BFG exiting PSUs as well?

[thilanliyan]

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/19214

Damn...first video cards and now this...sad to see them go...they were one of the very good nV partners weren't they?

 

[v8envy]

Sad to see a top notch NV board partner go. They just couldn't survive for 3 quarters selling nothing but rebadged G92s.

Glad I didn't decide to bargain hunt for that $135 BFG 260 at microcenter a few months back.

 

[VashHT]

My personal experience with their PSU's was not that great, had a power FET blow out in one during normal use (not even gaming).

 

[SunnyD]

So... no GPU's, no PSU's... what's left? Bye bye BFG.

 

[HOOfan 1]

My personal experience with their PSU's was not that great, had a power FET blow out in one during normal use (not even gaming).

How long ago was that, what model? A couple years ago they hired jonnyguru to build up their PSU brand(they had a brand before him, just not that good)...he did, but unfortunately it seemed their OEM had some problems meeting demands, and BFG PSUs had problem wading into an already oversaturated market. BFG ran on hard times, couldn't afford to go out for new products and jonnyguru was getting paid to do work that others could do for less...thus he was laid off. BFG hasn't completely exited the PSU business, but they may not be long for this world.

So... no GPU's, no PSU's... what's left? Bye bye BFG.

Their new boutique Computer the Phobos...which probably has an even smaller maket than their videocards and PSUs

 

[VashHT]

How long ago was that, what model? A couple years ago they hired jonnyguru to build up their PSU brand(they had a brand before him, just not that good)...he did, but unfortunately it seemed their OEM had some problems meeting demands, and BFG PSUs had problem wading into an already oversaturated market. BFG ran on hard times, couldn't afford to go out for new products and jonnyguru was getting paid to do work that others could do for less...thus he was laid off. BFG hasn't completely exited the PSU business, but they may not be long for this world.



Their new boutique Computer the Phobos...which probably has an even smaller maket than their videocards and PSUs

Hmmm I'm not sure what model it was, but it was about 2 years ago or so. The PSU market is very tough, most power supplies I've come across at work never meet their specs even. Regulation doesn't work right, noise is almost always a lot higher than it's supposed to be, and this is in medical products, the consumer field is even worse I'm sure. I got a corsair after my BFG PSU died, it's been running strong since then.

 

[solofly]

I won't miss them...

 

[jonnyGURU]

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/19214

Damn...first video cards and now this...sad to see them go...they were one of the very good nV partners weren't they?

Wow... I thought the HardOCP post was full of fiction... the thread of comments at Tech Report is even more humorous.

BFG only slapped labels on reference cards? B.S... Once BFG could go virtual on a card, they ran away from reference as fast as possible.

BFG's PSU's are the same ones Mushkin relabeled and sold? Yeah.. like three years ago BFG used Topower, but things did change.

Oh well.. not like it even matters any more.

 

[hiddensniper11]

So... no GPU's, no PSU's... what's left? Bye bye BFG.

Checked their website, they still sell mainboards, systems and accessories. If they can do well in the mainboard market, they may actually survive.

 

[Zap]

If they can do well in the mainboard market, they may actually survive.

BFG's most recent motherboards were the socket 775 680i and socket AM2 590.

 

[SunnyD]

Checked their website, they still sell mainboards, systems and accessories. If they can do well in the mainboard market, they may actually survive.

/me scratches head...

BFG makes/made motherboards? Well I'll be damned, they probably won't evaporate then since it must be popular... :sneaky:

 

[Elfear]

Hmm. I hope they still backup the products with lifetime warranties. My ES 800W PSU has been running strong but it's nice to have the insurance policy.

 

[Face2Face]

Sucks that people will lose their jobs, but I did have 3 Bad GTX 280's and the 4th one finally worked. Never had that happen with any other company.

 

[bryanW1995]

Hmmm I'm not sure what model it was, but it was about 2 years ago or so. The PSU market is very tough, most power supplies I've come across at work never meet their specs even. Regulation doesn't work right, noise is almost always a lot higher than it's supposed to be, and this is in medical products, the consumer field is even worse I'm sure. I got a corsair after my BFG PSU died, it's been running strong since then.

I absolutely love corsair, I have an hx 520 and hx 620 right now. However, my 620 went out about a year ago. I still love corsair, the psu didn't take anything down with it, and I run seti 24/7 so I wasn't too pissed about it and got over it relatively quickly.

BFG was/is a good company, looks like they should have followed xfx's strategy and branched out a few years ago.

 

[StrangerGuy]

BFG's most recent motherboards were the socket 775 680i and socket AM2 590.

Given how terribad NV chipsets (especially for Intel) are its not surprising BFG stopped making them.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Sucks that people will lose their jobs, but I did have 3 Bad GTX 280's and the 4th one finally worked. Never had that happen with any other company.

I just went through three 280 GTX's from EVGA. Their RMA department needs some better QA. The first one failed after 7 months, no problem. The replacement worked fine for a couple of months then it started to pink screen of death me... Received a replacement that did the same thing right out of the box. Then finally received a good card (so far). The 280 GTX, from reading the EVGA forums leaves much to be desired. Many people are doing 3-4 RMAs right in a row before they get a card that finally works. My guess is that they are not properly testing the product when it comes back and are sending it out to the next customer. If the product is tested thorough and fixed, then there is no reason it can't be used for another customer, but so many DOAs basically all over the forum. It is disturbing and very frustrating.

Their support is great, but I do often wonder if the warranty is even worth it. In my case I paid around $50 bucks to ship back the item three times and if I had to pay retail for shipping (I ship through my business) it probably would have cost me twice that, at least. Not to mention the 2-3 week turn around time. I can say that EVGA is an easy company to work with though. Did not really give me any hassles and were quite friendly.

 

[Zap]

Sucks that people will lose their jobs, but I did have 3 Bad GTX 280's and the 4th one finally worked. Never had that happen with any other company.

See this post:

I just went through three 280 GTX's from EVGA.

The thing is that a high end card like this comes directly from NVIDIA (manufactured by Flextronics) as a complete card, ready for branding stickers. The BFG and EVGA cards are exactly the same, sans stickers. They popped out of the same factory.

 

[nitromullet]

BFG only slapped labels on reference cards? B.S... Once BFG could go virtual on a card, they ran away from reference as fast as possible.

The thing is that a high end card like this comes directly from NVIDIA (manufactured by Flextronics) as a complete card, ready for branding stickers. The BFG and EVGA cards are exactly the same, sans stickers. They popped out of the same factory.

...so, which is it?

I don't mean to rub salt in any wounds. I'm sorry that both of you guys got laid off. You've always come across as stand up guys that enjoyed their work, and I ask only out of a genuine curiosity.

 

[jonnyGURU]

...so, which is it?

I don't mean to rub salt in any wounds. I'm sorry that both of you guys got laid off. You've always come across as stand up guys that enjoyed their work, and I ask only out of a genuine curiosity.

Both.

Read what I said. The OP said that BFG "only slapped labels on reference cards". And I said, "once BFG could go virtual... they ran away from reference as fast as possible".

When a card initially launches, it's only available from one manufacturer that Nvidia has worked closely with. This is typically Flextronics. This "reference" card is the card everyone uses until the card goes "virtual". Virtual happens when Nvidia feels comfortable with releasing details about the card including alternate PCB designs, memory suppliers, etc. (Zap can fill you in on this better as he used to certify the virtual card samples we would get from third party suppliers like Chaintech, ECS, etc.) It would actually behoove a partner to go virtual as quickly as possible because often times one could get a better product than reference and for a lot less cost.

Some cards stay reference longer than others. I believe the GTX 280 may be one of them. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a virtual version of that particular card. In fact, even companies that manufacture their own cards, like Galaxy, Asus and Sparkle, are still selling Flextronics built reference versions of that card (IIRC, the Galaxy has an alternate cooling option). Maybe Nvidia never released the GTX 280 as a virtual design. Zap could answer that better.

 

[Zap]

Yeah, some products never went virtual. For "reference" there are reference cards and reference designs. Right now we are talking about reference cards. This happens only on mid to high end models. Low end models are pretty much always virtual.

While virtuals can be better, the flip side is that often the vernacular used in the industry is "cost-down." Translation: Make it as cheap as possible. Many companies do both. For instance the BFG 9800 GT OC2 and OCX cards were different PCB designs from the stock and OC cards, and were definitely built to a higher standard. All of them were virtuals because there were no reference 9800 GT cards that I'm aware of.

Cards like the GTX 280, GTX 295 (both versions) and the 65nm GTX 260 were all reference cards AFAIK. 55nm GTX 260, all GTX 275 and some GTX 285 were virtuals. The GTX 285 had two versions, P891 and P892, that were reference and virtual (may or may not be a hard line between them). Also, just because it is virtual doesn't mean you can't have Flextronics build them. The majority of BFG's virtual 260 and 275 were built by Flextronics (at a higher cost, but very slightly higher quality) and all of BFG's virtual 285 were built by Flextronics.

 

[Leyawiin]

jonny, Zap, thanks for the explanation of the reference to virtual process and initial contracted out manufacturing by Flextronics. Something I've always wondered about.

 

[nitromullet]

jonny, Zap, thanks for the explanation of the reference to virtual process and initial contracted out manufacturing by Flextronics. Something I've always wondered about.

+1

Thanks for the explanation. The whole process makes sense really. I've always thought of non-reference cards as being a cost cutting measure, but it makes sense that some special edition card would actually be better than reference.

 

[bryanW1995]

I've often wondered about that. It makes sense that a non-reference cooler on a weakly-cooled card (say 8800gt or 4850) would actually be higher quality/better purchase.