Windows 7: So what's the word on upgrading to Haswell???

I strongly suspect that the Ivy Bridge-E will also use TIM instead of soldering the die to the heat spreader and will have the same heating problems the Ivy Bridges and the Haswells are having. While having the added HP will be nice at times (heck, it's nice just to be able to run all my security scans simultaneously without the CPU breaking sweat), my biggest need was for the 40 PCI-e lanes the X79 boards have instead of the 24 the z77s had, especially since I need so many SATA III ports. I'm using 25 lanes now (GPU - 16, HBA card - 8, and card reader/USB 3.0 ports - 1) and I'm planning on using up two or three more eventually.

With the higher TDP of SB-E processors, I am not sure if they will use the IB method or not. Hard tellin'


What I do like about the Z87 platform is the extra native Intel SATA III ports on the boards. On X79, the extra PCI lanes are VERY nice if you use PCI cards that actually need the bandwidth.

Well I'm currently researching another X79 motherboard as I'm not so sure about the Asus Maximus lV board. I'm reading they've had too many problems, and their customer service it horrid. Unfortunately I can attest to the horridness of their customer service as I had an issue with the power supply for my Asus laptop. After dealing with their customer service I fired off a letter and indicated I would never buy another Asus product. Now reading a few user reviews at both newegg and Amazon reinforces my feelings about Asus customer service

I currently have a Gigabyte motherboard and looked at one for X79 but I kind of liked what Asus had to offer. However it was always in the back of my mind to stay away from Asus due to my dealings with them on my laptop. Looks like I need to give Gigabyte another look, or even EVGA.

Well, I have heard about the Asus CS issues, and I have heard it has gotten marginally better, but that is still no excuse. If you get an Asus motherboard, depending on what the issue is, the retailer will be responsible for some problems. You also have to remember that Asus outsells other brands by quite a bit, so there will be more failures "in the field" than other brands. Let us know what you decide on!

The only gripe I have about some X79 motherboards is the cooling solution over the X79 Chipset(formerly Southbridge chipset). It is a small heatsink with a small fan that gets way too hot and CAN be very noisy. My ears are a tad more sensitive to that frequency of noise though, so it may not be a concern to most.

1- I'm keenly aware of that argument.
2 - Of course you have a certain amount of time to return it to the seller, but once that time is over, now you have to deal with the company's customer service. And in this case Asus is horrid.
3 - Yes, all companies can have bad days, it's how they deal with them, and their customers that set them apart.

Example: I ordered a part for my car from Amazon last week. Today I discovered to my surprise that it was the wrong part. To make a long story short, Amazon was more then willing to refund my money once I sent the part back, but I wanted to swap parts instead. Well because these weren't they same parts, they couldn't do that; the policy was just to refund. After explaining that that process took too long, and I needed the part quickly, the customer service rep did something I didn't even ask for... they gave a full credit for the part I needed.... essentially giving me the correct part for free.... AND... a guaranteed refund when I send the incorrect part back. In a nutshell I got the item I needed for free! Why?... because Amazon deemed this a mess up on their behalf, the product description wasn't clear as to left or right. Thus they simply compensated me for my inconvenience.

That's taking care of your customers and meeting their needs. Mind you though that I've been shopping with Amazon since 2001, and this was pointed out by the customer service rep. Again, that's how you take care of, and keep your customers.

You get rid of them buy giving them the run around and lying to them - This is what I got from Asus about a month ago. BTW.... I bought my Asus Laptop from Amazon back in March.

I understand, and it IS definitely an issue I've heard before. I've been lucky and never had to deal with it so far. What motherboards are you looking at?

Well despite my "beef" with Asus, I do like what their boards have to offer; however, I'll be looking at either Gigabyte's G1.Assassin 2, or something from EVGA.

As I said, I have a Gigabyte board now so it's not like I'm unfamiliar with them, In fact I've had no issues with my X-58A. I just don't like the color scheme of the G1...

I like this board from Gigabyte: Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4

Yeah, that one looks a lot better than the G1. To be honest, I don't really like any of the current Gigabyte X79 boards. I know looks aren't everything, but that G1 is ugly.

I don't know, by default, I may be forced into Asus. I'm just really concerned about their quality control and of course customer service.

I'll have to take a closer look at EVGA to see what they have to offer.

In the FWIW department, I've had dealings with Asus customer service and you're right, it stinks. But, I found if you stay away from email support and call them on the phone (at your expense) you actually get fairly good support. I had to call them twice about my Maximus V and they provided everything I asked for. I have since learned, I didn't have any problem worth an RMA. They put out a bad bios that had some bugs in it that led you to believe the board was bad. They've fixed the bios now, and it runs like a champ. Of course, I've heard from others that Gigabyte is no better. To be honest, when it comes to Customer service, I don't know anyone who provides good CS, except probably EVGA. I feel the same way about MSI as Sygnus feels about ASUS. If I'm looking for a product, I completely skip MSI. As far as I'm concerned, they don't exist.