Asus or MSI

[Kyo]

I want to upgrade my system to a 333 chipset and have 2 candidates:

MSI KT3 ULTRA ARU
Asus a7v333 with raid

I'm inclined about the asus but may be anyone have issues with them!

HELP ME!!!

[iwod]

I haven't try using these Mboard. But 99% of time i am sure ASUS won't do you wrong. :D

[FranchiseJuan]

When In doubt go ASUS...... Although I went with the EPOX 8K3A+ myself..... Built five computer with this board and not a problem yet...... (knock on wood)

[smiller667]

Asus is generally fine - just don't expect anything super-special. If price is your concern, you can probably get a nice, stable boards for less money ... long-term support (read: BIOS upgrades) might be a problem for some other companies, though.
I have been using Asus, Gigabyte, Epox, Elitegroup and DFI boards ... no major disappointments, so far.

[Kyo]

Thanks for your posts, i searched a lot and seem like the MSI is a bit more fast that the ASUS a 1 or 2 % but gain is gain also i read that is stable and good performance. ah sure also is more economic!

[theReal]

I think MSI has quite a good reputation for overclocking and speed. If you want to know more, go to the forums at www.amdmb.com - you can probably find a whole bunch of people who have one of these boards (or even both ;) )

[Kyo]

I also search in the forum of viahardware
(forums.viahardware.com) and seem like many people have issues with the a7v333 and not the MSI.

[orionware]

The A7V333 is a solid board. I've had Asus, Abit and Gigabyte boards and I think the Asus by far is the better product.

I had an Abit and no matter what I couldn't get my SB Live to work with the Happauge video capture card and ditched the mobo.

Threw them on a Asus and no probs first try. And that has been my experience with all Asus products. Fewer gripes about which cards site where.

O

[theReal]

It also depends on the chipset, I think. I have an Asus P3B-F at work (Intel BX) with a PII-400 and it overclocks easily to 120 FSB with the most aggressive CAS 2 memory timings. It is a very good and stable board, but that is also due to the BX chipset, which was just very good.
VIA chipsets on the other hand are not always as stable, and so Asus boards can also have problems. The SBlive! problem for example is a typical VIA problem, even Asus can not do too much about it (you probably had another chipset on the Asus board than on the Abit?)

[TRILIGHT]

My Asus P4B board is the best board I've ever owned. I have a P4 1.4Ghz clocked to 1.7Ghz and it is rock solid stable.

[fisix]

asus is usually really good, but i've also had good luck with msi boards (9 in a cluster). make the decision on extra options and price, unless you read a bad review..

-fisix

[Morphius]

I have two of the MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU motherboards, and simply love them. I do not overclock at all, but the ease of setup was superb and neither board has given me problems.

[TheCocaCola Kid]

ASUS, ASUS, ASUS!!!!!
MSI is the old Houston company that went belly up from making bad motherboards that died too much!

They have not changed all that much!

GO ASUS!

Trust me on that one, I have built hundred's of systems and used it all.

GO ASUS! May cost a little more but you will love your ASUS!

[theReal]

Ever considered Epox? I agree ASUS is very reliable, but I've become a friend of Epox now that I'm having the second, stable, well working, well overclocking board from them :)

For me, the candidates for new boards are usually Asus, Abit or Epox

[HomerJ]

Hi Everyone,

I'm pleased to read so many good views on ASUS, because I'm just about to upgrade to an ASUS board (P4S533) I did my homework, and the board got good reviews.

It's just nice to see even more good comments, especially from this forum.

Anyway, tomorrow's the big day, I'm sitting here now, looking at it, (fitted the RAM, CPU and Heatsink/Fan already)

Just waiting for the latest ReMPEG production to finish (after 27hrs, things had better start to get quicker).

When complete, I'll give an update

HomerJ :D

[HomerJ]

Finally made it back. Upgrade finished last night.

I had a few problems, the main one being, I wanted to upgrade my power supply from 230W to 400W but keep the same case. WRONG !!!

Newly bought power supply too big for old case (ATX desktop) sooooo, back to shop (120 mile round trip) and swap for tower case (and only a 300W power supply), but, promised to be "P4" ready.

Got it home, only to find the power cable for the 12v auxillay supply is different from the motherboard (its's a 6 pin square plug, the mobo is a 4 pin RB511 type) Frantic call to support desk, half an hour on hold, told "get splitter cable" for one of the HDD power supplies (quick trip to Maplins and 12 miles later), everything connected.

Time to power up !!

NOTHING, ABSOLUTE SILENCE !!!!

2 minutes later, switch on power at rear of case, we have fans making noise !!!

All went quite well with BIOS setup, except light always on the floppy drive. Phone call to helpdesk tells me the ribbon cable is reversed at the drive end (mobo instructions goes to great detail on getting it the right way round on the mobo, but nothing at the drive end.)

Had to reinstall Windows XP (HE) as it would not boot correctly, but all in all, it could have been a lot worse. I think I could become an expert at this rate ;)

Now the proud owner of a P4 2GHZ 256 PC2700 DDR.

Now look out Rempeg2, here I come.

HomerJ :D

[TheCocaCola Kid]

Cool HomerJ!

Welcome to the 2Ghz and beyond club!

Whoever said speed and size means nothing must be small and slow!

I should have dual 2.8Ghz CPU's in less than a week.

Baby, she's gonna rock!

[Skullworks]

I previously worked for a major computer corporation which subcontracted Main board mfg to serveral vendors - including Asus & MSI.

Based on the items I had to replace under warranty I can safely say that MSI boards tended to be more problematic than any of the Asus boards. (never had to replace an Asus MBD except for abuse, and the problem there is between the chair and the kyb.)

BTW - the board in my system is mfg by Asus... - I have faith.