When someone says "That PC component doesn't have good reviews at XYZ"

[Azuma Hazuki]

Ahh, yes. I have heard Asus's tech support is less than friendly, though I haven't had issues helping others RMA decidedly not-ROG parts before. Any idea why this is? That is, why Asus supposedly has this habit of telling people with broken gear to shove it somewhere uncomfortable?

 

[ElFenix]

@aigomorla: I know the plural of anecdote isn't data, but in the 16 years I've been building PCs, Asus has never, ever, not once, given me trouble. They're my go-to for almost all builds for my customers and I've never had one die before half a decade is out either.

i rma'd a board to asus after a bios flash failed. they shipped back a board that wouldn't boot. replaced it with an abit (rip).

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Ahh, yes. I have heard Asus's tech support is less than friendly, though I haven't had issues helping others RMA decidedly not-ROG parts before. Any idea why this is? That is, why Asus supposedly has this habit of telling people with broken gear to shove it somewhere uncomfortable?

Because customers are horrible people, and customer service agents tend to respond in kind.

 

[UsandThem]

From what I can see, many of the ROG boards have worse reviews than say the Z170-PRO. Newegg has the Asus ROG Maximus VIII Hero on sale for $119 after MIR, but the reviews are a little rough (and of course there are reviews there where you can tell it's a case of they don't know what they are doing):

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132855&ignorebbr=1

I'm still mulling it over if I want to pull the trigger on it, or wait until the the Z170-PRO goes back to under $90 with a MIR. I checked the warranty length on the ROG board, and it says 3 year warranty.
Maybe they dropped it down from 5 years?

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/MAXIMUS-VIII-HERO/HelpDesk_Warranty/

 

[Smoblikat]

they have given me a lot of headaches unless i went though my personalized channels.

Basically if you didnt have ROG gear you were toss'd in the commoner pile and had to go though commoner RMA's which always required you to send in first.

If you had ROG gear, they would give u advance RMA, and tech support was less scriptish.

If you had personalized channels, they just gave you a replacement with no questions asked lol....
Man the advantages of being a hardware reviewer / tester ... :T

The only time ive had to RMA an ASUS product was when I did somthing stupid and broke it myself, and in those rare circumstances they always offered me advanced RMA as an option. Ive never owned an ROG product, and have always had 100% customer satasfaction with them.

@aigomorla: I know the plural of anecdote isn't data, but in the 16 years I've been building PCs, Asus has never, ever, not once, given me trouble. They're my go-to for almost all builds for my customers and I've never had one die before half a decade is out either.

I completely agree. If you want somthing rock solid with a good BIOS, good features, and guarenteed stability, you better buy an ASUS (or lately, an ASrock). Bonus points if youre running WD Hard Drives.

 

[Azuma Hazuki]

Really ASRock is good? I've had some bad experiences with them and their boards just feel kind of cheap...

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Really ASRock is good? I've had some bad experiences with them and their boards just feel kind of cheap...

Nope. You're full of beans. ASRock is excellent.

 

[Azuma Hazuki]

I'll be a little less full of beans in a couple of hours, once my guts are done with them =P

 

[aigomorla]

ASRock makes good stuff....
ASRock Rack tho is a bit iffy, as i would prefer to get a Supermicro over that any day of the week.

I however prefer good ol Gigabyte tho. The higher grade UD5 -> ever so rare UD9 class boards are tanks.

MSI has also been pumping out quality stuff, but drivers are ugh... bios's are also ugh...

In ranking tho, id say Gigabyte has the best overclocking bios.
ASuS has probably the easiest compatibility bios.
MSI your lucky to get a new bios....

:X

but thats just what i think.

 

[Ancalagon44]

I saw a review the other day on Amazon.com which was hilarious.

This idiot complained that he sent multiple AMD AM4 motherboards in for RMA because their onboard video was not working. I can't remember who the manufacturer was, probably Asrock or MSI.

Point is, the idiot didn't think to check whether the CPU supported onboard video, which of course Ryzen does not.