Fucking ASUS!

Following instructions from the ASUS website I have carefully inserted brand new CPU into socket of brand new ASUS Z87-C motherboard and locked CPU in. I have than opened the socket again to check if everything was ok and, to my horror, discovered bend pins! This means that, unless I'm able to straighten out those pins and none is broken, my brand new mobo is now a piece of junk (no exchange and void guarantee ). I went on the net and have found dozens of post from people in similar situation and vast majority of them had ASUS mobos. Just to be clear, I'm not talking about first time tryers but about people experienced in building their own machines. WTF? Even if I have to buy another motherboard how will I know that the very same thing will not happen again?

While I thankfully have never bent the pins of the many computers I've built, I completely sympathize with you. Some mobo/chip combos are harder than others to correctly match. Some stores charge a nominal fee to connect them, but thats assuming you bought the mobo from them. Contact asus anyway and hope for the best.

Erm what?
I have exactly that mobo. Just as you I've inserted i5 in it, very carefully. And locked it. What could possibly bend?! On i5? I mean… Cmon.
Then I've put the fan, other stuff, closed everything, yadda, yadda, yadda and it instaworked.

Website instructions? WTF?
With mobo they give User Guide. On pages 1-5 and 1-6 is shown exactly what to do with CPU. Ignore pic 6, it's for already used CPU when you need a new cooling paste.
Here's the quick pic of it, just taken it with the crappy iPhone, you can see this post on the monitor. Well… Not clearly, I hate those bloody phones and cameras in them!



However I've seen bend pins on AMD CPU (friend's PC) when he didn't put it correctly. It's easy to fix it - use your credit card!
Yea, the plastic card perfectly fits the space between proc "needles". Just be gentle when setting the bend pin streight.

I just decided last night that my new mobo is probably going to be the Asus Maximus VII Hero.

Now you've got me thinking.

JDR it's beautiful! Don't think, buy now!

Originally Posted by JDR13
I just decided last night that my new mobo is probably going to be the Asus Maximus VII Hero.

Now you've got me thinking.

I have no complaints with this board. Seriously pretty great. Of course the cheaper it gets the Better value it is. I got it near release date and still felt pretty good.

Also…… for fixing bent pins…. mechanical pencil is awesome. Take the lead out, slide the tip over the pin. Great control if pins are bent sideways.

Unless the pins were bent before you installed it then it was simply your error. Not sure why you'd be mad at asus.

I have built dozens of pc's with asus mobo's and several with gigabyte and msi. Asus is no more prone to bent pins than and other manufacturer in my expierence.

I've never bent any pins and I'm often removing and replacing cpu's, try different thermal pastes, overclocking, water cooling, etc. You really have to tilt the CPU pretty good or drop it directly on the pins to bend them.

Anyway, I haven't done any research but I'd bet if you search for bent pins in other manufacturers boards you'd find several post with them as well. Most I'd bet would be the result of user error.

Originally Posted by Wisdom
I have no complaints with this board. Seriously pretty great. Of course the cheaper it gets the Better value it is. I got it near release date and still felt pretty good.

Yeah, I'm having a tough time now deciding between that and MSI's Z97 Gaming 7 mobo.

The MSI board seems to have pretty much the same feature set but at a more competitive price.

I actually have had the Asus Hero board for a few months now - works great; memory timing and cpu overclocking have never been easier. Be sure to update to the latest BIOS - my board had really weird reboot/power down cycling issues… after repeated BIOS revisions, the last flash I performed (back in January or so) resolved the issue at last.

I would recommend Gaming 7 JD and not because of my ASUS trouble. I have researched mobos recently and MSI offering gives you much better value.

Originally Posted by zahratustra
I would recommend Gaming 7 JD and not because of my ASUS trouble. I have researched mobos recently and MSI offering gives you much better value.

The one thing I don't like about both of those boards is that neither of them include a regular PCI slot.. which means I'll have to purchase a new sound card.

Also, why do all of these boards limit the PCI Express lanes in such a way that you're forced to run in x8 mode instead of x16 if you're using 2 slots?

*Edit* Ok, I see that's a limitation of the Z97 chipset.

Originally Posted by zahratustra
Following instructions from the ASUS website I have carefully inserted brand new CPU into socket of brand new ASUS Z87-C motherboard and locked CPU in. I have than opened the socket again to check if everything was ok and, to my horror, discovered bend pins! This means that, unless I'm able to straighten out those pins and none is broken, my brand new mobo is now a piece of junk (no exchange and void guarantee ). I went on the net and have found dozens of post from people in similar situation and vast majority of them had ASUS mobos. Just to be clear, I'm not talking about first time tryers but about people experienced in building their own machines. WTF? Even if I have to buy another motherboard how will I know that the very same thing will not happen again?

I've had countless motherboards, and I've experienced bent pins a few times myself. I've been able to straighten them out, and they've been surprisingly forgiving - as the CPU has been able to function even if some of the pins weren't exactly "straight".

One time, it was due to a plastic cpu-slot cover that somehow bent a bunch of pins as I was removing it. I don't remember the brands, frankly, but I think this can potentially happen to all motherboards.

The way you're describing it makes it sound like it was your error - and as such, calling out ASUS based on some random forum observations sounds like confirmation bias. One logical reason why a lot of the people you've read about have ASUS boards, is that ASUS have gotten lucky with their reputation for whatever reason. A lot of people are telling themselves that ASUS boards are better.

My experience with ASUS motherboards is that they're simply more expensive and they suffer just as many little issues as any other brand. I usually alternate between GIGABYTE, MSI and ASUS - and I've had issues with all those brands. Yes, all of them. I'd say buying a board that's completely free of issues is actualy quite rare. I'd say 1 in 3 boards, for me, have been without significant issues. Usually, that's been due to me getting a luxury model - but not always.

Right now, I have a GIGABYTE board, and I can't for the life of me get it to OC my very OC-friendly CPU and my RAM refuses to function correctly at suggested values, so I have to give OC'ing up entirely. I don't know why, really, but after extensive research - I have to conclude it's the board.

If you want a solid motherboard, it'll cost you a bit more - but the actual brand is less relevant - as long as you don't go for something completely unknown.

Anyway, that's my take.

JDR, the catch why is MSI not as expensive as ASUS is most probably the sound card.
You have a separate sound card already? Definetly go for MSI or anything cheaper than ASUS.

Their sound chip (that's actually realtek alc898) on that Maximus board is probably the best thing out there you can get without a separate sound card.
Of course it's not as good as "a proper" sound card, but you're not running a home music studio, right?

There is always an option to ditch internal dedicated card and go for external one. Whatever you choose, ASUS is on the top:
http://www.techspot.com/products/sound-cards/

Should I add that external ThunderFX has Xbox support? And we all know you have different consoles all over your room forming a minefield.
http://rog.asus.com/131532012/maximu…the-thunderfx/

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
The way you're describing it makes it sound like it was your error - and as such, calling out ASUS based on some random forum observations sounds like confirmation bias.

I know that it was my fault DArt. I was just venting and displacing

As for the rest… I have decided that, since Broadwell as well as the new generation of Nvidia GPUs and DDR4 are just over the horizon, I will buy something relatively cheap but decent enough to get me through the next 2 years. Than I will buy the new CPU, mobo, GPU and RAM.

Well, well, well - with the judicious use of a needle, a mechanical pencil and a FUCKINGLY powerful magnifying glass I have managed to straighten out bend pins (LGA 1150 doesn't really have traditional pins but what the check) in my CPU socket. Computer boots up and everything (including testing) SEEMS to be ok. It's still too early to be sure but fingers crossed…

Originally Posted by zahratustra
Well, well, well - with the judicious use of a needle, a mechanical pencil and a FUCKINGLY powerful magnifying glass I have managed to straighten out bend pins (LGA 1550 doesn't really have traditional pins but what the check) in my CPU socket. Computer boots up and everything (including testing) SEEMS to be ok. It's still too early to be sure but fingers crossed…

Yay!!!

pibbur who has a very nice Asus Republic of Gamers laptop.

I accidentally bend the pins on a CPU last summer. I freaked out as it was pretty close to brand new (don't ask why I was taking it apart). I just used some tweezers and bent them back and its been working fine ever since.

Why were you taking it apart BN?

The most concise answer is because I was being an idiot.