Fry's Combo

[Homey D. Clown]

I recently purchased a Fry's combo, ECS Matx Geforce 6100 Motherboard with an AMD 6000+ processor, I currently have a EVGA 8800GTS 640MB video card. I read that the x16 PCi-Express slot runs at X8, is this crippling my video card? Should I replace the motherboard with something that has a 570 chipset or 590? I've been out of the loop for a while so i'm a little confused? any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Homey D. Clown]

Anyone?

 

[lillimon04]

im pretty sure it only takes away like 5% but if you have money then go get a new mobo fast!

 

[ferrisnox]

Thats crazy talk, there is no way your clogging even a PCI-E 8x bus. Your videocard and computer are not fast enough to saturate it. You don't need to upgrade.

 

[Spawn85]

why would they even have an x16 slot running at x8??

 

[Uberbob102000]

Well it isn't crippling your video card, but I would get a new motherboard ASAP. Fry's is paying you to take that motherboard. Hell I would to, they are incredibly flaky boards.
My friend got the same Fry's combo you did and after a week his NIC started being flaky and then died.

 

[octoberasian]

I never trust Fry's at all with computer parts. I highly recommend you replace the ECS with something better.

The weekly ECS mobo + processor combos are just them trying to get rid of the bad motherboards. They also have a high rate of return/refunds, especially when you look at the stack of motherboard boxes at the return aisle.

Last ECS board I bought from them for my 2600+ XP from many years ago died completely after four months of use. I eventually ended up getting a Giga-byte 7N400 Pro 2 from PC Club instead. I paid a bit more than the ECS, but it's worth it. Four years later and it still works just as new.

The second and last time I bought a computer part from them was memory. I saw an ad for a Micron 512 MB DDR333 RAM for $55. I even still have the receipt. Now, before I built my current computer, I only had a Toshiba laptop-- 335 CDS with a 12.1" passive matrix LCD. (Yes, it was bad.) I buy the memory stick without checking that I got the right one. I install it into the ECS board, that I bought alongside the RAM, and every single time I try to get it to work, the motherboard would not recognize it. I told myself that Micron was a somewhat recognizable name in memory, and shouldn't have problems. I thought it was the BIOS, so I updated it and tried again. No go. I pulled out the RAM and saw the name of the company on the stick: RAMBUS. Literally. There were no stickers identifying Micron or anywhere else on the PCB. All chips had the name RAMBUS, which I tracked down to some Chinese, no-name, electronics company. So, I try to return the memory and guess what Fry's had the balls to say in my face: That I swapped the Micron stick with that piece of shit. They refused to believe I never had a desktop PC in the first place and that my first computer was the 335 CDS-- a laptop of all things. They didn't replace the memory or accepted the refund. I got boned for $55.

I eventually sold the stick to some guy on eBay that collects bad RAM for $5, explaining my situation in length on the auction page. He told me he knows about Fry's tactics all too well and gave me a few pointers:
- Be sure to tell the employee at the counter before you pay it to open the ram packaging to ensure that the RAM is the same as advertised. This way, you can see if they swapped the RAM that was advertised with another one in the "Cage" without your knowledge.

- Never buy any of the motherboard/processor combos from Fry's because almost always, they are bad stock that the original manufacturer is trying to get rid of. (aka-- ECS and the like).

- Never buy any of Fry's branded desktop and laptop computers. They are poorly built and not worth the money to spend on.

- Fry's knows bait-and-switch tactics. (aka-- They will try to sell you a higher priced laptop and ask that you go purchase their in-store warranty along with it.)

- Always save your receipts in case any of the computer parts are faulty.

- Fry's has a tendency to resell open-boxed items that they KNOW fully well it may have been damaged.

There is a reason why a site like http://www.frysforum.com/ and http://www.geocities.com/tarahertz/frys-sucks.html exist because it's all TRUE.

Sorry for the long rant, but everytime I hear Fry's mentioned, I feel like suing them for their stupidity. Hell, if I worked there, I'd know more about computers than everyone in their computer hardware department.