Recommendations for alternatives to ASUS for high-end motherboard

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x509

2[H]4U
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Sep 20, 2009
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After 20+ years of using only ASUS mottherboards in at least 8 system builds I need to find another vendor. Recommendations appreciated.

Important points are:
  • overall build quality
  • BIOS support long-term
  • support utilities

I am not an overclocker, so overclocking ability is a nice-to-have but not as important as the three points above. Price is not as important, because saving a few bucks isn't worth a lot of hassle when I'm building my rig or using it for years.

I just had a terrible support experience on behalf a a friend for whom I was building a system based on (his needs) a low-end motherboard. On the other hand, i'm about to build my next build, a "Photoshop killer" machine. I've done some preliminary research and I will get a motherboard that uses an 8-core Intel CPU, 64 GB of RAM (but can support up to 128 GB), a 1060-class graphics card with enough memory to drive a 4K display. I was intending to get a higher mid-range or even top-range ASUS board, but after this support experience, no way Jose.

x509
 
Look no further than MSI. I did 5 yrs and 10 builds ago for similar reasons and haven't looked back. I can't say demonstrably better than Asus all I can say with surity is I don't miss my Maximus boards, and I generally pay less and get more.
 
I saw your other thread. Sorry to hear that Asus screwed you. Unfortunately there are many other stories about the same thing happening to other people so there seems to be a clear pattern of Asus doing this BS.

I have only had to RMA two boards, and both were open box items from Micro Center. Both were Gigabyte. Because they were such a good deal I decided to try RMA vs returning them. Each time the process was smooth and I got back working boards. Gigabyte had warranty based on the serial number so I never even had to show them a receipt or anything like that which I liked.
One board was AMD AM3+ so no possibility of a bent pin issue. It had a dead network port.
The other was an X99. It had 2 RAM slots not working out of 4. I saw no bent pins, and Gigabyte never pulled the bent pin BS on me. Like I said, each time I just got back a working board.
I have never had to do an RMA with MSI so I'm not sure how that would work out.
 
I recommend checking here at the [H], and potentially hitting up Dan_D for his insight.

And generally speaking, just check Newegg/Amazon reviews for the class of board you're looking to purchase. Every manufacturer has their gems and their duds.
 
Every brand has their issues, MSI has it's bad days for sure as well. I've changed few years back from MSI to Asrock and I've yet to have one board failing on me. But who knows, maybe the next one would be the one...
So unfortunately or fortunately ;) can't say anything about their support.
 
Asus is my favorite board manufacturer but their CS is legendarily bad. None of them are stellar tho but Gigabyte does seem to be better than the others judging by online reviews and forum posts.
 
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