Best Mobo Manufacturer?????

[wahrez]

What do you guys recommend as a good motherboard manufacturer??? and which particular motherboards to you recommend.

What are the specific things to look for in a good mobo??

[sharder8]

Just my .02 worth, but the number one thing I looked for was stability. I did a lot of looking around bac in April and May and finally settled on the MicroStar MSI-6195 K7 Pro for my Athlon Classic. I haven't been disappointed with it yet!

There are many newer boards out that all leave mine in the dust, but back then, mine was holding its own against all the leaders and was more stable. I'm waiting for more info and time on the new MicroStar K7T Pro Turbo and when the time comes that I buy a new MoBo, I'll do a lot of research on what's available at that time.

Harder

[RobRich]

I've personally had the best luck with Asus products for mainstream systems. I also tend to favor Tekram for stability and competitive price for some purposes.

The best way to assess any particular board is to reference both prodcut reviews and user reviews on the Internet. This will quickly tell ya' about a particular m/b's quality.

However, manufacturer analysis is often a different story. I mentioned earlier that I purchase some Tekram boards. I actually like their i815E boards, but I would honestly recommend avoiding their other boards "like the plague". Some companies excell with certain m/b lines, but completely fail in others.

Robert Richmond

[NDC]

For dual processor systems, I found great stability with Tyan mainboards. As for single processor systems, Soltek, Gigabyte, and Abit have been my favorite..

I would also have to agree that STABILITY is priority on my list.

[Doomer]

Tyan for stability. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Soyo for overclocking. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[cheapster]

I heartily endorse Microstar aka MSI. I have two of the MSI-6309 Via 133A chipset boards and they have been excellent. Very stable, easy to install, not at all picky about ram or other peripherals. Run anything from the Celeron PPGA to the P3 coppermines. Runs my P3 600E at 744 and my Cco Celeron 600 at 900 effortlessly at 1.7 volts each. These are a little old now but are available for just $85 at www.mwave.com. (http://www.mwave.com.) They do support AGPx4, UDMA 66 and can run the ram separately from the fsb at 133 mhz. I may have to try their K7TPro 2-A for a Duron when I upgrade my Celeron 366 on a Soyo motherboard. Hopefully I will get a big enough tax refund to make it possible. If the Kt133 chipset and Duron are anywhere near as nice and stable as my Celeron/PIII 6309 combos are, I will be a happy camper!
Chuck

[canit]

Stability is the most important ability I look for in a motherboard so I have to agree with sharder8, MSI. BTW Anandtech uses several MSI K7T PRO motherboards in their servers.

[Andy_L]

Asus for their support and MSI for being a great stable supported board for their price.

[ResearchMonkey]

[personal pitch] ...When my reputation is on the line, I use ASUS motherboards. [/personal pitch]

I often build or assist/encourage people to build their own systems. And recommend the Asus unless they have special needs.

For Dual Xeon's (http://www.asus.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Pentiumpro/Xg-dls/index.html) http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif, ...only Asus.