Are Gigabyte Motherboards any good?

[Istanbuller]

I did a lot of research on deciding which motherboard to buy.

After finalising on an AMD CPU and AMD GPU, I decided to go with a Gigabyte board (attracted by such features as dual bios and features/price).

The board I decided would be best at a good price is:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...-SATA-RAID-ATX

Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 AM3 Motherboard

I read many editorial reviews which praised this board, however, I found this US site with user reviews and it has made me worry a bit:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

Anything to put my mind to rest (as this will be my first build).

Thanks!

[kalniel]

They're okay - they have a HUGE range of boards from budget to premium. You can probably expect higher quality on the premium ones compared to the budget ones, but they sell the budget ones in huge volumes, so don't forget to apply some appropriate scaling to the user feedback.

[Istanbuller]

They're okay - they have a HUGE range of boards from budget to premium. You can probably expect higher quality on the premium ones compared to the budget ones, but they sell the budget ones in huge volumes, so don't forget to apply some appropriate scaling to the user feedback.

Yeah for sure, and of course, the people with bad boards are of course more vocal!

[ed^chigliak]

Most of my PC builds have been on Gigabyte boards without issues. I always check newegg reviews to get a feel for a particular model. I never think twice about buying if the 4+5 star percentage is greater than 80%. The board you're looking at is 75% by this method so I wouldn't expect it to be bad however there might be a better option. The GA-880GA-UD3H seems to score slightly higher.

The only Gigabyte boards I wouldn't buy are the X58 series due to numerous reports of high pitched noises and squealing which is somewhat depending on the PSU used and not easy to troubleshoot. A better alternative for X58 builds are the equivalent Asus motherboards however with these there is a small risk that some of the installed RAM will not be recognised.

Anyway... the point is there is no such thing as a perfect motherboard and the risk of a bad one is minimal if the newegg users voting 4 and 5 star is a high percentage. Where exactly you decide to draw the line and what little niggles are acceptable/unacceptable usually leads to the right decision.

[redddraggon]

The only Gigabyte boards I wouldn't buy are the X58 series due to numerous reports of high pitched noises and squealing which is somewhat depending on the PSU used and not easy to troubleshoot. A better alternative for X58 builds are the equivalent Asus motherboards however with these there is a small risk that some of the installed RAM will not be recognised.

I'd not heard that before. Luckily my X58A-UD3R (rev2) has had no issues (apart from the crappy Marvell SATA3).

[chrestomanci]

I have used several uATX Gigabyte boards over the years, and they have been fairly good. The current mobo in both my system and my wife's are Gigabye ones.

I did have one go bad on me a couple of months ago, but it had been running 24x7 in a server for about three years, so I don't think it was totally unexpected.

[Pob255]

While in general gigabyte is good, every manufacture can have the odd duff product.
Just because a Brand makes one good product doesn't mean all their products are good and conversly just because a brand is know for good products doesn't mean all their products are good.

Reviews can often squew a brand because they generally tend to only review the high end products from a brand (mainly because the brand wants to show off it's flagship products, so thoes are the ones that get sent to reviewers)

User reviews like thoes on newegg can often be very miss leading as the users can often be right pillocks, blaming the wrong thing for the fault.
I've seen rave user reviews before for average products simply because they are compairing them to an old lump of crud they used to have and reviews heaping scorn on a product when it's clearly a PEBKAC issue.

If you're not sure you want to risk then you could give the Asus M4A87TD a look instead

[smargh]

I have an Intel-based GA-EP45-UD3P - it's been running 24/7 for almost 2 years now with no problems at all.

Perhaps do a comparison of the number of complaints with AMD & Intel-based Gigabyte boards (taking into account popularity) - I'm curious if one gets more complaints than the other.

[Hawker1986]

I swear by gigabyte these days, my X58 board runs sweet as a nut also btw, no funny noise or anything. Id say over the last 6 years ive used 15 boards, only one has gone pop in that time and I think that was actually bad RAMs fault.

Hawker

[pollaxe]

I'm running two Gigabyte boards with absolutely no problems. I'd be happy to buy Gigabyte again in the future, too.

[scaryjim]

Interestingly, the latest edition of PC Pro (arrived yesterday ) is their "bumper awards issue" and they named gigabyte their best mobo manufacturer for the third year running. Make of that what you will

[Istanbuller]

Thanks guys, really good info and discussion, I think I am still going for it.

The GA-880GA-UD3H seems to score slightly higher.

Do you think its worth it though in terms of the ports/features lost in place of the on board graphics (Which I won't need)?

give the Asus M4A87TD a look instead

Cheers, good option, think I've been convinced to stay with Gigabyte though, I did loads of reading on it and they do seem to have the best rep.

[scaryjim]

... they named gigabyte their best mobo manufacturer for the third year running. ...

... think I've been convinced to stay with Gigabyte though, I did loads of reading on it and they do seem to have the best rep.

To add balance, ASUS were PC Pro's second-place mobo manufacturer - also for the third year running

[ed^chigliak]

It's probably not worth it choose a board missing features / ports you want even if it scores slightly higher on newegg opinions. They are after all random peoples opinions and bad experiences are more often reported than good experiences. The other thing to check is the hardware version. A version 1.0 motherboard may have some issues that got fixed in V2.0 or 2.1 and this maybe the case with noise issues on Gigabyte X58 series. I also have more confidence in a motherboard that has several bios releases behind it since the more mature bios the fewer issues you are likely to encounter.

[jim]

I've only ever owned Gigabyte boards (excluding my mini-itx, at least), no problems yet

[marktime]

Had a run of 3 successive mid-range GBs prior to going Asus (and i only did that because there was an irresistable deal on the P6T). Zero problems, wouldn't hesitate getting another.