DFI problems

[tiro_uspsss]

tiro, did you investigate the possibillity of it being a bad psu or perhalps the case making contact with the board and shorting it? After you've killed your 2nd of anything, generally I drop it into a totally different environment and see if it works any better.

psu is a PCP&C 750W that had been running perfectly fine for ~6 months prior.. tried diff cases too..

I know u mean no disrespect - I have built plenty of rigs in the past - i think/feel its too much of a coincidence that i suddenly kill 2 mobos from the same manu. eh?

[Bulldog14]

Tiro:

Your not in my support jurisdiction but I have to say this is starting to wear a bit thin mate. Fine you've expressed the full horror of your situation for the world to see. Feel better? I don't know the exact ins and outs of your case as the boards in question were never in front of me, but I can say this.

DFI has 3 main areas. North America, Europe, and Asia. Australia falls under Asia. This means that any RMA submitted to a dealer in Australia must make it's way back to Taiwan for actual repair. It is therefore entirely logical that the process will be extended. I can gaurantee you that any dealer/distributor in Australia will not be submitting boards one at a time to our HQ in TW for service. They will save a number of them up and submit them in mass. The freight costs associated with sending boards one at a time would be absurd.

You rant on about the length of time it took and how this whole business is crooked and out to nail the little guy to the wall. This line of thinking does not take any of the realities of this business into consideration. I'm sure your first thought at reading this what does all this have to do with me? I'm a consumer and I have my rights. (Don't bother quoting Aussie consumer law to me as all civilized countries have more or less the same regulations). Those consumer rights do not allow for individuals to dictate terms as they see fit. Any rational democracy has checks and balances built into those laws. I'm sure Australia is no exception.

I've dealt with these sorts of situations 100 of times and while I'm sure your outrage feels real, I am certain we are only getting half the story here. So go right ahead and continue your crusade, I'm sure some disgruntled types will join you, but don't think that for even one second that you will turn the world against DFI. Individuals make their own choices, and forum communities have long since evolved from a bunch of scared rabbits that will jump when someone says company X is the devil incarnate.

My advise to you is just leave it and move on mate. Judging by the majority of reactions here I don't think your making much headway anyways. Your choice.

-DFI Support Europe

[tiro_uspsss]

Tiro:

Your not in my support jurisdiction but I have to say this is starting to wear a bit thin mate.

why? cause it hurts? who? u?
& ur right - it does where a bit thin on me that I have AUD$1000+ sitting here doing SFA

Fine you've expressed the full horror of your situation for the world to see. Feel better?

mmm... a lil, i guess..

I've dealt with these sorts of situations 100 of times and while I'm sure your outrage feels real, I am certain we are only getting half the story here.

yes its my fault, ur right.. thanks for the support

So go right ahead and continue your crusade, I'm sure some disgruntled types will join you, but don't think that for even one second that you will turn the world against DFI.

dont intend to, cause I happen to be NOT dillusional - so thanks for insulting my intelligence, & showing us how wonderful u DFI folk really are

My advise to you is just leave it and move on mate. Judging by the majority of reactions here I don't think your making much headway anyways. Your choice. -DFI Support Europe

I have no problem with ppl continuing to love DFI - everyone is free to their own opinion.

& I have moved on - hence why there was such a delay between OP & todays posts - I have moved on to good stable Asus, MSI & Abit mobos

u have quite a nerve coming out like this & talking down on a customer.. poor showing on u & ur companies behalf

[Bulldog14]

I'm glad you have moved on. Asus, MSI, and Abit all make good boards. I hope they serve you well.

My nerve you say? Peace to you

[Sals]

Tiro:

Your not in my support jurisdiction but I have to say this is starting to wear a bit thin mate. Fine you've expressed the full horror of your situation for the world to see. Feel better? I don't know the exact ins and outs of your case as the boards in question were never in front of me, but I can say this.

DFI has 3 main areas. North America, Europe, and Asia. Australia falls under Asia. This means that any RMA submitted to a dealer in Australia must make it's way back to Taiwan for actual repair. It is therefore entirely logical that the process will be extended. I can gaurantee you that any dealer/distributor in Australia will not be submitting boards one at a time to our HQ in TW for service. They will save a number of them up and submit them in mass. The freight costs associated with sending boards one at a time would be absurd.

You rant on about the length of time it took and how this whole business is crooked and out to nail the little guy to the wall. This line of thinking does not take any of the realities of this business into consideration. I'm sure your first thought at reading this what does all this have to do with me? I'm a consumer and I have my rights. (Don't bother quoting Aussie consumer law to me as all civilized countries have more or less the same regulations). Those consumer rights do not allow for individuals to dictate terms as they see fit. Any rational democracy has checks and balances built into those laws. I'm sure Australia is no exception.

I've dealt with these sorts of situations 100 of times and while I'm sure your outrage feels real, I am certain we are only getting half the story here. So go right ahead and continue your crusade, I'm sure some disgruntled types will join you, but don't think that for even one second that you will turn the world against DFI. Individuals make their own choices, and forum communities have long since evolved from a bunch of scared rabbits that will jump when someone says company X is the devil incarnate.

My advise to you is just leave it and move on mate. Judging by the majority of reactions here I don't think your making much headway anyways. Your choice.

-DFI Support Europe

^Arrogance defined^

DFI boards are really only good on only one account: overclock. If you don't mind the ever present cold boot issues, the total lack of support on their forums, and enjoy paying the highest price of any consumer board on the market, and spending four times the amount of time tweaking only to get outperformed by AsRock costing 1/3 the price, then I guess they are flawless boards.

Only the vainest benchmarker would consider DFI as the best choice in mobos.

They remind me of Mercedes Benz, all about image and features with a total lack of quality control.

I hardly ever post here, but that DFI tech needs to know he is the one who is loosing face here.

[Polizei]

^Arrogance defined^

DFI boards are really only good on only one account: overclock. If you don't mind the ever present cold boot issues, the total lack of support on their forums, and enjoy paying the highest price of any consumer board on the market, and spending four times the amount of time tweaking only to get outperformed by AsRock costing 1/3 the price, then I guess they are flawless boards.

Regarding the bolded lines:

Asus boards have cold boot issues as well, and are a real PITA when it comes to start up using controllers with phase change.

Seems that Asus has the most expensive 775 board on the market after Intel? Striker II Extreme. Most expensive DFI board is $100 less than the Striker II Extreme.

[Sals]

I agree completely, I would avoid Asus as well, as a general safe rule.

They remind me of 1980's Cadillacs for some reason:
Real expensive, full of shiny do-nothing extras, and lots of poor performance.

At least they update bios's for the majority of their boards on a regular basis, a huge plus, probably brought on by their OEM support division(s).

[Bulldog14]

^Arrogance defined^

DFI boards are really only good on only one account: overclock. If you don't mind the ever present cold boot issues, the total lack of support on their forums, and enjoy paying the highest price of any consumer board on the market, and spending four times the amount of time tweaking only to get outperformed by AsRock costing 1/3 the price, then I guess they are flawless boards.

Only the vainest benchmarker would consider DFI as the best choice in mobos.

They remind me of Mercedes Benz, all about image and features with a total lack of quality control.

I hardly ever post here, but that DFI tech needs to know he is the one who is loosing face here.

The "DFI Tech" reads this forum often. No need to refer to me in the 3rd person. BTW last time I checked Mercedes Benz made some good quality cars. Could all those Germans be wrong?

[GamingDaemon]

I'm planning to build a new rig around an E3110, and all I have heard (other than this thread) is good things about DFI. I am going to purchase the DFI Lanparty DK P35-T2RS. After skimming thru this thread (didn't read every post), I am not deterred.

No manufacturer can be perfect, nor can their support be generalized. But I will be the first to post my honest opinion of my particualr experience to this thread.

[BobWyaJnr]

Hi all,

I recently bought a couple of old DFI socket 939 Lanparty boards on Ebay. One board (an NF4) didn't come with a motherboard I/O plate or audio raiser module... Usual Ebay bulls***!!

I emailed DFI support (European). They got back to me within a couple of days and had both parts out to me within a week of the original Email.

Both boards overclocked well and were stable - though of course I leapfrogged the usual DFI beta-BIOS issues!!

One bad experience means nothing...

I have found Gigabyte and Tyan to be far more lacking... Their response to missing I/O plates for Ebay/2nd hand boards was well - nothing, nada, not interested!! I remember phoning Gigabyte (UK) technical support as I wished to boot Windows XP from stripped U320 SCSI drives on old GA-8KNXP Ultra-64 board. I was told I shouldn't do this! Of course I just needed a BIOS update to support Adaptec Host RAID!


Bob

[Nanometer]

psu is a PCP&C 750W that had been running perfectly fine for ~6 months prior.. tried diff cases too..

I know u mean no disrespect - I have built plenty of rigs in the past - i think/feel its too much of a coincidence that i suddenly kill 2 mobos from the same manu. eh?

to sum it all up. your experience is hardly significant to make a bold statement "dfi sucks" Good, more boards for us. DFI has the best engineers out of any other manufacturer.

And the DFI expert boards were great boards. If you had problems, it means you didn't know how to use it right.

[virtualrain]

DFI has the best engineers out of any other manufacturer.

Based on what criteria?

Oskar is no-doubt a great BIOS engineer but with the 680i he has let the user community down big-time. Each beta bios introduced more problems than it solved. For example, an april 07 bios fixed the X-Fi crackle but every bios after that until Dec. had the issue again. This does NOT support your statement.

The ONLY thing I think DFI does better than other board manufacturers is in opening up BIOS settings that others don't. With ASUS' ROG series, this is no longer the case.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, their engineers made a critical error in equipping the 680i LT with only 6-phase digi-PWM. It was not up to powering Kentsfields under max overclocks... a terrible design decision for a board of it's time and target market.

Furthermore, as someone else points out above, their boards are notoriously tempermental and fussy... is this an indicator of good engineering?

So I think you are going to have a tough time convincing me and others that they have the best engineers.

Also, engineering says nothing about build quality, reliability, and support where DFI struggles as well. In my opinion, I think all of this could lead one to conclude that DFI sucks.

[Bulldog14]

Based on what criteria?

Furthermore, as someone else points out above, their boards are notoriously tempermental and fussy... is this an indicator of good engineering?

Also, engineering says nothing about build quality, reliability, and support where DFI struggles as well. In my opinion, I think all of this could lead one to conclude that DFI sucks.

Funny you would use such terms VR. I've read some of your work and took you for a person who was firmly in the know. "Tempermental", and "Fussy" you say? Yes, to the uninitiated DFI LP boards might appear as such. What you label as "fussy" is no more than the boards placing a much higher demand on peripherals. Memory and PSU being the chief suspects. When low/midgrade components can't handle the strain they will cause instability on a DFI board. Place the same components on a non preformance board and they will likely run like a charm. Oskar designs these things for a purpose. That purpose is OCing. As a result the boards are put to market with very tight default BIOS settings. Tighter default settings mean decreased peripheral compatibility. No big secret. I can also never stress enough the value of a solid PSU. DFI boards draw and use more power than most of their comtemporaries. Do not assume that that 400 PSU you've been using on your 680 Bananatron board will work the same on a DFI LP 680 board. The specs of the boards might appear the same, but the electrical values are very different.

What people casually label as "tempermental" has an underlying reason. When one spends some time digging around that reason invariably turns out to be a one or more questionable peripherals. I deal with it day in and day out. A person reports an instability problem of one form or another. I eventually check the board and can find no trace of it.

[virtualrain]

Funny you would use such terms VR. I've read some of your work and took you for a person who was firmly in the know. "Tempermental", and "Fussy" you say? Yes, to the uninitiated DFI LP boards might appear as such.

I think even to the initiated, DFI boards are considered "Tempermental" and "Fussy". I don't think anyone would consider DFI boards to be plug and play like ASUS. So I think we can all agree that DFI boards are tempermental and fussy... the only question is do you consider that a positive attribute or a negative one?

You claim it is a positive attribute.

Here are my thoughts... With the old NF4 boards, this kind of behavior was tolerated (possibly even considered a positive) because the die-hard overclocker could often achieve better results if they invested the time and overcame the intricacies of the board. With the 680i, the board was simply tempermental and fussy without being able to achieve better overclocks than nVidia reference boards. BIOS support was also seriously lacking and the CPU power delivery was insufficient as well (as I've outlined above).

DFI's legendary tempermental and fussy boards that would perform have simply been replaced with tempermental and fussy boards that often need an RMA. LOL!