Computersight -

This information will be of use to two types of people:

One, you are a hardcore PC gamer.  You constantly keep your PC on the bleeding edge of technology in order to run the latest and greatest games at max settings.  If you are gaming at less than 60 fps, it’s time to upgrade.  You have a huge, high resolution monitor and surround sound.  You strive for photo realistic graphics at a playable framerate in games like Crysis.

Two, you want a kick ass PC to show off to the world.  You are an enthusiast.  While your neighbor throws all of his hard earned cash into luxury sports car, you drop a grand to upgrade to quad SLI.  You know your 3dmark score off the top of your head.  You feel the need to overclock everything that has a clock.  You tweak, run benchmarks, tweak some more, benchmark again, over and over, until you are positive that you have optimized your PC’s performance.

Either way, human beings are generally very brand loyal creatures.  Many of us like to commit to one manufacturer of a certain type of product every time we buy one.  I know people who will only drive Fords, only buy Samsung TVs, or only drink Dunkin Donuts coffee.  But you are reading this article because you want to upgrade your PC, and get the largest performance increase possible.  Regardless of what board you are considering, these manufacturers will not let you down.

5. MSI

Microstar International, out of Taiwan, consistently pushes out quality boards at a very attractive price.  Arguably the best bang for your buck in the market.  Their most recent board, the Eclipse Plus, based on Intel’s X58 chipset, has received multiple awards from different hardware sites.

4. Gigabyte

Gigabyte technology, also out of Taiwan, is know for their specialized motherboard selection.  No matter what type of board you are in the market for, Gigabyte will have what you are looking for.  Big players in the PC gaming industry, including Falcon Northwest and Alienware, use Gigabyte boards in their PCs.  Google’s servers also use Gigabyte boards.

3. EVGA

Californian EVGA Corporation is a top notch motherboard manufacturer with an army of loyal followers.  Also know as a premier graphics card manufacturer, EVGA also offers nVidia based motherboards geared at the enthusiast crowd.  EVGA boards are widely considered some of the friendliest overclocking boards in the market.

2. ASUS

An absolute giant in the industry, Taiwanese Asustek Computer Incorporated has been repeatedly praised for their design quality.  They are the choice board of companies such as Apple, Palm, Sony Playstation, and various PC manufacturers.  Asus likely has the most solid performing motherboards that are also decent overclockers.

1. DFI

Who could possibly deprive the legendary ASUS of the number one spot on this list?  Well you cannot forget about DFI.  DFI (Diamond Flower inc) has been around longer than all of these other manufacturers.  It was founded in 1981!  Their LANParty boards are hands down the best overclockers an enthusiast can buy, and i don’t think anyone would be ignorant enough to challenge me on that.  Their BIOS has more settings than you can shake a stick at.  You can overclock everything.  DFI boards are an enthusiasts dream.