questionable ASUS Z170-A quality

[chaosrealm93]

hey all,

after reading the owners' reviews of the Z170-A on newegg, i was shocked to find the amount of DOAs and reports of poor service form ASUS after having encountered a problem.

how prevalent / true is this? it seems like poor and declining QC is a common thread among all the reviews...

should i still go ahead with getting the Z170-A or should i consider another model / manufacturer entirely?

any recommendations?



parts i have so far
- 6700k
- EVGA 1060
- Kingston DDR4 16GB 2133mhz

im planning on keeping this stock for a couple years and may do light overclocking in the future

 

[AddRAM]

I can most definitely confirm that Asus customer support is sub par.

But on the other hand they are very quick to chat and get your issue resolved.

I`ve never gotten a dead board out of the box, but if you damage a board you will not get a new one unless you buy a new one, you will get a re certified board.

Other then that my Z77, Z87 and Z170 have all performed just fine.

The Z170-A is a fairly cheap board

 

[chaosrealm93]

I`ve never gotten a dead board out of the box, but if you damage a board you will not get a new one unless you buy a new one, you will get a re certified board.

Other then that my Z77, Z87 and Z170 have all performed just fine.

The Z170-A is a fairly cheap board

yup, the board im using now is a RMA. i wish companies wouldnt recycle their stuff unto retail-price-paying customers....

hmm.... thats odd cuz from what i can tell from the ASUS spec sheets and

The Differences between All Asus Mainstream Z170 Motherboards

the -A variant seems to be the most feature laden =\

 

[AddRAM]

Ya that`s what aggravated me, you put out money for a new item and get someone else`s used item back.

Maybe, but it only sells for $154, where as the Formula sells for $369

ASUS Z170-A LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com

I`m still waiting for the Formula to come down in price

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII FORMULA LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard-Newegg.com

My advice, get what you want, but make sure it`s perfect. If not send it back to Newegg before the 15 or 30 day return time is up.

 

[chaosrealm93]

woah woah woah........ somebody ELSE'S stuff?
i thought they just sent u the re-qualified stuff that didnt pass QC the first time around.........
now THAT's slimy =\

the formula/sabertooth/ROG stuff will probably never come down in price lol

you see though...... many of the reviews have failures 2 months to half a year in
far too late for any sort of exchange or refund
it'll only leave you to deal with ASUS

 

[AddRAM]

I`m not exactly sure about what you get back, but you`re probably right.

But when I RMA`d my Z77 the board I got back had dust under the armor so make of that what you will.

Certainly it was used, but it worked fine so that`s all that mattered.

I paid $269 for my Sabertooth, then watched it come down to $209, now it`s at $245.99

ASUS TUF SABERTOOTH Z170 MARK 1 LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com

The Formula has come down from $399 to $369, not much at all, but I look it as saving the tax and shipping cost of the original price

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yep products well some get lucky and others get duds
Most reviews you have to take with a grain of salt but can be discouraging to say the least
I almost bought a asus x99 deluxe 2 the other day black friday and all but came back to my senses
Looked briefly at the z170 offerings but I still do not understand the entire mobil..... stuff other than most mobil stuff is disposable after a year or 2 not to mention it's hard to get excited about a quad core
Besides being fairly cheap price wise compared to previous offerings it's a lottery getting good stuff out of the first package

 

[ignatzatsonic]

i was shocked to find the amount of DOAs and reports of poor service form ASUS after having encountered a problem.

how prevalent / true is this? it seems like poor and declining QC is a common thread among all the reviews...

should i still go ahead with getting the Z170-A or should i consider another model / manufacturer entirely?

any recommendations?

You shouldn't be shocked. That's pretty much par for the course across all brands, not just Asus. As you say, declining QC is a common thread--and has been for a long time.

It stands to reason that those who are satisfied are less likely to post a review at all, but computer stuff just generally seems to have a higher dissatisfaction rate than your average piece of consumer electronics---refrigerators, stoves, etc.

I wouldn't expect motherboards to be as reliable as pocket knives, but you'd think quality would be higher than it is after decades of refining the process. I'd guess the manufacturers have made a conscious choice that a relatively high rate of failures is cost effective and adds to their bottom line profit. They look at it as just part of the cost of doing business and can get away with it as long as the customer has no alternative.

The fact that no manufacturer has strayed from this practice tells me it's an industry-wide decision. You just need a degree of luck. I had a DOA motherboard 6 months ago (not Asus), but I didn't tell myself that changing brands would have decreased the likelihood of that happening.

For that reason, I don't think there's much point in making recommendations. All brands are shaky and anyone's recommendations are going to be anecdotal and colored by their personal experience.

About all you can do is deal with vendors that will make the replacement process as painless as possible. Newegg paid for return shipping both ways for my RMA.

 

[Megahertz07]

Consider that a MB has dozens of components and some IC's (integrated circuits) can have thousands of components.
Even if each component is individually tested and then the MB is also tested, you have the "child death" period where statistically you have a bigger chance to a failure. And only one failed component of a dozens of thousands will result to a MB fail.

I have seen MB failures on all types and brands.

I still think that the most sophisticated and good MBs are Asus, followed by Gigabyte.

 

[fireberd]

I just finished up a new PC build (Sunday). I started out with an ASRock Z170 board but it had problems and was returned. I got an ASUS Z170 and so far working perfectly. The ASUS is a "ROG" board, I don't game but it had more rear panel USB ports that I needed.

 

[Mellon Head]

For that reason, I don't think there's much point in making recommendations. All brands are shaky and anyone's recommendations are going to be anecdotal and colored by their personal experience.

I agree with this. Anecdotally speaking, I've never had a bad ASUS board, though I have had ones from other manufacturers. My experience, however, is completely subjective. I may have just won the ASUS lottery and totally lucked out.

Due to the complexity of computer parts in general, I can see why there are the number of failures that there are. However, one thing that I have never agreed with is the replacement of a brand new item with someone else's refurbished unit, in some cases (such as Brian's) not even cleaned properly. There is no excuse for this. You pay good money for computer hardware, if you have to return it, you should get a new one, or have your own unit repaired and sent back to you. Refurbs should be sold to Newegg and other retailers to resell at a discount for those looking for a deal, not swapped out and returned for new hardware.

It might be the "cost of doing business" these days, but it's a lousy way to do business.

 

[chaosrealm93]

I just finished up a new PC build (Sunday). I started out with an ASRock Z170 board but it had problems and was returned. I got an ASUS Z170 and so far working perfectly. The ASUS is a "ROG" board, I don't game but it had more rear panel USB ports that I needed.

lets hope it continues to work perfectly into infinity and beyond LOL

honestly id rather have something fail in the first few days, at least i wont have anything of value (ie data) to lose. a lot of the horror stories i read were failures 2-6 months in

i think their ROG and TUF series might be a bit better in terms of QC but idk

 

[chaosrealm93]

However, one thing that I have never agreed with is the replacement of a brand new item with someone else's refurbished unit, in some cases (such as Brian's) not even cleaned properly. There is no excuse for this. You pay good money for computer hardware, if you have to return it, you should get a new one, or have your own unit repaired and sent back to you. Refurbs should be sold to Newegg and other retailers to resell at a discount for those looking for a deal, not swapped out and returned for new hardware.

It might be the "cost of doing business" these days, but it's a lousy way to do business.

so much this

but thats what happens when companies get too big and blanket a market completely
the mobo market currently is essentially a oligopoly
one company figures they can cut corners and screw the customers like this nad other companies take notice
pretty soon theyre all doing this and the consumer has no other options

honestly if theyd just tighten up QC, there would be less crappy boards shipped out, reducing the amount of RMAs and refurbs having to be processed.