Asus or Gigabyte MB for new i7 build?

Hi all. This is my first post so go easy. I built my current system several years ago; a C2D E6600 system built around an Asus P5B-E MB. At that time the positive reviews were something like 80+%, so I felt pretty confident that the P5B-E would be a good choice. The system has worked flawlessly.

I now find myself doing quite a bit of HD editing of AVCHD content using AE and PPro CS4 and am looking to put together a new i7 system. Based on my past positive experience with Asus, I would normally just go for the P6T, but I'm seeing a lot of recent reviews at Newegg, etc. that point to lots of DOA Asus boards. Has Asus quality control slipped or are these just a vocal minority? I REALLY hate RMA'ing stuff. Are the Gigbyte boards any better quality wise? Come to think of it, I'm not seeing overwhelming positive reviews of any X58 boards. (Did I mention I really hate RMA'ing new parts that are DOA?) OK, enough said.

Also, in my brief look at the Gigabyte X58 MBs, I don't see any reference to an e-SATA port. I do my backups using an external drive via e-SATA. Thanks for any insights and help you can offer.

darsmith

Just went over to Newegg to read more reviews and 2 of the first 3 listed reviews of the P6T V2 say their first delivered boards were DOA. Just disappointed in a perceived lack of QC at Asus or lack of comprehensive board testing at the factory or CM or whoever does their builds.

the vanilla P6T has eSATA and I've had no problems so far, just remember that you have to put the first set of modules in the red slots if you're using 3x modules.

Asus and Gigabyte are both very good , I cant recommend one over the other, just find the specs you want and get the one that is cheaper I guess.

Take a peek at the ASRock boards.
I am currently running an i7 system with one and the layout and space is quite nice.

UD4P. I have it. i love it. I had issues with asus boards before, but never have an issue with gigabyte boards at all.

when I was building (2 weeks ago) the UD4P couldn't be beat price wise. things may have changed, but it's a solid board.


I found it VERY easy to OC on this board. It comes with a 'quick tune' feature (that I didn't use) for light OC's that you can launch from Windows but inside the BIOS it's quite simple. Just read any number of i7 OC guide's and you will be fine. I didn't push mine too far, I went with a conservative 167mHz - BCLK to hit 3.33gHz. But I've heard of people running 190-200 BCLK's on these boards with proper cooling.