Reliability of current motherboards?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Janie
  • Start date Start date
J

Janie

I'm shopping for a motherboard and am dismayed to see what seems to me
to be an unacceptably high proportion of problems with boards from
formerly reliable companies.

For instance, 15% of newegg customers rated Asus's p5q pro very poor or
poor due to DOA boards, dead slot, etc. 19% rated Asus's P5N the same
way for the same reasons. A large number of EVGA, Gigabyte and
customers of other companies told similar tales. And too many of the
x58 boards seem worse.

I don't want to gamble with this purchase, but I'm thinking there's no
way to avoid that. So I wonder if anyone here, maybe someone who deals
with a large number of components, might be able to give me some advice
based on their experience that will tip the odds a little more in my favor.

Thanks.

Janie
 
There is no gamble. ASUS, EVGA and Gigabyte have RMA service based in USA.
If it fails, ship it to them and they will repair or send you a new one. I
am sure most of the 15% that reported DOA really had some other issue as
that is often the case with motherboards. I usually buy the open box
motherboards from Newegg and save a lot. I did have one ASUS MB that
sometimes did not boot. Turns out there was a little sticker stuck in the
PCIe slot. Works great now.
 
Kent_Diego said:
There is no gamble. ASUS, EVGA and Gigabyte have RMA service based in
USA. If it fails, ship it to them and they will repair or send you a new
one. I am sure most of the 15% that reported DOA really had some other
issue as that is often the case with motherboards. I usually buy the
open box motherboards from Newegg and save a lot. I did have one ASUS MB
that sometimes did not boot. Turns out there was a little sticker stuck
in the PCIe slot. Works great now.
Click to expand...


Yep...
I purchased and open-box board from NewEgg at a substantial savings.
Though the cmos battery was dead...once I replaced it...the board worked
perfectly.

Since NewEgg had a 15 day return policy on it...I figured that
purchasing an open-box item was not too big of a gamble.

That said...as to ASUS...they are still a good name...though I've never
thought there was anything "magical" about them. They can still have an
occasional failure just like any other reliable manufacturer.
 
Janie said:
For instance, 15% of newegg customers rated....
Click to expand...

More like 15% of newegg customers who decided to fill out the rating, out of
whom are a much higher percentage of those with problems than the overall
purchasers.

In other words, take the "reviews" with a grain of salt.

What they are useful for is helping to notice if there might be a particular
problem with a particular model, like back when some boards had bad caps.
When half of the reviews say, "the caps turned bad after three months and
bulged and leaked," it sounds like a pretty safe bet that there is a
problem.

Likewise, when the problems are scattered about, it can be due to operator
error, or just random chance of a bad board (with a higher percentage of
those getting the bad board/ having operator error reporting it).

Jon
 
Janie said:
I'm shopping for a motherboard and am dismayed to see what seems to me to
be an unacceptably high proportion of problems with boards from formerly
reliable companies.

For instance, 15% of newegg customers rated Asus's p5q pro very poor or
poor due to DOA boards, dead slot, etc. 19% rated Asus's P5N the same way
for the same reasons. A large number of EVGA, Gigabyte and customers of
other companies told similar tales. And too many of the x58 boards seem
worse.

I don't want to gamble with this purchase, but I'm thinking there's no way
to avoid that. So I wonder if anyone here, maybe someone who deals with a
large number of components, might be able to give me some advice based on
their experience that will tip the odds a little more in my favor.

Thanks.

Janie
Click to expand...
Hi

When I build a PC I go for reliability against bleeding edge. In the last
few machines I built I used Intel boards, currently DP35DP with a core 2
quad q6600, but will look again now as there are some newer models out.
Intel boards don't generally overclock, but unless you are going to be into
serious gaming I consider this setup is fast enough for normal office use
and the occasional game.

Hope this helps

Bob
 
Janie said:
I'm shopping for a motherboard and am dismayed to see what seems to me
to be an unacceptably high proportion of problems with boards from
formerly reliable companies.

For instance, 15% of newegg customers rated Asus's p5q pro very poor or
poor due to DOA boards, dead slot, etc. 19% rated Asus's P5N the same
way for the same reasons. A large number of EVGA, Gigabyte and customers
of other companies told similar tales. And too many of the x58 boards
seem worse.

I don't want to gamble with this purchase, but I'm thinking there's no
way to avoid that. So I wonder if anyone here, maybe someone who deals
with a large number of components, might be able to give me some advice
based on their experience that will tip the odds a little more in my favor.

Thanks.

Janie
Click to expand...

Thank you very much, everyone, for your sensible and practical comments.
I feel more comfortable about getting a MB and will focus on features
and stop worrying about possible problems.

Janie
 
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