Longevity testing & Bad ASUS experiences

ASUS is hit or miss for me, ive had one AM2 board die on me, but another 2 that have been rock solid since AM2s launch, and the Maximus Formula i had for my E8400 build didn't last a month before i started running into serious problems. starting now im going to avoid ASUS like the plague.
 
Tiv said:
If I may gents:

I represent a motherboard maker of which many of you likely have our boards in your systems. (No, I am not from Asus). This particular thread caught my eye. The idea of a "longevity test" is an interesting notion but it is not viable for a few simple reasons. The main one being that user built systems harbor far too many variables to allow for such effective measurements. Each systems is built with different parts, assembled by users with different levels of skill, and placed under differing conditions. Even the law of averages is of no use here. A given system that sports a PSU with weak +12v rails, running at say 12~15A will be under far more stress than a system with sturdy +12v rails that allow for capacities upwards of 25A. The system with the weak rails will be running hotter which will have a more rapidily degrading effect on voltage regulating components (on the board and PSU for that matter) than the system with the sturdy rails. This is just one variable. Now add if you will that one person uses the system for light usage (internetting, emailing etc) and another subjects the system to day and night use (download fiend). Yet another variable. The list is endless.

One could attempt to make effective measurements in the cases (no pun intended) of OEM systems. 1000 Dell systems of the same make will have the same components and will be assembled by technicians of the same skill level. But even then the various conditions that users subject the systems to would skew the results. It is therefore unfair, and the be frank, unreasonable to expect PC component makers to provide users with "longevity tests".

I dislike using analogies as user assembled systems are unique devices without compare but imagine if you will a comparison with humans. In most western countries we have a life span of about 70 years. Homer Simpson who stuffs his face with donuts and coffee will likely not live past 50. Mr Atlas health freak will likely live longer than 70, but then again we have all heard a story or 2 about that health nut guy who dropped dead at 40 and the chain-smoker who lived to be 100. The point is that there would be so many variables involved in trying to figure out "longevity" patterns of PC components that any "results" would just be nonsense.

People are quick to point to the obvious signs of damage (bulging elcos) as some sort of measuring stick. Yes, quality of the elco does play a role, but it is again only one factor. If I pump "dirty voltage" (surging) thru any elco it will go after a while, regardless of quality. I could therefore own and operate an el-cheapo MB with a good quality PSU for many years without any trouble, but add a low quality PSU to that same board and it isn't likely going to last as long.

The moral of the story is don't be quick to judge something based on the findings of others. What appears to be an obvious parallel is often not. Their set of variables is not the same as yours.
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Sorry for quoting such a large post, but this pretty much sums up electronics in general, as well as most man-made items on earth.

It's pretty damn obvious that all manufacturers want their products to last at least until the end of the warranty period. So keep that in mind.

To the guy who asked about how to prevent dirty power coming from the wall: UPS!
 
Well, never had a problem with Asus. The one problem I thought I had, was actually my retailer's fault.

Asus has always been good to me, and they have reps on the phone that speak clear English. A definite plus.
 
in the enthusiast realm of computing there is no need for longevity because technology is phased out and replaced with something better within ~2 years.

that being said, my ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe is working like a charm. then again, i got it last week...
 
I've had swelling caps on boards from Abit, Epox, Asus, etc. that are older than 4 years. Also have some old no name boards without swelling caps.

In either case, yah solid caps.

Dan_D said:
ASUS has FANTASTIC P35 and X38 boards. Certainly worth consideration as well. Though between DFI and Gigabyte, I'd choose Gigabyte.
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Dan,

I have my choices narrowed down to the Asus P5K-E and the Gigabyte DS3P for a Q6600 based build. Both have the features I want, but the Asus board has the annoying design choice of placing two SATA ports in close proximity to the PCI-E slot which causes those ports to be lost with long cards installed, i.e. 8800 series. I am looking at going with a 9600 which has the same dimensions as the 8800 series of cards. Between these two motherboard manufacturers would you pick Asus over Gigabyte?
 
Silentbob343 said:
I've had swelling caps on boards from Abit, Epox, Asus, etc. that are older than 4 years. Also have some old no name boards without swelling caps.

In either case, yah solid caps.


Dan,

I have my choices narrowed down to the Asus P5K-E and the Gigabyte DS3P for a Q6600 based build. Both have the features I want, but the Asus board has the annoying design choice of placing two SATA ports in close proximity to the PCI-E slot which causes those ports to be lost with long cards installed, i.e. 8800 series. I am looking at going with a 9600 which has the same dimensions as the 8800 series of cards. Between these two motherboard manufacturers would you pick Asus over Gigabyte?
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Between the two I'd go with ASUS. I say that because I've had ASUS boards in my own machines for a number of years and I've never had any problems with any of them aside from the Striker Extreme. Gigabytes' products were crap until two or three years ago. At least that's been my experience. Though I do not hesitate to recommend Gigabyte for the most part many of their boards have cold boot issues and some other minor quirks that I haven't experienced with the newer ASUS boards. So take that for what it is worth.
 
I've similar experiences as yours Sparky. I've been buying Asus boards since the Pentium 3 days (P3V4X) and one thing I notice that is rampant with thier boards is the Cold Boot issue.

For those who don't know, Asus boards from my experience and others I know, tend to have this quirk (a modest understatement) where you turn the PC on and everything seems to work but you get no video. This has happened with every Asus board I've owned from P3 boards all the way up to AMD64 iterations.

That said, I still continue to buy Asus boards not only because of their great feature sets, but mainly because when they do work, they work great.
 
Skeez187 said:
I've similar experiences as yours Sparky. I've been buying Asus boards since the Pentium 3 days (P3V4X) and one thing I notice that is rampant with thier boards is the Cold Boot issue.

For those who don't know, Asus boards from my experience and others I know, tend to have this quirk (a modest understatement) where you turn the PC on and everything seems to work but you get no video. This has happened with every Asus board I've owned from P3 boards all the way up to AMD64 iterations.

That said, I still continue to buy Asus boards not only because of their great feature sets, but mainly because when they do work, they work great.
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Now I've only had two AMD CPU Compatible ASUS motherboards over the years and I've never had cold boot issues or any other issues. I've also reviewed a ton of ASUS boards (AMD and Intel compatible) and again, no cold boot issues with them ever. I've also rarely had any quirks with ASUS motherboards either. If you are experiencing quirks it may not be the boards fault directly but rather it could be the combination of hardware you are using or some other factor yet unknown to you.
 
The only thing, I feel, that could remotely be my fault is "dirty power". As I simply plug my PC(s) directly into a generic power strip and call it a day.
 
Skeez187 said:
The only thing, I feel, that could remotely be my fault is "dirty power". As I simply plug my PC(s) directly into a generic power strip and call it a day.
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I had issues with that a few years ago and since then I've used UPS'es on all of my computers. You might want to look into that.
 
Im trying to think up all the asus boards I've had. mostly socket A's a7n8x-x something was a 266 lots of K6 ? socket boards. The only asus board I've ever owned which was a piece of crap in my opinion, think I gave it up or sold it cheap, was the socket 754 K8N-E . this was a motherboard that came free with a lot of procs. The reason I didnt like it was it had known ram issues. Other than that it was solid. One of my A7N8X-X 's died on me but I blame it on Voltage for OC vs dirty power. I bought one of the special Ti4200's that was a all-in wonder card. I loved the poor thing for 2 years. It died due to power surge. They replaced it with a 5900U and for that I'm an asus guy all the way. Never had to RMA anything else.

I would describe asus as being the Toyota of motherboards. Nothings perfect but I swear to you I own a 1994 Tercel thats been running on two cylinders for over a year now. I don't know how and I don't care. If you want an asus board to run forever just pet it occasionally and tell it what a good job it's doing.

rates
----------------
ASUS
Asrock(just cause they make the weirdest toys)
DFI
Gigabyte
MSI
BioStar

I don't like ABIT. I know I know NF7-2 was a sweet board but stabilty wise I havent had good luck with anything they've produced.
 
A pity to hear OP's experiences.

Mine is just directly opposite. ASUS is the only brand I use when assembling systems and all of these work till today without any problem.

At the moment I'm sitting on Maximus Formula and have no complains at all, just directly opposite :p The board is awesome.
 
i'd like to jump on the bash asus bandwagon. i just RMA'd two Maximus Formula boards last week. damn things didn't like corsair ram (and friend a few sticks), didn't like crossfire (or crossfirex), constantly rebooted, wouldn't stay up long enough to install vista, etc. i tried a zillion combinations of hardware and bios settings, and they simply sucked in the end. back to my p5k mobo now, which has absolutely no problems with the same hardware.

so, all that said, no more asus for me. my next mobo will be a giga or dfi.
 
rhexis said:
fortunately your experiences are not the norm. i still have an a8n-sli premium running like a top as well as an a7v-133 in one of my kids computers. that one gets a lot of abuse. my kid likes to turn it off without shutting it down and the last time i cleaned it the dust on the board was a few millimeters thick. strange how my experience with asus and your are exact opposite. wonder why that is?
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lol. I've heard of people with P5W-DH 975x boards having their northbridge deteriorate in a matter of weeks. My friend owned a P4P800-SE Deluxe (which was an amazing board for its' time). It slowly lost overclocking ability and started reporting ridiculously bs temps after a year and a half of usage and with only a modest overclock. The board struggles to start up now. I have gone through 2x P5LD2's and have had the boards slowly lose functionality. Asus boards may be great initially, but their long term quality is shit for lack of a better term. I'm running 2x Abit boards right now and I'd run another, but I'm never going to buy Asus again.

They're quite the norm. The guys who have no problems with Asus boards must have gotten one of the few that actually received good components... or you've babied your system from the day you got it cause I just don't see them lasting longer than their warantee... maybe even in less time than that...
 
StealthyFish said:
or you've babied your system from the day you got it
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I always treat the computer like I'd treat an opened core cpu :p But for me it's weird to read all the RMA stories. I mean is it that bad ? If its true what some of you say, then ASUS must suck from the ground up which is the opposite of my experiences. On the other hand, isn't there like overwhelmingly much more success stories with these parts ?
I've always approached ASUS as quality king.
 
veldi said:
I always treat the computer like I'd treat an opened core cpu :p But for me it's weird to read all the RMA stories. I mean is it that bad ? If its true what some of you say, then ASUS must suck from the ground up which is the opposite of my experiences. On the other hand, isn't there like overwhelmingly much more success stories with these parts ?
I've always approached ASUS as quality king.
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Well, I can't argue that their overclocking performance isn't bad. They have good motherboard designs, it's just they don't last. I don't exactly treat my computers as an opened cored CPU, but I certainly don't abuse them either. I treat them as expensive things that I don't have the money to replace :p . My P5LD2's were not abused. I RMA'd my first P5LD2 after I started getting random reboots and BSOD's. The voltage reporting for my CPU was also an absolute disaster. I received values of 1.41-1.48V when I set the voltage at 1.425V. It varied so often that I thought it was a defect... till I received another and it suffered the same problem. The Asus P5LD2 absolutely destroyed my opinion of Asus.

But that's not to say other board companies suck. I have to say, Abit has some pretty cheap shit on them, like, on my Abit IB9 AND my AW9D-Max, my plastic SATA connectors have popped off the motherboards. I thought it was just because the IB9 was cheap, but it turns on my AW9D-Max did it too, lol. I was quite disturbed by the quality control on those, but when it comes down to it, at least my Abit boards will perform and keep performing for a good amount of time and they are stable.
 
The oldest system I still have around and use regularly is an AMD T-Bird 1.33 on an Asus board, I can't remember the model for the life of me. Then I have an Asus A7V-600, running since 2003 that will soon be replaced by a new system, parts in the F/S coming soon. When I went 64 bit I went with a Gigabyte 939 board, it was DOA so I went with an Asus A8n-SLI Deluxe. It's been running 24/7 for 3 years now as a server, and I don't plan on replacing it anytime soon. My main rig was an Asus A8R-MVP32 Deluxe, that ran great for 2 years, still does too, I guess, but I wanted to go quad core so I went Intel. Look for the A8R in the F/S soon as well. I went back to Gigabyte for Intel, and got a GA-P35-DS4. All of my sytems, except for the A8N-SLI Deluxe, have been overclocked. Never had a boot problem or stability problems on any of them. I make sure to use quality RAM, power supplies, and cooling. All of my systems are on UPS's as well.

I went with Gigabyte this time not because I was having problems with Asus, but all of the Asus boards I was looking at had bad layouts, in my opinion. As much as I like them, they didn't make anything I wanted, so I went with the Gigabyte this time. I've been running my Q6600 at 3Ghz for about a month now, with temps staying well bellow 50c under load, and haven't had any problems. I probably can push it further, but it is stable now, and does what I need it to do, so I may just wait till I'm bored to change anything. :p
 
maddude0025 said:
The oldest system I still have around and use regularly is an AMD T-Bird 1.33 on an Asus board, I can't remember the model for the life of me. Then I have an Asus A7V-600, running since 2003 that will soon be replaced by a new system, parts in the F/S coming soon. When I went 64 bit I went with a Gigabyte 939 board, it was DOA so I went with an Asus A8n-SLI Deluxe. It's been running 24/7 for 3 years now as a server, and I don't plan on replacing it anytime soon. My main rig was an Asus A8R-MVP32 Deluxe, that ran great for 2 years, still does too, I guess, but I wanted to go quad core so I went Intel. Look for the A8R in the F/S soon as well. I went back to Gigabyte for Intel, and got a GA-P35-DS4. All of my sytems, except for the A8N-SLI Deluxe, have been overclocked. Never had a boot problem or stability problems on any of them. I make sure to use quality RAM, power supplies, and cooling. All of my systems are on UPS's as well.

I went with Gigabyte this time not because I was having problems with Asus, but all of the Asus boards I was looking at had bad layouts, in my opinion. As much as I like them, they didn't make anything I wanted, so I went with the Gigabyte this time. I've been running my Q6600 at 3Ghz for about a month now, with temps staying well bellow 50c under load, and haven't had any problems. I probably can push it further, but it is stable now, and does what I need it to do, so I may just wait till I'm bored to change anything. :p
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I do have one comment. I noticed that the reliability issues seemed to start with Asus' S478 boards and moved to LGA775. :confused:
 
ABIT Motherboards have lasted a long time for me. I bought my first one in 2001 and it has run solid all the way up until I decided to use my upgraded computer only. It ran from 2001 - 2006 with heavy use and was very stable. I updated to another Abit for my next upgrade and it was solid/stable until I just recently got rid of it. I think I had it about 2.5 years. The Southbridge fan did go out on my original MB and I threw it away. It still worked great and temps were OK without it.
 
My current computer is running a P4C800 Deluxe MB with a 3.0 P4 and I built that system 06/03. So I think I have gotten my money out of it.

I will be upgrading in the next couple weeks only because I dont want to spend 200 buck on a new AGP card. so I am building a very cheap OC'ed E2160 to get me by til Nelham. I was shooting to totally skip the LGA775 Socket but I think it is time.
 
I hardly think stability issues or parts burning out are brand-specific. Maybe model specific.

4 years ago I built the system in my sig first with an ePox board. It never booted even though I RMA'd it 3 times. I took it to a local pc repair place and they couldn't get it to boot with anything but garbage ram and a weaker cpu with a down-clocked fsb. I bought the A7N8X fro him and it runs to this day without any problems besides a USB port dying on me.

I went with Asus in my new build (seach my post history, its sad) and I'm not sure what my issue is. It seems my cpu is dead but I don't know if the board, psu, cpu, or incoming power is the issue. After reading this thread I'm definately going to invest in a decent USP...any recommendations?
 
{EB}NuTSymPToM{EB} said:
I hardly think stability issues or parts burning out are brand-specific. Maybe model specific.

4 years ago I built the system in my sig first with an ePox board. It never booted even though I RMA'd it 3 times. I took it to a local pc repair place and they couldn't get it to boot with anything but garbage ram and a weaker cpu with a down-clocked fsb. I bought the A7N8X fro him and it runs to this day without any problems besides a USB port dying on me.

I went with Asus in my new build (seach my post history, its sad) and I'm not sure what my issue is. It seems my cpu is dead but I don't know if the board, psu, cpu, or incoming power is the issue. After reading this thread I'm definately going to invest in a decent USP...any recommendations?
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I had a similar experience with my Asus P4c800 with USB not working unless i restarted my computer with the device plugged in (Started happening probably 3-4 years after built). I updated the Bios and that fixed the problem, just thought you would like to know/try.
 
when i built my first computer i got 3, yes let me repeat that again 3 doa p5n sli mobos, my current p5b deluxe wifi ap is holing up quite well though
 
Heh, I've had issues with asus boards as well. I bought a P5K vanilla back in october 07. It worked fine, until i wanted to go RAID, and i had to use an eSATA port to do it. Whatever, my mistake, should have done more research.

Then in January, the board suddenly won't post at all. It'll just fire up for a second, and then die. So i pop the case, and i catch a whiff of that awful burning smell (it's hard to describe). I look at the board, and one of the traces on the board is entirely burnt off! I could see the break, and the glint of copper.

So, i drop my board off for RMA. This was January 10 IIRC. Now, it is March 15, and i still haven't even got any word. 6-8 weeks my ass. So, i just bought a gigabyte X38-DQ6, and i couldn't be happier.

That's my experience with asus, and as you can see it's been less than positive :(.
 
well I leave this thread with the felling that I'm secure in my purchase of a Maximus Formula. I replaced an EVGA 680i board --at last it has a lifetime warranty on it (A1 thank god). I was gonna try to sell it to a friend of mine for $130, but perhalps now I'll keep it just as a stand by? Hell of a lot of power for a "stand by".

BTW dan why don't you remove your editors choice award from that board knowing now the massive failure rate it represents? It sits there in your database, with bearing its gold H loudly and proudly, before its shipped back for RMA...
 
StealthyFish said:
lol. I've heard of people with P5W-DH 975x boards having their northbridge deteriorate in a matter of weeks.
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I've got one of those in my main system right now and it's the most solid board I ever had. However, they had a retarded design on the HSF on those northbridges - they covered the fins with a piece of metal! I ripped that off and have had decent temps and rock solid stability ever since. I bet those rapidly deteriorating ones were a direct result of that crappy cooler...
 
I used to buy Asus boards because they were well made and performed well. But the last couple of Asus boards I bought have had problems with USB ports dying (2 of them) and intermittent posting.

Some of my friends have also had reliability problems with recent Asus boards so I've sworn off them. My previous build used an Abit board and it was rock solid for over 4 years. I just build a new E8400 system in January using a Gigabyte board and so far so good.
 
DougC said:
I used to buy Asus boards because they were well made and performed well. But the last couple of Asus boards I bought have had problems with USB ports dying (2 of them) and intermittent posting.

Some of my friends have also had reliability problems with recent Asus boards so I've sworn off them. My previous build used an Abit board and it was rock solid for over 4 years. I just build a new E8400 system in January using a Gigabyte board and so far so good.
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Which boards are we talking about here?
 
DougC - same here. after my bad experiences with Asus P5K Deluxe and Maximus Formula, i plan to go Gigabyte or DFI for my X48 upgrade. Leaning towards Gigabyte right now.
 
Funny...I've never had any issues with Asus boards.

P4P800 Deluxe - still running pretty much 24/7
P5W DH Deluxe - running a E6600 3.3Ghz for 1.5 years...no issues running 24/7 (in fact, I ran it for 3 weeks without even rebooting once).
Maximus Formula - ran a Q6600 at 3.0Ghz and now a E2160 (waiting for Q9450) OC'd 24/7 with no issues.

Gigabyte and Abit have been good, but quirky at times for me. DFI is good if you get the right bios and take time to tweak it.
 
Best board I ever owned was the Asus P55t2p4...I did my first computer upgrades on that one!

However, I have had poor luck with the last few Asus boards I have owned; I don't push my systems much, and I use the best ps that I can afford (usually an Antec, but right now the Corsair 620HX), and I use a UPS that conditions the power, and lots of case fans and low temps. My Crosshair had a floppy drive controller die and a USB port go as well (checked for shorts but can find none), and the last Asus (M2NE) had terrible stability and random reboots, and my A7N8X had to be RAMed as well. Helped put together a few other machines with Asus boards, and a few have had issues and a few others have not.

I was commenting on my poor luck with Asus with the manager of a local computer store and he said he noticed more returns from both Asus and MSI than he had in the past. He is not as quick to suggest Asus or MSI as he was in the past either.

Not too scientific for sure and a longevity test might be tricky but I think my next purchase might be a Gigabyte this summer if my Crosshair lasts that long...unless I fall for a bunch of good reviews on another Asus....
 
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