Motherboards: the brand behind the brand

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Nielo TM

Gawd
Joined
Aug 27, 2006
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997
Hey guys

I took out my old ASUS (K8V SE Deluxe) mobo, which has served me (extremely) well for the past four years, yet, I was fully unaware who the real manufacture was.

All this time, I though ASUS manufactured it, but it has Foxconn written just beneath the printer port.

So in the world of outsourcing, how do you find out who design and manufacture main-boards? Is there a clue in the layout, or a name printed somewhere imperceptible?

Also, who design the best main-boards, and who design/manufacture Intel and Gigabyte boards?

Sorry for sounding like a nube, but this is much harder than finding who manufacture the panels and components for HDTVs LOL.

Almost forgot, thanks for reading ^-^.
 
Nielo TM said:
Hey guys

I took out my old ASUS (K8V SE Deluxe) mobo, which has served me (extremely) well for the past four years, yet, I was fully unaware who the real manufacture was.

All this time, I though ASUS manufactured it, but it has Foxconn written just beneath the printer port.
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Foxconn is one of the main manufacturer of the connectors on motherboards. They didn't make the board, but they probably made all of the ports on the backplate and all of the expansion slots. If you look at the side of the PCI slots, they probably all also say Foxconn.
 
Ya, you're right. Too late to delete the post now lol


PS: Who actually design and manufacture Intel boards? Because many of you have suggested that they are very high quality and very stable, despite the user reviews in newegg.
 
Intel makes their own boards, and intel is supposed to make foxconn boards too (supposed to be more of the gamer line of mobos or something)
 
Foxconn does make boards too though. See the HTPC in my sig.

I believe they make most of Intel's boards for them.

But yes, they do make a lot of connectors as well. :)
 
Some intel boards have an intel logo while others dont. Does this mean anything?
 
Intel outsources their motherboards to Foxconn now I believe. They used to have ASUS manufacture them but no longer.

I'm not 100% on this, but I've heard this for several years now.
 
Dan_D said:
Intel outsources their motherboards to Foxconn now I believe. They used to have ASUS manufacture them but no longer.

I'm not 100% on this, but I've heard this for several years now.
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Doesn't Foxconn make EVGA and XFX's mobos as well? (I recall someone telling me that was the reason why the 780i mobos from each of them look suspiciously identical.)
 
NKDietrich said:
Doesn't Foxconn make EVGA and XFX's mobos as well? (I recall someone telling me that was the reason why the 780i mobos from each of them look suspiciously identical.)
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Yes they do. Foxconn actually manufactures many things from PCI slots, SATA connectors, and even Dell cases. They make a staggering array of items. In regard to motherboards Foxconn just builds what the spec sheet says. I blame the poor reliability of 680i SLI boards on their designer which is NVIDIA.
 
Dan_D said:
Yes they do. Foxconn actually manufactures many things from PCI slots, SATA connectors, and even Dell cases. They make a staggering array of items. In regard to motherboards Foxconn just builds what the spec sheet says. I blame the poor reliability of 680i SLI boards on their designer which is NVIDIA.
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Yeah when nvidia hands you the blueprints to a shoddy mobo, thats pretty much all you can make.
 
So Intel designs it and Foxconn manufactures it?

So would you still recommend an Intel board (specifically DP35DP), or should I go with GA-P35-DS3R?


All I need is a reliable and stable mobo (just like everyone), but the difference is, I’ll be running everything at stock.

I’ll be primarily using this for college work and some SD (MPEG 2) video editing. I may also use it to play BD movies. This is why I don’t want the board to fail during any of the semesters.
 
Certainly other large manufacturers like ECS & Foxconn have made mobos under subcontract for other companies - I know that abit used to have some of it's lower end mATX mobos made that way (I believe that where necessary it's now done by USI their new parent company since becoming Universal abit).
I read on Digitimes that even Asus were looking at subcontracting out upto 50% of their mobo production.
 
Nielo TM said:
So Intel designs it and Foxconn manufactures it?

So would you still recommend an Intel board (specifically DP35DP), or should I go with GA-P35-DS3R?


All I need is a reliable and stable mobo (just like everyone), but the difference is, I’ll be running everything at stock.

I’ll be primarily using this for college work and some SD (MPEG 2) video editing. I may also use it to play BD movies. This is why I don’t want the board to fail during any of the semesters.
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Correct. If you are going to run everything stock I'd suggest going with the Intel motherboards. They are some of the best around.
 
I know Intel provides excellent BIOS support, but I keep hearing it's unstable, (crashing mostly).

So I am klinda back to square one.

Anyway, I am off do to more research and I'll let you guys choose the final board.
 
Nielo TM said:
I know Intel provides excellent BIOS support, but I keep hearing it's unstable, (crashing mostly).

So I am klinda back to square one.

Anyway, I am off do to more research and I'll let you guys choose the final board.
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I've never had those types of problems with Intel boards. They have all been some of the most stable boards I've ever used.
 
I always thought the reason behind the whole stability thang with Intel boards was because they didn't support a lot of newer features in those boards and the boards most people were talking about were for servers. Even today when you start thinking about boards that are packed with the newest features, Intel doesn't really come to mind for gamers and enthusiasts. But thats just how I have come to see that whole viewpoint...perhaps I am laboring under some misapprehensions.
 
TheDigs said:
I always thought the reason behind the whole stability thang with Intel boards was because they didn't support a lot of newer features in those boards and the boards most people were talking about were for servers. Even today when you start thinking about boards that are packed with the newest features, Intel doesn't really come to mind for gamers and enthusiasts. But thats just how I have come to see that whole viewpoint...perhaps I am laboring under some misapprehensions.
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The Intel boards usually support all the major features and standards and the chipsets are as advanced as anything on the market and usually more so. The only thing against them is Intel doesn't support any legacy stuff on their newer boards. No parallel ports, serial ports, floppy drive support, and no PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports. Excluding those limitations they are as advanced and as feature rich as anything else.
 
& of course up until relatively recently & even then on only a few mobos they weren't overclock friendly.
 
BUFF said:
& of course up until relatively recently & even then on only a few mobos they weren't overclock friendly.
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Right. The D975XBX was essentially the first really overclock friendly board if I am not mistaken. They've had thier burn in mode on boards going back to the 915P chipset based desktop boards but they never went over 15% clock speed increase. Now they have the D975XBX, D975XBX2, DX38BT and D5400XS which offer decent overclocking options.
 
I’ve finally chosen the boards and I need your help to lower the final choices to just one.

Keep in mind that I’ll be running everything at stock speed. Because I desperately want the board to last longer and remain stable/reliable, I’ll be using a 65W Core 2 Duo E4500 (or a 30W E8200), 1.8v DDR2 RAM @ 667 MHz and ATI HD3650.


OK, here are the candidates:

ASUS:

  • Asus P5K-E/WIFI-AP
  • Asus P5K Premium/WiFi-AP

Abit:

  • Abit IP-35 Pro

Gigabyte:


  • GA-P35-DS3R
  • GA-EP35-DS3R
  • GA-EP35-DS3P
  • GA-P35C-DS3R

Intel:
  • DP35DP (BOXDP35DPM)


PS: I'll be using Creative X-Fi (early version) as well as SATA based DVD reader/writer.

PPS: I know Intel offers the best BIOS support (not to mention how easy it is to update via CD-Image). But, what about the others boards?


.
 
of the Gigabytes I prefer the DS3P over the DS3Rs & I would put it & the Asus' & the abit all broadly on the same level so it's down to your choice of features, budget etc..

The Intel is a slightly different beast (e.g. it doesn't have the overclocking abilities of the others) & may in fact suit your requirements best- it won't have the same feature set but it will also be cheaper.
 
^^^ I learned that the hard way lol




Back on topic, I decided to go with the Intel board. But there's a slight problem! It doesn't have a FDD connector, so how can I install the SATA drivers (without resorting to slipstreaming)? Would a USB floppy be suffice?



PS: Like I said before, I have a WinXP (2002 version), w/o any service packs. So is that going to be a problem? If so, I might have to go with another board.
 
Nielo TM said:
^^^ I learned that the hard way lol




Back on topic, I decided to go with the Intel board. But there's a slight problem! It doesn't have a FDD connector, so how can I install the SATA drivers (without resorting to slipstreaming)? Would a USB floppy be suffice?



PS: Like I said before, I have a WinXP (2002 version), w/o any service packs. So is that going to be a problem? If so, I might have to go with another board.
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USB floppy ought to work just fine. I haven't used an internal floppy drive in years, but the USB floppy I have comes in handy every once in a while.
 
Nielo TM said:
I’ve finally chosen the boards and I need your help to lower the final choices to just one.

Keep in mind that I’ll be running everything at stock speed. Because I desperately want the board to last longer and remain stable/reliable, I’ll be using a 65W Core 2 Duo E4500 (or a 30W E8200), 1.8v DDR2 RAM @ 667 MHz and ATI HD3650.


OK, here are the candidates:

ASUS:

  • Asus P5K-E/WIFI-AP
  • Asus P5K Premium/WiFi-AP

Abit:

  • Abit IP-35 Pro

Gigabyte:


  • GA-P35-DS3R
  • GA-EP35-DS3R
  • GA-EP35-DS3P
  • GA-P35C-DS3R

Intel:
  • DP35DP (BOXDP35DPM)


PS: I'll be using Creative X-Fi (early version) as well as SATA based DVD reader/writer.

PPS: I know Intel offers the best BIOS support (not to mention how easy it is to update via CD-Image). But, what about the others boards?


.
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I just picked up a Intel DP35DP today for my Media Center build. It was cheap ($99.99) and so far its' solid. It gave me no problems out of the box and it was everything I hoped it would be. When its' just got to work I usually pick Intel over anything else. I thought about going ASUS for this one but I wanted to keep the price down. If you don't want to overclock the DP35DP is a damned nice board. Beware it has no legacy support for anything except PATA drives. No floppy and no PS/2 ports, serial ports, or parallel ports.
 
Excellent!

What OS did you install?

Because I am worried about the SATA drivers and service packs (XP)
 
Nielo TM said:
Excellent!

What OS did you install?

Because I am worried about the SATA drivers and service packs (XP)
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I am using Windows Vista Ultimate x64. I had no trouble enabling AHCI mode. (No RAID right now.) As for Windows XP, it comes with all the SATA/AHCI/RAID drivers on floppy and it has all the XP stuff you need in the box. Otherwise it is a really basic bundle, but it gives you what you need.
 
use nLite or vLite [for XP & Vista respectivly] and you can embed text mode drivers [aka: SATA/RAID] into your installation disc ;)


And yes..intel boards are rock solid and all but bullet proof.

Asus is a close second, altho they tend to suffer from some shady BIOS issues that you won't find in an intel board...BUT...the Asus do tend to be more gamer/OC friendly
 
jkalland said:
use nLite or vLite [for XP & Vista respectivly] and you can embed text mode drivers [aka: SATA/RAID] into your installation disc ;)


And yes..intel boards are rock solid and all but bullet proof.

Asus is a close second, altho they tend to suffer from some shady BIOS issues that you won't find in an intel board...BUT...the Asus do tend to be more gamer/OC friendly
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Exactly. I wanted a reasonably priced board that would be bullet proof and this seemed like a good fit. I'd like to point out that I'm using the optical out on the onboard sound and it is connected to my receiver in my home theatre setup and it sounds awesome really. I was VERY surprised by the quality of the onboard audio solution. Overall I think this is a very solid board for the price. If you don't need Crossfire or legacy connectors and want to run your box at stock speeds the DP35DP is a solid choice.
 
As prolly told FOXCONN makes crap tons of stuff most likely every motherboard has some foxconn part on it. in China the factory is in a small walled city that has it's own hospital, fire station, swimming pool, athletic field a separate area for the basketball courts and even a bookstore. I think it's holds around 250,000 people and all live onsite. and this is just one of the facility.
 
Nielo TM said:
PS: Who actually design and manufacture Intel boards? Because many of you have suggested that they are very high quality and very stable, despite the user reviews in newegg.
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I've seen it said time and time again never to trust Newegg reviews but, still, I wonder why the reviews of Intel motherboards are so far reality. Reading the reviews you'd think that Intel boards are worse than ECS. Any theories?
 
Newegg reviews have exactly zero credibility with me. Just read the reviews and you'll notice that most of the people that bother to fill those out have no idea what they are talking about.

I've never had any problems to speak of with Intel motherboards. If I'm building systems that won't be overclocked, they are my number one choice for reliability. I've never gone wrong with this line of thinking. I've got a number of them some of which are more than 10 years old and they still work.
 
Dan_D said:
Newegg reviews have exactly zero credibility with me. Just read the reviews and you'll notice that most of the people that bother to fill those out have no idea what they are talking about.

I've never had any problems to speak of with Intel motherboards. If I'm building systems that won't be overclocked, they are my number one choice for reliability. I've never gone wrong with this line of thinking. I've got a number of them some of which are more than 10 years old and they still work.
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It's a good way to get a consensus on a product, if 500 people give it 5-stars, and maybe 5 people gave it 0-stars saying "IT WAS DOA" Generally means the product works well unless you get a DOA...

I don't make decisions based on newegg reviews, but it does help to give a general idea.
 
Blazestorm said:
It's a good way to get a consensus on a product, if 500 people give it 5-stars, and maybe 5 people gave it 0-stars saying "IT WAS DOA" Generally means the product works well unless you get a DOA...

I don't make decisions based on newegg reviews, but it does help to give a general idea.
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I don't agree. You should know by now that the people who have problems will go out of their way to complain while people who have no problems rarely go out of their way to praise the product. That's human nature. So if 5,000 people purchased the product and you see 500 complaints online about it you really haven't learned anything. All you are getting is one side of the story which only amounts to 10% of the sales.

So again 500 complaints on Newegg do not and never could convince me to buy or not to buy a given product. I check reputable reviews and I listen to others I know who might have purchased the same equipment. When flying blind I'd rather just go with my gut feeling or past experiences with that brand and their products while making my decision. Newegg reviews are the last thing I'd ever look at when buying a product. Forum comments are another thing I might be inclined to base my decision from but only after reading the comments very carefully and asking questions.
 
Like I said, I don't make decisions based on the reviews, but it gives a general idea of how many people are happy with the product.

I've been recommended a product by 10+ friends... and I buy it, it's a POS... juts depends...

Newegg is full of idiots, but a mass of idiots can usually determine if something is functioning right or wrong...

*More related to this topic

I bought a Foxconn AM2 board, my friend bought one that looked exactly the same but was Evga, and cost $30 more... I helped him build his machine and noticed an "EVGA" sticker in the exact spot where my Foxconn logo was on the board, I peeled it back and read Foxconn underneath.

Super-lazy EVGA :)
 
Foxconn makes a lot of motherboards... they stuck with OEM (like Dell and HP) making super-stable boards for a while... more recently did the retail style boards...

I'd buy Foxconn if it had the features I wanted... I have 1 Foxconn and 1 Abit board...
 
Dan_D said:
Newegg reviews have exactly zero credibility with me. Just read the reviews and you'll notice that most of the people that bother to fill those out have no idea what they are talking about.

I've never had any problems to speak of with Intel motherboards. If I'm building systems that won't be overclocked, they are my number one choice for reliability. I've never gone wrong with this line of thinking. I've got a number of them some of which are more than 10 years old and they still work.
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Agree. Most of the machines I deploy now are just dells or hp but if I am building a machine for business or a non-gamer it gets an intel board. I've had great luck with them over the years. I also haven't had the issues with them that people have had(including myself) with some other companies like via. Anyone remember the kt133/kt133a chipset issues? Yea.


Blazestorm said:
Foxconn makes a lot of motherboards... they stuck with OEM (like Dell and HP) making super-stable boards for a while... more recently did the retail style boards...

I'd buy Foxconn if it had the features I wanted... I have 1 Foxconn and 1 Abit board...
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Yea they are one of the larger builders behind asus and ecs if I'm not mistaken. ECS is also huge in the oem market and were only passed a few years ago by asus. They just don't have the retail push that the others have. Foxconn also makes a lot of other products other then the connectors. If I'm not mistaken they have a deal to make xbox360s, apple products, etc. ECS also makes notebooks along with asus for a lot of other vendors. Don't think foxconn does at this point but I could be wrong.
 
Dan_D said:
Exactly. I wanted a reasonably priced board that would be bullet proof and this seemed like a good fit. I'd like to point out that I'm using the optical out on the onboard sound and it is connected to my receiver in my home theatre setup and it sounds awesome really. I was VERY surprised by the quality of the onboard audio solution. Overall I think this is a very solid board for the price. If you don't need Crossfire or legacy connectors and want to run your box at stock speeds the DP35DP is a solid choice.
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I picked up that board last summer because of the price and it being Intel. I run 8 systems off an 8 port KVM and didn't notice the board lacked the PS2 ports :eek: Got the keyboard to work with an adapter, but had to use a usb mouse to that system. Board is solid and I just upgraded the proc to q6600...

also have XBX2 which I really like...
 
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