Mobo Brand - Top 5?

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If you had to pick the top 5 mobo brands who would they be?

Asking this coz my wife's computer (she's not allowed to touch my games computer) has a Gigabyte GA-K8NS Pro which has had intermittent problems from day one. bought this mobo because I rate Gigabyte fairly highly, but not so sure now. I had to deal with this problem when we first bought the mobo, now after 4-ish years of working (with same problem after 2 years), the problem has returned.

Symptom is that mobo just won't post. Beep codes indicate RAM failure of some sort, but I don't believe them because it's been the same RAM from the word go. Seems there maybe some sort of issue with this model where the RAM doesn't sit properly, but why it should change in the course of 24 hours i don't know.

Anyway, looking into new mobo + cpu + RAM and keeping the rest of the hardware. Dual core would be nice, but this is a simple PC just needs to do office stuff, bit of photo editing & iTunes. If i can get mobo & cpu for less than £100 I'll be a happy chappy. RAM on top, and possibly/probably new PSU on top of that (need an excuse to get her a quieter one, the fan on this on howls).

Thanks folks.

 

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Top 5

Asus
Gigabyte
Asus
Gigabyte
Evga

Believe or not RAM can become loose from the slots this can happen for a number of reasons including a movement of the case, a vibration, chip creep which is where hot a cold air in the case causes expansion and contraction of chips.

Have you tried reseating the RAM i.e taking it out aand putting it back in?

Have you tried cleaning the inside of case out including the fan and possibly oiling the bearings on the fan to make it a bit quiet?

PS I have spare comp for sale for £200 it includes

core 2 duo 2.1GHz
Asus p5NE-SLi motherboard
2GB Crucial Balistix Ram
MSI 8600GT
Exhaust fan
Stock cooling
DVD Re-Writer
Thermaltake toughpower pro 750w PSU
Keyboard
Mouse
17" Monitor
Motherboard and driver discs

 

1. Asus
2. Asus
3. Asus
4. Asus
5. Asus

Been using Asus as a base for all systems I've build since 1998 apart from one which I used Gigabyte for. The Gigabyte one was actually faulty so after a refund I switched to Asus.

 

I have built a few with gigabyte, but personally prefer Asus and would always choose them for myself too.

 

IMHO :

1. Asus
2. MSI
3. Intel
4. Asrock
5. Hmmn, not sure

 

Another vote for Asus here, I have used them to build systems over many years and have found them to be very good.

I did have an unsatisfying experience with them recently though. I built a Asus barebones system which specified it could use up to 8GB of RAM. So it's got 4 slots and I put matched up quality ram 4 x 2GB into all the slots and it wouldn't post (but does with only 2 slots used). It wasn't to do with the RAM as I tried other RAM with the same result. So I raise a query with ASUS who helpfully advised me you can only use all four slots if you use single sided DIMMS!

So their solution is for me to track down 2GB single sided DIMMS, which as far as I can tell don't exist, or to buy 2 x 4GB DIMMS which are MUCH more expensive than 2GB DIMMS. If I was going to spend a shed load on RAM I might as well have bought a high end mobo instead. RMA'ing the system would have been a lot of hassle so I ended up configuring the system with 4GB and looking a little silly when I delivred the system. I learnt a lesson though, don't always believe what the specification sheet says!

 

I have heard of this issue, apparently when double side DIMMS are used in all four slots something goes screwy with the mobo when trying to run each matchin slot in dual channel. Someone mentioned to me that it's akin to overclocking the bandwidth too much so it gets confused and can refuse to POST.

Have you tried crucial for the RAM? unfortunatley I have one DIMM of single sided RAM (1GB) if I still had the other dimm I could have sent it to you but I stood on the other one

 

It was Crucial Ballistix I was using in the system. And thanks for the offer anyway.

Crucial do sell 4GB DDR2 DIMMS, but they are about 80 quid each which is double the price. That and I had already bought the 8GB ( 4 x 2GB ) and foolishly assumed it would work.

 

Yeah I was sorting through my mounds of sata cables and other bits and put the dimm on the desk, my dog came jumped up at me and I knocked it off then stumbled bacwards and stood on the dimm

 

Christ, reading this thread suddenly makes me insecure about my insistence of "I will just go with whatever Custom PC recommends, then they can spend many hours of their lives deciding what brands are best and I can just streamline my time and swoop in and learn how to make my first build...so bring on the Biostar mobo's"

 

Biostars are supposed to be good for overclocking but I have never used one so I couldn't comment on their quality.

But I would trust Custom PC on what they say especially on their high end parts recommendations as my system I have is built on what they recommended for quite a few issues.

 

Have used ASUS always other than my first build which was built on a tight budget ((not that ASUS are expensive, but the ones i go for now are not the cheapest either)

 

Thanks guys, some great comments on here.

As it happened I gave the mobo a good wiggle and it's working again now. got a corrupt .pst file from where it crashed mid-write though (this was before it stopped posting)

Shame, I can't persuade my wife that she needs a new mobo anymore.

 

And here.

I've had my best experiences with Asus based systems when building systems out of parts.

 

Another vote for Asus, current and last mobo was by them and before that was all Gigabyte

 

1. Asus
2. MSI
3. Gigabyte
4. Intel
5. ECS

 

I'd go ASUS, Gigabyte, and Intel before anything else... and with those three, you shouldn't need or want for anything more.

 

Have you tested the memory, with a software based memory test program, like Microsofts offering? You might be surprised at the results