Mainboards - Shopping for new ones ... and looking for some hints.

[kyanwan]

I've always been a fan of Asus, but - it's been a while since I've had a real "favorite".   Asus has been treating me good for the most part - but a few of their boards have been ... meh ... real disappointments.

Specifically - I'm hating the integrated sound - and some of the SATA controllers ... leave a lot to be desired.

Any suggestions for an all-around great brand?

I'm leaning toward AMD - but I'm open to Intel.

Things I look for myself - stability, stability, and more stability.  I don't like surprises.   Sad thing is - it's looking like EVERYTHING has changed in the market.   It's starting to piss me off.   My traditional favorites are now, well, names that have grown on being names.

( Even good old Supermicro.  They're not so great anymore ... makes me sad.   I remember their boards being the absolute best I've ever used. )

Anyone care to introduce me to something that might interest me?

[relic2279]

Can't really help you as I've been out of the game for a couple years, but as far as stability and reliability goes, I believe most of the newer motherboards/power supplies  (2 years and newer) are no longer affected by the capacitor plague that was going on for nearly a decade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

So whatever you buy should last you a while and not prematurely fail. I've had 3 motherboards and 5-6 power supplies fail on me within the last 10 years.  

[Deucal]

read hardware review like at
Tom's Hardware or guru3d.com etc.

Just put down your basic needs and wants first (is it a gamin rig or something else), so you can easily filter out what you don't want.

[kyanwan]

Been there done that.  Every time I go read reviews I keep running circles around this dead end road I've been on for years... and I always end up with ASUS.

It's funny - I've even been DIGGING trying to find other brands, doing my best to not pick ASUS - and I still end up with ASUS.  

It's pretty bad.   LOL!

Can't really help you as I've been out of the game for a couple years, but as far as stability and reliability goes, I believe most of the newer motherboards/power supplies  (2 years and newer) are no longer affected by the capacitor plague that was going on for nearly a decade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

So whatever you buy should last you a while and not prematurely fail. I've had 3 motherboards and 5-6 power supplies fail on me within the last 10 years. 

Well shit.   That explains the insane amount of power supplies I've gone through in the past few years.   I've trashed at least a half a dozen iirc. 

[Proin Drakenzol]

ASUS is still the best for Mobos. Corsair is (imo) the best for RAM. Creative is the best for audio cards, afaik (at the non-pro level at least)

[forsaken]

Nothing wrong with Asus, they're a solid company that hasn't let me down yet.

In terms of Socket stability, Intel's LGA 775 got upped to the LGA 1366 in 2008 and future Core i7 CPUs are still going to be on that socket.
AMD's currently at Socket AM3 (since 2009) and there's probably not going to be much change at that front.

Intel's held the bang/buck crown for the past 5 years. I'd recommend them. Go with one of  the new i5/i7 depending on your needs and you'll be able to upgrade it again cheaply in 2-3 years when the Socket gets replaced. That's about all the stability you're likely to get with any computer purchases.

I did the same with LGA775, bought a decent Asus board and the cheapest core2duo out there. Now (4 years later) I've bought a decent but significantly cheaper core2quad as a bit of an upgrade.

[Gamerzhell]

Creative is the best for audio cards, afaik (at the non-pro level at least)

I beg to differ.

Asus has overtaken them in the budget department (<$300)

You could go for a Gigabyte board, they're pretty reliable.

[halfelite]

I have always been a fan of evga boards myself.