GIGABYTE or MSI Motherboard?

CS11

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Mar 8, 2013
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GIGABYTE GA-F2A88XM-D3H or MSI A78M-E35?

I´m going to build a budget PC soon. I have lots of doubts in getting MSI because of all downsides I´ve heard and seen from MSI motherboards. But also in some other builds, they recommend that precise MSI motherboard for the build.

PC specs:

CASE: Corsair Carbide SPEC-01
PSU: Corsair CX500
MB: GIGABYTE GA-F2A88XM-D3H or MSI A78M-E35
CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB Single DDR3-1600
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1 TB 7200 RPM
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti Superclock 2GB GDDR5

Also, one last question: Is the pre-applied thermal paste on the CPU cooler enough? Or should I put more?
 
Solution
They are both reputable manufacturers. You'll just have to pick one of the two and hope for the best.

In my eyes, the negative reviews of a company represent a disproportionate amount of their boards and/or customers. People who have a bad experience are more likely to write a bad review as opposed to someone who gets a good board and stops thinking about it. Of course, if you hear too much about a particular problem, then it's probably wise to start avoiding that board/manufacturer, but it's often hard to tell when to do that. Just use your judgement, and you should be fine. I've used MSI boards and boards from cheaper companies like Biostar. They've all worked perfectly. A lot of people like MSI's Gaming Series boards fyi...

DroneDroneDrone

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Jun 17, 2014
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I don't know, it all comes down to personal preference. I've heard bad thing about MSI customer support, they do make quality products though. Gigabyte makes quality products as well, but I don't hear complaints from them most of the time. Basically up to you. I personally prefer the Gigabyte, but some will prefer MSI.
 

Gunmetal_61

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Jun 12, 2014
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They are both reputable manufacturers. You'll just have to pick one of the two and hope for the best.

In my eyes, the negative reviews of a company represent a disproportionate amount of their boards and/or customers. People who have a bad experience are more likely to write a bad review as opposed to someone who gets a good board and stops thinking about it. Of course, if you hear too much about a particular problem, then it's probably wise to start avoiding that board/manufacturer, but it's often hard to tell when to do that. Just use your judgement, and you should be fine. I've used MSI boards and boards from cheaper companies like Biostar. They've all worked perfectly. A lot of people like MSI's Gaming Series boards fyi.

As for the thermal paste, it should be fine if you're not overclocking or that sorts. It's only a problem if you're pushing the thermal limit or a picky enthusiast who wants to use better alternatives.
 
Solution

DroneDroneDrone

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Yeah true. People are more likely to share their bad experiences than their good ones.
 

CS11

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Mar 8, 2013
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Hi Gunmetal, thanks for the answer.

I´m definitely not overclocking. I´ll go with Gigabyte, since the motherboard has 4 RAM slots and other features that will be helpful in the future. The other reason is because since it´s my first build, I want for it to be safe.

CS11.



 

axwack

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Feb 1, 2016
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My current personal experience. I bought a z270 Gaming m3. It was DOA. I sent it back and MSI sends me a H270 Gaming M3. I am trying to work it out since it's the weekend here but I can tell you I am not pleased.