Any Experience With Evga Motherboards?

[sightseer 895]

sorry - this is longer than I intended...I'm in the process of building a new system. Ive bought myself a 1Gig 9800GT (EVGA). Ive always been impressed with EVGA video cards.In the past I have run ASUS MBs and I was considering something like the P5Q for the new build but Im not convinced that ASUS quality is all it used to be.Im not one to overclock. I want a reliable board that gives good stable performance for a long time. My first ASUS MB is still going and the system was built back in the 90s. My second system used an ASUS and it only lasted two years.I read the reviews at newegg and it seems that many feel that ASUS quality is not what it used to be and so I have been looking at other motherboard manufacturers. Ive thought about Gigabyte and MSI and even Intel. Gigabyte and ASUS seem to be about the most common found in peoples signatures on this site.Why dont I ever (or rarely) see Intel or EVGA? I know theres a great deal I dont know but I wonder if others no something about EVGA and Intel that I dont.I have almost no experience with system building. I changed a processor one time back when they still had pins (486).there was no heatsink either. I have a neurological tremor disorder and Im not certain I can install one of these modern processors but I need to try because apparently it costs an extra $200 to have it done for me (at least thats the price difference between the guys that preassmble the MB with processor and memory (and give me a warranty (which is a big deal sometimes) and the individual parts at newegg.anyway... Since Ive had such good luck with EVGA video cards, I am seriously considering the '750i SLI FTW' MB(123-YW-E175-A1). It has a lot of things Ill never use (but I might). I downloaded and read the manual and I honestly dont understand a lot of it. memory timings and voltages and getting things 'in sync' -- I just dont understand it.if you're still reading:Do you have any experience with EVGA motherboards? Is there some reason why they would be a bad choice for a guy who just enjoys flight simulator? I just want quality and reliability and performance. (oh is that all :) ) yeah yeah...and as a side issue: I saw someone write about memory voltages damaging the processor. How could memory voltages damage a processor? If I just let it auto adjust, I should be fine???BTW: Im leaning towards an E8500 and 4 Gigs of DDR2 800 with Vista 64 Home. The system will have one SATA drive and a PATA optical drive (LiteOn). It may very well be that by the time I can save enough money to get what I currently want that the i7 would be in my price range. Right now its just too much. Im trying to be around $400.Id like to use my current power supply which would supply enough current to the 9800GT but it only has a 4pin EPS and Im seeing that a lot of the newer boards (except ASUS) are going to 8pin EPS. Im led to believe I dont need 8pin unless Im going to run a quad or i7. Im not sure about that.my current system is 2.4 Gig Athlon on an ASUS K8Ne Deluxe with 1.5 Gigs of slow memory (DDR something slow). I have an AGP 6800GT(EVGA) and the system does quite well enough but Im hoping for more. Im tired of having to choose between trees or traffic.I still might go with the P5Q. Im still trying to decide.

[LarryRF 0]

Hi, I'm currently running a 780I FTW. Been running it about 2 months. My system:6750 Core2duo780i FTW4 gig DDR1066Raptor 150GBSeagate 750 GBEVGA 8800GTSCVista Ultimate 64I had an ASUS mobo (P5E Deluxe X48) before, and although it stated in the specs and website that it could run 1066 ram, I could never get it to boot with it. The ram I tried was all on their list, and also tried replacing it but to no avail. It could have been a motherboard issue, but my personal feelings is they overstated their claims :( At 800 it was rock solid and I had no complaints.The 780I board though, stuck in the same ram, Ballistix 1066 DDR2, and booted at that speed on the first try. Been rock solid now for 2 months and I'm happy with it. I'll be upgrading the vid card and cpu soon, and haven't decide whether to go ATI or Nvidia, if I go ATI I may go back to the Asus board as it supports Crossfire X but will more that likely stick with the EVGA/Nvidia combo.Hope this helps., Larry

[sightseer 895]

Hi Larry -I get the feeling that a lot of motherboard vendors are exxagerating their claims with memory speeds. I had that happen to me with my current ASUS board. It was at DDR400 and I added memory and it dropped to DDR333 even though the QVL list said it would work. Ive seen complaints at newegg on a lot of the newer boards (relatively new).The most common complaints I see on the EVGA board seem to be about the placement of the SATA connectors. Some people talk about boards being DOA but others say its just the BIOS EEPROM needing to be reseated after delivery. I'm eventually palnning on 8 Gigs of memory so I probably cant get past the 800 speed anyway and I saw G Skill memory that was on EVGAs approved list -- it was a 4 Gig kit (2x2048) for $40.00. You cant beat that.All in all, I think EVGA would be a good choice. I'd love to hear more opinions though.

[sightseer 895]

video corruption??Ill have to do more thinking.

[Plainplane 6]

EVGA is a very good brand. I've never had a problem with their products and even when they are roughly handled they still perform.ASUS is indeed losing its element of quality control - can you imagine my i7 hype and then I couldn't use it because of a defective Rampage II Extreme? Needless to say it put a big damper on my plans.

[C09G 0]

I've heard EVGA motherboards are good quality and overclocks very well!Most important is that EVGA Customer Service are 24/7, any problems just call them and they solve for you very quick.-Vincent