What makes a motherboard good or bad?

[Sabbath]

What features should you look at when shopping for a motherboard to know if it would be considered good or bad?

These boards will not be OC.

God Bless

Sabbath

[solo-pc-tech]

I repair and sell computers and have used motherboards from many manufacturers.

Generally I buy on features. There are only a few brands to avoid, primarily the really cheap ones like the ones based on the PC Chips chipsets.

Here are the brands I have used in the past few years:
Abit, ASUS, Chaintech, DFI(Diamond Flower), FIC, Gigabyte, Intel, Mtech, Micronics, Soyo, Supermicro, MSI(Microstar), Tyan. Also Antec, AOpen, Biostar, EliteGroup.

I would be reluctant to use FIC and Soyo again as they are cheaply made and I had problems with boards of each brand.

Also, even one manufacture makes some boards that are better than others. And a once 'good' manufacturer can slip. My recent experience with ASUS is that they have slipped.

[Sabbath]

Specify features. What features makes one board better than another?

The reason I ask is what I am looking for are boards that run both AMD and Intel chips and wide array of speeds (600-1.4 range), easy to set up and very stable. These boards will not be OC.

I am basically wanting something that once I build the computer I don't have to worry about 1000 things going wrong in a week because I bought a cheap board.

Thanks for any and all help

God Bless

[eagle1]

It really depends on everything you want.. I mean.. If you want a good and fast motherboard for an Athlon, you have to be aware that there are different Ram settings (some mobos use ddr's while others use the normal SDram kind). Some Athlons come in 266fsb flavor while others are 200, etc..!

Please specify what kind of memory, is it a Duron, or Athlon, Pentium3 or 4 (a different mobo with different ram), etc. Will you be using the comp. for games or just business..!
etcetcetc

[Sabbath]

I will probably be going with duron chips using PC100 or PC133. These will be sold retail so I can't answere last question, but I am assuming it will probably be both leaning towards gaming.

Once I get more capitol http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif I will be moving towards T-birds. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[bdunn]

I think Shuttle makes the best of the budget boards. I would avoid FIC as I've had a few bad experiences with them.

[bdunn]

I think Shuttle makes the best of the budget boards. I would avoid FIC as I've had a few bad experiences with them.

[Ballastboss]

MSI makes solid and very sable boards.

http://www.msicomputer.com/

Heres a good article that may help.
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1487

[Banti]

Regardless of brand, features, and requirements, one big thing for me is component placement. I do not want my ide ports right beside the AGP slot, or near the far side of the board. I also need the ram in an easy to get to location (not too close to the slot/socket). I also prefer to not have my ATX power connector to be too close to anything. If I cannot go to a webpage and see a detailed photo of the mobo, it will not be seen in any of my machines.

Banti

[Tron]

Good Day!

First dere is no bord that can use Amd and Intel-CPU´s!!! not since Soket7.

If you go for "SoketA"(AMD) then you want a
chipset that can do 133FSB(viakt133a for ex.),
can connect Uata100 harddrives or(and) has onbord-Uata100RAID and has min. 3 Memory-slots. Onbord-sound can be bugy and slow so
get a pci soundsys. And no onbord-Gfx!!!!

Good MBbrands from my exp. are: Abit, MSI, Epox and Lucky Star(=PC Chips)
I hate asus fic gigabyte & co.



[This message has been edited by Tron (edited 06-29-2001).]

[bspus]

What about QDI?
They used to be a major brand. Now I hardly ever see them mentioned. I used to own a S7 TX and a slot1 BX from them. I was generally satisfied, though the BX model could be better. Anyone using a newer board from them?

[eagle1]

Well, I have had good experiences with PCChips but you got to know that they SUCK BIG TIME.! I have used Asus and Abit mobos at the job and they work great. I recently bought a "budget" Gigabyte motherboard and it has been one of the most stable motherboards I have ever tested or played around with.!!!

You have a lot of options out there, just go with what you want.!

[Sabbath]

Thanks for all the replies. This has been very helpful.