Always look at the "sieve of possibilities" -- a concept used to explain combinations and permutations in statistics.
Heh, couldn't agree more.
I had been through troubles like this last year, and I'm an experienced computer builder. But all of my troubles stemmed from (a) an AsRock motherboard I bought and examined with a magnifying glass -- showing bent or "dis-com-booberated" socket pins -- RMA'd back to the reseller; and (b) a barely used, un-abused upper-tier motherboard I bought on EBay, for which I proceeded to thoughtlessly damage and even break the bent pin when I tried to repair it.
Yeah, as usual I really prepared for this build and read a lot on the troubles others had with the Z97 series from ASUS and others and one of the first things I did was take the CPU socket cap off and examine the pins with a magnifier and a mini LED maglite .
So (a) it is possible to order a new board in shrink-wrapped box from a reseller like the Egg, and have defective socket-pins before you even attempt to use it, and (b) if your hand slips and you "chunk" a pin or two with the sharp edge of the CPU PCB, you can do enough damage to render the socket unusable. Or -- the only way to fix that sort of thing involves following a Russian You-Tube video, have the advantage of great eye-sight and a better than average magnifier with a steady hand and keen soldering skills. And even then, you cannot assure that the board will behave as it would have with no damage or defect.
There was a time I would have been inclined to go for that approach but these days (I too have been at this for over 20 years) I'll just return the sucker and if that's not an option trash it, get another and start fresh. Life is too short no sense in torturing yourself.
Retail Intel CPUs are tested electronically with thorough software diagnostic programs three times. They are then visually inspected, but even if a visual "blemish" is found, the three-pass test determines whether or not the processor is "good," and it is pretty much guaranteed that such a processor will work as well or last as long as any off the Intel assembly-line.
I would expect nothing less from Intel, that's why they collect premium prices for their chips. However, there is always going to be an exception and there will be that 1 in a million screwball chip that happens to land on your board just because Murphy's law needs to stay in play.
Most people couldn't detect a misaligned socket pin easily, or -- most people wouldn't think to put a light and a magnifier on the socket as soon as they've removed the anti-static wrap. 20+ years building Intel-based systems, and I never bothered to check the socket-pin array with a magnifier until last September, when I began building my system of sweat and tears. (It's just great now, but after one RMA-refund and a second board purchase which I personally damaged. Thank God for the high-value RAM and CPU in the bundle.)
I hear you, specially on the sweat and tears part, this sucker had been going in circles.
I still think the advice you got in the ROG forum thread was good per the RAM.
It's interesting you still think it's the RAM after having read my post and knowing everything I did to exclude that possibility.
I would start testing those Corsairs in pairs if you choose to use them with the new board. Check the board manual again to see which pair of sockets to use with only one pair of modules.
Well, as I always say anything is possible, but if you read my post you know I walked each stick of RAM by each slot with the same results each time and I also ran memtest86+ on it and since that wasn't enough for me, I tried my RAM in another stable non ASUS Z97 board and it had no problems at all, then I tried the RAM from the stable non ASUS Z97 board in the ASUS board and had the same troubles, made no difference.
Then again, it could just be some QC defect on that model board. Hopefully, to get it sorted out properly, it will only cost you time, some sweat, and packing tape if you need to RMA anything else.
After having worked on it for two weeks, believe you me, it was a QC problem, have no doubt about it, I sure don't.
I HAVE to be interested in your troubles, though. I was considering a Z97-Pro board as an option for my next computer project.
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