The ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance

[erek]

Not for me.

"Most motherboard vendors out there try to offer their own gaming sub-brands, and try to get various component manufacturers onboard, which is the make-it or break-it factor, along with the required diligence of all involved parties to utilize the brand. ASUS is the brand that has managed to onboard not just a single brand in every component category but multiples, and even got them to offer a range of products for the consumer to pick from.

The second important element of the right product type both in quality and performance also holds true nicely across all the products we got to put the system together, while some brands not investing as much effort into the branding than others is fine, as the user once again has the choice to opt for a different manufacturer if they want more of that TUF camouflage on a specific component.

Both these pillars make the TUF Gaming Alliance a surprisingly potent guide for mainstream gamers, who will be rewarded with not just the performance one would expect from the segment, but also with that cohesive look you won't be able to replicate any other way. Consider it like collecting all pieces of an armor set in an RPG: it looks the coolest when it all comes together.

In that sense, the ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance with all its partner brands, like Cooler Master, Apacer, and Teamgroup, can confidently say: mission accomplished."

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asus-tuf-gaming-alliance/

 

[FLECOM]

it's beyond me why anyone would by anything ASUS with their record of screwing over their customers

 

[jardows]

I preferred the original TUF products - 5 year warranty and extra stability built-in.

 

[PeaKr]

it's beyond me why anyone would by anything ASUS with their record of screwing over their customers

The last 3 Asus boards I bought crapped out on me within a year. They were all mid range boards. To their credit I was able to rma all of them within a timely period. I've had good luck with asrock, gigabyte and supermicro over the last 10 years, no failures. Rather than publishing a bunch of hype asus would be better off using quality components and building a good reputation.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

I preferred the original TUF products - 5 year warranty and extra stability built-in.

yup agree.. the original TUF products were actually worthy of the name.. once they got that recognition they rode that brand name into the ground and now it's nothing more than an over priced base model board.

 

[lightsout]

yup agree.. the original TUF products were actually worthy of the name.. once they got that recognition they rode that brand name into the ground and now it's nothing more than an over priced base model board.

Part of that is true but have to disagree with the overpriced part. The boards at least are usually some of the most affordable.

 

[pendragon1]

Part of that is true but have to disagree with the overpriced part. The boards at least are usually some of the most affordable.

thats the only reason i bought my b450m tuf, had the features i wanted for $40-50 less. its the first asus board ive ever bought. guess ill see how it holds up. at least if i ever have to rma it there arent any socket pins to bend...

 

[kirbyrj]

The last 3 Asus boards I bought crapped out on me within a year. They were all mid range boards. To their credit I was able to rma all of them within a timely period. I've had good luck with asrock, gigabyte and supermicro over the last 10 years, no failures. Rather than publishing a bunch of hype asus would be better off using quality components and building a good reputation.

I've had the opposite experience. I've had nothing but good luck with Asus except for a cheap AM3+ board. I even got a fixed RMA back when I sent it in.

Asus generally is pushing bios updates out to fix minor issues long after other boards have "moved on" to their next gen boards. Some Gigabyte boards never get beyond their release bios. Asus released a bios 2 years after the previously released bios for the Sabertooth 990FX to add NVMe support.

 

[bigdogchris]

it's beyond me why anyone would by anything ASUS with their record of screwing over their customers

I only buy Asus motherboards, but I haven't had to RMA one for 15 years. I'm assuming the next one will not go well based on the customer service reports I read here. But sometimes you have to burn your hand on the stove before you learn not to touch.

 

[FLECOM]

I only buy Asus motherboards, but I haven't had to RMA one for 15 years. I'm assuming the next one will not go well based on the customer service reports I read here. But sometimes you have to burn your hand on the stove before you learn not to touch.

na it's not their hardware I have a problem with, it's the way they treat customers and RMAs... friend of mine was the same way, bought only ASUS, recently had a mobo die and I told him to take high res pictures of the board from multiple angles and sides because they have been known to claim physical damage to deny RMAs... he told me I was crazy and said it would be fine... turns out before he packed it up he took the photos just in case... sure enough ASUS claimed there was damage to the mobo (GIANT gash, looked like someone attacked it with a screw driver) and they were going to deny the claim... he said that was BS, sent them the pictures of the board and they sent him a new board no questions asked... that's insane to me

 

[Comixbooks]

Asrock is my goto brand just because they look nice and are made in Vietnam. I was ASUS fan a few years back. Micro Star Inc. boards are good for those Ryzen chips.

 

[RanceJustice]

Maybe my experience is outdated, but it seems like Asus hardware, at least on the higher end such as the ROG (and I assume, TUF which is a halfstep down but "above" the model-number-only lineup) motherboards and GPUs, has been both technically and in terms of longevity at the top of the line. ROG mobos tend to be among the best in terms of hardware/component features and often seem to be "the" board for overclockers and enthusiasts - ie ROG Crosshair series for Ryzen users, Zenith for Threadripper, Maximus and Rampage for Intel etc. When I've compared them to board from MSI and Gigabyte/Aorus it always seems that ASUS comes out just a bit ahead, at least in the past. GPUs seem similar, though the variability between brands tends to be smaller and there are others in the mix as well (ie Sapphire for AMD and EVGA for Nvidia ) ; even little things like Asus's Aura RGB lighting control seems to be the most open an well supported of the RGB platforms/SDKs , unless something has changed.

I've not run into a need to RMA a board as described for years, so they very well may have a horrible RMA process. However, I've heard horror stories from all the major mobo manufacturers so I'm not sure if Asus is any worse or if anyone else is any better. They all seem to have similar on-paper warranties or whatnot, with the higher end like ROG offering better duration/coverage but a cursory glance at others shows seem about equal - though from what others have posted here its actually the experience of the thing in contrast to what is officially stated.

I'm certainly open to other manufacturers, but at least so far I think I've been well treated by Asus' products.

 

[ChronoDetector]

Don't think I will purchase another ASUS product again, so far my experience with ASUS the last couple of years have been rather disappointing. The last good ASUS product I owned was a X99 Rampage Extreme V board which I liked and had no issues, all the other products I used after that were either buggy, slow and had a high failure rate.

Right now I have an ASUS TUF 5700 XT GPU and it is giving me trouble. Half of the time it works fine, and the other half it will either lock up my system causing a hard crash and an automatic reboot of my system while gaming. Not to mention the high temperatures of the GPU while in game at full load (85C) which is rather disappointing for a custom cooled AIB card.

 

[kirbyrj]

Don't think I will purchase another ASUS product again, so far my experience with ASUS the last couple of years have been rather disappointing. The last good ASUS product I owned was a X99 Rampage Extreme V board which I liked and had no issues, all the other products I used after that were either buggy, slow and had a high failure rate.

Right now I have an ASUS TUF 5700 XT GPU and it is giving me trouble. Half of the time it works fine, and the other half it will either lock up my system causing a hard crash and an automatic reboot of my system while gaming. Not to mention the high temperatures of the GPU while in game at full load (85C) which is rather disappointing for a custom cooled AIB card.

In fairness, if you buy a mediocre card why are you surprised by mediocre results? The TUF card is their budget basement AIB card. See also the ASRock Challenger cards.

 

[bigddybn]

In fairness, if you buy a mediocre card why are you surprised by mediocre results? The TUF card is their budget basement AIB card. See also the ASRock Challenger cards.

The card should work as advertised. The fanciness of the box isn't relevant.

 

[Dark12]

In fairness, if you buy a mediocre card why are you surprised by mediocre results? The TUF card is their budget basement AIB card. See also the ASRock Challenger cards.

Since when does budget mean you shouldn’t expect it work without freezing? Lol

 

[kirbyrj]

Since when does budget mean you shouldn’t expect it work without freezing? Lol

I was talking more about the high temps while gaming. If there is a problem with lockups that is directly attributed to the card, RMA it. Every manufacturer has duds. I haven't heard of Asus having more than others. I had a terrible experience with Sapphire RMAs. That doesn't mean that every Sapphire card is bad.

 

[HAL_404]

Micro Star Inc. boards are good for those Ryzen chips.

Yea there's an ASUS B450 Pro Gaming but for the same price you can get what most folks have been buying ... MSI B450 Tomahawk or the newer Max version. It's the best selling platform for those who prefer a stable OC but priced below Ethusiest level products. I'll be using the Max for my upcoming build matched with a Ryzen 5 2600

 

[kirbyrj]

Yea there's an ASUS B450 Pro Gaming but for the same price you can get what most folks have been buying ... MSI B450 Tomahawk or the newer Max version. It's the best selling platform for those who prefer a stable OC but priced below Ethusiest level products

I'm not sure why though. The Asus has a better onboard sound chip (ALC 1200a vs ALC 892). Other than that they are essentially identical. MSI had a terrible run with 3000 series support on B450 boards (hence the respun MAX boards). I don't exactly trust them to be at the forefront of compatibility with Zen 3.

If I were buying a B450 MSI board it would be the Gaming Pro Carbon. They run around ~$130 or so and I think it's a much better board personally. Although, you can definitely find deals if you shop around. I got a refurb Crosshair VII (non-Wifi) for $130.

 

[viivo]

The only ASUS branded things worth buying is their Wifi routers. I gave up on their motherboards years ago.

 

[alxlwson]

it's beyond me why anyone would by anything ASUS with their record of screwing over their customers

Every motherboard I've ever owned since my A7V333-X has been Asus. I've had issues with exactly one board, and it was the first one, PATA controller failed. They cross shipped me boards, easy peasy.
After that initial build, I always bought their high-end boards and have never had another issue in 17 years.