Need Recommendation for AMD Motherboard

[incurablegeek]

Gosh, I hate to ask such a Newbie Question.

For many years now I have purchased ASUS AMD motherboards. My two Crosshair boards, which I have been using for quite awhile, are bulletproof.

I recently purchased an ASUS M5A97 EVO Motherboard, which worked fine during the initial setup in another case. After moving the board to a much larger HAF case, all of my DDR-3 RAM (2 sets of 16 GB Corsair) which worked before no longer works. Without sounding like a "smarty pants", I tried all the obvious stuff with MemTest, change of PSU cables, testing each stick of RAM at a time - everything.

Now I don't buy junk, and I don't overclock or game. I use my boards for business and they can't go down. Always use vinyl gloves and static straps during installs.

I am hoping you can tell me which board will suffice as a replacement for this one that I must RMA.

Please:

1) No discussion of NAS
2) No discussion of RAID
3) No suggestions that Gigabyte might be the best choice. I have had nothing but bad experiences with that immoral company. (Check out the UD-3 and UD-5 threads on OCN.)

As my Daddy used to say, "if you're gonna tell me a lie, at least tell me a good one".
And GB doesn't even lie well.

What I need is:

1) Lots of on-board 6 Gbs. SATA ports
2) Front panel USB connector
3) Just running an AMD Quad Core on this one (With Noctua NH-D14)
4) Corsair RAM XMS-3 and Corsair Vengeance - each 16 GB (4 X 4 and 2 X eight)

Still looking at ASUS:

1) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131851

2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131969

If you feel that I can get by with a much cheaper motherboard, even one that is not an ASUS, please have at me. My ego is plenty durable, and I am not afraid of being proven wrong. I just need reliability without overclocking and gaming.

Oh, one question for my edification: What's the difference in quality between a $100.00 board and a $200.00 board? In all the reviews I have read, they all get both praise and criticism, such that the board you get seems to depend on the luck of the draw.

Thanks guys!

 

[Faladu]

SO your saying, ALL you did was move a motherboard from one case to another, and the RAM no longer works, but tested fine on another board after the fact? New case PSU or that was moved also?
If new PSU in the case, I'd be testing that.

What specifically indicated to you the board was bad?

$200 boards likely have a better chipset (Southbridge) these days, more PCIe x16 slots, and possibly a better on-board sound chip, then a $100 board.

Shopping wise I would use pcpartpicker.com and first select the CPU in question, so it only shows compatible motherboards using the system builder.

 

[DocBrown]

Well I am a Gigabyte MB fan with AMD CPUs

What socket does your AMD CPU fit into, or are your going to get a new CPU, also ?

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE/AMD Motherboards

 

[OvenMaster]

From what (little) I know, ASUS and Gigabyte are the most reliable, yet you had trouble with both.
I thought ASRock had a good reliability rep, but I had two of the same model have PCI slot failure in 17 months.
That said, I'd look at Biostar. I had one a few years ago and it was rock solid reliable.

 

[Faladu]

My current MSI board is good, it's a revision, the first broke in about 6 or so months, no waiting on warranty board, ate the loss, not waiting weeks being down my good PC, though I took insurance on the second.
2nd board had a much more robust BIOS but I do not over clock, which apparently would have been bad, since there is a heat warning on the specs page at MSI for this board even though it's 'very overclocking' friendly, DUH on MSI!

I have Gigabyte and PCS boards still alive and well after 6+ years.
Motherboards overall are a crap shoot especially if you are getting one just brought to market, internal testing of them has to be someone limited, nature of the beast, so reviewers and early buyers wind up being beta board testers.

Show me a motherboard with no revisions OR bios updates.... tick tock tick tock....

SO really research motherboards and knowing what you should want IS another thing entirely.

Like now, I want as many SATA and USB 3.0 spec ports POSSIBLE on the board.

My MSI is 2 USB 3.0's and 7 SATA, noticed a new MSI board just last week, only had 6 SATA I am using exactly 6, I was going to try to use 7, but cabling issues and determined the HD for #7 was getting a little too noisy (possible failure soon) and not spending another dime for now on hardware.

 

[madcratebuilder]

Gigabyte and ASUS have served me well, a GB AM3+ and a ASUS socket 939 have been very dependable and have suffered my screw ups without letting out the magic smoke. I have a BioStar in the ball and chains computer and it has been doing a yeoman's duty.

Choosing components that work well together is more important than brand names IMHO.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Oh, one question for my edification: What's the difference in quality between a $100.00 board and a $200.00 board?

Cost isn't the main indicator, as features increase cost regardless of quality.
In general the boards made with overclocking in mind are the best ones (more likely to survive abuse as they were designed to be pushed to the limit in the first place), but you don't need to go overboard and buy a ROG board to get quality.

I'll personally bring also Asrock to the table, as their forays in high-end boards are worth checking out. Look at this. or here
Check the memory compatibility here although I rarely if ever had issues with using non-recommended RAM.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157281

 

[incurablegeek]

Please allow me to reply to Faladu first.

SO your saying, ALL you did was move a motherboard from one case to another, and the RAM no longer works, but tested fine on another board after the fact? New case PSU or that was moved also?
If new PSU in the case, I'd be testing that.

Yes sir, everything is brand new and first class stuff. Seasonic (the only mfr. that I know of that actually designs and makes it own PSU's; also mfrs. the high end PSU's for Corsair, etc.), Corsair RAM (both sets), AMD quad-core brand new, Noctua NH-D14 also brand new (3rd one I have installed also).

If new PSU in the case, I'd be testing that.

Good suggestion. I did so on two testers. Also swapped it for a Corsair PSU that I know is working fine. Same problem with RAM.

What specifically indicated to you the board was bad? The DIM slots can be the only thing. Everything else tests out OK.

Here is what ASUS tech support said (Note: Mfrs. nowadays prefer to deal with RMA's than build quality products - a corporate policy that appeared only after moving their factories to China)

Dear Dennis,

Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.
My name is John and it is my pleasure to help you with your problem.

Suggest you take the motherboard out of the case, and just keep a CPU, a graphic card, a memory on the motherboard to test again.
If it is not helpful, please consider to change some other components for a further check or take the components to another motherboard to make sure that they can keep working well.
If the motherboard still could not boot up well, seems something wrong with the motherboard.
In this situation, you will need to contact our RMA department for assistance.
Please submit the RMA request on the following website, then the RMA department will follow up the case for you.
http://vip.asus.com/eservice/usa_rmaserv.aspx
Please include your name, mailing address, telephone number, and the serial number of your product.


Welcome to refer Troubleshooting & FAQ for ASUS products in ASUS website:
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- I will be doing this before I RMA the board!

If you continue to experience issues in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us.

An email survey will be sent to you within the next 5 days. Please be sure to rate the service I provided to you today.


Best Regards,
John
ASUS Product Support Team
812-282-2787