Tom's Hardware is becoming more biased...

[clutch 1]

For Intel-based boards, my friends have only had good luck with them which is why I am really disappointed with the performance of the KG7. Oh well, it's just a reputation, right?

[Brian Frank 0]

A reputation that has been over hyped in my experience. They're okay, but I have other vendors I'll take any day over Abit. I just haven't been very impressed with Abit's efforts for Intel or AMD, and I think I'll be avoiding Abit from now on.

[Four and Twenty 0]

i agree abit sucks

tyan is my pick

[JP- 0]

To be honest, i always buy abit but i have been less than impressed with all of em

 

The KT7a just had problems. And this TH7II-RAID, while it is a nice board needed bios fixes to make it usable in an overclocked situation, and it still needs more, authough it is perfectly stable.

[OLEerror 0]

So far, the only motherboard manufacturer that I am actually happy with is EPoX. The Abit system I put together had some kind of an IDE issue and I had to put the hard drive as Single for it to work. I can't stand Tyan. I've never found a board of their's that works like it should. ASUS is good if you wait a year after they release the board. Intel's boards are over-priced. SuperMicro makes a good dual-processor board, but that's about it. Most of the others out there I won't even consider.

[Four and Twenty 0]

abit is one of the best for overclocking

i just had a bunch of bad experiences with them

 

Tyan on the other hand is a dream and if you don't care about overclocking then they are just about the best you can get. Supermicro and Intel boards are good also.

[Brian Frank 0]

Tyan is an excellent company. I wanted some OCing options along with stability, so Asus fit the bill, and now AOpen is doing just as well. The best motherboard I've ever had was the Tyan Trinity 400. Via-based, true, but the most stable board I've ever used.

Abit is nice if you want to fool around with your system, but I want to have it work the first time, rather than play with it.

 

As far as chipsets go, I never had good luck with the BX for some odd reason--and I wasn't overclocking either. However, the 815 chipset would be my pick if I were to get one based on an Intel chipset. I've been very impressed with my dad's TUSL2-C (815EP B-Step) for an Intel chipset.

 

Here's mobo companies I'll buy from again: Asus, AOpen, MSI, Tyan.

Here's mobo companies I'll avoid: Abit, FIC, Soyo.

Here's ones I have no experience with: EPoX, Iwill, DFI.

[OLEerror 0]

I've always found Tyan motherboards to perform slow. Especially their low-end server boards. The SCSI controller is either flakey or they didn't incorporate it correctly. Just my experience. I do suggest trying EPox out if you get the opportunity.

[Brian Frank 0]

I may have to in the future as I've heard very good things about them. Right now, I don't have a very good reason to upgrade, but maybe next time.

[thymios 0]

This guy is definatelly getting money from companies after he writes his articles.I mean you can tell that in this particular one, he didn't know what he was talking about did he?!

 

It sounds like "I'll say in my website that you've got the best CPU/mobo/gfx card or whatever, and you'll give me one for free since i am advertising you."

 

Sounds quite real to me.I never trust articles from only one source. If you want an overall info about a product, try forums first where people are not going to lie to you because they won't have any benefit from it, and also try to locate many articles/reviews about it, where statistically you will have a better idea of what's going on.

[sapiens74 0]

I'll be biased too if they send me free stuff

[Brian Frank 0]

I'd like some free stuff too, for reviewing so I don't have to shell out of my pocket. New hardware=fun.