could somebody help me on picking a good motherboard brand? i will use the motherboard for gaming,pictures,music, video etc. Is ASUS any good?

Yea ASUS is pretty good i use that when i build my pc's Hey my name is kyle if u need anything let me kno..

Asus is one of the best, but there are many others...Abit, Biostar, DFI, Foxconn, Gigabyte, MSI are a few others & there are still more. I suggest you avoid PCChips products. Brand name is important, but just as important (maybe even moreso) is the chipset the board is based on. Intel CPUs generally perform best with Intel chipsets...probably the best one right now is the Intel P35. The P965 was the previous best, before the P35 came along. For AMD systems, go for an nVidia chipset. There are dozens to choose from in the nForce4 & nForce 500 series, so choosing the right one for your needs might be a little more difficult.

IMHO, Asus is THE motherboard to have for any system. Abit's a close second. I've had two Gigabyte boards (socket 754 and Slot 1) and both were nothing but trouble. I probably just purchased from a bad batch (twice--lol). Lots of people seem to like Gigabyte, so they're probably OK. If you're a hardcore overclocker, consider DFI. The New Furnace, replacing Lennox G12 Trane XV90i 2 stage furnace 112,000 BTUs 92.5% efficient Direct venting Variable speed fan Trane XL600 thermostat CleanEffects air cleaner

a while back i bought a new top of range asus board for loads of money and it failed after 18-24 months. i have built PCs for friends using PC Chips motherboards and they are still fine years later. I know ASUS is known as top quality and people rubbish PC Chips which are the cheapest but based on my experience i'm not sure if I would take any notice of the make - I would choose by Price & chipset & features

I've had the best luck with Intel-brand boards. They do cost a bit more and aren't best suited for overclocking. But they are very stable. My last board was an MSI. I think it was released prematurely and there were some glitches with various BIOS versions. But the board itself is good quality. Personally, I wouldn't get too stuck on brand names. I tend to buy whichever major brand has a board that's closest to my ideal specs.

I agree with cliffpage, since I have a PC Chips board running now onto 4 years with no problem. I had a problem right at the gitgo, due to a DOA CPU that came with it. Aside from that it has performed flawlessly. I do not do any gaming or overclocking, however, which is probably a good thing since it can't be overclocked. When I run PC Pitstop it always shows that I have a top-running system. Sometimes it shows a yellow flag on the hard drive, but it never says what's wrong. I have NEW hard drives. My next system will have whichever MB has the features I need, regardless of brand name. I look at the CPU type, the amount of memory, chip-set, PCI slots, and overall layout. Do a lot of googling and reading before you decide. Bob :) A positive attitude won't solve all your problems, but it will annoy just enough people to be worth the effort.