Do you feel that there are too many motherboard models out there?

[Locut0s]

Working at NCIX I get to see just how many different motherboard models ASUS and Gigabyte put out. The list is long enough to make your head spin and far too many for me to be familiar with any but a very few. I know the idea is to segment the market up into small niches and hit every potential market with a different product but it seems like overkill to me sometimes.

The same thing exists of course in other computer market segments.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Conspiracy theory: Both are trying to confuse the hell out of people as much as possible to gravitate their choices towards the high-end models by conspicious consumption when the mainstream is perfectly adequate for 99% of people.

 

[alkemyst]

If you are talking from a sales person stand point, this is what separates a good one from something you can just figure out yourself.

 

[Locut0s]

If you are talking from a sales person stand point, this is what separates a good one from something you can just figure out yourself.

Well thing is most of the time as said above I could sell them just about any board as long as the socket type is correct. The differences between the different models is usually minuscule.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Well thing is most of the time as said above I could sell them just about any board as long as the socket type is correct. The differences between the different models is usually minuscule.

feature set.
why am i going to pay more for ICH10R if i dont' need RAID support?
why pay for 16x/16x is i don't plan to crossfire?

i'm glad to have the choices.

 

[alfa147x]

No, I like having options to choose from.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

It certainly can get confusing. From the end user perspective, most don't care enough to research past "will it work with this CPU' or, 'Will it work with this GPU(s).'

From the manufacturing perspective, I suspect they suffer from 'detergent -itous.' You know, new and improved with blue crystals!

why pay for 16x/16x is i don't plan to crossfire?

Why pay for 16x/16x even if you do plan to crossfire/sli? [H] pretty much put the 'need' for 16x to rest.

 

[alkemyst]

Well thing is most of the time as said above I could sell them just about any board as long as the socket type is correct. The differences between the different models is usually minuscule.

Well that's true but at the same time I had an order in for 23" widescreens. 16x10 with speakers. Was told they were out of stock, but "he'd" get me an identical setup for the same price.

Ended up with 1440x900 and no speakers. Needed them that day, let him deal with the return.

It used to be a sales person knew everything about their wares...now they have become just order takers.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

It used to be a sales person knew everything about their wares...now they have become just order takers.

There are more "wares" now - and more to them - than 20 years ago.

Also, many sales persons - even those who were supposedly experts - disguised their lack of knowledge. This, of course, was generally invisible to the customers.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Working at NCIX I get to see just how many different motherboard models ASUS and Gigabyte put out. The list is long enough to make your head spin and far too many for me to be familiar with any but a very few. I know the idea is to segment the market up into small niches and hit every potential market with a different product but it seems like overkill to me sometimes.

The same thing exists of course in other computer market segments.

I understand this from the support perspective, but I like having choices. I think product cycles have gotten so tight, though, that in terms of chipsets and features, there is "new", "current", "legacy - still supported", "legacy - old new stock", and "legacy - unsupported". Also, when (in your case) AMD & Intel each have a couple of active sockets (and Intel still has a legacy socket in 775 that still has customers) it's difficult to have streamlined product differentiation.

 

[Locut0s]

Well that's true but at the same time I had an order in for 23" widescreens. 16x10 with speakers. Was told they were out of stock, but "he'd" get me an identical setup for the same price.

Ended up with 1440x900 and no speakers. Needed them that day, let him deal with the return.

It used to be a sales person knew everything about their wares...now they have become just order takers.

I will admit to being a little out of my depth at this job. I keep up with tech developments and I'm knoledable enough that I'm comfortable building systems myself and for customers. However I'm foggy when it comes to some of the nitty gritty and things like what specifically differentiates one product from another without looking at spec sheets. Laptops for example I'm particularly foggy about. I can easily tell a customer what hardware would suite their needs but I don't know very many specific models. But then again the top salesmen in our store (3rd in the company) knows less than I do in many ways. I'm not looking at this as a long term position anyway.

 

[Pneumothorax]

It's not only the sheer number, but also how quickly the models are being discontinued! Had my eyes set on a high-end microatx Gigabyte like the P55M-UD4 with heatsinks on the MOSFETS and guess what? In less than a year it's already EOL'd in favor of the H55/H57 series. In otherwords Gigabyte doesn't even make a micro-atx motherboard with heatsinks on the mosfets anymore.

 

[degibson]

It's not only the sheer number, but also how quickly the models are being discontinued!

Yes, this is highly annoying. I like to have a spare sometimes, but often by the time I find a motherboard I like (and I've decided that I like it), it's too late to buy the same model.

 

[Campy]

i agree with the OP. and wtf is up with putting 3 or 4 PCI Express slots on EVERY card? how many % of consumers use three cards in SLI, let alone four?!?! I'd rather have some more regular PCI slots for soundcard/network card or just some more space between the slots so that maybe you didnt have to block off a slot with each graphics card.

 

[ExcaliburMM]

Choices are nice, having boards that fit a number of uses is nice, but goddamn it, there really are just too many.

 

[alfa147x]

i agree with the OP. and wtf is up with putting 3 or 4 PCI Express slots on EVERY card? how many % of consumers use three cards in SLI, let alone four?!?! I'd rather have some more regular PCI slots for soundcard/network card or just some more space between the slots so that maybe you didnt have to block off a slot with each graphics card.

PCI-E has / should replace PCI.

 

[Campy]

Yeah, in time. Lots of add-in cards dont need the bandwidth though, and throwing in a bunch of GC sized slots seems pointless

 

[Locut0s]

PCI-E has / should replace PCI.

Sadly it's taking too long. There are still some cards which seem to be almost completely PCI. For example network add in cards.

 

[Campy]

^my point exactly. some x1 cards are availible but theyre generally more expensive than the regular PCI alternatives.