Which Motherboard Manufacturer for Z790

theFlash

theFlash

theFlash

Associate
Joined
5 Mar 2019
Posts
15
Location
UK
When looking at the mid to high end Intel Z790 ATX boards, which manufacturer would you choose (for reliability mainly)?

Background to this question:
-------------------------------

I'm building my first PC in 10 years. I tend to go for high-ish end and buy/upgrade infrequently. I'd been pricing up Asus parts (Z790 Hero, Asus 4070Ti, etc). I'd heared about previous issues with the Z690 Hero boards capacitor fault, but put that down to a one-off. However I've just heard about the issue also with the Z690 Formula boards block corrosion issue, and also how Asus have been apparently ignoring the issue until very recently. It seems most put this down to a cost saving matter, which is in contrast to its price. Either way, a faulty motherboard is one problem I'd rather avoid.

The chances are I'd air cool the build, and my understanding is the corrosion fault only happens if you use liquid cooling(?), but either way the whole thing is worrying.

This has knocked my confidence in Asus as my first choice. Are my doubts warranted, and if so, what are your guys preferred manufacturer (and/or equivalent board to the Z790 Hero)?

Many thanks
 
Last edited:
Anybody who still buys Asus? Still feel the urge to opt for them but that's only because I don't know the other brands very well at all having never used them.
Is there somewhere where you can see the failure/fault rates of the various brand motherboards?
 
To me Asus has by far the best bios layout but their boards are overpriced and the quality isn't there any longer. Gigabyte has the worst bios layout and although the boards seem to be of good quality I will not buy another Gigabyte again due to the awful bios. This time around I gave MSI a go after not using them for over £10 years due to quality issues. Quality has improved massively and this is a really good board. The board is well laid out with decent heatsinks and plenty of connectivity options. I particularly like the EZ-clip M2 catches which make installing M2 drives a breeze with no tools needed. You get quite a few extra's in the box as well unlike Asus who seem to supply the bare minimum these days. Drivers come on a USB 3.2 stick which is a nice touch although I haven't used mine and it's still sealed in it's bag. The bios is well laid out and still getting plenty of updates so I wouldn't hesitate to buy another MSI board. From reading some reviews recently I would avoid Asrock as the quality appears to be lacking.

Whichever board you go for make sure you go for one that has USB Flashback on the rear I/O panel. It's a invaluable feature and one I believe should be on every motherboard these days. Don't get sucked in with the marketing bs of the stupidly expensive boards (although they are all overpriced) and remember that a £250-300 board will do 99% of what a £600+ board will do, overclocking included.
 
pastymuncher said:
To me Asus has by far the best bios layout but their boards are overpriced and the quality isn't there any longer. Gigabyte has the worst bios layout and although the boards seem to be of good quality I will not buy another Gigabyte again due to the awful bios. This time around I gave MSI a go after not using them for over £10 years due to quality issues. Quality has improved massively and this is a really good board. The board is well laid out with decent heatsinks and plenty of connectivity options. I particularly like the EZ-clip M2 catches which make installing M2 drives a breeze with no tools needed. You get quite a few extra's in the box as well unlike Asus who seem to supply the bare minimum these days. Drivers come on a USB 3.2 stick which is a nice touch although I haven't used mine and it's still sealed in it's bag. The bios is well laid out and still getting plenty of updates so I wouldn't hesitate to buy another MSI board. From reading some reviews recently I would avoid Asrock as the quality appears to be lacking.

Whichever board you go for make sure you go for one that has USB Flashback on the rear I/O panel. It's a invaluable feature and one I believe should be on every motherboard these days. Don't get sucked in with the marketing bs of the stupidly expensive boards (although they are all overpriced) and remember that a £250-300 board will do 99% of what a £600+ board will do, overclocking included.
Click to expand...
A most informative reply. Thanks. I will take a look at MSI. I am after more than 3 M2 slots, good ethernet networking mainly. I've been getting confused with ASUS models - the Creator was coming out most favourite, but was concerned about it being a somewhat niche motherboard, and it being ASUS also. The HERO seems to be code for "there will be some design fault at some point" (sorry slight sarcasm, but not completely unfounded)
 
pastymuncher said:
To me Asus has by far the best bios layout but their boards are overpriced and the quality isn't there any longer. Gigabyte has the worst bios layout and although the boards seem to be of good quality I will not buy another Gigabyte again due to the awful bios. This time around I gave MSI a go after not using them for over £10 years due to quality issues. Quality has improved massively and this is a really good board. The board is well laid out with decent heatsinks and plenty of connectivity options. I particularly like the EZ-clip M2 catches which make installing M2 drives a breeze with no tools needed. You get quite a few extra's in the box as well unlike Asus who seem to supply the bare minimum these days. Drivers come on a USB 3.2 stick which is a nice touch although I haven't used mine and it's still sealed in it's bag. The bios is well laid out and still getting plenty of updates so I wouldn't hesitate to buy another MSI board. From reading some reviews recently I would avoid Asrock as the quality appears to be lacking.

Whichever board you go for make sure you go for one that has USB Flashback on the rear I/O panel. It's a invaluable feature and one I believe should be on every motherboard these days. Don't get sucked in with the marketing bs of the stupidly expensive boards (although they are all overpriced) and remember that a £250-300 board will do 99% of what a £600+ board will do, overclocking included.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with this.
I have a Gigabyte board now and I'm happy with it but I certainly prefer the MSI bios and would have gone with an MSI board if they had one which had what I needed
 
Could the same be said for X670E boards? I'm planning / researching for a new build and have been looking at Asus and Gigabyte boards.
 
I only bought Asus for about 8 years and never ever had a single issue at all.

But I tended to buy the high end models because they did not used to cost a kidney back then.

Sadly now they do cost a kidney so I buy Gigabyte and MSI and they seem ok.

I think if you buy the low end from any brand then you get a low end mobo that have cut costs with cheaper parts and design.
 
pastymuncher said:
Whichever board you go for make sure you go for one that has USB Flashback on the rear I/O panel. It's a invaluable feature and one I believe should be on every motherboard these days. Don't get sucked in with the marketing bs of the stupidly expensive boards (although they are all overpriced) and remember that a £250-300 board will do 99% of what a £600+ board will do, overclocking included.
Click to expand...


Can you even get a flashback on a Mobo for around £300 now?
I'm looking for that and the error code display but can't find anything unless I go to crazy prices
 
Cheapest boards (on OCUK) that have USB Bios Flashback.

Intel
Z790 board is the MSI Pro Z790-A at a ridiculous £299.99. Z690 board is the Asrock Z690 Riptide at £209.99. B760 board is the Gigabyte B760i Aorus Pro DDR4 ITX at £209.99. B660 board is the Gigabyte B660 Gaming X AX DDR4 at £189.95.

AMD
X670 board is the Asus prime X670-P at £264.95. B650 board is the Asrock B650M PG Riptide at £179.99. X570 board is the Gigabyte X570S UD at £159.95. B550 board is the Gigabyte B550M Aorus Elite at £99.95 (Q-Flash Plus).

With the exception of the X570 and B550 boards these prices are disgraceful for what are effectively low end, budget boards that have had their prices fixed at what used to be the prices for the premium boards in their respective chipsets. Why do the low end AMD boards have USB Bios Flashback when you have to spend much more to get the same feature on Intel boards. Asus even have it on all their budget Asus Prime AMD boards yet not a single Asus Prime Intel board has it? It should be standard on all boards so that people can flash their motherboard to take the latest chips instead of faffing around trying to borrow/buy a older cpu just to flash the bios so that the cpu in their new pc will work.

If you want a error code LED you have to spend a hell of a lot more money these days. While it's nice to have it isn't essential and wouldn't put me off buying a board. Not having BIOS flashback would though. Back when I was on Z87 I had a Asus Maximus Hero VI which cost me £140 brand new and had everything you could want including a mid boggling range of options in the BIOS, USB BIOS flashback, Start/Reset buttons on the board, clear CMOS button on the board and a LED post code display. The current Z790 Maximus Hero is a disgusting £690!!
 
I've build around 10 PCs in the last year or so with Asus B660M, B760M, Z660M and Z790M motherboards. All these motherboards worked, but all had various issues with the BIOS and/or the layout.

I've used Asus motherboards since the 1980s and at times there were exceptional, at times just the same as everybody else. But I don't remember a time when they were the worse among the big 4 manufactures.

Recent VRM review of budget AM5 boards by HU puts Asus dead last:

 
Dg834man said:
Not really getting why you place so much value on this feature? Unless you like buying brand new cpus and old stock motherboards its not an issue.
Click to expand...

We see it all the time on here, people buying the latest cpu's with previous gen motherboards getting black screens because the motherboard won't support the cpu without a bios update. Typically it's done to save money as previous gen motherboards can be much cheaper plus the bios has matured.
 
SkyTerran said:
I've used Asus motherboards since the 1980s and at times there were exceptional, at times just the same as everybody else. But I don't remember a time when they were the worse among the big 4 manufactures.

Recent VRM review of budget AM5 boards by HU puts Asus dead last:
Click to expand...

I've been following several youtubers of late that look at motherboards and other products (a personal favourite is Buildzoid). Asus has been leaning very hard on their brand name for a while now with their ROG products often very overpriced for the features.

Asrock has been doing better in recent months since HUB called them out for rubbish VRM performance a while ago.

I've been using MSI for a while now and not had any issues. Their products are often reviewed favourably, not all the time, but often. They don't make the best ever products at times but they aren't completely smoking their socks like Gigabyte seems to be at times.
 
Last edited:
Asus has sadly gone downhill. Their bios is still the best and easiest which is a shame. They skimp on features on their high end boards now and all the competition offer much better value.

I have heard Gigabyte bios is awful so I am staying away from that. currently looking at going with an MSI board, this time after 12 years plus of Asus boards.
 
Dg834man said:
Not really getting why you place so much value on this feature? Unless you like buying brand new cpus and old stock motherboards its not an issue.
Click to expand...

If you are buying an AM5 board today you are quite likely to be replacing the cpu during the lifetime. Thats when you might be grateful
 
Dg834man said:
Just update the board before you put in the new processor :confused:
Click to expand...

When base boards cost £300, mid range boards cost £500 and enthusiast boards cost £700-£1000 now?

I was quite happy swapping boards years ago when less than £200 got you a top end board but dropping £700 on a board today when you know you might be replacing it in a years time seems wrong
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom