Asrock, Asus or Msi Motherboard???

Hi,

I have an i5 4690k and an MSI GTX 970 (how original) and am searching for a z97 motherboard. I have narrowed it down (but not limited myself) to:

Asrock Z97 Extreme 4

Asus Z97-A

Msi Z97 Gaming 5

I know there is very little separating these. I would like to have the option for M.2 and SATA Express in the future. It comes down to which one is most reliable, gives the least hassle and will last a long long time. I have no serious plans for overclocking. I see people swear by each of these manufacturers and also people saying to avoid all these manufacturers.

I would appreciate any advice that would sway me towards one of these (also open to Gigabyte suggestions but I had ruled these out for some reason).

Thanks

Asus gives excellent customer support, can't say anything about the 2 others.

If you're aiming for SLI in the future - make sure you take full ATX board instead of micro.

Personally I would go with either Asus, or MSI. Especially out of the choices you present.

Matter of fact we just ordered 2x Asus x99 ATX usb3.0 motherboards, for the two new rigs we are about to build.

Asus usually offers quality products.

In this order:

1) Asus

2) MSI

158) Asrock

Thanks guys. I was slightly swaying towards Asus anyway (have a 9 year old computer with an Asus motherboard still going strong). But there was something about Msi pulling me away (I'm thinking it may be good marketing though). Asrock has got very good reviews and a few experts that swear by them.

How about Gigabyte Gaming 5? Ive been using my with my 4690k since Sept and its solid board for the price. Nice thing about it is that it has the good ALC 1150 audio chip and killerlan controller vs ASUS Z97-A with ALC 892

Never had an issue with ASUS or Gigabyte boards, however have had and seen MSI issues (back in the day) but nowadays their much better

I have a Asrock motherboard thats going on 3 years old and is still kicking just fine. But Asus always tends to be my personal choice

Any reason you would buy 157 motherboards before you would buy an Asrock? I have heard nothing but good news about them apart from them being quite thin and flimsy, any other complaints?

I have noticed the older audio chip, which is kind of annoying. It also only has only 4 SATA sockets compared to 6 in the others. I like the firmware of the Gigabyte, it's like the old BIOS menus like Mom used to make.

I would also like this motherboard to last 3 years before I start worrying about it kicking in. I have heard many reports about the ASUS dying within a month (hopefully this is because of overly enthusiastic overclockers).

My main concern is how long the board will last

It has 6 sata ports, it switchs the sata 5/6 ports to the M.2 or sata express when a compatible drive is connected. The Bios has three different UI modes for the bios which is nice

Never had a DOA Asus board. Main issue I always encounter with Asus boards is somehow my system always wakes up randomly in the middle of the night so I never get to use Sleep. I also typically have issues with 1 or 2 USB ports not fully functioning as they should after 6 months or so of use, moving data is fine but some perhiperal won't work right or can't boot from it..etc. Never had those issues with Asrock or MSI.

They might have gotten better but about 5 years ago I used to work in a computer shop, and the amount of warranty claims I had to do with AsRock mainboards put me off them forever.

We also sold ASUS and Gigabyte and they rarely came back with problems.

I've always used ASUS Mainboard and Gigabyte Video Cards, and only ONE has failed me in the past 15 years.

I would recommend Asus but my 2nd replacement motherboard failed again. I been out of a computer sporadically for the past 5 months.

From personal experience never had any issues with MSI and that is what i've used the last 10years . Currently using MSI z97m-g43 and works like a charm

Hail to ASUS >gigbyte>MSI>EVGA.

Cards MSI>ASUS>GIGBUTE>SPHERE :P

1. ASUS Z97-A
2. MSI Z97 Gaming 5
3. ASRock Z97 Extreme4 (great mobo btw, used it in another build)

A lot of my computer builds use Asrock. They are very good boards. Less options in the UEFI... But very solid. I have yet to do any RMA for any of the 5 boards in use.

Over the years I used about 4 MSI boards and 1 was defective.

Asus used around 3 of their boards and mine was defective. They tend to get corrupt CMOS. Just Google "asus motherboard will not power down". Seems to be a big problem with them.

I used to use a lot of Gigabyte boards... They had so many DPC Latency issues I stopped using them. Few had bad CPU socks and 1 had bad bios.

Those are the 4 brands in the past 9 years I've used.

1. ASUS Z97-A

I used tons of ASUS mobos and never had any problems with em. As far as Gigabyte mobos they still have DPC problems from what I hear. Even Z97 Gaming 7 apparently having DPC problems,

As of now, I'm using ASUS Motherboard in my Pc. It is a good product. It give an excellent customer support.

Asrock boards do tend to be pretty good with VT-d support if that means anything to you.

I'm not saying that Asus and MSI never support it on consumer chipsets, but it's very much up in the air and hard to confirm (prior to actually buying a board and testing it out oneself).

Nope gigabyte do not have DPC issues anymore and they were caused by their utility programs, which they have updated and fixed

The last 2 mobos I have gotten are MSI. I really like the GUI menus in the BIOS settings...

I like Asus boards, just their software is really buggy and bad. Some of it really screwed up my registry after I installed Asus Probe software last year. So if your going to install it, clone your os, and do registry backups and system restore points just incase. But you really don't need their software anyways and not worth having a risk of causing problems.

I've never had problems overclocking with them in the bios either its very easy. Automatic voltage for me is actually more stable then setting manual voltages on my 2600k@4.7ghz and my 4700k@4.5ghz.

Also I like how you can update the Bios without even having to go into the bios, which is useful if you have a cpu that needs a bios update you can just plug in the usb stick with a new bios in the usb bios update slot and it'll update. Maybe the other motherboards brands have this also im not sure.

So i always go with Asus over any brand just cause they know what I want.

@Old_Gooseberry: Yeah, never use Asus software... It's extremely buggy. Luckily I didn't have to do any backups. Just deleting the files and the registry entry's always seem to work for me.

I would recommend only using top rated software. Like if you want to OC your video card... Use Afterburner or Precision.

I've used MSI, EVGA (was my first computer, board worked great until my little bro had it and kept his computer in an enclosed section of his desk and choked the PSU that over heated and took the MB/CPU/RAM with it), ASUS and ASRock.

Only MB issue I had was with my first ASRock board. Customer service was excellent, I was getting email responses from the technicians within 1-2 hours and after about 12 hours of doing steps they asked and not getting positive results, they swapped out the board for me. I haven't had any issues with the replacement board and I've abused it - running 1.55V (default was 1.3250V) through the CPU and almost 1.3V (default was 1.175V) through the northbridge when overclocking my old Phenom II x4 940 and I ran like this for 2+ years. I put the CPU/MB in my daughter's computer - still running strong after 5+ years of use.

I put ASRock in my current build, no issues. I can OC my 4670k without any problems, had her at 4.2, but I still just run stock speed since I've no need for the performance boost from OCing.

Go with Asus. I fried my mobo last year and they exchanged it in 2 weeks without any questions.

I can vouch for Asrock being reliable.

Thanks for the tips guys!

I really want to go Asus but there are too many things going against them i.e. boards failing after a month, DOA reports, inconsistent latency and the one egg reviews on newegg are all valid issues, which is a pity because the board has everything I want. It just seems that Asus are riding along on their past reputation, loyal customers and customer service.

MSI, Asrock and Gigabyte on the other hand have very few negative reports in comparison. This may be due to the fact that less people are buying them however. Their critical reviews seem to be written by trolls or bullsh1tters. My only real concern with Asrock is the flimsy PCB. MSI seems very reliable but their marketing and effort into how well the board itself looks worries me, not to mention the lack of a SATA Express slot.

I should probably just toss a 3-way coin and let fate decide, but I live in the middle of nowhere and can't afford a dud. I may need to go higher price-wise and get an Asus-Z97 Pro or equivalent.

The z97m-g43 looks interesting as the z87 version sold really well and had good reviews. On inspection though, the board doesn't seem to have M.2 or SATA Express slots, which is strange.

It has M.2 slot ( its between the 2 pci-X slots) . For a budget z97 mobo is quite good if you dont intend to go SLI ( though it does support crossfire ) . Only downside on it only 3 fan controllers ( not a big deal though since you can get fan splitter for cheap )

@bfa1509: You really did do a lot of digging... lol It's true that Asrock boards are a little on the thin side. But I haven't had them get damaged. Even the one I use... The PCIE lock (a sliding one)... Didn't even notice it. Thought it was a push one... I pulled so hard on my card I could hear the board crackle... But it works perfectly fine. I eventually gave up and looked at the mobo manual. Seen it was a sliding lock (first time I ever seen one).

Asus, MSI, Gigabyte. Can't go wrong with these three.

MSI/Asrock are decent, but I am a quality guy. Asus can carry a premium for the name, but you know what you are getting. Either way you'll get a good board...but I'd rather spend a premium for premium boards.

Ok, I had to pick before my head exploded. I finally went for the Asus ROG Maximus VII Ranger

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG_MAXIMUS_VII_RANGER/

I did have to spend a little extra but I think it will be worth it.

There was a strong Asus vibe in this thread that pushed me over the line in the end. Hopefully I won't get a faulty board!!

Thanks guys!

This must be the worst choice ever, why do you need a high-end mobo anyway?

Quad SLI/Crossfire

DDR3 3200Mhz

ROG Audio Chipset

Why? just why?

Don't be frettin' and a fussin'. I'm in Europe and the Asus Maximus VII Ranger (£129), although almost exactly like the Asus Z97 Maximus VII Hero (£165), is only £15 more than the Asus Z97-a (£115).

I've heard that ROG boards have better quality components and are faster. I don't know if this is true or not, I will just have to take their word for it.

@PredatorRules: Asus is known for terrible customer support, aren't they?

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