motherboard swap

[aspevacek]

Ok so the SATA 3 ports on my MSI board (Z68A GD80(B3) started acting up. I could connect to 1 of them but if I connected to both I would get random lock ups. If I hit the reset button it would just make my Drives randomly disappear and boot of fwhat ever it wanted to. So I do not like dealing with issues, I called MSI and we talke don the phone for a bit, they sent me a Beta Bios to test out on the board. Well the flash went fine, I started re installing windows and BAM Lock up. SO I almost blew a gasket and called MSI back again. They decided the port son the board or controller had to hav ean issue. I RMAed the MSI back to New Egg and decided I would spend a little extra on a board and decided on an ASROCK. Lets see what issues the build bring sto me this time

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157269

[Boinker]

Well if you still have a fresh install of windows you could try doing a driver sweeper after it boots and install the new drivers after a reboot. Just an idea. I'm assuming you don't have one but just in case that would be a good way to test the new hoard.

[Waco]

Nooooo! Don't get an ASRock board!

[paulktreg]

What's wrong with ASRock motherboards? Read the reviews because they are fast becoming one of the better motherboard producers, especially their high end offerings.

[Waco]

What's wrong with ASRock motherboards? Read the reviews because they are fast becoming one of the better motherboard producers, especially their high end offerings.

Well I've been soured on them because of poor BIOS support and lack of VRM power. iskout has been having a ton of issues with his high-end Intel board as well.

 

I just expected a lot more of mine given the price tag...for a Phenom II it rocks but it absolutely can't drive a Bulldozer at high clock speeds. It also has a cold-boot issue that requires me to enter the BIOS and reboot every time to boot with any non-default settings as well.

 

 

So it's a bit of a knee-jerk reaction - much like I won't buy MSI boards any more after Bluepanda's nearly caught itself on fire with a stock X6. I'm sure a $280 ASRock board will do fine - I just have a sour taste in my mouth from them still.

Edited November 1, 2011 by Waco

[aspevacek]

thi swill be my third board I am goin gwith on this damn build. The Asrock has had a lot of the reviews sayin greally good things about it. My first board was a Gigabyte and it just olain pissed me off from the time I took it out of the Box. Which is kinda funny because my System B has been running the Mother board I first migrated to socket 1156 with. The SATA 3 issue has been making me want to stab a pumpkin in the eye. MSI tech support was decent enough to send me a beta Bios to flash the GD80 with. That bios did exactly nothing for the issue I was having. All the SATA 2 connections worked Flawless and I could use 1 of the SATA 3 at a time bu tif i plugged into both SATA 3 ports controlled by the Z68 chipset it was non stop random problems. If the Asrock gives me any issues I will be moving back on to my tried and true 1156 board and i750. I will throw 2 GTX 590s in it and just run like that. That system has been stable since the first time I pushed the power button.

 

My second issue with this build has been the fact the Danger Den GTX590 blocks would not properly mount to my card. All the pads line sup but it would not touch the VRM circuits as it should. I have posted on the DD forum with no reply. I have called and left messages with Tech support with out a single reply so at this time I am not very happy with the Danger Den situation. I ordered a set of EKWB GTX 590 Blocks and they line up perfectly and touch everything they are supposed to. I modified my EVGA backplates to work with the EKWB hardware and hope to hav ethe system back up in a few days.

 

 

If everything with the ASROCK board holds true with the reviews I should have a solid setup. The only place I am seeing negative feedback on the board is Newegg. I have a feeling alot of the people that post there are not 100% up on how ot properly set up a machine.

[Fogel]

I read somewhere that MSI motherboards share their SATA 3 pcb with the PCI-e 2.x lanes. I don't know how true that is, but it could explain your MSI issue since you are flying with two GTX 590s. That is some bad design if true. I remember post/guide that was saying this said it could reduce a x16 lane to x8. I know we haven't maxed out PCI-e 2.1 yet but I would imagine two GTX 590s and a couple 6Gb drives could push that limitation.

[aspevacek]

Yes 2 GTX 590's and every drive in my rig is SATA 3 speced. I find it rather odd that on the MSI when I tested my Riaded SSDs on the SATA 3 ports the results were not much different then when I tested them on the SATA 2 ports. I will test them once i get the ASROCK up and running. I am hoping to see a little bette rresults from them. hopefully even bette rnumbers then What MSI was bringing to the table. I am mid install of WIndows 7 on the AsRock and it feels like it is goin gkind of smooth so far.