Is this motherboard crap?

[tedthebear]

My tech guy says the motherboard on my HP Pavilion a330n is cheap and cancels out my upgrades to a 7200 rpm hard drive and an AGP 8X card.

Could you go to this link and tell me what you think?

Asus A7N8X

Thanks guys.

 

[bacillus]

hmm, wonder why he's saying that!
does he want you to buy a new board from him perhaps?

 

[tedthebear]

That's what I'm hoping... He says I should have him build me a new PC next time.

I like my new PC so far. Its got an nForce chipset.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Looking at your systems' specs over at outpost.com it looks like it would use the A7N8X-VM as opposed to the A7N8X since it specifies 2 DIMM slots with each populated and G4 MX with 64mb allocated video ram. Anywho, he's full of sh*t! That board will fully allow you to utilize the 8X card and 7200rpm drive and that's actually a damned nice system for an HP :Q

 

[Buz2b]

The "tech guy" is basically a crook and full of it. If I were you, I'd find someone esle if you ever need work done on your system. I'm serious. He's probably pissed he didn't get your money for a new system, so the only thing he can do now is badmouth it with false crap. I have no use for folks that do that and I'm sorry if he's a friend of yours.
Rest assured, you're fine.

 

[slatr]

Sometimes techs REALLY don't like it when a user buys an Hp, Compaq ect..

This prejudice stems, at least in the past, from design decisions and impressions of quality gained from having to work with them.

It it your choice of course, but sometimes we like to pick each component that goes into the system.

What if your system has a 250 watt power supply and you are asking him to upgrade and add hard drives ect? He upgrades you then you start having issues.. just an example of a possible legitimate concern. However, what he should have done was take the case off and check it out. He then could have told you if he had any concerns. Everyone was quick to label him a crook. I would want you to have the best system for the money. Its VERY possible this is what he wants.


Slatr

 

[Twista]

wtf. Your board is popular in this year. You can put a 7200rpm hdd on a p1 200mhz machine and not yours ummm...yah... You got a nforce2 mobo and its better than mine and i even got a 72000rpm hdd and agp8x on mine. Go head and buy a 8x card and new hdd you will be fine and find a a new tech guy or just learn to fix them.

 

[pspada]

I think Asus mobos are complete crap too - but I'd not try to sell you a different brand unless your's was dead.

Acutally, the boards themseleves are not bad, but Asus tech support is non-existant, and their warranty is worthless.

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: pspada
I think Asus mobos are complete crap too - but I'd not try to sell you a different brand unless your's was dead.

Acutally, the boards themseleves are not bad, but Asus tech support is non-existant, and their warranty is worthless.

Gee pspada, what took you so long to take your "shot" at ASUS in this thread. I was almost missing it.

slatr,
I think that the point you missed here was that the guy said the "MB was cheap" (it isn't, by any stretch of the imagination as it includes one of the newer, better performing chipsets on the market. Didn't say the best, pspada!), and then proceeded to give the user entirely false information about the MB. If he knew what he was talking about, he never would have made those false claims. If he DID know what he was talking about then he was purposely degrading the MB for rather obvious reasons. Either way doesn't lead any rational thinker to conclude anything more than negatives. No one was quick to judge. The "tech guy" made it all too obvious. Even pspada, who doesn't like ASUS one litte bit, would not make those kind of claims about that MB. As he says, his beef is mainly with support and warranty. We frequently agree to disagree on that but that's life as usual on AT. The analogy about the 250 watt PSU just doesn't work here because he didn't make recommendations; he lied about the MB's capabilities.
The only thing I would add here is that we did not hear the EXACT wording he used so I guess you could say that maybe we should have. However, I have no reason to doubt the original poster here and besides, any more and this would almost qualify for the OT thread. LOL!

 

[tedthebear]

:music: Thanks for the input everyone. I don't think my tech man is being malicious. I imagine he just wants to give me more bang for my buck. Hopefully by the time I get my next PC I will have learned enough here to build my own. I do like my Pavilion so far (now that it has 7200 rpm drive and 8X AGP).

I just got the book "Code" by Charles Petzold and I am attempting to wade through it. It is slow going for me because I don't have a background in electricity but what I do understand is fascinating. It is all based on little circuits turning off and on in different sequences.

Thanks again for the opinions.

 

[Buz2b]

tedthebear,
Whatever floats your boat but a word to the wise; having your best interest in mind and wanting the best "bang for your buck" are one thing. Saying what he did is completely inconsistant with that. It would be in your best interest to either find another reliable tech or at least confront this guy with what he said and the fact that you KNOW it to be false. If he responds responsibly and with at least some sense of "humble-ness", then you will at least have let him know that he doesn't control this situation any longer. Which is the way it should be. That is the biggest problem I have seen with some techs. They (in a sense; knowingly or not) take advantage or control of the decision making process for folks that they know lack the same knowledge as they do. While guidance is a worthy goal; what he did was not guidance. I'll leave it alone from here but please step back and take another look at the situation. I don't know this guy from squat but I have heard the speech before and it's not in your best interest to let it continue. I wish you luck and glad the others were able to assist you in this.

 

[NesuD]

Buz2b is right on the mark. A good tech guy with your best interests at heart would have never made such innacurate claims. Do what you want but if someone can't deal with me honestly then i don't want to do business with them. Whenever i recommend something to someone I make sure that they know i am giving my opinion and why i hold that opinion.

 

[slatr]

Buzb,

If he looked in the case and called it cheap, I do agree. I was being something of a devil's advocate.

Hopefully Ted can build his own soon and won't have to worry about the tech's intentions.

Slatr

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: slatr
Buzb,

If he looked in the case and called it cheap, I do agree. I was being something of a devil's advocate.

Hopefully Ted can build his own soon and won't have to worry about the tech's intentions.

Slatr

I agree adn hope he can build his own soon and not have to worry about this kind of crap. Just as an FYI though, what he did was say the Motherboard was cheap and that it "cancels out his upgrades to a 7200 rpm hard drive and an AGP 8X card." Didn't matter if he looked in the case or not. In fact, I'm not sure which would have been worse; if he looked first and made those remarks or didn't bother looking.

 

[tedthebear]

Sounds like you guys feel I don't have anything to worry about with my board. The nForce 2 chip set is one of the primary reasons I liked this model (as well as the Athlon XP 3000+). I am more concerned with the awful salesmen at Fry's who kept telling me their PCs had 7200 rpm drives when in reality they had 5400 rpm drives. Finally I just ordered a 7200 drive on the internet and replaced the slow one. I will never make any big purchases at Fry's again--only little stuff like print cartridges which are 2 dollars cheaper than at Staples.

Everybody, thanks again for your help in this matter. I promise this will be my last OEM box and the last time I shop at Fry's or at my tech guy's place.

 

[Buz2b]

tedthebear,
Good luck to you; glad the debate was settled and you are pointed in a more clear direction. As a side note on Fry's, I used to live in fairly easy driving distance of three of them (bay area CA). A real Love/Hate relationship; to say the least. Now that the closest one is over 300 miles from me, I kind of miss them. One thing I practically "lived" by when going to Fry's was that, if I had to ask any questions about ANYTHING at Fry's.....I wouldn't make the trip. That is the black hole of death at Fry's; trying to get answers or assistance. I would rather go somewhere else and pay more. On the other hand, when they have a sale on something and it's a "no-brainer", I would not hesitate. As long as I knew exactly where it was at in the store and knew all I needed to know about the product, I could get in and out, save a bundle and be happy. Those were the days.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: pspada
I think Asus mobos are complete crap too - but I'd not try to sell you a different brand unless your's was dead.

Acutally, the boards themseleves are not bad, but Asus tech support is non-existant, and their warranty is worthless.

I think ASUS makes some of the best boards out there. I think in terms of overall quality of all linups, ASUS is #1. It's just that they are so complacent of this fact that their tech support sucks balls. That said, I have had VERY few problems with the large number of computers I've built with ASUS motherboards in them.

The A7N8X is a great board, right up there with the NF7-S IMO for best Nforce2 board.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024

Originally posted by: pspada
I think Asus mobos are complete crap too - but I'd not try to sell you a different brand unless your's was dead.

Acutally, the boards themseleves are not bad, but Asus tech support is non-existant, and their warranty is worthless.

I think ASUS makes some of the best boards out there. I think in terms of overall quality of all linups, ASUS is #1. It's just that they are so complacent of this fact that their tech support sucks balls. That said, I have had VERY few problems with the large number of computers I've built with ASUS motherboards in them.

The A7N8X is a great board, right up there with the NF7-S IMO for best Nforce2 board.

Absolutely.
Asus shipped about three million M/Bs last month. They must be doing something right.

Caveat: However, you can't argue with what pspada says, for he is truly one of the most knowledgeable people giving advise in this venue.

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: RideFree

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024

Originally posted by: pspada
I think Asus mobos are complete crap too - but I'd not try to sell you a different brand unless your's was dead.

Acutally, the boards themseleves are not bad, but Asus tech support is non-existant, and their warranty is worthless.

I think ASUS makes some of the best boards out there. I think in terms of overall quality of all linups, ASUS is #1. It's just that they are so complacent of this fact that their tech support sucks balls. That said, I have had VERY few problems with the large number of computers I've built with ASUS motherboards in them.

The A7N8X is a great board, right up there with the NF7-S IMO for best Nforce2 board.

Absolutely.
Asus shipped about three million M/Bs last month. They must be doing something right.

Caveat: However, you can't argue with what pspada says, for he is truly one of the most knowledgeable people giving advise in this venue.

Uhhh, I would "sort of" agree but his obsession with badmouthing ASUS is a bit over the top. It's rare to see him enter any thread that mentions ASUS without him going off on them. To me, that is something a helpful and "knowledgeable" person should refrain from. Opinions are one thing; obsessive behaviour is another.

 

[tedthebear]

Another reason my tech guy talked like that is because he has an ax to grind with HP. He told me HP has fired all of their authorized warranty repairmen and sent all of the work to India. Now when I have a problem it seems I have to ship my PC to HP for repairs. Ugh.

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: tedthebear
Another reason my tech guy talked like that is because he has an ax to grind with HP. He told me HP has fired all of their authorized warranty repairmen and sent all of the work to India. Now when I have a problem it seems I have to ship my PC to HP for repairs. Ugh.

That's what most other manufacturers do anyway. The only difference being with "on-site" warranty issues. Of course, with someone like Dell, you'd have a better chance at winning the lottery than getting them to actually authorize an "on-site" repair. Years ago when I owned one (yes, I was a member of the "dark side" once upon a time) I remember that was one of the big subjects on their Delltalk Forums. Seems they would have you practically strip down the system and run complete diagnostics with "help" from a phone tech before they would even approach the subject. If you refused to tear into the system, they would only give you the option of sending it in at your expense, of course. Now most of their phone "techs" are in India and apparently English isn't something they are very familiar with. Sad.