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Are less expensive motherboards (e.g. ASRock) poorly made or simply have less features?

Aelius33
By Aelius33
in CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory
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I'm trying to decide which x99 motherboard to buy and I've put a lot of hours of research into it. I don't need most of the listed features that the more expensive boards have, but at the same time I'm worried about pulling the trigger on a less expensive board like one of the ASRocks. I'm wondering if the higher priced boards, like the Rampage V Extreme, are also designed with better quality materials and components, better quality control, reliability, etc., or if the differences in prices between a $250 and $500 board are basically tantamount to more features (expansion slots, onboard audio, WiFi, Bluetooth, DIMMs, NICs, fan headers, USB 3.0, etc.)?

 

Cost is no significant barrier for me. If more expensive boards really are made with superior quality control, materials, and components, I'll happily spend another couple hundred bucks for the higher-end board. But if it just comes down to features I don't care about, I might as well save the money :P

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Of course the RVE is designed with better quality materials and components, better quality control, reliability, etc., but the AsRock boards are still good. The RVE and most ROG boards are expensive just because ASUS can maintain sales at those prices.

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Its not the cost, its the company. Asrock is notorious for having their boards fail and then not replacing them. I would recommend asus or gigabyte. 

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I bought my ROG Maximus VII Hero board for 3 reasons:

 

Great Overclocker / featureset

Looks

Branding

 

I'm guilty of it too. I like my build to look amazing, so I bought good looking parts. Simple as that.

 

 

 

In my Opinion, your best bet would be the MSI X99S Sli Plus, amazing board for a cheaper price than most other X99 boards, and it's fully black so it matches everything.

• NCASE M1 • i5-9600k • GTX 1080 FE • Z370N-WIFI • SF600 • NH-U9S • LPX 32GB • 960EVO •

I'm a self-identifying Corsair & Nvidia Fanboy; Get over it.

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Of course the RVE is designed with better quality materials and components, better quality control, reliability, etc., but the AsRock boards are still good. The RVE and most ROG boards are expensive just because ASUS can maintain sales at those prices.

There's also a TON of subjectively useless features, "gaymen" grade add-ons and features, marketing, and money to make things look pretty. 

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Its not the cost, its the company. Asrock is notorious for having their boards fail and then not replacing them. I would recommend asus or gigabyte. 

ASRock has certain boards that work well, it's one of those companies you have to find the one board that has no issues.. I personally do not think it would be taking the risk anyway.

 

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ASRock is a great choice as far as brand.  However, if you are looking to purchase anything be sure the reviews are good.  Usually quality increases up to the $90-100 in mobos and afterwards it's all features you will likely never use.

For the Best builds and Price lists here is a world where many points of the price have been predefined already for your convenience!

The Xeon E3 1231 V3 IS BETTER Than the Core i5 4690K and a Significantly better value for the non-overclockers or value shoppers.

The OS is like a kind food, Try it before saying if you like it or don't.

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Usually quality increases up to the $90-100 in mobos and afterwards it's all features you will likely never use.

 

Can anyone else confirm this ^ in general? That's what I'm mostly wondering. Is a $500 board minus the features still higher quality (in terms of materials, quality control, durability, reliability, etc.) than a $250 board, or does it essentially all come down to features like audio, SATA6Gb/s ports, M.2, PCI-e x16 slots, etc.?

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Can anyone else confirm this ^ in general? That's what I'm mostly wondering. Is a $500 board minus the features still higher quality (in terms of materials, quality control, durability, reliability, etc.) than a $250 board, or does it essentially all come down to features like audio, SATA6Gb/s ports, M.2, PCI-e x16 slots, etc.?

How long will you keep it? I got a high end board because it looks great and has more features than I'll ever need.

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Can anyone else confirm this ^ in general? That's what I'm mostly wondering. Is a $500 board minus the features still higher quality (in terms of materials, quality control, durability, reliability, etc.) than a $250 board, or does it essentially all come down to features like audio, SATA6Gb/s ports, M.2, PCI-e x16 slots, etc.?

I really meant that You will have all the quality that is needed for a great build for a long time whether you OC or not.  You can always increase the quality but at the $90-100 it's where it stops being worth spending more if you just want quality.  Look as ASrock's Extreme series.  The Extreme3 is as good as the Extreme7 as far as OC but lacks features of the rest (though it has it where it counts e.g. OC and SLI)

For the Best builds and Price lists here is a world where many points of the price have been predefined already for your convenience!

The Xeon E3 1231 V3 IS BETTER Than the Core i5 4690K and a Significantly better value for the non-overclockers or value shoppers.

The OS is like a kind food, Try it before saying if you like it or don't.

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I plan to be overclocking, and I'll use the motherboard for 5-6 years.

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Its not the cost, its the company. Asrock is notorious for having their boards fail and then not replacing them. I would recommend asus or gigabyte.

This was an issue a couple generations ago but nowadays it's a non issue and I have no problem recommending ASRock

Part of the Q6600 club

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