Why cant a hardware installation be problem free ?

[TEX4S]

Here is an after shot - same iPhone camera, just cleaned the little lens :)

So far everything is OK, a couple bugs I need to fix, nothing more than settings.

I did lose the availability of a PCI slot, so no more X-Fi - having to use onboard audio - we will see how long that lasts.

Thanks to everyone who helped with ideas - and tips - always appreciated ;)

[Nagisan]

Bit late for remarks or anything, but my previous computer had a Gigabyte board and it ran quite well.

I had an old ASUS board that I bricked when I updated to BIOS (no clue why, ASUS' website said it was the right BIOS, and it went through without a problem, but it completely bricked it after the reboot), so I decided to get a Gigabyte replacement with dual-BIOS chips....basically if the primary gets corrupted, it copies the BIOS on the secondary chip over whatever is on the primary chip, then reboots to fix the primary chip (if that fails, it still boots onto the secondary which will work but is not flashable). In short, I never experienced any issues with the Gigabyte board I had. I bought it on a budget as it was not planned and I needed to get back up and running ASAP, but for what I paid for it, it ran great. It also handled the overclock I had better then my ASUS board did. I actually bumped it up higher with less vdroop then the ASUS had. So I would definitely recommend Gigabyte if you are on a budget and need a solid board.

[TEX4S]

Well I am not convinced that Sh*tabyte boards no longer deserve that nickname. Time will only tell.

What I can tell you is I do see some instances of what my complaints have been all along:

Basically, they use stupid gimmicky features (marketing) in lieu of quality or innovations.

They tout 2x Copper PCB - so what ? Make it right the 1st time and you wont need to double up on copper -

I mean, how many people have connectivity issues because the trace wasn't large enough ?

How about little features that actually help like ASUS:

The all-in-one plug for all of your front panel connections.

The padded I/O board

Why waste space/features on crap like USB1.1 enabling and add on some dedicated e-SATA ports.

The solder points were about 1/2 the size of ASUS solder points -

Now, of course I am biased I realize that - but as I was putting all of this together this morning - I was thinking "It'd be nice if they did this or that like ASUS"

Maybe its just because I didnt spend enough money to get the really nice stuff - or maybe I dont know what the hell I am talking about

Yeah I think thats what it is.

END OF RANT

On a lighter note I just finished 1/2 hour of Prime95 with 8 sessions running and temps maxed @ 62 degrees avg.

@ idle : 38 degrees avg.

Maybe the difference is I used AS5 paste this time instead of the Shin Etsu it [Corsair H50] originally had.

I also removed the grey heatsinks over the mosfet and northbridge and replaced them with the ASUS ones

[tsupersonic]

So, instead of complaining of Gigabyte, why didn't you just get whatever brand you wanted? If you're going to buy a motherboard, and you have a brand preference, might as well get the one you want (especially since you're paying a lot of money) instead of regretting it.

[astrokat]

I killed two asus boards in a row back in the day trying to mount a heatsink (used a screw driver to push the clip down and it kept sliding off). I think I did one RMA and one return and sold the board i got back on ebay. These things just happen.

[Raa]

It's not your fault you're stupid.

Sorry mate, had to ;) I'm kidding, of course.

I feel your pain. I can build a computer for a customer from ground up in 10-15 mins, but if I work on mine even for the simple things it usually takes an hour. Or 3 if it's a motherboard change, lol.

[TEX4S]

So, instead of complaining of Gigabyte, why didn't you just get whatever brand you wanted? If you're going to buy a motherboard, and you have a brand preference, might as well get the one you want (especially since you're paying a lot of money) instead of regretting it.

ya know super - thats a good question - and I just dont have an intelligent answer for that :p

Basically, when I was @ the store I asked the salesperson (who seemed knowledgeable) which he would want between this Gigabyte, and the P6T (the one I had) - and he said definately the Gigabyte, then mentioned the USB3.0 - and that kinda sold me.

The other board there was the $400 ASUS workstation board and $350 eVga x58 Classified -

It's not your fault you're stupid.

Sorry mate, had to ;) I'm kidding, of course.

:D I know....good one though

I feel your pain. I can build a computer for a customer from ground up in 10-15 mins, but if I work on mine even for the simple things it usually takes an hour. Or 3 if it's a motherboard change, lol.

EXACTLY

I spent a solid hour and a half on thinking about how to best hide all the cables, and if I should use all orange SATA cables or all RED, or use orange for the optical drives, and red for the HDD, or vice versa - LOL yeah I am anal about cable mgmt. - the thing is, I see some of these builds online (even in here) and the cable mgmt. is so awesome I think - now why in the world cant mine look THAT good ?!?

A clients' machine ? 30 minutes on hardware - the rest on software

[Raa]

Yep, you've got it knocked on the head mate... I do the same thing. You should see my mess at home.

But if I do up a customers computer it looks so neat and tidy. :no:

There's an old expression that relates to techies always have the messiest workplaces, but their clients jobs are the best looking, or something like that. I heard it once, and it's so true. The mechanics car isn't much to speak about, but he does a fantastic job on my car! lol

[TEX4S]

Yep, you've got it knocked on the head mate... I do the same thing. You should see my mess at home.

But if I do up a customers computer it looks so neat and tidy. :no:

There's an old expression that relates to techies always have the messiest workplaces, but their clients jobs are the best looking, or something like that. I heard it once, and it's so true. The mechanics car isn't much to speak about, but he does a fantastic job on my car! lol

So true - so true

LOL

[Nagisan]

Maybe its just because I didnt spend enough money to get the really nice stuff - or maybe I dont know what the hell I am talking about

I have quite limited experience with Gigabyte myself, only 1 board from them. But it was a board I bought on a budget knowing it would be lacking some features (only 1 pci-e 16x slot, no crossfire/SLI support, for example). But for what I paid for it, it was a solid board.

So, while I will agree that Gigabyte lacks some of the features that Asus and others have, it also lacks some of the features I find completely useless that other brands tag on. And for a budget board, they (from my experience) are probably one of the best you can get.....though I am liking the ASRock board I have at the moment.....runs great with the overclock I have and runs very stable. Has very low vdrop even with the vdroop feature disabled.

EDIT: And I totally know what you mean.......almost every time I add or remove hardware from my machine something ends up going wrong and I end up having to spend more money. Lately I have came out pretty well with just upgrading the video card or adding in a SSD, but before that I had to get a new DVD burner, and various other things have happened in the past.