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Ava Direct or Maingear?

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Thanks for the support... I should take the fuckin outside tomorrow and beat it to pieces. I notice something wrong what exactly do you think I should do then? Well you know what i'm sick of this shit I'm going to ebay the fuckin thing or tell ava to give my money back which they won't. So I'll smash the fucker to bits and call it a $1900.00 loss.

3fps drops in wow with an e8400 and ati 3870 I've played wow since I got this pc and never have I seen that never.
 
Thanks for the support... I should take the fuckin outside tomorrow and beat it to pieces. I notice something wrong what exactly do you think I should do then? Well you know what i'm sick of this shit I'm going to ebay the fuckin thing or tell ava to give my money back which they won't. So I'll smash the fucker to bits and call it a $1900.00 loss.

3fps drops in wow with an e8400 and ati 3870 I've played wow since I got this pc and never have I seen that never.

1. Is it frequent lag spikes or 3 fps the whole time?
2. Post a screenie of your framerate/latency thing in WoW.
3. Try playing WoW on a different setting.

QQ less.
 
It sure seems that way,how can anyone tell where the problem lies now with all the fiddling around he's done?I thought he was talking about a barebones at first.It doesn't help his case when he makes the statement " I'm not skilled at all I'm learning as I do it".

I have always had the hands off policy when a PC is under warranty (unless the company sends me a part to replace....or I am getting no support at all for an extended time *a week or so*) I personally document problems then call support and see how they want to handle it. I always assumed if I messed up the PC worse it would void the warranty. Is this not the case ...can we use our pcs as a learning tool to fix pcs and possibly do more damage to them...all the while knowing it is under warranty?

Am I the only one that doesn't fix their PC their selves if it is broken before calling support. I mean if it is something simple that I know what is wrong I will fix it but, for major issues like listed in this thread I would never have touched it. (Personally I wouldn't have taken a pair of scissors to my PC to get the Sata cables off I would have just shipped it back and made them fix it.)

This is by no means anything personal just my different feelings on warranties I guess.
 
I have always had the hands off policy when a PC is under warranty (unless the company sends me a part to replace....or I am getting no support at all for an extended time *a week or so*) I personally document problems then call support and see how they want to handle it. I always assumed if I messed up the PC worse it would void the warranty. Is this not the case ...can we use our pcs as a learning tool to fix pcs and possibly do more damage to them...all the while knowing it is under warranty?

Am I the only one that doesn't fix their PC their selves if it is broken before calling support. I mean if it is something simple that I know what is wrong I will fix it but, for major issues like listed in this thread I would never have touched it. (Personally I wouldn't have taken a pair of scissors to my PC to get the Sata cables off I would have just shipped it back and made them fix it.)

This is by no means anything personal just my different feelings on warranties I guess.

Sounds logical to me. As I've said before, one of the main selling points, if not THE selling point about buying a boutique PC is the warranty and/or tech support. If anything goes wrong, they take it and make it right again.

Some people aren't too bright though and prefer to make things worse then bitch and complain about how bad the vendors might be.
 
Costs $80 a trip. $160 if I would of sent it back again. I'm not made of money. They still have not refunded me the fees for the first trip. I can go buy a dell or pc from best buy soon just from shipping fees if I have too send it back again and again. They sent me my fixed pc with lights wired to the on switch for god sakes. I never hooked up a q connector before of course Its a learning experience. I know how to install a hard drive or dvd burner or pci card. If that is going to void a warranty then I'm done with pcs for rest of my life. What are going to do when you need a bigger hard drive buy a whole new pc because your afraid to void a warranty?I know someone will be along to tell me sooner or later my psu can't handle it which it will a 750watt thermaltake. I've had another pc for years you know I'm not some retard that never saw one before. No I'm not a skilled technician but nor am I an idiot.

As for my fps problems I can't even go near the bridge in av or walk around org without dropping down into the 20s. I froze in eots at be for 40 secs or more and fps hit 3.1. Fps bounces around for no reason it was steady all the time with the evga board. I can't even remember a time when I seen it go so low.This pc is overall sluggish I still see some choppiness when I use ffdshow to play videos with just post processing enabled. Same settings even my other rig can handle and its cpu is old and same settings I've used for months. The term that probably best describes it after I googled the problem more is bottlenecked. It seems much slower than it was before. I don't know how to solve the problem and I'm sick of having too.

How much do you think I could get from this rig if I ebay it? Here is a full list of parts. I want rid of it for good. I'm out of patience, time, money and energy to deal with this thing.

INTEL, Core™ 2 Duo E8400 Dual-Core, 3.0GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache, 45nm, 65W, EM64T EIST VT XD,

ZALMAN, CNPS9500 LED Copper CPU Cooler, Blue LED

ARCTIC COOLING, MX-2 High-Performance Thermal Compound, Non-Electrical Conductiv

ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

CORSAIR, 2GB (2 x 1GB) XMS2 Xtreme PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz CL4 (4-4-4-12) 2.1V SDRAM 240-pin DIMM, Non-ECC, w/ Heat Spreader

SAPPHIRE Toxic 100225TXSR Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

CREATIVE, Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer, 7.1 channels, 24-bit 96KHz, PCI

SEAGATE, 500GB Barracuda 7200.11, SATA NCQ 3 GB/s, 7200 RPM, 32MB cache

LINKSKEY, LKA-CR15BW Black/White 52-in-1 Card Reader/Writer Drive, 3.5" Bay, Internal USB

LITE-ON, LH-20A1L Black/Beige 20x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ LightScribe, SATA,

LITE-ON, ATAPI iHAS220 6 20x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ LightScribe, SATA,

NZXT, LEXA Black Mid-Tower Case, ATX, No PSU, Steel

CASE FANS LED Fans Red

LOGISYS, Dual Cold Cathode Case Lights Kit, Red

THERMALTAKE, Toughpower, 80 PLUS®, 750W Power Supply w/ Modularized Cable Management, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, Quad +12V, SLI Ready / CrossFire Certified

MICROSOFT, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 64-bit, OEM
 
This was AVA right? I've been leaning away from them anyway.

You will always lose money selling a PC and it's usually better to part it out. That's a little extreme though, it should be a relatively easy fix.
 
I think you already have had $4200 in entertainment by persuading at least 4 people to not buy a computer from AVA.

I concur. Informing prospective buyers of your problems with AVA is one thing, trashing a company over and over again because it's entertaining to you is quite another.

I think you have done what you came here to do and thats give people pause when deciding which boutique to buy from.

Constructive criticism and telling us your horror story is definitely warranted and relevant but name calling, as you have been doing lately, isn't.


Schneider, if you can't get a refund, have them make you another one.

edit:Lifetime Labor Limited Warranty

AVADirect warrants that its custom built products will be free of defects from workmanship, when used under normal operating circumstances for as long as customer owns the system. AVADirect will repair or replace such failed custom built product purchased from AVADirect free of charge. If the cause of failure was due to customer negligence or customer error, AVADirect reserves the right to charge the customer the current labor rate to service the system.




AVA Joe, what exactly is your policy on RMA's? Are you really charging the customer to ship a system that is not working back to you?

That MORE than anything else would cause me to reconsider giving you my money.

You say you try to view it from a customer and enthusiast's perspective so in that vein, do you think you'd be down with ponying up $160 to send your NON working computer on a round trip flight to the people who built it? EVERYTIME there is something wrong with it?


edit: nvm

Procedure to Return Merchandise for Warranty Service, Credit or Refund

-Obtain a Return Merchandise Authorization number (RMA#) from our technical support.
-Properly package the returning product in a proper shipping container in "as shipped" condition along with all materials that came with the item.
-Place the RMA confirmation page printed from the email you received inside the shipping container.
-Write the RMA# on the top of the box using a very visible writing device.
-Ship the item to our location at your expense using UPS, FedEx, USPS, DHL, or similar shipping companies. Customer agrees to pay for any expenses for loss of value to the product if no shipping insurance is added.
-Returning merchandise must be received by AVADirect within 10 business days from the date of RMA authorization.


sigh...thats horrible in my opinion. Why am I paying to ship a non-working product back to the people who were suppose to make it work?

edit 2: My PC built by "The Company That Shall Not Be Named" is working like a champ, for those of you who are still shopping. PM me if you want the name. :D
 
As for my fps problems I can't even go near the bridge in av or walk around org without dropping down into the 20s. I froze in eots at be for 40 secs or more and fps hit 3.1.

What are your fps with other games? Maybe it's just a sign from god to stop playing WoW.
 
Its a hardware flaw somewhere though I believe. I went into the bios and set ai clock twister to moderate and transaction booster to disabled relax 0 and its somewhat steady now but it stutters and jerks. I can't explain it and the stutter is even more annoying. That still doesn't explain why ffdshow plays videos so choppy with just a post processing filter.

They want me to send back the system they will pay the shipping. I guess that is the only option at this point.
 
AVA Joe, what exactly is your policy on RMA's? Are you really charging the customer to ship a system that is not working back to you?

That MORE than anything else would cause me to reconsider giving you my money.

You say you try to view it from a customer and enthusiast's perspective so in that vein, do you think you'd be down with ponying up $160 to send your NON working computer on a round trip flight to the people who built it? EVERYTIME there is something wrong with it?

Afraid I have to agree on this point.I had heard they changed this policy,but apparently not.I think this warrants an answer.
 
Been doing some research and discovered some possible causes for these troubles.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/174202-29-graphics-stuttering-thinks-conflict

http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/reviews/124-asus-maximus-formula-se-x38-living-review-63.html

I checked the msinfo32 thing and my video card was listed everywhere.


I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF Intel(R) X38 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29E1
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series

IRQ 22 Intel(R) ICH9 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 1 - 2920
IRQ 22 Intel(R) ICH9 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 2 - 2926

Memory Address 0xFFA00000-0xFFAFFFFF Motherboard resources
Memory Address 0xFFA00000-0xFFAFFFFF Intel(R) 82802 Firmware Hub Device

IRQ 23 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2934
IRQ 23 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293A

IRQ 16 Intel(R) X38 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29E1
IRQ 16 ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series
IRQ 16 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2937

IRQ 17 Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio
IRQ 17 Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root Port 1 - 2940
IRQ 17 Creative SB X-Fi

Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xDFFFFFFF Intel(R) X38 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29E1
Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xDFFFFFFF ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series

IRQ 18 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2939
IRQ 18 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293C
IRQ 18 Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root Port 3 - 2944
IRQ 18 Marvell Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
IRQ 18 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2936

IRQ 19 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2935
IRQ 19 VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF Intel(R) X38 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29E1
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB Intel(R) X38 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29E1
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series

Memory Address 0xFFE00000-0xFFEFFFFF Motherboard resources
Memory Address 0xFFE00000-0xFFEFFFFF Intel(R) 82802 Firmware Hub Device

I/O Port 0x0000C000-0x0000CFFF Intel(R) X38 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29E1
I/O Port 0x0000C000-0x0000CFFF ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series



I disabled jmcron pata controller and legacy usb but it didn't do anything. I really wish ava had offered me a different board this maximus formula is starting to look worse than the evga.
 
Could very well be hardware related. AVA lets you choose 11ty billion different combos and despite any so called "stress tests" it's possible some of those combos won't get along all that well.
 
Afraid I have to agree on this point.I had heard they changed this policy,but apparently not.I think this warrants an answer.

Their policy is what I quoted from their website. Unless that page is out of date, they ARE charging you to ship their mess back to them.

However, schneider just said that they will pay for shipping on his rig.

So, kinda :confused: here...
 
Schneider, I am sorry you are having so much trouble. Clearly AVA did a half assed job installing your new board. However I am inclined to believe AVA is not to blame for your current problems.

Are you sure your BIOS is configured properly? You also said you did a fresh install of XP. Are you sure you got all the right drivers installed? What kind of “tweaks” have you applied to XP since that install? How man other programs have you installed on your PC? Installing all kinds of crap on your system is a great way to trash the OS. Have you installed the critical updates for XP and are you running an anti virus?

Also looking at what you have said about this PC from the start I really have to scratch my head and go WTF about some of it. Your running an Intel CPU and chose to go with an EVGA board. So I assume that means an Nvidia chipset. And since you said your video card was purchased from newegg I assume you went with this EVGA board for the on board video? Not trying to be a dick but in my opinion you were asking for trouble since day one.

Sure I seen a few posts in this thread indicating that the reason they are looking at AVA over other builders is the variety of parts they offer. So just like you I think they are just asking for trouble. Heck just looking at the AVA systems mentioned as being nothing but trouble in this thread they all seem to have at least started with an Nvidia based board. Yes I am aware that they were the only option for SLI support. So if you wanted to sell SLI systems you had no choice but use them. However I would have tried to never sell one to a customer for any other reason. I would have done my best to talk someone like schenider in to a reasonable Intel board with a low end video card.

I also wonder how much trouble is caused trying to ship off the shelf parts in off the shelf cases when dealing with high end SLI type systems. Those big heavy cards being installed and shipped with nothing supporting the rear of the cards scares the shit out of me personally. Maybe it's not a problem but when talking that kind of money I wouldn't be willing to risk it.

Edit. When I asked if you were sure your BIOS is set up right maybe I should have given a little more detail. To me this would entail disabling everything not being used. I think you said you have a sound card so the on board sound should be disabled along with any other ports you don't use. CPU and ram should be set to manufactures specs and any auto over clocking features should be disabled. Not to mention the various other setting that should be setup based on the hardware you have choose and the OS you are running.

You could also try pulling your sound card and then see if you still are having frame rate issues in WOW just to make sure it isn't conflicting with something else.

But in all honesty at this point you could have done any number of things to bring about the problems you are experiencing that we know nothing about since you haven't provided any details.
 
Most of the setting in bios are stock or disabled. I update everything on each install first place it sees is windows update, chipset drivers, ati drivers,creative drivers, antivirus,firewall. I had a evga 9600gt in it when I got it but it lacked overlays something that really ticked me off since its listed as a feature when I bought it even in evga's damn card manual its there. I sent it back and got the other one.

I just got done putting fresh vista 64 back on it. Took 20 minutes to shut down after chipset drivers went in.... I doubt it solves anything I just see its even more sluggish now. IRQ list looks better though.


I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF Intel(R) X38 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29E1
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series

IRQ 22 Intel(R) ICH9 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 1 - 2920
IRQ 22 Intel(R) ICH9 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 2 - 2926

Memory Address 0xFFA00000-0xFFAFFFFF Motherboard resources
Memory Address 0xFFA00000-0xFFAFFFFF Intel(R) 82802 Firmware Hub Device

IRQ 23 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2934
IRQ 23 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293A

IRQ 16 Intel(R) X38 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29E1
IRQ 16 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2937

IRQ 17 High Definition Audio Controller
IRQ 17 Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root Port 1 - 2940
IRQ 17 Creative SB X-Fi

Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xDFFFFFFF Intel(R) X38 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29E1
Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xDFFFFFFF ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series

IRQ 18 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2939
IRQ 18 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293C
IRQ 18 Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root Port 3 - 2944
IRQ 18 Marvell Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
IRQ 18 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2936

IRQ 19 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2935
IRQ 19 VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF Intel(R) X38 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29E1
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series

Memory Address 0xF8000000-0xFEBFFFFF Intel(R) 82801 PCI Bridge - 244E
Memory Address 0xF8000000-0xFEBFFFFF Creative SB X-Fi

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB Intel(R) X38 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29E1
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series

Memory Address 0xFFE00000-0xFFEFFFFF Motherboard resources
Memory Address 0xFFE00000-0xFFEFFFFF Intel(R) 82802 Firmware Hub Device

I/O Port 0x0000C000-0x0000CFFF Intel(R) X38 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29E1
I/O Port 0x0000C000-0x0000CFFF ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series
 
For crying out loud,just RMA the thing! If they're paying for shipping (they really should do this for any system under warranty) you have nothing to lose.Keep fiddling around with it and they're liable to change their minds.
 
I haven't been around here in a while............
and I see why.
Kodan's problems are legendary in a really sadistic way. I followed his problems from the jump a while ago.
Schneider's seem pretty complex at present, but there is no excuse sending a customer's RMA rebuild back in such bad shape. It sounds like no one checked it when it was ready to be shipped back, and I don't think that's the first time that's happened at AVA. (disclaimer: it's happened to other builders, too.)

To the OP:
I think you need to ask yourself a couple of questions.
Is more actually better? I think the more choices one has the more complex the problems become.
The reasons Maingear and Overdrive and Velocity offer less choice is they test the shit out of a basic set-up and make sure it is a stable platform to build upon; then offer minor options that won't confound that platform.
AVA seems to do it differently.......give a ton of choices, put it together and then hope it works............if it doesn't they start to change things out, again hoping it works.(that's the impression I get from reading a ton of posts here.)
Builders should be testing weeks or months before products are offered on the market to insure their customers things just flat out work when they receive them.
Builders can only give you two things over what you can do yourself:
1) works right out of the box, the day it arrives.
2) customer and repair service protected by a warranty.

Good luck with your purchase.
 
For crying out loud,just RMA the thing! If they're paying for shipping (they really should do this for any system under warranty) you have nothing to lose.Keep fiddling around with it and they're liable to change their minds.

+1

Get the thing back in the hands of AVA and let them try and make this right.

Quit fiddling with it.
 
I'm getting it ready for shipping now. It has to be double boxed so I will need to buy or find some tape and foam shipping peanuts tomorrow.
 
Personally I would take it to UPS and let them box it up for me. It would also solve any future headaches of possibility of getting damaged in transit because UPS usually packages things pretty well.
It may cost you 20 dollars more or so to have them do it but, in the end it maybe worth it.
 
Does a green label on this asus boards box mean the motherboard is a refurb? The motherboard box has a green sticker on it says <green>.
 
Personally I would take it to UPS and let them box it up for me. It would also solve any future headaches of possibility of getting damaged in transit because UPS usually packages things pretty well.
It may cost you 20 dollars more or so to have them do it but, in the end it maybe worth it.

Very good advice.
 
Does a green label on this asus boards box mean the motherboard is a refurb? The motherboard box has a green sticker on it says <green>.

Green means go.:eek:

The green sticker is an advertising thing,(good for the environment sort of thing) not a refurb thing.
 
The computer is now 100% dead. It died while I was going back ups of my data in preperation for its departure. It bsoded one the Irql_Not_Less_or_Equal errors. After reboot bios posted unknown cpu.... I cleared cmos and it would'nt boot vista anymore I tried a reinstall or vista and xp but its dead. I will have to pay ups the $20 to box it seems. I removed all my hard drives from it and am testing them in my old pc now to make sure they were not damged or corrupted as the data is not all backed up and I will go totally insane if its lost
 
The computer is now 100% dead. It died while I was going back ups of my data in preperation for its departure. It bsoded one the Irql_Not_Less_or_Equal errors. After reboot bios posted unknown cpu.... I cleared cmos and it would'nt boot vista anymore I tried a reinstall or vista and xp but its dead. I will have to pay ups the $20 to box it seems. I removed all my hard drives from it and am testing them in my old pc now to make sure they were not damged or corrupted as the data is not all backed up and I will go totally insane if its lost

Did you get your data?
 
I tested two of them and they are working so the third one should be ok. I'm not going to worry about it Testing them in this pc gets them way too hot so I won't touch the one that is 90% full.
 
They have found that the RAM is dead . The board killed it most likely considering the overvolting issue I seen it had
 
I'm waiting on more info from them. They are running more tests. I told them about the performance issues, the case problems, etc, Just have too wait and see now. The ram being bad does kinda explain why when I lowered transaction booster and ai clock twister in bios things seemed to improve.
 
I love how this thread turned into a platform for you to express the woes about your own system.

It would be nice if other customers would chime in. Specifically some Maingear customers perhaps.

I was browsing their forums recently and one of the posters mentioned it took 29 days for his PC to be finished and shipped. While it may only be one exampe I thought that was rather excessive and it made me feel a little better about chosing Puget over Maingear.
 
Just an update they still have it and are doing whatever to it. I told them to prewire some cables and etc and the last I heard from them they are reinstalling the OS.
 
Just an update they still have it and are doing whatever to it. I told them to prewire some cables and etc and the last I heard from them they are reinstalling the OS.

I really hope when they send it back to you they get it right for you
 
It doesn't work this time and I start getting more mystery problems or 3 fps I will destroy it once and for all. I'm not even looking forward to getting it back. They say it should be ready by the end of the week. The nightmare can begin again.
 
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