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Reliability report: Gigabyte top for motherboards, MSI for graphics

by Mark Tyson on 17 November 2014, 10:05

Tags: Gigabyte (TPE:2376), MSI

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaclif

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A recent report compiled by Hardware.fr sought to rank PC components by their reliability. The stats come from LDLC. Hardware.fr said it was "able to directly extract the statistics we needed," as it was given direct access to the online retailer's databases.

Due to the time needed for products to come in to stock and enjoy some retail exposure it is said that some of them have since been superseded by newer models. The reliability of a product comes down to the one statistic of RMA rate. Hardware.fr admits that not everything returned this way might actually be faulty but some products are taken back after a short Q&A with technician and customer and others are actually tested upon return. Statistics by brand are based upon a minimum of 500 units sold, individual products need 100 sales to become rated. If you read the charts directly on Hardware.fr - a product which is italicised has sold more than 100 units but less than 200.

There's lots of interesting breakdowns in the figures showing brands, chipset types etc and products including Motherboards, Power supplies, RAM, Graphics Cards, Hard disks and SSDs are all analysed. You can look at the full article here.

Meanwhile both Gigabyte and MSI have been crowing about their respective triumphs in the reliability survey.

Gigabyte was very proud with its motherboard reliability figures. The Gigabyte Tech Daily blog published some charts showing how Gigabyte has held the top spot in the same reliability survey for the past two years. It's all down to the "Ultra Durable design," we are told.

MSI also sought to show off its good rating with a Facebook post. MSI makes the most reliable graphics cards, according to the recent survey. The firm also did very well in motherboards with only a fraction of a per cent more RMAs than top dog Gigabyte. "We are proud to report that #MSI graphics cards is the undisputed number one in reliability and MSI motherboards climb to the number 2 position," said MSI.

As mentioned in the intro, Hardware.fr also looks at; SSDs where Samsung comes out on top overall, power supplies with FSP Group and be quiet! within a whisker of each other for top spot, RAM where Kingston is most reliable, and Hard Disks with Seagate as the most reliable performer.



HEXUS Forums :: 17 Comments

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I think the percentages are low enough on most manufacturers that I'd still prioritise features, cost and warranty length first.
Interesting reading - especially when Google Translate decided to give me the English version. Maybe I'm just weird but I'm actually more interested in the poor performers than the best - and not happy to see a Seagate SSHD and WD Green figure large in the bad-boys for the HDD RMA's.

One startling point though - the rate-of-return on Gigabyte NVidia 780/780Ti's - am I reading it right and it's about 21%?! If so, then what the heck are G'byte doing wrong? :o

Don't think it'll change my opinions much though:
o Still prefer Asus motherboards, (although Gigabyte's in there for a second place);
o Still like my Samsung SSD's - each gen of the 800 series seems to get better technically and better value than the last;
o Disks, like WD and Seagate, but definitely prefer Seagate's SSHD's to WD “Black” drives;
o Memory - Corsair or Crucial - usually the latter;
o Graphics - have had less trouble with NVidia than AMD, tend to go for XFX or Gigabyte.
o Power supplies - used to be Seasonic (long time ago) but defected to Enermax. Last one I bought though, was a Corsair AX which - apart from a squeak/coil-whine - has been a darned good unit. Bought it four years ago and haven't had a moments bother with it (apart from the aforementioned noise - which is actually quite useful on occasion).

Actually Mr Hexus, how about a QOTW on the least reliable, or most unpleasant, piece of hardware in the last couple of years? (Restrict timeframe otherwise I'll be tempted to bitch about the problems with IBM's Deathstar SCSI drives way back in the 80's).
crossy
One startling point though - the rate-of-return on Gigabyte NVidia 780/780Ti's - am I reading it right and it's about 21%?! If so, then what the heck are G'byte doing wrong? :o
It's 10% from what I can see. And just one model. Compared to 10.88% for a gainward model and 7.88% for an MSI model, so nothing clearly attributed to gigabyte.
kalniel
It's 10% from what I can see. And just one model. Compared to 10.88% for a gainward model and 7.88% for an MSI model, so nothing clearly attributed to gigabyte.

Check the conclusions section, this says:
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/927-8/conclusion.html
Graphics Cards:

- 20.79% Gigabyte GV-N78TGHZ-3GD
- 7.96% R9 290 Sapphire Radeon Vapor-X OC 11227-0
- 6.01% MSI Radeon R9 290 GAMING
- 5.88% Sapphire Radeon R7 250 2GB DDR3 11215-01
- 5.88% R9 Sapphire Radeon 280X Tri-X 11221-14
- 5.79% Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC 11227-00
- 5.45% MSI Radeon R9 290x GAMING
- 5.35% ASUS R9280X-DC2T-3GD5
- 5.17% Sapphire Radeon 290x R9 21226-00

And later on
GeFore GTX 780/780 Ti
- 20,79% Gigabyte GV-N78TGHZ-3GD
- 3,93% ASUS GTX780TI-DC2OC-3GD5
- 3,56% Gigabyte GV-N78TOC-3GD
- 3,13% Gainward GeForce GTX 780 Phantom
- 3,13% MSI GeForce GTX 780 Ti GAMING
- 2,94% Gigabyte GV-N780OC-3GD
- 2,18% ZOTAC GeForce GTX 780 OC
- 2,16% MSI GeForce GTX 780 GAMING
- 1,47% ASUS GTX780-DC2OC-3GD5
- 0,81% ASUS ROG POSEIDON-GTX780-P-3GD5

That said, there doesn't seem to be any sign of XFX cards - maybe these are sent back to XFX directly, rather than going through a dealer RMA? I'm interested (mainly because I've got an XFX card at the moment!) because there seems to be a general belief that XFX produce unreliable kit (although the three XFX cards I've have or had previously have proven to be quite good).
crossy
Check the conclusions section, this says:

How strange. On the graphics card page is says:

hardware.fr
GeForce GTX 780/780 Ti
- 10,88% Gainward GeForce GTX 780 Phantom GLH
- 10,00% Gigabyte GV-N78TOC-3GD
- 7,91% MSI GeForce GTX 780 Twin Frozr GAMING
- 4,27% Zotac GeForce GTX 780
- 3,73% Gainward GeForce GTX 780 Phantom
- 3,69% ASUS GTX780-DC2OC-3GD5
- 3,00% ASUS GTX780TI-DC2OC-3GD5
- 2,00% ASUS GTX780TI-3GD5
- 1,55% Gainward GeForce GTX 780 Ti

Edit: ah - the ‘20,79% Gigabyte GV-N78TGHZ-3GD’ is in italics, which means fewer than 200 sales, so not statistically very rigourous.