Scumbag ASUS: Overvolting CPUs & Screwing the Customer

I haven’t bought an Asus motherboard for close to 20 years (during the Pentium 4 era). It wasn’t due to reliability, but mainly because other brands like Gigabyte or MSI were a better value and had the features I was looking for at the money I was willing to spend. Thankfully, all of the mobos I’ve purchased over the years, from Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA, and even ECS (from the Fry’s Electronics CPU/mobo deals) never gave me any issues. If I was in the market right now for a new desktop build, I’d definitely avoid Asus based on GN’s video + how they handled the situation thus far.

Knocking on wood that the ROG Strix gaming laptop I bought last year stays trouble free.
I'm in the same boat. I found Asus boards had become overpriced for what they were. Went gigabyte for a while, my last board was a z170. Still runs to this day, but it was quite buggy when it was new. Once they got the bios bugs worked out it was great, just took way too long to do so!

Currently running an MSI. So far it's been perfect.
 
To be honest most brands have issues, some worse than others.
From my X570 experience Gigabyte is one of the slowest to release final bioses. I would routinely see ASUS and MSI beat them by months. Remember Gigabyte's response to exploding PSUs? Also, Gigabyte had horrible warranty support, I frequently saw users complain about warranty denials. All brands have warranty complaints, but Gigabyte topped the charts after their ransomware debacle.
I believe Asrock still blacklists GamersNexus and Hardware Unboxed.
ASUS had the best rep, but after this... MSI might have the best rep.
Going forward I will try to buy MSI and Asrock is still on my shit list.
GB probably one of the worst MB makers tbh. They had the entire fail to boot issue with their X570 boards. I have the x570 master and my 2.5gb port is going bad. It would just drop out after a couple hours and I have to reboot to get it too work again. I had cold boot issues with it when I first got it but was fixed after a couple bios updates.
 
GB probably one of the worst MB makers tbh.
I never had really had any issue with their Intel boards, but can't speak for their AMD boards. Only reason I switched was a possible hardware issue that I do believe now was due to their Aorus brand memory, but my return window was closing for both the motherboard and the memory so I returned both. I would go back to them at some point.
 
Is it though? I'm pretty sure the majority of people run defaults on K series CPUs.
My intention is not to engage in an AMD vs Intel debate. Rather, I believe that individuals should reconsider spending $700 on a motherboard, particularly if they plan to use default settings. Instead, they could allocate that money to other areas and opt for a more affordable sub $200 motherboard, which would serve their needs just as well.
 
By default I go with MSI, but they didn't (and still don't) have a B650E motherboard in their line-up, so I went with ASUS. Honestly, I don't even regret it. It was priced right and it has been pretty damn solid thus far on the hardware side of things. $285 out the door, too. All of the videos keep pointing to the 670 super expensive boards rather than the cheaper 650's for what it's worth. I'm actually shocked so many people have those 670's paired with the X3D chips, honestly.
I think ASUS, as a company, seems a bit full of themselves right now. Their years of success have made them think they can get away with anything.

Personally, I don't plan to take any serious action based upon any of this except to update my BIOS as the new versions trickle out. At lot of the warranty stuff screams CYA.
Whenever it's time for me to get something new again, I'll probably lean into MSI again, but I'm not going to exclude ASUS if they have a better product. The pendulum shifts too much to hate or love companies for any length of time. Except Gigabyte...fuck them :p
 
My intention is not to engage in an AMD vs Intel debate. Rather, I believe that individuals should reconsider spending $700 on a motherboard, particularly if they plan to use default settings. Instead, they could allocate that money to other areas and opt for a more affordable sub $200 motherboard, which would serve their needs just as well.
Totally agree.
 
Considering the money high end gamer-targeted boards demand, I'd just build an EPYC machine at this point. It'll run cooler, support ECC memory and more channels, and is a hell of a lot less likely to cook itself due to incompetence or negligence. Enterprise customers won't tolerate it, and the warranty would be worth a damn too. If you want a toy, the low-end stuff's unlikely to burn itself out. But the DIY middle ground seems to have turned into a rickety pile of crap from a quality assurance standpoint.

Don't get me started on juicing silicon by 40% percent to squeeze out the last 10% of performance in the past five years. AMD was guilty on the CPU and GPU front, but the rest of the industry shouldn't have resorted to it...
Do Epyc CPUs exist with the high clock speeds you want for gaming, though? I haven't kept up, but I thought they were a lot like Xeons and Threadripper, where you get a bazillion cores, but they all run at 2.5GHz.
 
To be honest most brands have issues, some worse than others.
From my X570 experience Gigabyte is one of the slowest to release final bioses. I would routinely see ASUS and MSI beat them by months. Remember Gigabyte's response to exploding PSUs? Also, Gigabyte had horrible warranty support, I frequently saw users complain about warranty denials. All brands have warranty complaints, but Gigabyte topped the charts after their ransomware debacle.
I believe Asrock still blacklists GamersNexus and Hardware Unboxed.
ASUS had the best rep, but after this... MSI might have the best rep.
Going forward I will try to buy MSI and Asrock is still on my shit list.

MSI is already a do not ever buy from GN. I’d never recommend them to anyone.
 
Do Epyc CPUs exist with the high clock speeds you want for gaming, though? I haven't kept up, but I thought they were a lot like Xeons and Threadripper, where you get a bazillion cores, but they all run at 2.5GHz.

Depends, there's the 9254 with 4x 6-core that boosts to 4.15Ghz, or the 9174F with 8x 2-core with base of 4.1Ghz and boost at 4.4. Xeons have skus like this too; useful for enterprise databases that need the memory channels and i/o, but are paying per core licensing.
 
They are the only one I believe on Youtube. Their videos may be long, but they are thorough. Some others always say they are the voice of the PC community, but GN is a step above them all IMO.

I think GN has found their niche' in the hardware world where it comes to hardware and BIOS issues. However for pure perf benchmarks and reviews, I would suggest Hardware Unboxed is head and shoulders above GN in video card and display testing. HUB still very much takes a real world gaming approach while on the perf side GN is still more of a canned benchmark data point. That all said, some times I do not agree with HUB actual overall opinions on such data.

I'm in the same boat. I found Asus boards had become overpriced for what they were. Went gigabyte for a while, my last board was a z170. Still runs to this day, but it was quite buggy when it was new. Once they got the bios bugs worked out it was great, just took way too long to do so!

Currently running an MSI. So far it's been perfect.

I left ASUS quite a while ago, went to Gigabyte, and now have settled on MSI for motherboard. If I went out and bought today, I am about 99% sure it would be a MSI mobo, unless there was a must-have feature than was not present in its lineup.
 
My intention is not to engage in an AMD vs Intel debate. Rather, I believe that individuals should reconsider spending $700 on a motherboard, particularly if they plan to use default settings. Instead, they could allocate that money to other areas and opt for a more affordable sub $200 motherboard, which would serve their needs just as well.
I've tested a lot of motherboards and I've seen stability and other issues out of cheaper boards. This is especially true when using higher end CPU's on them. No, this isn't always the case but affordable boards are affordable for a reason.The manufacturers cut a lot of costs and one of the main areas they do so is in the VRM department. You will have VRM's that typically run a lot hotter as they are pushed harder. Theoretically they won't last as long but will typically last longer than their required service life, but it is what it is. A VRM running closer to capacity is going to be dumping crazy heat into your case. A VRM that doesn't have to work that hard is just much more efficient.

It's worth noting that you get lesser voltage controllers, clock generators and the like which does reduce your overclocking capability or your ability to fine tune the setup. Granted, this isn't usually too much of an issue but its something to keep in mind. Other factors come into play on cheaper boards as well. Often, you get worse network controllers, lower end audio implementations and so on. That said, these issues matter a lot less in certain use cases. If I am using wireless for networking than my integrated LAN controller makes no difference. If I'm not using the analog audio output and I'm doing sound entirely through HDMI or an optical output, then the audio CODEC doesn't matter. Again, you have to look at the board's feature set as a whole and not just "will it run XYZ processor." Motherboards in different price points are NOT created equal.

I'm not saying everyone needs $700+ motherboards but I would absolutely challenge the idea that a $200 will serve people just as well as a more expensive board will. The truth is, a $200 motherboard MIGHT do just as well or it might be completely inadequate for someone's use case, wants/needs.
 
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I think GN has found their niche' in the hardware world where it comes to hardware and BIOS issues. However for pure perf benchmarks and reviews, I would suggest Hardware Unboxed is head and shoulders above GN in video card and display testing. HUB still very much takes a real world gaming approach while on the perf side GN is still more of a canned benchmark data point. That all said, some times I do not agree with HUB actual overall opinions on such data.



I left ASUS quite a while ago, went to Gigabyte, and now have settled on MSI for motherboard. If I went out and bought today, I am about 99% sure it would be a MSI mobo, unless there was a must-have feature than was not present in its lineup.
I, too, have moved on to MSI. The x570 Tomahawk is a helluva great mobo. I wouldn't touch an ASUS mobo unless they change their shady practices.
 
I think GN has found their niche' in the hardware world where it comes to hardware and BIOS issues. However for pure perf benchmarks and reviews, I would suggest Hardware Unboxed is head and shoulders above GN in video card and display testing. HUB still very much takes a real world gaming approach while on the perf side GN is still more of a canned benchmark data point. That all said, some times I do not agree with HUB actual overall opinions on such data.
I forgot about Hardware Unboxed. I only look at them once in a awhile but they are thorough as well when it comes to gaming benchmarks. I do like Monitors Unboxed as well for display reviews.
 
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I, too, have moved on to MSI. The x570 Tomahawk is a helluva great mobo. I wouldn't touch an ASUS mobo unless they change their shady practices.
I have nothing against MSI either, but let's not forget their shady practices as well. The bribing/bullying of a laptop reviewer (2020) if I remember right, and also the price gouging on their own video cards. Not sticking up for or putting any manufacturer down, just pointing out that they all at one time or another had their dark times or lack of better judgement.
 
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I never had really had any issue with their Intel boards, but can't speak for their AMD boards. Only reason I switched was a possible hardware issue that I do believe now was due to their Aorus brand memory, but my return window was closing for both the motherboard and the memory so I returned both. I would go back to them at some point.
I've had fantastic experiences with all of Gigabyte's AM4 boards. Thinking about it now, I think ASRock has been better than Asus.

ASRock!?
 
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I think brand loyalty should be a thing of the past, as i have had boards from pretty much all manufacturers over the years have problems or do stupid things that piss me off. My current board is MSI, as that had the features I wanted, and gigabyte who made my previous board did not make a board with what I wanted. Thennext time I build my computer I will probably change manufacturers again if MSI doesnt have what I want.

Yep. I long for the days of Abit, DFI, and Epox. I'm pretty sure I still have an Epox board with an Athlon XP 1800 in it somewhere around here. I usually buy Gigabyte boards now but I realize that they're not any better than any of the other manufacturers. Whatever you buy it's all just the luck of the draw.
 
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I have an ASUS board now no problems, and built tons of cheapo $50 HTPCs with ASUS boards, had a Gigabyte board for 7 years before that, main system before that was Gigabyte too for better part of a decade, ASRock embedded is my go-to HTPC/Mini Server board now for a while.

Just buy whatever it's all luck of the draw as mentioned. Every company is gonna have some bullshit happen sometime or another whether bad batch of some component or them just fucking around. It happens to them all they're all the same essentially nowadays. All out of the same 5 factories if that essentially.
 
About 40 years of PC building, had 1 MSI and 2 Asus boards fail. Most of my boards were not Asus. I just take it one board at a time and not consider the manufacturer other than support for their bios. When boards were cheap, it was not worth the hassle to RMA them, I just toss them. Which did not happen that often in the end. Biggest problem I had with ASUS, beside the failed boards was their crap software that acted more like a virus and very hard to remove from the system. Also can say I had better stability, less headaches with Biostar boards than ASUS boards, except those I never really OC other than memory so really not a fair comparison. Anyways if I buy ASUS, I want to tinker and push it and expect it to be stout, to pay for a $700 board and have to put it on defaults sounds ridiculously stupid.

TR system, 5800X3D system and 5800x system all have MSI boards and so far they have been flawless, very stable and just works.
 
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I've never had any problems with an ASRock board... I currently have the X670 Taichi Carrera and love it. ASRock was the first OEM to release an updated BIOS for this too.
When I had a driver problem with my older Velocita board, their CS was very proactive and even emailed me some pre-pre-release updated drivers to see if they fixed the issue (they 98% did).
/recommend
 
GN will never recommend Asrock since Asrock blacklisted GN and HUB. lol.
They didn't like [H]ardOCP back in the day either.
I've had fantastic experiences with all of Gigabyte's AM4 boards. Thinking about it now, I think ASRock has been better than Asus.

ASRock!?
I wouldn't say ASRock has been better than ASUS. I've had issues with some recent ASRock boards. However, ASRock also hasn't pulled the same kind of shit ASUS' has been pulling here either.
Yeah... I don't watch jayz, but yes these days Asrock's top end boards are great. Not disputing they can make good stuff. But why blacklist media over petty shit.
Companies will black list you for being honest when a product doesn't quite measure up. If your review contains anything beyond minor complaints, there is a chance you'll get black listed. I've seen this many, many times over the years. I literally had one of the PR reps call me on my phone from Taiwan and BEGGED me to take a negative review down while crying. This person was terrified of losing their job over it. Of course, once published I couldn't do that even if I had wanted to. I think that company blacklisted HardOCP for years after that.
 
They didn't like [H]ardOCP back in the day either.

I wouldn't say ASRock has been better than ASUS. I've had issues with some recent ASRock boards. However, ASRock also hasn't pulled the same kind of shit ASUS' has been pulling here either.

Companies will black list you for being honest when a product doesn't quite measure up. If your review contains anything beyond minor complaints, there is a chance you'll get black listed. I've seen this many, many times over the years. I literally had one of the PR reps call me on my phone from Taiwan and BEGGED me to take a negative review down while crying. This person was terrified of losing their job over it. Of course, once published I couldn't do that even if I had wanted to. I think that company blacklisted HardOCP for years after that.
As much as I hate to say it that job is not worth keeping if they will fire you for something you have no control over.
 

ASRock doesn't make the highest-quality products, but they offer tons of support and BIOS updates when other companies would just EOL and tell you to replace. Also they're quirky, and are always making things that most people would think are useless, but for the handful of people that need their weird things, are priceless.

But their long-term support is why I like them over other manufacturers.
 
but yes these days Asrock's top end boards are great. Not disputing they can make good stuff. But why blacklist media over petty shit.

They didn't like [H]ardOCP back in the day either.

I wouldn't say ASRock has been better than ASUS. I've had issues with some recent ASRock boards. However, ASRock also hasn't pulled the same kind of shit ASUS' has been pulling here either.

Companies will black list you for being honest when a product doesn't quite measure up. If your review contains anything beyond minor complaints, there is a chance you'll get black listed. I've seen this many, many times over the years. I literally had one of the PR reps call me on my phone from Taiwan and BEGGED me to take a negative review down while crying. This person was terrified of losing their job over it. Of course, once published I couldn't do that even if I had wanted to. I think that company blacklisted HardOCP for years after that.

AsRock blacklisted HardOCP over that review and never sent us another product for review for ~15 years. We bought a few more after that, but honestly back then, the AsRock quality was shit. I would rather spend money on "good" products to review than those that sucked. Reviews on products that have issues, take up an exponential amount of resources...
 
Yeah... I don't watch jayz
I really try not to either.
I've had one Asrock motherboard in my time building PC's and it was a lower end board with a 8700K. Still working great in the PC I sold it with.
 
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ASRock doesn't make the highest-quality products, but they offer tons of support and BIOS updates when other companies would just EOL and tell you to replace. Also they're quirky, and are always making things that most people would think are useless, but for the handful of people that need their weird things, are priceless.

But their long-term support is why I like them over other manufacturers.
This is true, they are the only board manufacturer that I've seen release bios updates for stuff that has been oop for a long time.
 

not a fan of this guy. Nothing like TechJeebus video. He starts with complaining about how as an influencer he didn't get new high end specialty boards upon request. IMO, that just seems kinda whiny. He seems to like to create "pile on" videos for clicks when someone else (TechJeebus, HUB) creates journalistic content. meh. I have quite a few ASUS boards at home, with little to no issue. But i will pause when looking at high end boards.
 
He seems to like to create "pile on" videos for clicks when someone else (TechJeebus, HUB) creates journalistic content. meh.
That's all he does honestly. Waits for others to do the work and then as you mentioned he piles on top on that. Even his case "reviews" he does nothing but talk about an empty case while others actually build in them.

I am fortunate after going back to Asus that I have a very good board now that has performed great so far, especially after just going back to them after all these years and learning about this fiasco.
 
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As much as I hate to say it that job is not worth keeping if they will fire you for something you have no control over.
You sent samples to the wrong reviewers. AsRock boards look pretty damn solid on paper recently. With Asus out of the picture ATM I would be strongly considering the x670e Tachi if I was building a AMD system ATM.
 
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Maybe I should throw some money Evga’s way when I upgrade eventually. Any known issues with their motherboards lately? I haven’t used one since they sold nvidia motherboards.

Always have niggling problems with any Asus/GB/MSI I’ve bought in the last few years. (Bad bios design, killer nics randomly dcing unless I reboot once after powering up etc)
 
Built a ton of computers over the years for myself and lots of others. Started off with Abit, had one issue which was a real a oddball, took some convincing but they sent out a new board, worked fine. Bought one Albatron, no problems. Supermicro, built a few budget soho servers with these, no problems. Bought a few EVGA's, nothing special, looked real nice. Had a ram slot die on one. Lots of DFI's, one had an issue with southbridge overheating, fixed it with aftermarket fan/heatsink, thermal paste and super glue. Had nothing but bad luck with MSI in the early aughts and after they screwed me on a gpu rebate I swore them off for good. Ironically I just bought x670e tomahawk, having done my due diligence I'm hopeful, reading about all the problems with other am5 boards and comparing the feature set I figured after 20 years it was time to give them a second chance. Let's hope they don't fuck it up. Prolly built ~30? Asrock motherboards, good for budget builds, not one problem, go figure. Gigabyte has also been relatively rock solid for me over the years although an x79 gave me some issues. One was that dual bios bug where for some reason it would crash once in a while on reboot, also it would never wake from sleep, monitor would stay dark, various gpus, didn't overclock for shit. Had some issues with Asus back in the early days and avoided them but over the last decade they have been relatively good over all with a few having died on me but Asus rma'd them, usually after two weeks though. am4 got me back into OCing, my x570 Dark Hero has been the bomb, prolly the best board I've ever owned, after lots of overclocking, a dozen bios updates not one hicup. But yeah, 700+ for a mobo, no warranty bios shenanigans? gfy asus!
 
I've stopped buying Asus long ago because the value isn't that good. Gigabyte & MSI have comparable specs for good bit less $$$.
 
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