DONT Buy ASUS and here is why.....

First off. I am sitting in a room with 6 Asus motherboards all in functioning computers
except the best one.

The Striker Extreme.

I have really never had a reason to call Asus tech support for one thing I am a Computer Service provider (technician) and I have been building machines for years.

Asus has ripped me off by uploading a new bios on 2-2-07. The code screws your board. It flashes fine and prompts you to restart. But then you have a dead MOBO. 400 dollars worth.

Well there tech support department is rude condesending and idiots. Asus is in taiawan and they are who controls the website. Currently the forum is unavailble. I was able to see it yesterday and found several people falling victim to the same bios. The real crappy thing about it is they actually would not politely deal with the situation. They didnt even know there was a new bios available. So now my only option is to call and ask "The Bios Department"
give me a break, to send me a preflashed chip. They want to charge me 5 dollars as well and all the other people with the Striker Extreme that flash over the weekend are going to get screwed. They have the same exact file on their site for download. So now the forum is unavailable and people dont stand a chance at being warned about it.

Therefore I no longer support their products and I encourage everyone else not to buy into the hype like I did. I went ahead and bought another 680i board which I infact was able to achieve 3.6ghz out of my E6700 and is stable. I could not do that with the Striker all though I was able to get the same scores in 3dmark due to the lower SM2.0 score I am getting. I dont know how to improve that or if that is due to my new motherboard.

Anyway I know a lot of people are building new computers and you all should know the reality of Asus. There are other boards out there that might not be as flashy but they are in reality just as good.

Its nice to see RS Vegas show me all green check marks in the system detection.

I hope this makes you think twice. If it happens to me and the others it can happen to you.
You will be treated horribly and God knows if you will get a decent chip back from the company.

Who knows what code they will program into it.

Lastly I flashed with a floppy disk and ran the Award flash utility like I have done forever. It flashed fine. it was the code. Really pissed and you would be too.

when I updated the BIOS on an Asus P5N-E SLI I had to reset the CMOS with the jumper before it would post again. worth a try, just pop the battery out and jumper it for 30 sec or so.

That said, I completely agree with you about the quality of their customer service.

Like I said I am a veteran system builder. The code is bad. Thats it. The machine powers up for 1 second and shuts down. It is happening to everyone with Striker Extreme boards that flash to the 0803 bios which is not a beta. The company is low rent to allow people over the weekend to ruin their boards. Like I said I briefly was able to see in the asus forum several people already falling victim to this.

The customer support is stupid and disrespectful. Believe me I gave them a crap load of breaks with answers like "we dont even have the manual yet" , "I didnt know there was a new bios"

They shouldnt have a job

5 bucks for a new bios chip doesn't seem too bad though. Yes if there is an issue with the bios on the site they should just give it to you but still whats 5 bucks?

Personaly I try to avoid asus motherboards just because I always seem to have issues getting driver files from their website. Site is slow and half the time I use to get FTP down messages from them.

I usually haven't had issues with the few Asus boards I have. But deamn, when a problem arises and I can't fix it (I'm a veteran tech guy as well), I cringe at having to contact Asus. Their website is slower than UPS on a good day, up and down more than an intern during the Clinton administration. I sent a board back to them years ago with exact instructinos on how to replicate the error with the board, they sent me the board back saying they find no problems... We did this song-n-dance three more times, including telling them on the phone the board has an issue. After getting back the fourth time, I simply refunded the customer their $$$. Since that day I have sold zero Asus boards, as I won't recommend them to customers or friends. They need to kick their tech support people in the butts to straighten them up and they need to find some new squirrels to power their website.

5 bucks? you think the amount of money matters to me? I have over $6000 invested in the machine, Including Vista Ultimate.

My point is who is responsible for the code that is ruining the Striker board? I cant believe it. I am literally inclined to believe it was intentional. The Striker board is supposed to be their best newest bad ass motherboard. To have some idiot or asshole upload most likely a known inferior bios is enough for anyone not to trust this company at all. Imagine if this was my only computer. It is only becuase I have the money that I could go out and buy another motherboard. I am actually surprised I am getting comparable performance. Incidentally the new bios is supposed to fix the SCP issue with the XFI cards. I had the beta 802 bios at the time which was %95 successful at getting rid of it but I still encountered distortion crackling becuase I am running SLI 8800 GTXs.

The board I have now has no problem with the XFI

NO, people need to know what the real Asus is. They have the name now and granted they have made some good motherboards. I have several. But this is the end.

They are relying on flash and other gimmicks to lure people into buying essentially a faulty product. They have had like 5 to 6 bios releases now for the board. How long has it been out? Actually people want it and cant find it. NewEgg rarely even shows it on their site.

I personally feel ripped off. I am not going to mention the comparable motherboard because I am not here to sell another manufaturers product.

I am here to worn all those looking to build a 680i machine SLI. Dont get a Striker and why they made another board called the Commando makes you wonder as well. Why not sell the hell out of the Striker. Make it readily available.

Wow that really sux and definitely worries me as I was planning to include a Striker in my new build. Thankfully though I haven't ordered it yet. Thanks for the post!

Crash[man];1030589315 said:

5 bucks? you think the amount of money matters to me? I have over $6000 invested in the machine, Including Vista Ultimate.

My point is who is responsible for the code that is ruining the Striker board? I cant believe it. I am literally inclined to believe it was intentional. The Striker board is supposed to be their best newest bad ass motherboard. To have some idiot or asshole upload most likely a known inferior bios is enough for anyone not to trust this company at all. Imagine if this was my only computer. It is only becuase I have the money that I could go out and buy another motherboard. I am actually surprised I am getting comparable performance. Incidentally the new bios is supposed to fix the SCP issue with the XFI cards. I had the beta 802 bios at the time which was %95 successful at getting rid of it but I still encountered distortion crackling becuase I am running SLI 8800 GTXs.

The board I have now has no problem with the XFI

NO, people need to know what the real Asus is. They have the name now and granted they have made some good motherboards. I have several. But this is the end.

They are relying on flash and other gimmicks to lure people into buying essentially a faulty product. They have had like 5 to 6 bios releases now for the board. How long has it been out? Actually people want it and cant find it. NewEgg rarely even shows it on their site.

I personally feel ripped off. I am not going to mention the comparable motherboard because I am not here to sell another manufaturers product.

I am here to worn all those looking to build a 680i machine SLI. Dont get a Striker and why they made another board called the Commando makes you wonder as well. Why not sell the hell out of the Striker. Make it readily available.

Click to expand...

You have $6000 invested in a computer?!? And you don't have a quad core? And you're using air cooling?

Asus website sucks, but I've had multiple RMA's from them and everything is fine. Not to mention that their boards barely ever have non-user induced errors.

BTW, if you spent $6000 on that machine, you got badly ripped off. I spent about 4500 and have a qx6700, 8800GTX, 30in HP monitor, 2x 750GB drives, 2x raptor 150, etc, etc.

loved my A8N-SLI, My A8N-SLI deluxe and my P5B-Deluxe.

All have been fabulous to me.

Where are you calling their support from? I was connected to a place in Kentucky when I called dealing with a BIOS issue. I spoke to a man with a very southern accent, with a strong grasp of North american geography and the English language. I was very pleased. Also, I was calling from Canada.

They RMA'd my board on the phone, and I had a new one in my hands (they even cross shipped) in about 7 days... Once again to Canada.

I've had nothing but great service from them, for their good products. To do this though, I'll admit you need to be very General with the problem. Or, worst comes to worse, fry the NB with static and send it back (I've had them tell me my board was fine, when the Sata controller had died on it) as a nonposter.

The Striker does have it's share of problems though, and that's why I wasn't to keen on going with a non intel Chipset for an intel Processor... Intel's always had a great track record for making their own NBs.

For the record, I've only had to RMA 2 Asus boards for my customers, and they make up about 75% of the boards I use... I've had to RMA 11 ECS and 14 Gigabyte boards last year alone, which make up the other 25%. Coincidence, possibly, but who knows.

This is just my opinion btw. And yes, I too, was very underwhelmed by the Striker. Too many LED's too inconsistant of a product.

And the thing about it is. I bought the E6700 for like 550 dollars. I kept reading the clocks people were getting with this processor. 3.4 to 3.6ghz. I eventually by a glitchy use of AI-Nos was able to get the Striker to give me 3.29ghz. That is as much as I could get out of it.

To the poster taking notice of my warning , I have updated my signiture to reflect the new motherboard I bought at CompUSA. It wasnt cheap BUT guess what. I am running my E6700 over 3.6ghz now.

I can run F.E.A.R in 1600x1200 2x AA NO SCP from my XFI and I can run the game nice and bright. You know the gamma test? well I adjusted my 21 inch CRT A110 Viewsonic just right.

I cant believe the performance I am getting.

The reason I am air cooling is because I have a Lian Li PC-75B with the window. It is a huge case. I also modified the window and put an outtake fan right over my 8800s which lowered my temps by 10 degrees C.

If you want to see the computer just ask.

Now that I see that I can actually crank my FSB lower my cpu multiplyer to 9x and get these effected clock speeds in XP. My 8800s with a little overclocking give me performance I have never seen with the Striker Board. Believe me I tried all options at Overclocking the E6700. I was pissed reading people telling me they were getting these much higher clocks than me. The thing was was they werent using The Striker.

The Striker motherboard now that I see it looking in was made with a bunch of unnecessary options , like the blue leds all around the board. Pointless. The rear LCD not needed eirther.

The fact is after having this new board for almost 24 hours I can say the Striker has been over hyped. Why are they not available? Why can I buy a brand new 680i board that doesnt suffer the well know SCP issue with SLI. As I said before Asus is trying to patch the Striker for this issue with the Bios the killed my MOBO.

I am very happy with what I bought and what I am seeing but at the same time I know that I have lost 400 dollars. I know I will never get a decent and reliable chip from these people.

Its kind of hard for me to come down on the mother board manufacturer that I have always stuck with since the P2B which in fact still works and I use that machine to make music. I have 3 ISA sound cards in it.

You can take my word for it or not but your not going to be able to read a forum about it over there. They have taken the forums off line.

Happy and VERY pissed at the same time. I will never purchase another Asus product again.

to the poster that said:
"Asus website sucks, but I've had multiple RMA's from them and everything is fine. Not to mention that their boards barely ever have non-user induced errors.

BTW, if you spent $6000 on that machine, you got badly ripped off. I spent about 4500 and have a qx6700, 8800GTX, 30in HP monitor, 2x 750GB drives, 2x raptor 150, etc, etc."

All you have to do is take a calculator and enter the prices of all my parts in plus shipping add Vista Ultimate and you get like 6000 dollars.
OH let me update completely my sig. I have 3 Raptor X 150 drives now and I have 2 EVGA 8800GTXs in SLI , I will modify it accurately now.

Mistakes happen, and just because some underpaid customer service people who likely didn't have any idea a new bios was released couldn't help you, you're throwing a fit over it. It's been how long? Two days?

I think people like you need to calm down and realize that just because you spend a lot of money on something doesn't make it immune from human error, and that just because a few people at a company screwed up doesn't make the entire company bad or make it intentional. I'm sure Asus just got a wild hair up their ass and said 'hmm, lets piss off some of our most valued customers for no reason whatsoever', and thats why you're in this situation. Or maybe, just maybe, someone made a mistake and uploaded the wrong bios in their hurry to leave the office for the weekend. And maybe in that rush they also neglected to notify tech support of the new bios and to be on the lookout for any problems. And maybe when they get back, they'll upload the fixed bios, and you'll spend $5 which should just about cover shipping to get your new bios chip and it will be fixed.

And maybe next time you'll remember that it's probably not a wise idea to install bleeding edge drivers and bios files without checking around to see if anyone else is having problems first. Or maybe that's just common sense, for commoners who can't afford to replace their shiny new super expensive motherboard because it doesn't work for a whole weekend.

In fact, maybe you should change the title of your post to "DON'T INSTALL BLEEDING EDGE SOFTWARE WITHOUT DUE DILLIGENCE, AND HERE IS WHY..."

nigerian

You havnt read this thread thoroughly. The Bin file flashed fine. It completed with out error.
There is absolutely no excuse for bad customer service when a customer tells you he has been an avid Asus supporter for years.

Furthermore. As I said there Forum has been taken off line so you cant even see the people that have gotten screwed.

Why is it at another company I can call 24 hours a day and be treated with dignity and respect. I am 45 years old with an Electrical Engineering Degree. I am informing younger people and old that you are risking a lot of money dealing with Asus venture into the new 680i boards. They are behind the times with respect to the XFI. As I said and say again. The latest Bios is supposed to remedy SCP where other 680i boards dont have the problem out of the box just like the one I just purchased.

I work with customers every day and if I talked the way this superviser did to me I would be fired. He should not have his job. As far as other people, if they are not informed about their flagship mother board then that speaks for itself.

ie: If I was the guy and I didnt know there was a new bios on the website I would have kept my mouth shut to the customer and got on my computer and gone to the site to see what I was talking about. He didnt and he did not give any support what so ever.

In all reality even if they manage to send me a new chip I have no idea what code is in it. Remember I have an Electrical Engineering degree. I have uploaded my share of S code into EEPROMs. They could in effect damage some of my other components like my video cards. Doubtful but still possible. Intels Processer if severelly Overvolted would clamp and shut down to protect itself.

Yea I know what I am doing here and I know how many people read this forum. I am telling the truth and the consumer needs to know.

You have to ask yourself , why does another company stay open 7 days a week 24 7 and provide excellent customer support for their product.

Even if I save a few people from this I feel somewhat redeemed.

I repeat the Bios was flashed with out error. The code was inferior. Bad and it is still on their site unless they finally over in taiwan have been given this info but by now a large number of Striker owners have dead boards.

It is pathetic and no excuse. I repeat NO EXCUSE from the leading motherboard manufacturer maybe in the world.

Every one is right all the lights and the extra stuff on the board is useless. I bought it because it was an Asus board and it supported SLI and it was flashy and getting all this great praise.

Im here to tell you the truth. I bought the board when it first was available. I had to wait a few days for one to become available.

If you dont have the board and you want to argue my point then that isnt right. If you have the board then flash it with 803 from a floppy. I have downloaded it 3 times an its the same file. I havnt checked right now.

I will wait till next week to deal with it. I guess I will build another machine with it. I am too happy with the board I have now to take it out and put the Striker back in when I get better performance from what I just bought.

somebody forgot to take their pills today... seriously chill out dude... NEVER install a bleeding edge BIOS. ALWAYS wait a few days for idiots to find the problems. NEVER install things until you've heard of a LOT of people having success with it.

farkedup said:

somebody forgot to take their pills today... seriously chill out dude... NEVER install a bleeding edge BIOS. ALWAYS wait a few days for idiots to find the problems. NEVER install things until you've heard of a LOT of people having success with it.

Click to expand...

'Specially a Bios...

The title should be, "Don't buy the Asus Striker" not just Asus in General.

So they've had problems with one or two products... What company hasn't? You've got "six other Asus computers" 6-1 is a pretty nice track record.

DFI has problems with lots of RAM... nVidia had MAJOR problems with the 7900s... Do they warrant total avoidance? I don't think so.

Just be glad your board CAN have a new BIOS chip popped in. I'm pretty sure mine can't.

Crash[man];1030589008 said:

First off. I am sitting in a room with 6 Asus motherboards all in functioning computers
except the best one.

The Striker Extreme.

I have really never had a reason to call Asus tech support for one thing I am a Computer Service provider (technician) and I have been building machines for years.

Asus has ripped me off by uploading a new bios on 2-2-07. The code screws your board. It flashes fine and prompts you to restart. But then you have a dead MOBO. 400 dollars worth.

Well there tech support department is rude condesending and idiots. Asus is in taiawan and they are who controls the website. Currently the forum is unavailble. I was able to see it yesterday and found several people falling victim to the same bios. The real crappy thing about it is they actually would not politely deal with the situation. They didnt even know there was a new bios available. So now my only option is to call and ask "The Bios Department"
give me a break, to send me a preflashed chip. They want to charge me 5 dollars as well and all the other people with the Striker Extreme that flash over the weekend are going to get screwed. They have the same exact file on their site for download. So now the forum is unavailable and people dont stand a chance at being warned about it.

Therefore I no longer support their products and I encourage everyone else not to buy into the hype like I did. I went ahead and bought another 680i board which I infact was able to achieve 3.6ghz out of my E6700 and is stable. I could not do that with the Striker all though I was able to get the same scores in 3dmark due to the lower SM2.0 score I am getting. I dont know how to improve that or if that is due to my new motherboard.

Anyway I know a lot of people are building new computers and you all should know the reality of Asus. There are other boards out there that might not be as flashy but they are in reality just as good.

Its nice to see RS Vegas show me all green check marks in the system detection.

I hope this makes you think twice. If it happens to me and the others it can happen to you.
You will be treated horribly and God knows if you will get a decent chip back from the company.

Who knows what code they will program into it.

Lastly I flashed with a floppy disk and ran the Award flash utility like I have done forever. It flashed fine. it was the code. Really pissed and you would be too.

Click to expand...

My Striker Extreme was killed in the same way. Fortunately, you can get a new BIOS chip from ASUS for $5. You send your chip to them, they'll flash it and send it back. Or you can simply buy a new BIOS chip for $25.00. What pisses me off is that their flash utility killed my BIOS chip, and they won't do anything about it. So with that I agree with you.

Unfortunately, I am unable to do anything about it. I had to get a BIOS chip from ASUS or my motherboard would have remained dead.

ASUS like everyone else pisses me off from time to time as a company. The reality is they've provided me with the most stable and feature equipped motherboards over the years. Most of the time when I tried non-ASUS boards in my system, I had difficulty after difficulty. (With few exceptions.)

So while I think the Striker Extreme falls short compared to most other 680i chipset based boards, I think that ASUS is still one of the best motherboard manufacturers out there.

I do think ASUS needs to get their shit together on their BIOS updates for the Striker Extreme. Currently, the BIOS' for the Striker have generally sucked.

farkedup said:

somebody forgot to take their pills today... seriously chill out dude... NEVER install a bleeding edge BIOS. ALWAYS wait a few days for idiots to find the problems. NEVER install things until you've heard of a LOT of people having success with it.

Click to expand...

This is good advice. I generally wait. This last time with 0802 I didn't. It bit me in the ass.

farkedup said:

somebody forgot to take their pills today... seriously chill out dude... NEVER install a bleeding edge BIOS. ALWAYS wait a few days for idiots to find the problems. NEVER install things until you've heard of a LOT of people having success with it.

Click to expand...

he's 45 years old with an electrical engineering degree... but he's still a n00bie

Zinn said:

he's 45 years old with an electrical engineering degree... but he's still a n00bie

Click to expand...

Careful...

This no laughing matter. First its over 400 dollars worth of gear.
2.) If you want to replace the board you have to disassemble your machine
and reload. You should never expect an OS to function correctly when changing MOBOs

3.) I knew there would be people just like me coming here who got bit and we are all really pissed off.

Being avid loyal Asus costumers we have always trusted there Bioses even the betas.
It is unheard of for Asus to fuk up like this.

And they have the nerve to charge us anything. That is why I went and tried another Motherboard.

Asus should not charge any of us and they should be sending chips out to everyone of us no questions asked.

Thats why I am here.

They screwed us over and with their reputation there is no room for this kind of fuk up.

Yea they can hide by shutting down their forum but one way or another someone in that company is going to answer for this and one way or another I will make sure of it.

I'm sure their forums are down for other reasons... Not specifically to avoid the ~300 or so users with the Striker that might perform this upgrade .

Yes, these BIOSes should be sent out free, but most Warranty terms do NOT cover BIOS flashing, regardless of the situation, and the quality of their ASM. It's in their TOS and warranty contract... ANYONE can claim they tried this new BIOS, regardless of whether or not they did, and get a free chip.

Most companies operate this way... They've gotta do this to protect against all the bad flashings that happen.

I hope someone does answer for the principal behind what you've gone through. But remember, this new Bios was released about 2 days ago... over a weekend.

BTW, if you spent $6000 on that machine, you got badly ripped off. I spent about 4500 and have a qx6700, 8800GTX, 30in HP monitor, 2x 750GB drives, 2x raptor 150, etc, etc."

All you have to do is take a calculator and enter the prices of all my parts in plus shipping add Vista Ultimate and you get like 6000 dollars.
OH let me update completely my sig. I have 3 Raptor X 150 drives now and I have 2 EVGA 8800GTXs in SLI , I will modify it accurately now.

Click to expand...

Sorry for off topic but WTF!!??

$6000 for a computer? You can even buy Alienware and they'll water cool your system, overclock it, 2x 8800GTX, and then add in a 30in monitor for $6000.

But seriously, why do you spend $6000 on a computer and get E6700?

anyways.... that sucks man....

I dont buy Asus because I have not been impressed with their boards.. I have an A8n SLI deluxe about 16 months ago and was unimpressed.

I have since moved on and up to DFI. Their boards are awesome and even their entry level boards OC very well and everyone I have had will boot the first time with 1 stick of RAM.

I have gotten free MHZ about 750mhz of free speed out of my opteron 165 with the difference in FSB stability of my A8n v my SLI-DR

thank being said I am sure others have bad great experience.... I have not

Policy does not fall into this catagory.

An exception to this policy should be made with out question ONLY for those of us that flashed the Striker to 803.

NOTE:
If you read above where you posted you will find at least two other owners of the Striker that flashed to the 803. One of them was using the 802 like me.

NO Policy does not work here.. This is when you really learn something about a companies support. This is an extreme exception I would hope. I cant count how many motherboards I have flashed in my life but there has only been one that failed a long long time ago. But it failed! During the flash the prog indicated a bad sector in the memory and that was it.

With the Asus 803 bios it successfully flashes. Its not a beta and is the current bios that fixes several very important things.

Either it wasnt tested properly or someone pulled something underhanded in the company.

Any you know your right it would seem that maybe 300 people own this motherboard on the planet because buying it is an act of God.

Considering I run a business in Computer service Customer service comes first then I fix my customers problem if possible and if not I offer the appropriate alternatives.

Well one alternative I wont be offering is to replace a motherboard with an Asus board.
There technical support reps dont have manuals and they dont keep up with whats going on with all the products.

No I wont be throwing away my P3B, Cusl ,Cusl2, and a Asus slot 1 Via board, OH and my P4C800 E Deluxe which works fine. I wish I could overclock my processor more but maybe with a new Zalman and new memory I can work on the FSB and get this board to give me like 3.4ghz. That would be cool.

As you can see thats 5 working mortherboards that have been flashed with the last bios release for everyone of them. I have had no reason to think that Asus of all companies could fail like this.

All of us that got screwed agree. We should be sent a new proven Bios chip free of charge and a sincere appology. That is what I want and I am going to try and get it for all of us.

If I dont I will let people know right here. Then potential consumers will really have a good idea about what the support is.

SentToSchool said:

You have $6000 invested in a computer?!? And you don't have a quad core? And you're using air cooling?

Click to expand...

I'm not getting it either. I add up the cost of parts and it doesn't add up to $6000.00.

My machine cost around $3200 or so with everything in my signature aside from my monitors and peripherals. (I actually paid far less than that, because of various hookups.) I don't have quad core, but I am using water cooling.

If you add the cost difference of his memory vs. mine and his CPU, you still don't get to $6000.00. If he paid $6,000.00 he must have purchased it form Comp USSR or something.

Arcygenical said:

I'm sure their forums are down for other reasons... Not specifically to avoid the ~300 or so users with the Striker that might perform this upgrade .

Yes, these BIOSes should be sent out free, but most Warranty terms do NOT cover BIOS flashing, regardless of the situation, and the quality of their ASM. It's in their TOS and warranty contract... ANYONE can claim they tried this new BIOS, regardless of whether or not they did, and get a free chip.

Most companies operate this way... They've gotta do this to protect against all the bad flashings that happen.

I hope someone does answer for the principal behind what you've gone through. But remember, this new Bios was released about 2 days ago... over a weekend.

Click to expand...

They usually also state that you should never do a BIOS update unless you are having a problem.

You should change the title to Don't ever flash your motherboard. I have had this happen with other motherboards. About 6 years ago I had got a bad BIOS from Abit. When I called to RMA it, they said it was a known problem, but that it still wasn't covered. I convinced the phone tech person to change it to blown caps so I could send it in.

We like to think that flashing a BIOS is just normal maintenance; but you are really gambling with your motherboard's life. It happens no matter the company or the product. Just ask all of the owners of Wii's or 360's that were bricked by updates.

wise.

I posted a picture of my computer in the initial post. The Case cost 200 plus like 50 in shipping. I worked at UPS and I know how ground throws and steps on your packages. I paid the 30 extra for the shipping. Most all the parts I mail ordered. Ironically I got the Striker for 375 but with shipping it was 400. The board was usually 400 or more. You have to just look at all the parts in my sig and add them up and I am pretty damn sure it come to 6 grand but include Windows Vista Ultimate at 430 dollars.

Alienware is a cool company. I am bummed that Dell pretty much bought them out and I hope they have free rain to make their machines. It looks like Dell is copying a lot of Alienwares ideas with their new machines.

Whenever you build your own machine it will usually cost more. I didnt uprgrade through the 7000 series nvidia cards. I have had an AGP rig for a long time. MY P4C800E Deluxe. For my business I must learn how to troubleshoot Vista which is essentially XP literally hiding under there from what I have found so far.

I am not a big fan of spending money believe me and usually I dont have any. I got in bad Car accident and will be getting a large compensation from it. This gives me more of an incentive to go all the way. I really love this computer:



It has been a lot of fun setting it up. adding new lighted fans which i have never done. I bought a round drive bit at the hardware store to cut a hole in my window for the Graphics card out take fan. I am thinking about turning it around. It might cool the cards better. I have been reading both sides some out take some intake. Either way my temps dropped by about 10 degrees c.

I hope this picture tells you how serious I am and that I might not be watercooling and going full on out which I could but personally with luck like I just had I would get a leak in the tubing and that would be it.

Point blank I bought BFG 680i board and I couldnt be more happy. I just played FEAR with flawless frames at 1600x1200 and not in complete darkness. It just was some much more fun to play with out any glitchyness , etc.

Also now that I can overclock the hell out of my processor I realize how much the 8800s really need that. They function to their foolest capability with a high stable Clock. Well I am going to leave it at this until I find out how they deal with getting me a new bios. If I have to send it in for 5 measly dollars I will but its a slap in our face.
cya

and sorry to all the others that it happened to and I hope you get your computers back up and running soon

Wow... 750$ on RAM?

What are you running it at? Speed wise? Why would you buy such expensive RAM when you can run it at 800mhz Unlinked?

Did you know that the Raptor 150 ADFD drives are the same as the windowed ones, but without the windows and 50$ less?

I have to concur with Crashman's view of Asus' quality control. For the past few years, it has been going downhill as ECS' has been getting higher and higher.

I have to look at this as an RMA point of view as that is my job function, RMA for a vendor that sells a lot of Asus product. The prone products that I have seen come back are Intel 775 based with either the nForce 590, 650i, and 680i configurations. The most common problem is memory controller failure. As you guessed, these would be the P5N32 Premium SLI, P5N-E SLI, and the Asus Striker Extreme. In all, Asus had done a shitty Q.A. job on these boards. On a good note, every Asus i965/i975 board that I have touched works perfectly well. To prevent Nvidia from being the problem, the BFG/EVGA boards have been solid with little defects, and the old Biostar/EVGA NF4 board was a damn good one.

There are a lot of Asus fans out there, and that's probably due to marketing and being in the business for 20+ years. We have start facing reality now and admitting that Asus is not as good as they use to be.

I feel your pain as far as feeling screwed.

All I'm saying is that you, engineering degrees and all, should have known better than to install a bleeding edge BIOS w/o even the slightest bit of feedback from other users.

I really do understand your frustration, same as I would for someone who lost 5 years worth of photos, a 50+ gb mp3 collection, or a major work project due to a catastrophic hard drive failure and a careless or nonexistant backup routine. I've been there. It sucks. However, the suckage doesn't negate your contribution to it through carelessness or ineptitude. ASUS should have been more careful, but you also should have known better, and now you do.

My point is, take it as a lesson learned and move on. The sky is not falling, and ASUS is pretty friggin far from a bad company. 680i is new tech and sometimes this is the price you pay for being a hardware enthusiast. If we really expected it to just work all the damn time, we'd buy Apple and be done with it. Trying to rally the troops to support your cause for not buying ASUS on hardforums is a bit like pissing in the wind.

How the hell did you spend $4000 on your rig and not get Quad Core?!!??!

Ya.... there's nowehere near $6000 worth of hardware in that box.

Kuyt said:

How the hell did you spend $4000 on your rig and not get Quad Core?!!??!

Click to expand...

*Cough*.... $6000, not $4000...

Then why are you replying. NO you are wrong. Asus claims to be the best.
Their products should reflect their claim. There was no reason what so ever why
I should not have flashed that bios when I have an XFI Fatatlity and I dont want
SCP. There are a list of fixes in the bios. Also this bios 803 is NOT beta. There for
I have reason to flash it due to problems related to SLI Graphics cards and The XFI.
This has been going on for a long long time. I would appear that the other MOBO 680i manufacturers have taken care of it. You can make excuses for Asus all you want but
the:

"Striker Extreme" was marketed so highly and got so many people willing to stand in line for one it is not so much to ask for them to simply:

1: format a bootable floppy in XP
2: Create the zip and extract the bin file and the awardflash utility to the floppy.
3: Then flash a Striker Extreme in there big Asus office to verify if it works.

Is that really so much to frigging ask?

NO no forgiveness , NO excuses, not this time. This is their flagship board. It should get highest priority. I personally think due to the lack of availablity that they just arent makeing that many of them for some reason.

a motherboard that cost me 150 I wouldnt be pissed. I could blow it off. This is a diffenent animal. And due to, well actually the worst customer service I have ever dealt with in the industry, everything I have said is completely valid and no matter how many times you want to cover Asus ass it wont work. Their only hope is that not that many people flashed it and not that many people own the Striker but................

What about the new Commando Asus board. Should people expect better support. Maybe Asus days as top dog are over.

I know I am done. The Striker absolutely is the last Asus product I buy. I believe i have made my point and I would rather leave this thread as is and lets just all wait and see how Asus resolves it. How bout that.

I will pay the 5 dollars. They already told me over the phone its a 3 day turnaround so lets see if thats true.

dont make this thread about how much he paid or didnt pay.... that doesnt matter...

what matters is customer service... I buy OCZ ram and XFX cards becasue when i have had to deal with there CS they have been professional to me and have fulfilled my needs to the best of their abilities and always kept good communication... oh and they make good products...

same goes for DFI

Ok, you're pissed. You're also right about them screwing up, and it is a big deal. But it doesn't mean their company is going down the tubes, and it doesn't mean you are blameless.

Play the victim all you want, but I bet next time you'll wait to see if anyone is having problems before you install a new BIOS.

nigerian

still taking up for them, you must either work for Asus or have some other reason.

This goes out to all the people wondering where I am getting 6 grand from.
First off much of the product was bought in like CompUSA and Bestbuy.

1: 2 EVGA 8800 GTXs when they first came out were like 600 a piece so with shipping
$1200

2: Lian Li PC 75B with window cost:
$284.24

3: BFG 1000 Watt PSU bought at Best Buy with tax at least
$350

4: 4 gig of Corsair Dominator 8500 memories with the Corsair fan
$800

5: Intel E6700 CPU
$575

6: Striker Extreme
$400

7: 3 Raptor X 150gig drives from Compusa at 350 a peice plus tax
$1200

8: XFI Extreme Gamer Edition Fatality
$175.89

9: DVD Rom and Floppy
$50

10: Fans and Cathode light
$50

11: Zalman Cooler
$71.57

12: Vista Ultimate
$430

Total = $5586.70

That is being genorous on some items

still taking up for them, you must either work for Asus or have some other reason.

Click to expand...

Well, you're still talking down at them for screwing up like, once...

Crash[man];1030590884 said:

a motherboard that cost me 150 I wouldnt be pissed.

Click to expand...

Dude. Things go wrong sometimes. You are saying that just because you paid alot for your motherboard it should be perfect. This is ridiculous. It was your choice to spend way too much on unproven bleeding edge hardware, it was your choice to flash a brand new BIOS without waiting to see what issues it might have (not a very good idea at all), and now you're freaking out that ASUS wants $5 to send you a brand new BIOS chip? That sounds like pretty damn good service to me. Certainly better than paying to ship the board to them at your cost, which is pretty much standard practice with RMAs.

You spent a lot of money. Good for you. But you should know that with brand new hardware, there is bound to be some issues. How much money you blow has no bearing on whether or not you may experience problems.

I have zero sympathy for you. Please stop your whining.

Crash[man];1030589315 said:

over $6000

Click to expand...

And don't lie about how much you spent. The prices you listed were very, very generous and it still fell significantly short of $6000. Not really helping your case...

Found this at the inquirer, http://www.benchzone.com/page.php?al=asustek_evaluation

I myself have an ASUS M2NPV-VM, and have had zero issues with.