's reliability in general.

    Or you could decide that you are prone to bad luck and maybe consult a voodoo priestess for some adjustment in your mojo. Add in a black cat bone.

    Or just write the names of 5 brands on a sheet of paper, tack it to the wall, and throw a dart.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 2,736
    ...
    Thread Starter
       #10

    ignatzatsonic said:
    iseeuu said:

    So in answer to your question, my information is from first hand use of a variety of MBs.
    You don't have a lot of choices. I'm not sure what you expect to learn from this thread since there are horror stories about all brands.

    You can refuse to buy any brand that has given you trouble if you like. I can understand that.

    That leaves you with a set of other brands, most of which are likely to be less reliable than those that have already disappointed you.

    You can also decide that your particular experience with a brand has no connection at all to the brand's reliability in general.

    Or you could decide that you are prone to bad luck and maybe consult a voodoo priestess for some adjustment in your mojo. Add in a black cat bone.

    Or just write the names of 5 brands on a sheet of paper, tack it to the wall, and throw a dart.
    When a new board is released to market, one can only rely on the value of the brand name, or the reputation of the company behind that name. After say three years, you can count the number of dead boards and dissapointed customers (in case the company does not stand behind their product) and reach a conclusion of the performance of the board and brand.

    As I do not have the budget for bleeding edge hardware anyway, I hope to learn from satisfied customers what boards and brands have performed well over time.
      My Computer


 
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