Page 23: Quick Reference, Conclusion
Quick Reference
<table>
<tr><td>Company</td><td>Performance</td><td>Stability</td><td>Overclocking</td><td>Price</td><td>Features</td><td>History</td><td>Support</td><td>Products</td><td>Overall</td></tr>
<tr><td>Abit</td><td>9.0</td><td>9.0</td><td>9.0</td><td>6.5</td><td>8.5</td><td>8.5</td><td>7.5</td><td>10.0</td><td>8.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>Acorp</td><td>4.5</td><td>3.0</td><td>2.0</td><td>9.0</td><td>4.0</td><td>7.0</td><td>7.0</td><td>2.0</td><td>4.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>Aopen</td><td>7.0</td><td>8.0</td><td>2.0</td><td>4.0</td><td>6.0</td><td>8.5</td><td>4.0</td><td>5.0</td><td>5.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Asus</td><td>9.0</td><td>10.0</td><td>8.0</td><td>5.0</td><td>9.0</td><td>10.0</td><td>7.5</td><td>9.0</td><td>8.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>Chaintech</td><td>1.0</td><td>1.0</td><td>3.0</td><td>9.0</td><td>3.0</td><td>4.5</td><td>6.0</td><td>0.0</td><td>3.4</td></tr>
<tr><td>DFI</td><td>3.0</td><td>9.0</td><td>4.0</td><td>8.5</td><td>2.5</td><td>8.0</td><td>5.0</td><td>0.0</td><td>5.0</td></tr>
<tr><td>ECS</td><td>3.0</td><td>4.0</td><td>3.0</td><td>9.0</td><td>2.0</td><td>1.0</td><td>2.0</td><td>2.0</td><td>3.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>Epox</td><td>6.5</td><td>9.0</td><td>10.0</td><td>8.5</td><td>8.0</td><td>7.5</td><td>10.0</td><td>8.0</td><td>8.4</td></tr>
<tr><td>FIC</td><td>2.0</td><td>8.5</td><td>4.5</td><td>8.0</td><td>7.0</td><td>7.0</td><td>8.0</td><td>2.5</td><td>5.9</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gigabyte</td><td>6.0</td><td>7.5</td><td>6.5</td><td>8.5</td><td>10.0</td><td>8.0</td><td>5.0</td><td>4.0</td><td>7.0</td></tr>
<tr><td>Intel</td><td>5.5</td><td>10.0</td><td>0.0</td><td>1.0</td><td>1.0</td><td>10.0</td><td>8.0</td><td>0.0</td><td>4.4</td></tr>
<tr><td>Iwill</td><td>8.0</td><td>7.0</td><td>10.0</td><td>7.0</td><td>8.5</td><td>5.0</td><td>6.0</td><td>8.0</td><td>8.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>MSI</td><td>5.5</td><td>7.0</td><td>6.5</td><td>8.0</td><td>10.0</td><td>2.0</td><td>8.0</td><td>1.0</td><td>6.0</td></tr>
<tr><td>NMC</td><td>3.0</td><td>2.0</td><td>3.0</td><td>NA</td><td>2.0</td><td>NA</td><td>3.0</td><td>0.0</td><td>2.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>Shuttle</td><td>5.0</td><td>6.0</td><td>6.0</td><td>9.0</td><td>2.0</td><td>6.5</td><td>8.0</td><td>4.0</td><td>5.9</td></tr>
<tr><td>Soltek</td><td>2.5</td><td>7.0</td><td>9.0</td><td>7.5</td><td>7.5</td><td>7.0</td><td>0.0</td><td>0.0</td><td>5.1</td></tr>
<tr><td>Soyo</td><td>6.5</td><td>7.0</td><td>6.0</td><td>6.0</td><td>6.0</td><td>7.5</td><td>5.0</td><td>2.0</td><td>5.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>Supermicro</td><td>2.0</td><td>9.0</td><td>1.0</td><td>2.0</td><td>0.0</td><td>10.0</td><td>7.0</td><td>1.5</td><td>4.1</td></tr>
<tr><td>Tyan</td><td>7.0</td><td>9.5</td><td>2.0</td><td>4.5</td><td>6.0</td><td>7.5</td><td>9.5</td><td>4.5</td><td>6.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>VIA</td><td>7.5</td><td>9.0</td><td>6.0</td><td>7.5</td><td>8.5</td><td>NA</td><td>4.0</td><td>0.0</td><td>6.1</td></tr>
<tr><td>Average</td><td>5.3</td><td>7.0</td><td>5.2</td><td>7.0</td><td>5.9</td><td>6.7</td><td>5.7</td><td>3.3</td><td>5.7</td></tr>
</table>
Conclusion
Top Ten.
1st – Abit,Asus
3rd – Epox
4th – Iwill
5th – Gigabyte
6th - Tyan
7th - VIA
8th - MSI
9th – FIC, Shuttle
11th to 20th (in order) Soyo, Aopen, Soltek, DFI, Acorp, Intel, Supermicro, Chaintech, ECS, NMC.
There you have it, the top motherboard manufacturers there are, all summed up. Personally, I prefer Asus boards, I have bought quite a few, and used all myself. I don't consider price, as motherboards are just too important. To be honest, even though DFI might be rated low, they have a high stability rating, and since its hard to tell how well they perform by human eye, if you own one, you'll be very happy. There seems to be a growing trend for cheap motherboards out there, and I don't like it one bit. <br/>
You might hear that AMD is unstable from a lot of intel zealots, but the real problem is people are buying extremely cheap motherboards, there are major problems and issues popping up on the forums from this. Just look at the recent boards, ECS's SiS board must have set a record for number of problems, Soyo, MSI, and Shuttle sold a lot of boards, and they really are causing a lot of problems. From what I've seen on forums, there are few complaints about Asus, Epox, Abit or even Iwill boards (with the exception of the initial Epox shipping error). <br/>
Remember, just because your chipset is good, doesn't mean your motherboard will be. The boards RAM timings need to be perfect, and cheap boards making 4 DIMMs available is just major problems. So do yourself, and everyone else a favor, don't be a cheap ass, pay a little more and get the quality boards. Even though I know most of you will say "I bought 10 Shuttles or ECS boards and never had a problem" It still doesn't mean the boards are good, and it doesn't mean you won't regret it in the future. For people that say VIA chipsets are unstable, or anything to that matter, these are the people you should never, ever take advice from. Why? Simple, they buy the cheapest boards possible, and while VIA chipsets aren't perfect, they are 100% stable, and its the motherboards which aren't stable.<br/>
If a manufacturer is not on this list, then avoid them. They obviously don't like to send out boards for review, and there is most likely a reason for it. I've excluded a lot of names that show up occasionally, and review very poor the few times they are done.<br/>
So next time you are confused about which board to get, and why, you have an unbiased opinion to help you. Asking in forums will only yield a bunch of zealots recommending one brand constantly for no reason, and they don't even take into consideration your needs. Decide for yourself, you'll be happier that way.