Asus vs MSI

[Chan Smith]

I have been using Asus Motherboards for years. That is the only mb I have used in my built systems. I do love them and they seem to hold up very well but they don't support them very long in terms of drivers. They stop making the drivers after a few years and that isn't good. 

Does MSI support their boards for awhile or do they stop making new drivers and bios like Asus? Also, to the MSI boards hold up? I am looking at get a new gaming desktop soon and I wanted some advice on what board to use. Drivers and bios support for boards is a huge point for me moving forward.

[trag3dy]

I can't tell you how well they hold up in the long term or how well they support them with drivers but I can tell you that this current generation of asus motherboards are not rated very well. Both MSI and Gigabyte have better offerings in the mid to high price ranges.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

That's normal for any board. Rather is be ASUS, Gigabyte, or MSI. Boards stop getting updates a few years in. Then that socket is considered old.

 

The BEST thing to do is get drivers from its maker. Not from ASUS and the like. They don't carry the latest drivers.

 

I stand behind ASUS, ASRock, and Gigabyte. All of them are good these days.

[Chan Smith]

Thank you for your comments. It's hard to make this choice this time. 

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

I have not noticed anything appreciably different in terms of driver support from the various tier one motherboard manufacturers.  As @Mindovermaster noted, you can usually get device drivers for the chip components on the motherboard from the actual silicon vendor (AMD, Intel, Killer Networking, Realtek, etc.), as these are updated on a continuous basis by the vendor.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

[DevTech]

Items to consider:

 

1. As stated by @Mindovermasterdrivers come from the manufacturers, with some annoying exceptions which EVERY major brand has messed up at one time or another:

 

A) Rare audio chips. Some of those drivers never get updated so make sure the mobo uses bog standard Realtek. If you want better audio, use a premuim plug-in card.

 

B) Network chips that aren't Realtek, Marvell, or Intel.

 

C) Wireless is a big pain. Try for Intel.

 

D) Bluetooth - AVOID integrated Bluetooth/WiFi chips - they never work right over the lifetime of the board.

 

 

2. BIOS updates are the ONE "driver" you NEED from the mobo maker. Your chances are increased by going with a premium mobo that is destined to be popular with enthusiasts and overclockers.

 

3. Wait for REVISION 2 (or more) of the mobo PCB. (that is where all the hardware design mistakes get fixed)

 

4. The MOST IMPORTANT THING that a mobo does these days is supply massive power from the 12 volt input to the CPU. Look for LOAD LINE CALIBRATION and MULTI-PHASE REGULATORS and POLYMER CAPS.

 

5. EVERY brand makes LEMONS and most brands have an exceptional item or two. Don't buy a mobo that has not been tested by a review site that does actual TESTING.

 

6. The Gigabyte DUAL-BIOS system is still a great advantage although all brands these days have a less convenient BIOS recovery system.

 

7. There is a growing trend to save a penny of cost and NOT provide a BEEPER on the mobo or even a cheap speaker in the CASE. Check the specs and order one if missing.

 

8. Modern CPUs are SO POWERFUL that a shortage of PCIe lanes can damage the computing power potential of a modern mobo. Count your lanes and make sure 8 are dedicated to TWO M.2 NVMe slots without STEALING from other devices.

 

9. Although we joked around a lot in a previous thread, the Socket 3647 CPU is darned impressive with somewhat affordable DUAL CPU socket mobos and SIX-CHANNEL RAM expansion to 768 GIGS! Systems like that have much more "balance" for real world computing workloads if you have such. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_3647

 

10. WORK THE TECH, not the brand...

 

 

 

[Brandon H Supervisor]

as a person that previously had an MSI board before my current Asus board I can say I like the Asus board better.

 

in terms of driver updates they're about equal on how long you'll get updates for; I personally prefer Asus' drivers. At least with the MSI board I had the fan drivers were really weird and would default to 100% instead of auto without the driver (even in bios)

[Chan Smith]

Thank you all for your comments. It helps alot. I only had a Asus board. I really only had trouble with the on board audio being not good quality and a usb chip fried once. It seems that the drivers and bios are dropped after not to long and I wish they would support it longer. I might just get a asus board but I did like asrocks features to. 

What is everyone thoughts on the new amd chip coming soon? Will they do gaming and streaming at the same time or would a I9 be better for that?

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

5 minutes ago, Chan Smith said:

Thank you all for your comments. It helps alot. I only had a Asus board. I really only had trouble with the on board audio being not good quality and a usb chip fried once. It seems that the drivers and bios are dropped after not to long and I wish they would support it longer. I might just get a asus board but I did like asrocks features to. 

What is everyone thoughts on the new amd chip coming soon? Will they do gaming and streaming at the same time or would a I9 be better for that?

You mean the Ryzen 3000 series? It might not be THAT much more. I mean, benchmarks show it is better, but in real life, it really isn't much. I recently went from an i5 6400 to a Ryzen 5 2600. Did I see any improvement? Not really.

 

If you are into video editing, I would suggest a Threadripper. But are they cheap? Hell no...

[DevTech]

5 hours ago, Chan Smith said:

Thank you all for your comments. It helps alot. I only had a Asus board. I really only had trouble with the on board audio being not good quality and a usb chip fried once. It seems that the drivers and bios are dropped after not to long and I wish they would support it longer. I might just get a asus board but I did like asrocks features to. 

What is everyone thoughts on the new amd chip coming soon? Will they do gaming and streaming at the same time or would a I9 be better for that?

We live in a different commercial world that is global, fast paced, and enjoys low prices where there is competition. Managers with spreadsheets and other software calculate the cost of components and support to the penny. We are now used to all sorts of consumer goods barely lasting past the warranty period. That is BY DESIGN.

 

Therefore:

 

No mobo manufacturer is going to support a mobo with drivers and BIOS updates after the sales cycle for that mobo is done. That ship has sailed.

 

It is YOUR JOB to review every chip on a prospective mobo and make sure it has EASY availability of drivers. AVOID custom mobo manufacturer plug-in cards and other nice things that will NEVER get support.

 

It's not easy to do this and will be a long list of bookmarks to driver downloads for all the chips on a mobo. Obscure AUDIO chips are the worst, along with WiFi, Bluetooth and Card Readers. Just bypass a mobo that uses that stuff.

 

And whatever attracts your eye on a mobo, make sure it is REVISION 2 of the design if you want no glitches.

 

 

The Future:

 

1. CPUs are FAST these days and are bottlenecked by I/O so look for zillions of PCIe lanes.

 

2. The speed increases in RAM don't provide much perf boost so look for increased Interleave which is why I am quite interested in the SIX WAY INTERLEAVE of the LGA3647 CPUs. A good deal on a DUAL CPU SOCKET 3647 mobo puts it into the price range of a top end gaming mobo, but has HUGE performance improvement. The extra CPU socket is the only realistic way to make a modern mobo actually upgradeable.

 

3. NVMe M.2 everywhere. Maximize those NVMe sockets. We are approaching a time where no other drive tech will be worth it for the main drives. The XPG SX8200 Pro series delivers HUGE value right now, Samsung 970 EVO PLUS for boot if affordable.