WARNING! ASUS Mainboards degraded

[Alan7]

ASUS degrades their products but they won't tell you about it!

Take the P3V4X for example. They make revisions (such as changing the clock generator), but continue to sell the product under the same name (P3V4X) and reference ANANDTECH's AWARD! Hmmmm, something smells. What else did they change?

So BEWARE when your thinking about buying an ASUS product, because you won't know what you got until you open the hood!

ASUS could post the revisions on their website, but ASUS does not want to do that.

False advertising???? No fault on AnandTech's part, but ASUS needs to remove Anand's Editor's Award on their website because you can't get the motherboard AnandTech reviewed.

 

[Adul]

Are you aware alll MB manufacturers revise their boards to fix bugs, make it more stable, and overall, make it a better product. They are all guilty of this. ABIT, ASUS, AOPEN, FIC, Etc...


So before spewing out bable, get your facts strait.

BTW, ABIT has replace the hotpoint 367 controller on the bx6 r2 with a 370 chip on their latest board revisions. And they did not tell anyone about it.

 

[EvilDonnyboy]

I believe they've only used 2 different brands of clock generators. The first being a Winbond, the other being something else. both are good. but one of them reaches 150+ fsb a bit better than the other, i think it's the winbond. a small HS on the clock generator chip will fix this perfectly.

I don't believe they changed anything else.

 

[chiwawa626]

Just about every company does this, they change or revise a product and sell it under the same name. But if you look around you'll find a revison number. Even companys like intel do this with their own motherboard. Nothing to wory about...unless it falls apart on you.

 

[The Wildcard]

Haha can you imagine if they had to keep marketing the same motherboard but with a new revision?

"Hahha, introducing the all new, Abit-Bx6 rev2 QR model!! Abit, hot from just releasing the Abit-Bx6 rev2 MN model just 1 month ago, is now releasing the all new QR model with the QR bios!!!!!! Come get it now!!"

 

[slpaulson]

Intel has new steppings of cpus. ca2 cb0 ect and its still a pentium3. Guess we can't buy from intel either.

 

[bonkers325]

stop hurting his intelligence
oh wait there is uh ........

cheers,
bonkers325

 

[TGCid]

Abraham Lincoln once said..."It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are an idiot then opening it and remove all doubts..."

 

[xtreme2k]

maybe we stop using M$ products also
so many patches and new version as well

 

[Stringy]

This is Pathetic...
Ok, now speaking about revisions...
I know alot about the P2b revision history..
the First revision was the 1.02, which was reviewed and got rave reviews from
all including Anand upon its release...
then came the 1.04(or 3) no noticable changes...
then 1.10 came about... Big time changes... More FSB speeds 133+ speeds
Vcore manipulation with a litte hack... Rock stability, Cu mine capatibility

And this is a Bad thing??
Wake up, take a walk outside...
there has to be something you're good at...



Craig

 

[bigshooter]

I don't think that most people would care if Asus changed a certain component on their motherboard like a different clock generator or if they were using a different brand of capacitors or something. That is all they would probably do without changing revision number. If they did change the revision number it would be for something major, and it should say so on the box when you buy it.

 

[Madcowz]

I don't know but I have had such bad experiences w/ Asus. TWO CUSL2's have malfunctioned, and after sending them in one for RMA service, they have claimed that they either didn't receive it or lost it... I believe the latter but as I doubt they will admit fault on their own end. I can't believe this, and there's nothing I can do about it either since I did not insure the package. Their motherboards have caused me such grief I now traumatized and hate computers :disgust:

 

[The Wildcard]

Madcowz: Maybe the motherboards suffered from Mad Cow syndrome, lol...

 

[Possum]

I completely understand what Alan7 is talking about, since I also own a P3V4X. I'm sure others who frequent the dedicated P3V4X forum at www.overclockers.com.au also know what Alan7 is talking about. The P3V4X's have had 2 different brand clock generators, ICS and Winbond (there may have been different models of ICS chips, but with less noticeable differences). The ICS chip offers many FSB options all the way up to 160 or 166 (I think that was the number, I've never really cared since my CPU can't even reach it), but has stability problems ~150 FSB on some motherboards. The Winbond clock generator may be more stable at 150, but from what I've read from people's experiences on the P3V4X forum is that the FSB options are limited to 16 (much less than with the ICS), and offer very few (if any) FSB settings between 140 and 150.
So yes, AnandTech may give the motherboard a different rating if they re-reviewed the motherboard, since the overclocking options are decreased significantly ~150 FSB. However, it IS a bit extreme to assume all of ASUS's motherboards are going to be like this from now on. It may be a specific design issue associated with this board. Perhaps other boards will have less problems, while others will have more.

 

[LXi]

MSI is the only manufacturer to release so many revisions under different names based on the little changes they've made to the original design.

 

[AndyHui]

I think from ASUS's point of view it certainly wasn't a downgrade. The original ICS clock generator was replaced by the somewhat less capable Winbond clock generator because of heat issues. At high FSBs such as 150MHz+, more often than not the system was unstable. Only relatively savvy people like us here on Anandtech would go so far as to put a heatsink on the clock generator in order to make the system stable at high speeds.

Remember that the vast majority of users would not bother to open up their system and go plonk a heatsink on a chip which they may not even pick correctly on the motherboard. As far as ASUS is concerned, those speeds become unusable, so why should it make that much of a difference to replace it with a cooler running chip that doesn't produce those speeds? They were not stable in the 1st place.

What most users fail to do is to do their homework properly. The change in clock generators between PCB revisions 1.02 and 1.03 was big news here on the AT Forums quite a while back. Do a search and there is plenty of sucbject matter for study.

 

[Alan7]

I appreciate all views and comments. It takes a little heat to bring out different views.

Well, I seached for P3V4X reviews... prior to buying the board. I found nothing on clock generator revisions.

My board IS Revision 1.02 !!!! AND I only have 16 FSB's Scratch scratch.

All I am saying is ASUS ought to list the major changes on their website (spec list) so we know what we are buying. What is so unfair about that?

 

[slpaulson]

I understand what you mean about the less fsb options. But that is no reason to steer clear of all asus motherboards. The change in clock gens is old news.

 

[Sunner]

You need to realize that they dont make the mobo's for people like us, they make them for OEM's(not the really big ones like Compaq obviously, but more local yet relatively big OEM's).

And these OEM's sell comps to your grandma, not to you, they arent concerned about OC'ing, they just want a product that will work out of the box.

For these OEM's, less revisions means less problems is the support dept, which in turns means more money left over in a market with small marigins.

 

[Midnight Rambler]

You don't even wanna know how many revs are done to cars within a model year.

And the mantra is ... functional equivalence.

 

[Alan7]

IC ...the boards are made for the Lil' ol Lady from Pasadena first, then changed for the slow pokes.

Next time I guess I'll have to grab one soon after AnandTech publishes his review.

Thanks all.

 

[DaddyG]

At least AMD has realized this situation. They have a fairly new program to constantly certify mobos. This is different from the AMD recommended list. Just a word to the wise, the mobos that Anand and Tom gets from ASUS are hand selected, don't EVER expect to get such a mobo. IMHO ASUS has a reputation that they do not deserve. They rely on Anand and Tom who are so far up the ASUS ass that they can clean their teeth !!

 

[Dulanic]

I think you smokin some crack. The CUSL2 is probably the best 815 chipset board out there, its widly recommended. The Asus P5A was IMO the best Super7 Board made... it worked awsome EVEN with my GeForce which so many people had trouble with on other Super 7 boards. You have the K7M which was an excellent Slot A board, and now the K7V which is probably one of the best Slot A boards out there. The A7V is definetely one of the better Socket A Boards along with MSI. I can go on and on really.... but Asus isnt just recommended by sites.... they are recommended by the people who use these forums. There are only 2 MB companies I have ever and will ever buy unless some companies like Abit seriously shape up.... and they are Asus and MSI.

 

[Adul]

K7M may have beena good board, but i seen enough problems with thema and experienced to take that off my list. Not that is matter anymore.

 

[Dulanic]

Adul but compare it to the other KX133 boards at that time... KX133 had some problems, so it wasnt only the Asus.