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The current hardware dilemma - a short story

Dear Community,
 

since 4 years I put everything which was less than 10€ in my wallet into a small box to save some fun-money for worse times. Well – 2020 was kind of a “not so good” year and therefore I decided to make myself an awesome Christmas present. Unfortunately moved the whole project into a totally different direction…. But let’s start from the beginning.

During summer I was already playing around with the idea to build a new gaming PC. I was kind of flashed from the Odyssey G9 and G7 monitors since my rig was almost 8 years old and from a gaming perspective outdated. So, I started to inform myself about the latest developments, added some tech channels like IGORS LAB, NEXXUS, LINUS… to my playlist and started to get really focused and nerdy about the latest development – man – I was hyped.
Especially after the Nvidia announcement in September I was sure that I will build a really nice PC with an 3080’s card – I mean – those announced prices where great, only the 10 GB Vram made me kind of unhappy so I waited a little bit with the purchase and hoped for a Card like the 3080 super or TI to be more futureproof.

Round about one month later were the new AMD Processors announced and I was sure that I will use one of these babies for my new monster. I was well prepared for the release day, I had several accounts open and beat the hell out of the “F5” – but without success, no Ryzen 5900X for me
L. I was kind of disturbed since I had no idea how I could have been faster... It wasn’t even possible to see the required product on any vendor page listed.
With no expectations I refreshed the next day the “Mediamarkt” page and suddenly, it was at least possible to preorder the 5900x with delivery date on the 24th of December for 580€ – “what a great Christmas present” I thought! 
So I started to “do my homework”, I checked out the best motherboards for Ryzen 5000, checked the QLV’s for the Memory’s, looked only for really high end components to fulfill my dream – man – I was pretty excited!! I decided then to order the following components round about the last November week:

ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming
Ryzen 5900X
ZOTAC RTX 3080 Trinity OC
GSKILL F4-3600C16Q-64GTZNC
Samsung 980 PRO
Noctua DH15 Chromax black
Seasonic FOCUS GX-750
Fractal Desingn Meshify S2
Samsung odyssey G7

Although it was one week before black Friday, it was almost impossible to buy the desired components incl. the PSU, which was really strange. But somehow, I was able to order everything, surprisingly also a “ZOTAC 3080 TRINITY OC” for 900€! I know, the price wasn’t that great, far away from the MSRP and there was still this VRAM thing but - HEY – I wanted the stuff right now for my Christmas vacation to play Cyberpunk with maxxed out settings.

The first thing I received was my Odyssey G7 (the G9 was in the end too big for me) and I unboxed it carefully. After switching this thing on – connected to my old PC – I recognized already some pixel errors and a black bar in the upper left corner…. OH noo… but something is always broken if you order so much things, right? So, I had to send it back – fortunately another vendor had it on stock as well. In the meantime, also all my other stuff arrived, well packed and crispy good looking – except the CPU. I contacted “Mediamarkt” and they told me that this Processor is ordered but they are not able to tell me till when it will arrive, but for sure it will not be this year… I looked on other webpages and found the 5800x available on Amazon. Great, I mean it’s not an 5900X and there are some complains about the heat but I wanted my gaming PC and so I cancelled the 5900X and ordered the 5800X. After Christmas I received the package and was really excited to start to build my rig. I opened the box carefully and .. WHAT THE F*?!* .. the box was empty??  Someone really stole my processor out of the box?? No F?”=) way!!! Man – I WAS PISSED. I contacted Amazon and I wasn’t even sure if they will believe me or not. Fortunately, they checked my order-history and believed me and sent me my money back, because the 5800x wasn’t available anymore. I checked several other vendors and was lucky to order the 5800X again, this time the box contained also a processor
J.

I called a friend and I started carefully and well prepared with the building process – everything went smoothly and without any issue – even the update via flashback was no problem – till I tried to boot the system the first time. Black screen and a red LED on the MB. Hmmm ok, I checked all the cables and also the RAM’s but it looked quite good. I removed two of the four Rams and started the system again and voila, the BIOS was available. To make sure that one RAM was faulty I noted their SKU and rotated them – It was really one of the RAM’s. I mean don’t do they do a quality check before they sell them? Is it really the job of the consumer to do the final check of a high-priced product? OK but anyway, at least the system worked properly…. right?

Since I had originally 64GB of RAM, which is a total overkill, I had 32GB left, still more than enough for gaming. I set everything up, installed Windows and recognized that I had some issues with my USB hubs. Some devices just didn’t get connected. I tried to update the drivers manually without success…. Hmm I started to investigate but don’t wanted to waste too much time, I wanted to play. So I thought I will take care about this later and started to enjoy the power of my 3080 online with some friends… but.. I really had an issue with package loss!?

 I was annoyed and checked the PING, everything was good! I googled again and figured out that I was not the only one with this Motherboard and this “Package loss” issue. The problem was/is caused by the LAN controller “intel 1225V” - and not solved yet? I mean, I bought an ASUS B550-E GAMING … G-A-M-I-N-G Motherboard. And they are not able to use properly working LAN chipsets or drivers to provide a stable internet connection?? Really?? I was able to fix this by downgrade my divers to early version. At least I was able to play online… suddenly I recognized a rattling noise during my gaming session…  =(.

First I thought that this was caused by a loose fan from my Noctua CPU Fan, so I removed the FAN checked everything again and rebooted the system. The noise was still there. I took a closer look and found out, that this sound was made by one of my GPUs fan. I turned up the Fanspeed with the ZOTAC tool and it was suddenly damn loud, the whole case was rattling, and it sounded like a small earthquake. I knew that I had to send my Card back and I also was aware that I won’t get a replacement since there is no availability right now. I tried a workaround to manipulate the fancurve, but the faulty fan was the middle one – which is connected to the right one :/. So I contacted ZOTAC and they told me that no RMA is possible since they have no Fans available right now. They told me to send the Card back to the Amazon.

As a workaround I took a really old PCI3 Card from a friend of mine just to have access to my PC since the AMD Processors don’t have any Graphic-Chips integrated. When I booted the system the first time with the old card, suddenly all my USB devices worked properly. After a short investigation I found out, that the latest BIOS versions from ASUS have raised some problems with USB devices when you use a PCI4 card… NO ADDITIONAL WORDS NEEDED….

Now I am here, without my joyful present to myself – with a PC without GPU and without RAM (Since I also returned the whole Kit). I mean it took me a lot of money and time, I investigated and researched for the best components, read a lot of reviews and faced myself with so much problems that almost all the fun was gone.
I have the feeling that the quality control of those products is getting worse by each release. The community at this sector pays a lot of money and then we receive only half-finished products without a properly running software? And the worst – all the reviewers don’t complain about this, they promote those things! But if you check all the online portals, they are full of complains, problems and issues all around the latest hardware.

I am a normal User with no online credibility, I am not very active on several forums, I have no twitter account and no Youtube channel. I am just a guy who wants some gaming fun which is a nice hobby for me since I was a little boy. Although I wanted to share my story with you and maybe I am not the only one who made such an experience? Maybe there is a lack of honest reviewers who just not hype everything or doing super unrealistic test scenarios? Those things like the faulty LAN device or the BIOS issue, how can reviewers not see this? This is something major! -- The latest products – they are a mess!


 

 

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2 hours ago, Ofetzer said:

Those things like the faulty LAN device or the BIOS issue, how can reviewers not see this?

So overall, you have wrote a wall of text and I'm not quite sure which parts of it are your own fault, bad luck and which you are attributing to reviewers (which in the end falls into to your own fault too).

 

Faulty stuff is overall rare to get. Anyone can get DOA parts, and they can be literally any part. What you want reviewer to say? "Mine worked, yours might not if you have bad luck"? Like if you have watched any reviewer who buys stuff instead of receiving them, you know they do get bad stuff. Linus has done videos where he has received dead CPUs, mobos, RAM etc. Its bit different when they get stuff before launch from manufacturer. Those are tested to work 100%.

 

BIOS issue and compatibility stuff is harder, and most reviewers won't test things to that extend. For two reasons, time and skills. If you want reviewer who does test EVERYTHING with mobos, watch OC3D. He has direct line to those who program BIOS's and has provided sometimes crucial info for bug fixes to be implemented (back when 1st gen Ryzen launched he did two sets of reviews, one at launch, one after the bug fixes were implemented).

 

The rest of your rant(?) I'm not sure. For me you are saying that you did do your homework, but still expected everything to work like a charm. or as if you just bought prebuilt, laptop or console. Sad to be one to break it, but issues are bound when you are the one doing quality control. Reviewers are bound by time, and don't mention some things which could effect buying decisions. Like how hard RGB actually is, if you don't use one brands hardware. How Intel probably still haven't fixed its overvolting issues on stock settings. How 3rd gen and newer Ryzen 7 stock coolers aren't enough for those CPUs. Stuff which you can learn by just reading forums for year or two.

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Thanks for the response and yeah – the story was somehow really a “a shallow first world problem – I am a unique snowflake – wail” and I agree with the most of your points – I was just a little bit frustrated while writing. But basic functions like a proper working LAN device on a motherboard – which is for almost every gamer relevant – is in my opinion something worth mentioning. So this point would be great I’ve some reviewers also check the basic functionality of the devices ... I will check out OC3D, thanks for the hint! I had a learning and next time I’ll try to do my homework even better J.

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That is a lot of bad luck...

 

I am building PCs like 25+ years now and have quite a track record of faulty parts - but that much in a single build?

 

I mean a faulty RAM stick there, a broken SSD/HDD, a faulty fan or whatever - but like 50% DOA/RMA...

 

Needless to say that my last big build (07/2019 - 3900X with 2080TI - watercooled) went quite smooth partwise* - some early adopter BIOS Pain with the x570 board I ordered at lauch, but this was forgotten 2-3 BIOS-Updates later...

 

Concerning the GPU I would have looked into a 3rd party cooler/waterblock - as this is the way to go anyhow...In the current situation - never give back a somehow working GPU - just don't...😉

 

Best regards,

Medizinmann

 

*but yeah the expandable AIO for the CPU was a DOA and I had to use the stock cooler for two weeks before the replacement part arrived...

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That's a special story you have there, but you got the worst luck. Even if you spend that amount of money, you don't get a 100% guarantee that everything is perfect. Luckily a thing like RMA exists, but you would expect everything to be totally fine when you get high-end parts.


I have a similar story like yours, but with less bad luck though. I have started to plan my new build since begin 2020. So I got into PC's again and watched a lot of video's. I also had a 8 year old build with a i7 2700K. Then Covid-19 came around and I slowly gathered my parts, starting with a ROG Strix monitor back in April. Short after I got the SSD for $100, which is like $60 only now. It just stayed in its box for half year while prices were dropping. 
Fast forward to December 2020. I had some parts, but missing my motherboard, processor and RAM. I personally went for a Strix B450-F, which I ordered from Amazon and came on December 23th. Since I wasn't able to get Ryzen 5000, I got a deal on a old Ryzen 2600, which I picked up from the seller on December 23th and the day after on December 24th I picked up just 8GB RAM from a seller. All just in time before Christmas and to be able to game on Christmas holiday. I just didn't have the CPU and RAM I needed.
Then I did my build, starting on December 25th, a nice Christmas activity. I thought building in my full tower case would be easy, but nope. I had multiple clearance issues, with my cables, new GPU and most importantly the AIO that didn't fit easily at all. I turned out building 3 full afternoons to fit everything, I originally just planned 1 day for it. Finally after Christmas I was able to use my PC and play games. I achieved my goal to have a working PC in time, I just want to upgrade my CPU, RAM and more later on. I feel like I'm running a temporary build right now, but it's still an upgrade. I'm just glad I managed to source all together just in time. My old build was unbearable with a 60GB SSD and not able to start most games anymore.

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2 hours ago, Medizinmann said:

am building PCs like 25+ years now and have quite a track record of faulty parts - but that much in a single build?

Tbf, I think this is really a "current situation" thing, parcel services, supply chains, shops, manufacturers... they're probably all pretty overloaded and overworked and things get chaotic... 

 

I bought *two* Seasonic PSUs recently - two, because I changed my mind, canceled the first order and ordered another model instead but they sent both anyway lol. 

 

So the first one which I wanted to use... pretty much dead out of the box... OK so I thought I'd check the other one... the box was completely pristine, not a dent or scratch... the PSU itself scratched to hell and back with small pieces missing here and there, be it looked like they played football with it... 

So how the heck does this happen I wondered, whoever packaged this unit must have seen in which sad state this 150$ power supply was... how could they send this out to customers...? 

 

Well idk the answer for that but it seems like people are just overworked and more mistakes happen. 

 I don't even *really* blame the manufacturer, still lesson learned and never again it's not worth the trouble, and I also don't have the impression of this being a 'freak accident'... 

 

Same for other PC parts like GPUs, RAM etc I wager, I think QA probably just isn't a priority in these times, because demand is high and they need to get stuff out, and fast. 

 

The direction tells you... the direction

-Scott Manley, 2021

 

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22 hours ago, Ofetzer said:

Thanks for the response and yeah – the story was somehow really a “a shallow first world problem – I am a unique snowflake – wail” and I agree with the most of your points – I was just a little bit frustrated while writing. But basic functions like a proper working LAN device on a motherboard – which is for almost every gamer relevant – is in my opinion something worth mentioning. So this point would be great I’ve some reviewers also check the basic functionality of the devices ... I will check out OC3D, thanks for the hint! I had a learning and next time I’ll try to do my homework even better J.

Again, if every board would have that kind of failure, it would come up just by searching and reading reviews. Buts most likely its like 100 boards from 100 000 made. Anything can be DOA (Dead On Arrival), and since most reviewers get their samples directly from manufacturer, thats not something they can easily verify. If by the time they are editing they have knowledge, it would be still easy to include that.

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1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

Tbf, I think this is really a "current situation" thing, parcel services, supply chains, shops, manufacturers... they're probably all pretty overloaded and overworked and things get chaotic... 

Yeah - that might actually contribute a lot to his experience. I am pretty happy I don't need to buy any tech right now and cross fingers every day, that nothing fails I need to replace - especially parts like GPUs...

 

I actually even got some good deals in summer 2020 for some/certain tech - i.e. build a small Hackintosh(with last gen tech for CPU/GPU), was able to fetch some nice 4k-IPS-Displays for good prices, SSDs and DDR4 RAM were cheap at some point - but for all new Releases(especially CPU and GPU) it was bad and everything went totally downhill after Black Friday...many things I bought in summer increased anywhere between 20-100% in price - that is totally crazy.

 

I.e. you could get a Radeon 5700XT for just below 330€(VAT included) in 08/2020 - now they tend to go for at least 430-450€ - many are even more like 500-550€.

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19 minutes ago, Medizinmann said:

. you could get a Radeon 5700XT for just below 330€(VAT included) in 08/2020 - now they tend to go for at least 430-450€ - many are even more like 500-550€.

yeah, this summer was actually pretty good... snagged a *new* 1070 FTW2 for 300 bucks for example (they usually go around double that or more) some hard drives, etc and also 20xx cards *finally* were available for MSRP shortly before 30xx cards released (Europe here also) 

 

And I bought a 5500 xt for under 200 (I think 170) around August, they're now around *500 euros* lol... 

The direction tells you... the direction

-Scott Manley, 2021

 

Softwares used:

Corsair Link (Anime Edition) 

MSI Afterburner 

OpenRGB

Lively Wallpaper 

OBS Studio

Shutter Encoder

Avidemux

FSResizer

Audacity 

VLC

WMP

GIMP

HWiNFO64

Paint

3D Paint

GitHub Desktop 

Superposition 

Prime95

Aida64

GPUZ

CPUZ

Generic Logviewer

 

 

 

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I have now also registered because I also had to say something about it. This topic just clearly shows again that so much is going wrong in this industry at this point. The current pandemic does exacerbate the situation, but in my opinion it already existed much earlier. Ever since hardware and software manufacturers found out that it's safe to assume that everyone has Internet these days, the customer has finally become a beta tester, and from 2020 onwards, it feels like the customer even become an alpha tester, since everyone is now able to update his product himself. This is of course cheaper for the manufacturer on the one hand, but on the other hand he can decorate his product with more features than the competition. The market is highly competitive and we human beings always want more and more. A motherboard without working LAN ports and corrupt USB ports even half a year after release would have been unthinkable 10 years ago and would have caused a huge fuss. Nowadays we are almost educated to accept this and it is required to look into branded products in forums to see if they even fulfill all promised functions. In my eyes, this is absolutely unacceptable and I am annoyed by all the fanboys who then defend the product or the industry. I think that the point has simply been reached that we should no longer accept this. And I virtually demand from the reviewers to respond more to these points in the future, so that a counterpoint can finally be created here. If we accept this - it will get worse! We now live in a "firmware era" driven by investors who sometimes force early releases etc. "The product has to be ready, the next one has to come!" (see Cyberpunk 2077). Absurd to what situation this has led in the meantime. In the Cyberpunk example, all the game magazines were hyped in advance, even though they were all able to test the product shortly before release. This leads me to the following question: Can we still trust the magazines and reviewers? My appeal therefore goes to all reviewers and magzines that they in the future increasingly address problems in products, but also we customers must learn to control ourselves so that we do not fall into the hype trap. However, we can only prevent this if we also know in advance, in an uncomplicated way, that there are problems with a product. It can't be the customer who has to read through pages and pages of forum posts to make sure that all the core features of the product work, and it can't be taken for granted that you have to wait for a firmware fix to get the promised features working. Unfinished or broken products must be recalled by the manufacturer. Period.   

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Hi All J,

@Medizinmann, you’re right. Especially right now it is not very clever to send a faulty GPU back – but the whole thing reached a point where I got really angry about the half-working things and I just didn’t want to do a workaround or even loose the warranty for my GPU by installing a new cooler since I also don’t feel confident by doing so since I have not that much experience. I had to return it and a new one is already ordered J - also the faulty Ram kit gets replaced in the meantime.
 

@Mark Kaine, I see your point – and I feel it at my workplace as well. Since COVID everything runs different and more chaotic somehow. Some companies face and dramatically increased demand, some others don’t know how they will survive the next year. I guess in each situation the employees are the suffering… Therefore, maybe also the product quality suffers…

@LogicalDrm, just google “intel 1225V“ thats the LAN device which is on every Asus-B550. This is a major issue where is more or less everyone affected, who uses this board with LAN connection – and it is not fixed yet. Sure I would have found those things if I would have spent more time into my research but is it really the job of a consumer to figure out every detail which could cause an issue and then apply some pressure tho the producer that they fix it in the future? I know, this happens eveywhere and is hard to avoid, but especially in the gaming sector this is something which happens more and more frequently past years.

So it will take some time till I will receive my parts but then I hope also all the software issues are fixed and I hope that Cyberpunkt is then also less buggy :P…

Edited by LogicalDrm
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12 minutes ago, Ofetzer said:

Especially right now it is not very clever to send a faulty GPU back – but the whole thing reached a point where I got really angry about the half-working things and I just didn’t want to do a workaround or even loose the warranty for my GPU by installing a new cooler since I also don’t feel confident by doing so since I have not that much experience. I had to return it and a new one is already ordered J - also the faulty Ram kit gets replaced in the meantime.

Are you sure the GPU is faulty, for new GPU's it is very rare for the fans to be loud, but that would depend on what one considers how noisy load is

Please tag me @RTX 3090 so I can see your reply

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