Lowest Quality Motherboards on the market?

[Kruzin]

Here's the deal...
At my workplace, we have dozens of PCs running at all times.
About 1/2 of those are pre-builts (HP, Compaq, etc.)
The other 1/2 are custom systems the boss purchased from his son's PC shop.

Now, we have many problems with the custom ones that are from his son's shop. Because of this, the boss is dead set against buying any more custom systems. He is convinced that HPs are the way to go, and no custom rig could ever be as good as an HP.

I have explained to the boss that most of our problems with these are caused by the motherboards used in these systems. However, the boss' son claims these are quality mobos.
So, it's my word against his son's.

Anyway, the point of this thread is to get other PC knowledgable people's opinions on what the worst mobo manufacturer is. Without me posting specific names to prompt you, I would like you to simply tell me who makes the worst motherboards. My bet is that a good number of you will hit the nail on the head, and give the name of the maker who's mobos are in all of our custom rigs.

Perhaps if enough of you give the answer I expect many of you will, I can convince him that a QUALITY mobo will make all the difference in his custom rigs, and I can get more custom builts and fewer HPs in the future...

[Wombat]

Well, Abit has been making complete crap, with the 440BX boards being their last good products.

BTW, last time I checked, HP's PC boards are made by Asus, but this information may be out of date. I could probably find out if it really matters.

[dZeus]

Abit has crappy capacitors and uses flakey Highpoint chipsets for a start, so they count as crap in my book

And there are numerous PCChips/ECS boards on the market, ranging from reasonable (most ECS stuff with SiS chipset) to poor quality, especially the BIOS (weird compatibility issues with other hardware, like CDRW&DVD drives, poor RAM compatibility, etc).

[EchoWars]

Hi ya'all! Haven't posted for ages, but I can't stay away from this one

Abit may not be the lowest quality, but it would be entirely inappropriate for a workplace system. They are tweakers boards, and I personally feel that their quality level has diminished considerably in the last few years.

Asus has good and bad, and after a few bad experiances I've shyed away from them.

The absolute lowest quality would have to be from PCChips and any of their renaming goons (Amptron springs to mind, but there are at least half a dozen others made by PCChips and renamed to whatever).

ECS used to share bargan-basement, and although I would not use one in a business enviro, I hear that they are getting somewhat better. I still wouldn't bother with them for a system where uptime is critical.

Won't go on about the most reliable boards, as the only business systems I have put together were with the Epox 8K7A (which is as stable as any system in computing), and that is hardly a valid cross-section for comparison.

[Sasq]

Well my current ECS board is running strong (SIS) chipset.

We all know anything with a VIA chipset is likely to induce problems, yup PCChips is dodgy. I have had trouble with Abit with the cheap capacitors.

However most trouble I have had in a running system was with a cheap SOYO mb (via chipset) it would boot intermitently (win 2k server) get really flakey, the cpu power header on the mobo died after about 2 weeks (with standard intel fan).

Dan

[thop]

EPOX gooood, ABIT baaaaad. SIS gooood, VIA baaaad.

[ZokesPro]

Haven't had problems with Asus whatsoever, even when the boards should be fried cause of severe abuse!

Heard about too many problems with Abit though.

[bsdgeek]

I think that ABIT <i>was</i> making better boards a little while ago with their KT266A and AMD761. And they stopped using the bad caps quite a bit ago as I have read and seen. Although I don't like their newer/est boards. I have had a few bad experiences with ASUS, but I decided to give them one more chance with this 745 board. (A7S333)

[GT98]

I used Asus Boards exculustly at my old PC Tech/network Support job I had. They where either the P2B or P3B boards, with the odd AMD CPU Mobo from Asus thrown in there. Never had one bit of problems with them, but then again almost anyone could build a 440BX board and not have problems. I had an Abit BH6 and a KG7-Raid, but after my experance with KG7 and hearing about all the problems they have with caps, I went back to Asus. Only problem is that Asus isnt really supporting the SiS745 chipset that great, but I have no problems with the board otherwise.

In reguards to HP PC's....their Home line is ok (better then Compaq POS's) and their Vectra Line is pretty nice setup and the ones I have at work have Matrox cards in them . I Know my mom's PC is a HP thats about a year or two old and the compents where still from Asus.

[Tom]

Abit
Asus

Kruzin,
I'm surprised that you haven't convinced the boss
(and his son) to use Asus MBs....

[Kruzin]

I tried.
In fact, a couple weeks ago, I ordered a PC from the son.
I specifically requested an Asus board.
When the PC came in, it had one of those POS boards I hate so much in it. His excuse was he couldn't get the Asus to run right, so he put in what he wanted, without telling me.

IF I can ever convince the boss to do another custom rig, I will insist on building it myself, and getting the parts somewhere else...

[K6-III]

Epox is excellent....I refuse to touch anything else for anything else that matters, or needs to overclock....

The ECS K7S6A is a very stable, albight non-tweakable board.

The Asus A7N266-C is also an excellent board, provided you go for Samsung PC2700 to match....

...btw...be very picky with PSU...400watt Antec or higher...

[Greebe]

One word...

PCchips

[KvHagedorn]

PC Chips is complete crap.. it's my bet that's what he's using because it's cheap crap and he can make more money on it. He couldn't get the Asus to work (if the two-faced snake even tried) because he is incompetent. Hear that, Ken's Boss? Your son is either INCOMPETENT or a LIAR! Take your pick. This is so typical of why the USA is going downhill so fast. Blind, foolish nepotism and other foolish bases for awarding contracts.. "Oh, he was SUCH a NICE GUY!".. and as with so many other things technical, the guy in charge can't be bothered to research the matter himself, thus he goes on the "word" of whoever has the best personality (who can lie the most convincingly) or whoever he has the most personally invested in (gee, that would be his son, right?) The mind reels at the pointlessness of it all. You would be lucky if he even let you buy your own components with your own money and build your own computer. Why? Fear that you would show everyone there that you can do what his son cannot, and make him look like a fool in the bargain.

Forgive me, but this is why I have a very hard time working for others.. too many of these types of experiences.

[XHotKolaX]

PCChips = Ability = Alton = Amptron = Aristo = Asia Gate = Asiatech = Assa = Atrend = ECS = Elpina = Eurone = Fugu = Fugutech = Hi Sing = Houston = Hsing Tech = H Tech = Matsonic = Minstaple = PCWare = Pine = Protac = QDI = Warpspeed