[DEAD] Newegg G3258 combo deal with Z87 PC Mate mobo $105

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1765716

$10 MIR on the mobo too.

Dead deal as of 8/01/2014.

 

[Ricochet]

It's listed with a $20 MIR for the MB now.

 

[richierich1212]

Nice but the mobo reviews are scary.

 

[spaceman]

id like this deal but never had good exp w.msi going back years and years
imo they are junk

 

[PG]

Nice but the mobo reviews are scary.

The stats are bad at first glance, but read the bad reviews carefully. It's pretty clear to me that many of those people have no idea what they are doing and should not have even attempted to build a computer by themselves. One person said the computer wasn't working properly because the board had extra plastic in the cpu slot. WTF? There is no cpu "slot" for one thing, and if something was wrong with the SOCKET I would immediately work through the RMA process to get a new board. No experienced person would see a problem with the socket and then still proceed to jam all the parts together and just pray it somehow works correctly anyway.

Here are some more comments from the reviews:

"Cheap. Computer turns off within one second of booting. Processor slot damaged by plastic inside of it. Cannot be RMA'd. "

I mentioned this one above.


"Somehow I was stupid enough not to read all of the reviews shedding light on how terrible this product is. This motherboard is a scam and I encourage everyone to stay as far away from this product. I've had to return this motherboard TWICE due to it being faulty on arrival so I haven't even had time to see how it compares to other motherboards, but i'm also afraid i'll never get this chance with this product. "

Two bad boards? Something, or someone else, seems to be the common element here, not the board.


"This board is awful for temperature control. I have installed all of the components correctly and carefully in a Rosewill Blackhawk (also an awful case) and using an Intel i5 4670.
There aren't even any PCIe cards in my machine, and the processor is still running at temperatures of 50C on average, while idle.

TERRIBLE.
TERRIBLE.
TERRIBLE."

I bet this person doesn't have the heatsink installed correctly. At the very least there could be a variety of reasons it's running that warm. A virus could also cause high cpu usage and high temps, or the power management it set to high performance. We also don't know where this computer is installed. Is it in an enclosed cabinet?


"This board is utter trash, and make sure you literally go over every spec to make sure you have EVERYTHING perfect for this board. Says multi-GPU support, so naturally I think ok, so SLI and Xfire. NOPE! Only Xfire compatible, which makes ZERO sense. If you plan on getting more than one NVIDIA GPU this isn't for you. Also make sure to click on the link to check out the memory compatibility, otherwise enjoy buying that sweet 2100 speed RAM you have been saving your lunch money for, but having this mobo clock it down to 1333 or not even recognize it at all. I've never seen such a touchy and restricting motherboard before. The fact that it supports Xfire but NOT SLI is ridiculous, and doesn't even make sense. It has horrible OC capabilities in the BIOS, and only has stereo sound."

Where would I even start with this mess? This is the rant of an inexperienced and immature person who did not research and doesn't probably know how to enable XMP. No experienced person makes these mistakes. Overall, none of this is the board's fault.

I could go on, but I think most will get the point.
I have the Z97 board with the G3258 from Microcenter and it's fine. I have run a variety of RAM, multiple OS installes, CAD benchmarks, etc and it's fine. No issues at all. Of course I really have been building computers for over 10 years and I have a clue.

 

[Replay]

Read reviews last night. One guy outlined the process that worked to get his Haswell refresh cpu going with a new bios. MSI Z97 combo is still alive at Microcenter B&M.

G3258 combo with Total Defense AV listed as $46.99 after $50.00 Mail-In Rebate. Don't recommend using the TD software if you go this route.

 

[Severian]

thanks OP, in for 1

 

[Homerboy]

Suggestions for decent (CHEAP!) RAM for this combo?

 

[formulav8]

I could go on, but I think most will get the point.
.

Why didn't you post some of the others rerviews though? Like component quality sub par, sata connectors loose, mobo ports and such not properly fitting and so on.

 

[PG]

Why didn't you post some of the others rerviews though? Like component quality sub par, sata connectors loose, mobo ports and such not properly fitting and so on.

Easy. I sorted by lowest reviews first, then I just picked the first few that had obvious issues. Second, define sub par. What does that mean? What components? Many of the reviews are short on details.

Here is one you mention:

"Alright, so this thing... the SATA ports that face up are horrible. Don't use them if you can help it. The first one came off almost immediately and the second was close behind."

Sounds like it may be user error to me. I have never seen a SATA port come off a board.
Of course there was this review, so maybe it's legit:

"First SATA connector hanging loose upon purchase. Now I'm unable to setup the RAID configuration I had planned. MSI basically ignored fact it was already broken, claiming I had done something to void the warranty. even though i stated the connector was loose upon receipt. "

There were some who said 2 rams slots were bad but those may be user error too. I would need to research more. I know some boards want certain slots filled first. Use the wrong slots and it may not boot. Some people will jump to conclusions that the slots are bad when it's their fault. Of course I don't know how this board handles when filling the 3rd and 4th slots first. Maybe it's supposed to work.

Others said they had SSD issues, but I know some Sandforce controllers don't work correctly with Z87 chipset boards. The problem is with the SSDs. They didn't meet spec.

Anyway, this board may have a higher rate of issues than some others, but many of these reviewer's complaints may not be valid.

 

[ElFenix]

just got an email from the rebate company telling me it was rejected due to failure to include the invoice. 3rd document in the scan of documents: my receipt from microcenter.

but hey, at least they show me that so when i bitch at the phone rep i can tell them which thing to look at.

:grumble: