Most reliable boards?

[DevPete]

I want a motherboard for an i9 CPU. Reliability is the most important thing as it's for work. I also want good performance, but not for gaming. Should I go for something mid-range (avoiding the cheapest, but not paying for loads of features that I won't use)?
Also, are there brands that I should look at or avoid? I always used to go for Asus due to their reputation but they had problems, so I moved to Gigabyte. My last 3 machines (plus 1 laptop) are Gigagbyte and have been flawless. Is Gigabyte a safe choice?

 

[Tetras]

If you're going to be pegging the CPU at 100% for long periods, then I'd get a board that has good thermals, overspec VRM and decent heatsinks. For most CPUs it doesn't matter because the boards are overkill (especially just for gaming), but the 13900K/KS can get very toasty indeed for heavy workstation use.

I'd be careful about the placement of the other components too and the PCI-E layout, depending on where you expect the heat to be the most intense.

Is Gigabyte a safe choice?

I'd have a watch of buildzoid's videos, e.g.:

mobo PCB Breakdown: Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX

text version: https://www.patreon.com/posts/79145965My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/buildzoidTeespring: https://teespring.com/stores/actually-hardcore-ov...

www.youtube.com

 

[BUDFORCE]

MSI or gigabyte.

Avoid Asus like the plague.

 

[mattyfez]

The only board I've ever had fail was a gigabyte z170...
But I wouldn't not buy another gigabyte.

To be honest I'd just buy on spec and price alone.

I've had boards from most major brands over time.

Simple as that.

 

[Gray2233]

I would buy on a case by case basis for individual hardware products rather than brand, the only consideration you should have when it comes to brand is the quality of their customer support and warranty. All companies have good and bad products, and their main concern is always going to be making money, they aren't your friend as a consumer.

 

[smogsy]

id suggest looking at a workstation style board, specially if your at 100% worload 24/7.
in my 20 years of building experience i've only had 2 asus boards die on me

1 the bios chip failed
2 cap blew

id do it case by case

generally though
gigabyte like to overvolt cpu a lot
asus marketing tries to win customers, but their no better than the rest often overvolt cpus
msi - not had issues with them, but they do like crappy software for stuff like rgb/UEFI

not used enough of the rest to give decent comments

 

[OliverQueen]

in my 20 years of building experience i've only had 2 asus boards die on me

1 the bios chip failed
2 cap blew

Same here in the almost 40 years since I started working in the trade. Both of those Asus boards were older boards (one was a Slot 1 BX board & the other was an AMD board that was running an older socket Athlon). Can honestly say that Asus boards have been rock solid for me & the too many to count systems I have built around them (from the "budget" ranges through to ROG/Sage boards). Will admit though that not built any AM5 systems yet & I have been keeping a close eye on the issues that the AM5 Extreme boards have been having with the AM5 3D cache CPU's, but not seen much mentioned since the "Tech-Tubers" all ditched Asus for their "beta" BIOS release & clause.

During the time that used Asus boards, the company's that I worked for did try Gigabyte boards 20+ or so years ago & the only Gigabyte board that I never saw any issues with was the Slot 1 BX2000 - the others we had a higher than average return/failure rate, so persuaded the owners to revert back to using purely Asus boards again and the returns/failures all but stopped (may have been the odd board that failed but talking a long time ago now!). Maybe they are better nowadays, but I have always been of the opinion that if something works, don't change - & Asus boards work for me. I have to admit though that I do tend to push people that ask me to assemble systems for them towards Intel (personal choice) as remember vividly the issues that used to have with AMD based systems over the years (even though seem to have got better recently since Ryzen launch barring the AM5 exploding issue & driver issues with original Ryzen at launch)

The Z87 TUF Sabertooth that has been running 24/7 with a 4770K in it as a daily driver (until 5-6 years ago) & now is a 24/7/365 Plex server, has been rock solid since assembled in 2013/14. Same with the ROG Maximus Hero X Z370 board that is in current daily driver running an overclocked i9 9900K has been rock solid & not had to wipe & reinstall the OS since I put the machine together originally with a i7 8700 in 2017/18 as has not skipped a beat even though it gets hammered daily with games, video encoding, etc. I do have some even older Asus boards in my boxes of older. now unused gear that are in the loft somewhere so may spend some time searching them out & having a nostalgic "play around" with some of them (if I have CPU's & RAM for them still!).