Asus vs MSI Motherboards. Which one is better?

[Lei]

They both make excellent and trash motherboards... The main thing is decide how much you want to spend and then compare what offerings both have in that price range.... Asus might have a much better 400 usd mobo but Msi may have a much better 200 usd mobo or vice versa.

I usually just compare these categories in order of importance to me

1. Power Delivery
2. Connectivity
3. Aesthetics
4. Price

First thing I look at mobs is that they have small form factor. Micro-ATX is 5cm shorter than the common ATX

Then having 4 ram slots. it's not a deal breaker, but it's better to have more, besides placing rams an slot away keeps them a tiny bit cooler.
Other things: Does it come with built-in WiFi, USB-C

 

[A Computer Guy]

DDR5 didn't add ECC for increased reliability over DDR4 or DDR3. It was added, because, in the words of Linus Torvalds

They literally can't get DDR5 to work without on-die ECC; hence calling it ECC is wrong.

I agree.

 

[bonehead123]

Well, if you're buying computer parts primarily by brand name, you're doin it all wongie....

specs & features are as specs & features does... 'nuff said

Having served in the US Armed Forces (in logistics & procurement no less) for many years, I can tell you without a doubt that "mil class" & "mil spec" are 2 totally different things ! One is pure marketing bullcrap, the other actually means something rather significant...

If you can figure out which is which, then you are 1 step closer to being able to buy stuff that will meet your requirements, and also be very reliable in the long term...

And FYI, I have owned mobos from all of the mfgr's mentioned so far, and have had both good & bad luck with the various models & price points.

 

[Deleted member 185158]

According to Wikipedia, Asus has 14700 employees and 28.4$ billion of net income, yet MSI has only 2672 employees and 16,9$ billion of net income. As a company Asus looks bigger and better. But as a general motherboard product line, which one is more premium? Asus or MSI?

ps. I know we should only look for features when buying a motherboard, but I'm asking here only quality. Quality wise which one would you choose?

Jesus H Christ.

You asked for opinions, this is already a whacked thread from it.

Asus has proven for me to be best with extreme overclocking and the robustness of their boards. From low end to high end.
Used my Maximus X hero daily for months after using LN2 on it. Still a rock solid board, I've done harder on it than 99% of the readers here today.

MSI, in the past, horrible unles you bought the top boards. However, I've killed all that I've touched with extreme cooling including their supposed military class boards. Just a name, nothing more. Nothing impressive either.

Good bad and ugly, all manufacturers have that.

3 pages, all the replies, who's opinion matters most? All of the above. Cause you'll just get the same mixed results asking such questions. Obviously buy what you know works and fits the budget. Manufacturing has come a long way for ALL board manufacturers, I'd hope they'd all be of equal quality on a general concensus.

 

[Lei]

@ShrimpBrime -retired

I mean come one, if one is employed in MSI, his plan would be to do a great job and hopefully join Asus!
It's like Botafogo and Barcelona.

 

[Deleted member 185158]

@ShrimpBrime -retired

I mean come one, if one is employed in MSI, his plan would be to do a great job and hopefully join Asus!
It's like Botafogo and Barcelona.

Why not, Jim jumps from AmD to Intel back to AMD.

Go where the moneys at as an employee. That's a given.

 

[dirtyferret]

if one is employed in MSI, his plan would be to do a great job and hopefully join Asus

maybe she left Asus to join MSI and got a hefty raise to do so...

 

[Lei]

@ShrimpBrime -retired
@dirtyferret

I mean at the time of graduation, in career workshops, fresh grad students hope to get to Asus.

it is possible that a good company gives an experienced talent to the weaker company, so that Taiwanese brands maintain high reputation. After all, they're not brutally in competition.

 

[Deleted member 185158]

@ShrimpBrime -retired
@dirtyferret

I mean at the time of graduation, in career workshops, fresh grad students hope to get to Asus.

it is possible that a good company gives an experienced talent to the weaker company, so that Taiwanese brands maintain high reputation. After all, they're not brutally in competition.

No I don't believe a company to "give" anything to a contending company unless it has profitability. But, that's business.

A grad student should pick up work and experience where possible and pursue larger goals later. So it would be wise to start at a lower company and work your way up.

Unless the grad student can directly go straight to Asus for work, that would be wonderful. But I'm sure there's hundreds if not thousands of students trying to get the same job. Now these companies really have to scrutinize the hire on process to get the best applicant.

But if I where a student, one thing I'd research is which company grows employees the fastest with fewest layoffs. That's where I'd apply.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Did they do this?

It was a subsidiary of the main company. And it happened by the subsidiary (Starlit Partner) taking advantage of a loophole in MSI policies. Starlit Partner normally sells MSI overstocked and refurbished items but somehow got ahold of those new cards. And it "appears" that MSI was unaware it was happening until alerted through user postings on Reddit.

Of course many doubt MSI was totally in the dark. I'm on the fence because it also appears there were less than 20 cards total sold at scalping prices. MSI sells 1000s and 1000s of products, day in and day out. Not sure it is fair to assume the big-doggies at MSI know about each individual sell.

I am also on the fence because this "appears" to be a one-time event. That is, there is no evidence MSI did this previously, or since. Of course, that is not proof, but does suggest it is not systemic.

Another thing that bothers me is people were buying them - clearly willing to pay ridiculous prices.

MSI also took steps necessary to stop Starlit and to compensate those buyers.

So, did MSI mess up? Yes. Did they admit their mistake or try to cover it up? They admitted it. Did they take the necessary steps to prevent recurrence? Wait and see but since this was nearly 2 years ago and there is no evidence of further incidences, it "appears" to be taken care of.

So should a company suffer a lifetime of condemnation for one incident? IMO, NO! If that were the case, there would be no company on Earth worthy of doing business with.

 

[Bomby569]

is there a reason to ignore Gigabyte and Asrock? they make great mobos (and some shitty ones to)

of the 4, i mostly ignore everything Asus, for the price premium that doesn't relate into anything tangible

 

[AM4isGOD]

Asus for me, never had a single problem at all, so i stick to them, why change to a unknown.

 

[bug]

I mean at the time of graduation, in career workshops, fresh grad students hope to get to Asus.

Yeah, well, when I was a junior I was excited to join IBM. While I don't regret it, I wouldn't go back.

 

[Mr Bill]

I have one PC with an ASRock board, one with an Asus, one with a Dell board, and one with a Gigabyte, and they all work great! Haven't had any issues with any of them, is it because I'm lucky, or I just know what I'm doing?

 

[oxrufiioxo]

is there a reason to ignore Gigabyte and Asrock? they make great mobos (and some shitty ones to)

of the 4, i mostly ignore everything Asus, for the price premium that doesn't relate into anything tangible

This thead is solely about the OP having buyers remorse over grabbing an MSI motherboard instead of Asus and trying to get positive feedback about their purchase... Not really a thread about what vendors make the best boards at least as the thread has gone on it's more about the OP not choosing asus and their marketing bs about military components.

 

[mclaren85]

buyers remorse over grabbing an MSI motherboard

I hate to say you are correct

 

[dirtyferret]

I hate to say you are correct

Yeah, we know I stated it previously. The only question that remains is why you feel you are missing out on something besides some marketing jargon?

so is the entire point of this thread because you have buyers remorse over some caps?

 

[ThrashZone]

I hate to say you are correct

Hi,
Yep board field is way to narrow.

I've toasted plenty of asus boards
x299 Prime deluxe 3 of them same for tuf board are complete garbage
Only ones that seem to hold up are the apex.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

I hate to say you are correct

Your MSI board is excellent one of the best X570S boards for every day use nothing to be remorseful about.

 

[dirtyferret]

Your MSI board is excellent one of the best X570S boards for every day use nothing to be remorseful about.

agreed, their higher end stuff are receiving excellent reviews

 

[80-watt Hamster]

I hate to say you are correct

FWIW, I've had several MSI or MSI-built boards, and the only one with issues was a refurb to begin with.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

agreed, their higher end stuff are receiving excellent reviews

Even the majority of their B550/B660 boards are pretty damn good for the price. It was really only the initially launched X570 boards that were trash mostly in the VRM component department but even then the initial Ace was good.

 

[OkieDan]

So should a company suffer a lifetime of condemnation for one incident?

In the case of Sony's DRM malware, I say YES! I avoid Sony products as much as possible, and it's been possible to avoid purchasing their products for 17 years without any substantial inconvenience to myself.

In MSI's case I don't care either way if they were aware, since MSRP isn't a promise that a product will sold at a certain price. I would have preferred that MFGs jacked up the price and gave large rebates limited to 1 per household to help get around scalpers, but charging what the market will bear is also acceptable to me. Price gouging for necessities after a disaster is where I start to care about what people are charging.

 

[dreamingCode]

I have used both (ASUS and MSI) of these a lot, I have 3 pc with MSI and 2 with ASUS, we work in programming field, I see MSI one are better when it comes to performance (same specs pc).

 

[Intel_fanboy81]

According to Wikipedia, Asus has 14700 employees and 28.4$ billion of net income, yet MSI has only 2672 employees and 16,9$ billion of net income. As a company Asus looks bigger and better. But as a general motherboard product line, which one is more premium? Asus or MSI?

ps. I know we should only look for features when buying a motherboard, but I'm asking here only quality. Quality wise which one would you choose?

You are basically asking who is better quality David or Goliath?
I have been an PC assembler 15 years ago and we installed 100 pcs per week with either asus or msi boards.
They were always toe on toe with each other and depending on the chipset cycle one year asus was ahead next year it was MSI.
Asus is more the sophisticated company but it doesnt have many many extras that are a plus. For instance MSI Afterburner or other tools MSI provides for its community.
My Asus motherboard still as of today doesnt provide a working software where I can monitor everything in windows 11. I have to use 3rd party tools.

A good check I always do is to see how many firmware versions are already out there for my board. And how frequently they post them.
If you see a motherboard beeing out there for over 2 years and there is only 1 firmware update out there being released 2 weeks after release and then for 2 years never again, you know this board isnt been checked and updated anymore.
The best quality manufacturer brings you nothing if your board has bugs or is incompatible with some new stuff and the manufacturarer isnt providing a new firmware to fix that.

So TL;DR, you cant really go wrong with Asus, they are too big too mess up. But MSI is the smaller but still more agile company that is willing to try out new things more.
Asus doesnt and wont take risks. MSI might be.