MSI vs Gigabyte (1 Viewer)

[Jonathan Lofgren]

Hi,
I'm going to build a computer pretty soon and I need some advice on a motherboard. This will be the second computer I've ever built, and the first relatively nice computer I've ever had. I know I can put it together, but I would appreciate some advice. I have pretty much narrowed it down to either the MSI KT3 ULTRA-ARU, or the Gigabyte GA-7VRXP. I would appreciate any advice either way.

As far as the computer goes, I'm getting an:
Athlon 1800XP processor,
512megs of PC2700 ram,
Western Digital 80 GB hard drive with 8mb buffer,
Lite on 32x12x40 CDRW,
Toshiba 16X dvd player,
Geforce4 4200 128mb video card,
SB Audigy 5.1 sound card, and Windows XP.
It will be used for a lot of things including some movie watching, gaming, internet surfing, etc. I pretty satisfied with the rest of the stuff, but feel free to comment on that too. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Max Leung]

Are both motherboards based on the VIA KT333 chipset? If so, they will likely be identical with regards to performance and stability. Usually the chipset quality (aside from the capacitors used heh) is the major difference between motherboards nowadays.

 

[Kelley_B]

They both tied in anadtech's KT333 round-up, I'd get whatever is the cheapest.

 

[Chu Gai]

anandtech is a wonderful site....also consider looking at www.tomshardware.com to see if there've been any recent comparisons.

 

[Brian E]

Both manufacturers are pretty solid. My preference is MSI in general, but I haven't used that board yet.

 

[Dan Cabral]

The MSI has a couple of extra overclocking-friendly features, if you plan on doing that.
Otherwise, it's a toss-up. Gigabyte is known for stability at the expense of extra overclocking features, while MSI typically makes their gear as overclocking friendly as possible.

 

[Kris McLaughlin]

When I built my new box a few months ago, I went with the Gigabyte 7VTXE+. It's a KT266a, and it's been great. It's the second GB mobo I've had, and I've never had a problem with either. It even came with a windows-based overclocking utility(!) I think it was pretty cheap, too

 

[Jonathan Lofgren]

I ordered the Gigabyte motherboard along with most of the rest of the parts yesterday. Soon I will hopefully have a reasonably nice computer.