hi all

as you prob all know from my prev posts im slowly trying to build up a gaming rig for myself but before i rush in i like to get opinions so i dont end up dissapointed...

my question?

what are reputable brands for mainboards?
any that i should STAY AWAY from??,
my budget is $100-150US,so pls im not interested in top of the line gear as i have limited $$$

thanks

$100-150 will get you a very decent board if you shop around. newegg.com has great prices.

DFI make a good board, especially their Infinity line. Asus has always been good, Gigabyte has cheap budget boards but they lack some options necessary for overclocking (like PCIE bus lock). MSI is also good, but their manuals are in barely-translated English so don't look for help there. Plus I've had bad experiences with MSI mobos.

All those brands are good, and well within your price range for the lower to midrange models. One thing though, don't be fooled by Biostar's incredibly cheap mobos. They suck. They're dirt-cheap for a reason!

I wish my lawn was emo so it would cut itself.

Right now for AMD motherboards DFI is the most reliable and the best overclockers.

In most cases, a top tier brand will be reliable. Those are generally thought of as DFI, Asus, and MSI.

With NForce4 Ultra boards, beware of the Asus A8N-E from Asus, as those are pretty bad boards.

Other decent brands would include Gigabyte, Albatron (which are surprisingly good boards for the lower price tags they often have), EVGA supposedly makes a good motherboard (no personal experience with them), and Abit (I personally have had bad experience with them, but so many others don't, so I'm trying to be objective.

Brands I steer clear of: Biostar, ECS, PC Chips, Mach Speed, Epox (crap capacitors = often will die in two years or less), Soltek (same).

If you're going Athlon 64, IMO just pick a DFI board. Every model they offer based on the NF4 Ultra or SLI chipset is a solid, reliable, and even good overclockers should you choose to do that. If you want the absolute best overclock, LanParty series. If you want a good overclocker for less money, go with the Infinity series.
"Milk was a bad choice!"

ECS is not as horrific as they used to be, EPoX is not a board I've recommended or used before but the 754 system that I'm typing this on currently has a Soltek nForce3 250 board in it and I will proudly recommend it to anyone looking at that platform.

Chipset can make even the best brand look bad so have that at the back of your mind. Now if have even the foggiest intention of overclocking your CPU, arguably there is no contender out there to battle DFI.

Computer Components

From what I've read, ECS is trying very hard to be accepted in the performance/enthusiast market. Their "Extreme" line has gotten some very good reviews.

I don't think you can go wrong with a DFI board though.

I've had a few in my time:

Gigabyte = Great
Asus = Great.. when it eventually works
ECS = Buy a slab of cheese instead
PcChips = Cheap but often unstable
MSI = Great

Don't forget that the chipset is half the battle, go for nForce or intel, VIA are generally bad and SIS are slow

VIA generally works fine, but it's often not the best performing. If you're going Intel, then get an Intel chipset.

"Milk was a bad choice!"