"Away at RMA" Mobo Replacement Opinons

[Leyawiin]

Hey guys. My ASUS Z97-A's LAN pooped out and I have to send it in for RMA. Its my main PC and I've heard that ASUS can sometimes be... interesting to deal with as far as the process goes. I don't want to be without my PC for too terribly long so I was thinking of getting a cheaper mobo to tide me over while it goes through the process. I have an i5-4690k which I've never bothered to overclock (never needed the extra performance), I was either thinking about getting an H81 for $50 or a cheaper Z97 (there are some for about $100). Do you guys see any sort of performance hit going with a lesser chipset if I'm not overclocking? What would you do in my shoes?

 

[Rvenger]

Get a replacement Z97 and sell the Z97-A once it comes back IMO. There are a ton of deals to be had now.

 

[Leyawiin]

The more I read about the trials and tribulations of an ASUS RMA I think you've got the right idea. No telling how long it will take or what they may decide to do to it. Might as well not worry about a stop-gap board and concentrate on something I really want (its a retail Win 7 copy that's not tied to a Win 10 upgrade so I can use whatever hardware I want). Thanks.

 

[fleshconsumed]

There is a potential problem with Rvenger plan. If you rebuild computer now with new motherboard it'll be more difficult to test the replacement RMA motherboard. So if it turns out to be defective and you sell it, it'll be even more pain having to take it back. Just so that you're aware, not all RMA parts that come back actually work.

 

[Ketchup]

There is a potential problem with Rvenger plan. If you rebuild computer now with new motherboard it'll be more difficult to test the replacement RMA motherboard. So if it turns out to be defective and you sell it, it'll be even more pain having to take it back. Just so that you're aware, not all RMA parts that come back actually work.

There are usually tons of refurbished motherboards on ebay. He can just sell it as such and point out how much warranty comes with the replacement board.

Leyawiin, I would use a site like this to compare and see if it is worth the downgrade:
http://motherboards.specout.com/compare/3055-3079/ASUS-Z97-K-vs-ASUS-H81M-C-R2-0

 

[Kenmitch]

1st I'd prepare for the worst from the Asus MB RMA....Been there done that before.

Who knows? Maybe they've cleaned up their RMA process?

I doubt I'd get a hold me over MB while I waited for the RMA from Asus.

 

[Leyawiin]

Yeah, thinking of going Gigabyte this time:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rue&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_2&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

or

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rue&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Have some Amazon gift card $$ so there's no money going out of my wallet for either. I've been searching various forums about ASUS RMA and they're uniforming bad. Most say that both them and ASRock are the worst, MSI and Gigabyte the best if you have to RMA. Kind of sad that ASUS is so poor with their process. I've owned almost nothing but them since 2009. This is the first ASUS product I've had a problem with.

 

[zambien1]

I am still in the process of RMAing my ASUS Z97-AR which suddenly stopped powering on. I have been through 3 boards in a row only one of which powered on but the HDMI out didn't work on that one. I am 2 months in. I purchased an Asrock Z97-Killer after the first few weeks because I was tired of waiting. I would recommend you do something similar. After dealing with this nonsense I won't be buying any ASUS products going forward. The RMA process has been a nightmare with ASUS doing everything possible to void my warranty for no good reason. I have spent many hours on the phone with ASUS.

At this point I am still waiting on my 4th board to come. I will test it and if it works sell it. If it doesn't I'm done.

Again, I will never buy another ASUS product. It just isn't worth the frustration.

 

[Leyawiin]

Got the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H.

 

[Kenmitch]

Got the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H.

Bought the same one from Amazon twice. Thought 1st one was defective so setup a rma for it. Turned out to be a defective 4790k instead as the 2nd one did the same thing. Swapped 4790k and all is well.

Board seems nice so far.

Thought the defective 4790k killed my Gigabyte x97mx-gaming 5 mb. Decided to give it a go one more time to see if I could get it boot up. Thought 4790k corrupted the bios or popped something. Just about to give up and setup a rma when I decided to clear cmos while it was powered on. Couple of boot cycles later it prompted me to enter bios and reset optimized default. Looks like it worked so far. Been running it for a couple hours now....Dang didn't survive the shutdown and wait a while test. Just click of death from the speaker. Used the same trick again which worked. This time I reflashed the bios to see if it helps. Loaded windows and played around and shut it down for about 10 minutes or so. Booted back up....Will try a longer term shutdown next time to see if it will still work.