Legit Reviews

Those of you who have been here for a while know that on occasion I go on a rant about something and sometimes it is really unreasonable and sometimes ( IMHO ) it is not. This time I will not rant but rather ask you IF I have reason to rant....I will post the devices listing on New Egg and all I ask is that you read in as much detail as you feel neccessary and then tell me IF I should be unhappy with anyone and if I should WHO should be to blame??
here is the devices listing
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128328

Now please pay special attention to the expansion slots descriptors and tell me whether or not I should have expected this board to support PCI-E 2.0
Further please pay attention to the Chipset that is listed as well as which processors are supported.

Now that you have looked over the published specs of the board I have a few questions...

1. Should I expect to be able to get FULL support ( including bandwidth) of a PCI-E 2.0 Video card with this board based on what it says it will support??
IF not please explain why and who is at fault for the missunderstanding ( me, New Egg, AMD, or GIGABYTE) also is it possible to have a PCI-E 1.1 slot that will not work with a PCI-E 2.0 equiped Video card?
2. Should I expect to be able to go to the manufactorers website to download up to date and functional drivers for a MOBO I just bought from them??

3. Should I be upset when said manufactorer makes statements like ..." we don't make the chipset AMD does" and " If you choose to belive the softeware and the spec sheet I can't help you"?
4. To what extent is the place you purchased an item liable for missinformation about that item??

I am trying really hard not to rant since I said I would not so I will ask for your oppinion

Should I have to pay a restocking fee for a board that I ordered expecting it to offer PCI-E 2.0 bandwidth whe it does not??
Should I have to wait 5-10 days for an RMA to get processed When I did not do anything wrong??
Why in GODS name should I ever believe anything I read on an online retailers spec sheet IF they will not make it right ( by "make it right" I mean give the customer what your website said they were getting when they placed their order at NO ADDITIONAL cost to them.

By no additional cost to them I mean FREE UPS IF the device does not meet the specs we published!


Dang I was about to rant...oops I did a little ...

am I being unreasonable ???

downloads - http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Products/Mo ... uctID=2656 - sometimes the usa site is slow or down, but you an always go to the main gigabyte site to get them - http://www.gigabyte.com.tw

PCI-E 2.0 - yes you should be able to get full speed from what I have read, even on gigabytes site, as long as the card is truly a 2.0 card.

I would call gigabyte back again to get a different rep since the one you had was an idiot. I would then call Newegg and inquire about it also, as they are usually VERY good at handling customer complaints. Liable? Well I cant say on that one since they took the information direct from gigabyte's website, thats why you should get back in touch with gigabyte first. Everything newegg has on their site is listed on gigabytes site also.

Are you sure you have the right board? Maybe they sent you the wrong thing?

I would expect a return on something like this to not include the restocking fee, but you will probably have to pay the return shipping. They might work something out that they will ship you another board for free shipping or something like that.

Mike

Who is to blame? Well I would say the majority goes on Gigabyte if they actually sent you the right board and all the info was wrong! I would think newegg would stand behind the description though and offer to remove the restocking fee for you, well as long as you dont get irrate with them and calmly explain the problem without attitude ;)

My first e-mail to them , both GIGA and NewEgg ,was calm and without attitude. The part that startes to really get my blood boiling is when the response you get to the question tells you that the question was not really actually read. Its like they read a few words and then respond based on the best solution for the most common problem who's description starts like yours and they don't read the rest. When I asked about finding up to date drivers I left out this key piece of info...I found the drivers listed on GIGABYTE'S site and downloaded them. I tried to install them and I got an error that said something like..." cannot install specified drivers since the software did not detect a 7 series chipset on the board". I better open this up and take off the Northbridge heat sink to make sure what chipset it has on it. I had not thought about the possibility that the wrong board was in the box...the box and book are labeled correctly but who knows for sure.

could always RMA it?

Yes I could and New egg is willing to do that. My problem with that is that they are going to charge me a $10.50 restocking fee under the category of " oredered the wrong item" and the freight to get it back to them will be about $15 plus $7 shipping to get the 780G plus the price difference between the two boards is $30. My total out of pocket to RMA this one a get a different board that has PCI-E 2.0 is ( 10+15+7+30 ) $62 ( I paid $69 for this one). I chose this board because it was supposed to support all the same things the 780G does ( PCI-E 2.0, SB700, AMD 7 series chipset, and AM2+ phenom processors) IF it did what their site said it was supposed to I would be happy. My system actually runs great and I would not be complaining at all if I could get a straight answer about what chipset I actually have so I can get some utilities like SpeedFan and AMD overdrive to function and tell me what my actual core temps are under load. I chose a black edition CPU so I could OC it which is hard to do IF you have to shut down the PC and go into BIOS everytime you want to see your core temps. I also chose a PCI-E 2.0 video card to go with it which was supposed to work.

I don't have $62 left to swap to a different MOBO and I don't think I should have to since according to NewEgg and GIGABYTE's spec sheets the one I have now was supposed to support all that I want it to for the price I paid

sounds like youre going to have to play the support game, advancing from service tech people to their bosses and finally to someone who can do something about it :/

man that really sucks

I would relent IF someone would say " oh yes we messed up and that board got listed with some other boards specs you actually have chipset X and you can get its drivers here xx" but so far everyone I have recieved e-mails from is basicall saying I picked the wrong board or missunderstood something. I thought they were going to tell me that this boar actually has the 690G chipset, thats what everest sees it as.

p.s. I downloaded and installed an AMD utility that is supposed to check your hardware and software to determine which drivers you need and I got this error

" setup failed to find any AMD components required in this installation".
CPU-Z lists the chipset as " RS690/RS690M"
another utility from AMD told me to check my BIOS version I did and it says its " RS740 BIOS for GA-MA74GM-S2H version F1 so the BIOS should be right.
The board does have the right part number stamped on it but I have not yet taken the whole PC apart to look under the heatsink for the part number but I guess I will have to. I have been half tempted to install the 690G chipset drivers just to see what happens but I am not qiute there yet.

I must also add that I am really surprised that this thing is actually working with all the appearant conflicts going on.

Merlin wrote:I must also add that I am really surprised that this thing is actually working with all the appearant conflicts going on.

That's actually a good thing. Therefore even with minor compatibility issues, you can still boot up and run while a majority of things still operate smoothly.

Gigabyte must have done their homework with AMD.

Keep hammering at the support channels. Ask to talk with the higher ups before the RMA clock runs out! It's a bummer to have to go through this. I'm eyeing the 780G MOBO when the X3 tri-core becomes a great OCer of a CPU.

Hang in there and keep a watch on the clock to get this settled very soon.

I got the chipset ID info off of the chip itself. Can anyone tell me where to go to find out what the code means?? The chipset looks just like a mini athlon Xp CPU . stamped on the top is this. I had to use a magnifying glass to read it

AMD
chipset
215RVA6BVA11FG
KYC45
0802SSP
no RS690 or RS740 or anything like that. I hope someone can tell me where to find what chipset it actually is

Problem solved. NewEgg sent me a prepaid UPS label to send this one back, waved the restocking fee, and gave me a $20 credit for my trouble. So I will get the 780G chipset board for about $15 more out of pocket and I learned a lot. Most important IF you have a choice between two new Chipsets always go with the one a trusted reviewer , That would be you Nate, has reviewed. I messed up and tried to save a few $$.

Thats exactly what I have come to expect from Newegg.

Sometimes all you have to do to be treated fairly is ask.

NewEggs been pretty good to me, in the rare occasion some thing does go wrong with an order they take care of it pretty quick.

Sweet! I know how good it feels to get what you want (my replacement E6750 is arriving from Intel tomorrow)
Glad you didn't have to play much of the support game that a couple of us have had to do with different manufacturers/e-tailers!

I must say that even thought I felt fully justified I have been VERY pleased with neweggs response. I was originally only really going to push for a 10% discout off of the 780G and no restocking fee. The gave me 20% off the replacement , no restocking fee, and a prepaid UPS to return this one! I have to say that is stellar customer service!