Intel Motherboard curiosity

[Bond007]

Just a question for anyone with experience. How are Intel branded MOB? Never used them, recommended them or heard much about them. Comparable to Asus/ Gigabyte, or a lesser quality?

[ilya]

Exactly like their business model.

A lot less features and usually lesser overclocking, but because they build them so conservatively they're usually incredibly stable and reliable with only very minor bugs if there ever are any.

[frontier204]

I own an Intel DP67DE board, and what I notice is less features (e.g. # of USB ports, overclocking) than the Gigabyte and ASUS boards I had in the same price bracket. In addition, the board's BIOS seems to have gone through the same growing pains as its Cougar Point chipset - it took 3 revisions before I could dial in any sort of overclocking.
What it does have works reasonably well - the BIOS loads up faster than any other board I've used, fan profiles for the CPU and two case fans are customizable, and I note that it's a bit more power efficient than the Gigabyte P67 UD3P board I used to have.

Note however that I am comparing across generations (my Intel is a P67, the low-end ASUS I had was an AMD 600 series chipset, and the low-end GB was an AMD 770 series).

As for the all-important "Would I buy again?" - yes but not for my main gaming rig
With the exception of the "enthusiast" boards with the skull silkscreened on to the PCB, overclocking is an "extra" for Intel boards, so don't expect it to work.

[Soultribunal]

I have had great sucess with Intel Branded boards (Skull trail anyone?).
They do lack a lot of the custom overclocking features that we like but if you want boot up and rock stable for years and years you can't go wrong.

-ST

[Nodscene]

I'm currently using the 975XBX2 as my gigabyte crapped out on me. Definitely glad I bought it and am seriously considering purchasing another one when I upgrade next. Haven't had the best of luck with Gigabyte or Asus over the years and while it's always nice to have the few extra features that they bring, in the long run it's not really worth it to me. Also, when it comes to overclocking...I don't mind if I lose out on a 100mhz - 300mhz as it's not going to make any appreciable difference . Plus, how can you go wrong with a skull on your motherboard :)

[terrybear]

Intel branded boards = Foxconn OEM boards .... nuff said.

They've always been made for intel by foxconn & in most instances the 3rd party boards by other manyfactorers ususaly have better preformance vs the intel branded boards.

[Bond007]

Originally Posted by terrybear

Intel branded boards = Foxconn OEM boards .... nuff said.

They've always been made for intel by foxconn & in most instances the 3rd party boards by other manyfactorers ususaly have better preformance vs the intel branded boards.

Is that for sure? Can't say I would go for a foxconn board, but I also can't say that I have tried.

[Soultribunal]

Originally Posted by Bond007

Is that for sure? Can't say I would go for a foxconn board, but I also can't say that I have tried.

I believe most of them are. But Foxconn also makes most of Dell's boards too. They are highly stable and very long lived.
I still have Eva Cove boards running full tilt from day 1.

Nothing wrong with them as far as I'm concerned. They only lack enthusiast features thats all.


ST

[yamawho]

I have had 5 in recent memory a socket 478 board which I took out of service ... actually two, one has a gateway bios. 2 mini-itx boards, one for my home server Intel's first mini-itx offering the D201GLY2. It's been running 24/7 for years.

I needed a mobo for a socket 775 cpu and recently purchased a DG43GT and made my 2nd HTPC with it

No issues will all of the above ...

[Galcobar]

It's not just a matter of who builds it, but to what specifications.

Often the same manufacturer will build car parts for multiple car companies -- say gas pedals for Toyota and GM. Normally, Toyota specifications mean that the ones built for Toyota are a better design. The sticky gas pedal situation was one where Toyota dropped their specifications for North American cars and used a weaker design, with a predictable loss in reliability. Intel issues high specifications, and it costs to meet them; add in the premium people are willing to pay for reliability and you end up with similar boards which are more expensive or equal-price boards with fewer features.