ASUS - Complaints and Thoughts

[SuddenInsanity]

It wasn't that long ago I decided to try some Asus products out, and I have had a fairly mediocre to poor experience with them. I have primarily used a lot of Logitech peripherals or Netgear networking devices.

Armory Crate:
My first couple of issues are directly related to how Armory Crate updates firmware. I find it kind of ridiculous that the best workaround or solution is to uninstall it completely and then reinstall. If any firmware fails to install on the first try, I highly suggest to use the workaround instead of trying again.

ROG Throne:
I have had 2 ROG Throne's become RGB bricked (no rgb lights) after firmware updates. I also am not a big fan of the design. It seems to need a lot of bandwidth via USB and has external power source, yet the wifi charging is slow. I admit I pretty much got this for a glorified headset stand with rgb.

ROG Claymore II:
I have had to replace the keyboard after a firmware update bricked all the rgb. I initially per-ordered it at nearly $300, I overpaid as it wasn't even a month later that they reduced the price. I recently requested from support a replacement wrist rest, even would pay for it, but they responded by saying they can't help. The keyboard itself works well, battery doesn't last as long as most of logitech's though.

ROG Chakram:
I got this wanting to try a side mouse joystick, and the mouse itself hasn't given me any issues. The battery life is very poor when compared to nearly any logitech mouse.

ROG Strix z590-E:
I needed a replacement Wifi dongle as my unit was working well. Board is still under warranty so I asked support, they replied with the asinine response that the wifi dongle is an accessory and not covered under warranty.

ROG Swift PG43UQ :
The RGB logo light and the HDR settings are both inverse on my unit. HDR is on when the setting says OFF and the same issue with the RGB light. Otherwise the monitor is pretty good.

ROG Rapture GT-AX11000:
I actually haven't had any issues regarding the router. I wanted to note the 1 good product experience I have had.



Thoughts:
I wanted to try AURA sync, I figured I'd go all out with Asus or Corsair. In the end I wish I went with another brand. I always thought Asus is a "higher" end brand and in my experience they fell short on many products, including their software and their support. I still think Asus has some good stuff but maybe they need to focus on QA more and match better with competition.

I have used multiple logitech keyboard and mouse products for years, and while I have had a couple dud products with the battery life has always been phenomenal. I was surprised to find just how poorly the battery life can be on wireless mice and keyboards, when using asus stuff.

Overall I think any brand can have some amazing or some utterly crap products. I also think the support for a product makes a for a better continued purchase rather than having a one well functioning product. It also goes to show that reviews are important, and so is searching about any problems with a products after it's been around for awhile.

Side Note:

My bad logitech products include Logitech K740, which had intermittent key response, logitech support gave me the cost of what I paid (on newegg) to use on their website. The K740 failed quite early. I owned a Logitech G613 for about a year and only used it for a few months at first, before coming back to it. The G613 ended up having double press issues and that seems to be a common issue with it, I guess a budget lightspeed device isn't worth it.
I also used to use a Netgear Nighthawk R8500 as my primary router, but I had issues with it failing to work correctly when using two xbox consoles on the same game. Netgear support basically refuses to help unless you pay, but this was a software issue that likely won't ever get resolved as the product aged.


Update:
I think the Armory Crate software has improved, as I have had less issues with updates. No bricking devices when firmware updating recently.

The ROG Claymore II seems to last a bit longer, can't say it's as long as a logitech keyboards, but it's nice to see that firmware updates seem to have yielded better battery usage.

The ROG Chakram, overall it is a fairly crap mouse. One big issue is that the joystick is read as controller input, not all games can handle this well especially RetroArch. I also noticed that the joystick comes up as many controllers (about 5-7) and I couldn't figure out a way to disable the joystick if I just wanted to use a normal controller and not have the mouse joystick takeover. The controller input issue becomes even worse if the mouse is low battery, when I tried to use RetroArch it was unusable because it was spammed with new controller attached messages. I read that the ROG Charkram X (the successor model) does have the option to disable the joystick, and has battery life.

ROG Chakram X:
If you want to try a mouse with a side joystick, this model is much better than the non-X variant. Besides the increased battery (still not as great as logitech mice) the joystick can be disabled if you want to use a regular controller. I Don't actually use the joystick on the mouse much, but maybe if I did 3-D modeling or find some use for it, it might be nice to have.


Side Note: As far as battery life goes, I have kept the mice and Keyboard at lowest luminescence levels with a 3 minute timeout. I think I charge about once a week with the current Chakram X and Claymore II with updated firmware.
When I first got the original Charkram and Claymore II must have charged at least every 48hours or less. My logitech devices though will last over a month easy.

 

[geomac]

Since I started PC building (~9 years ago, 4790k era), I've exclusively bought ASUS motherboards for my main PC. I've had great experiences, but Armory Crate is a complete joke. Just give me the individual drivers and send me on my way, jeez.

 

I've also had weird quirks with RAM speeds as I early adopted both of AMD's new first gen Ryzens. Currently my $1k mobo with 7950x takes about 2-5 minutes to get through the memory training every boot. I think I've gotten it down with enabling the saving of memory profiles but it was so time consuming I gave up.

 

14 minutes ago, SuddenInsanity said:

I have had 2 ROG Throne's become RGB bricked

 

14 minutes ago, SuddenInsanity said:

had to replace the keyboard after a firmware update bricked all the rgb

It sounds like they're embedded electronics team needs to make their products more robust/reflashable.

[WolframaticAlpha]

I like Asus for motherboards and GPUs and they are pretty good at that stuff.

 

I don't see the point of buying an Rog keyboard or a monitor, when better keyboards are available from other brands(keychron, Logitech, Razer etc) and better displays from Samsung LG etc. But that's my opinion.

[venomtail]

17 minutes ago, WolframaticAlpha said:

better keyboards are available from other brands(keychron, Logitech, Razer etc) and better displays from Samsung LG etc. But that's my opinion.

There, better

[WolframaticAlpha]

2 minutes ago, venomtail said:

There, better

Razer makes good overpriced things lol. Also Razer chroma is one of the most comprehensive(but heaviest) customisation options on the market. (I still find chroma to be asinine)

[venomtail]

20 minutes ago, WolframaticAlpha said:

Razer makes good overpriced things lol. Also Razer chroma is one of the most comprehensive(but heaviest) customisation options on the market. (I still find chroma to be asinine)

Me and everyone I know has just had a bad experience with Razer. I've had them never work and all the Razer stans I knew kept replacing everything yearly, even twice a year to the point where no one buys them anymore. Keep enjoying them tho if they suit you and remain working.

[Poinkachu]

Idk why you decided you update firmware on keyboard & that gloriffied stand. If it was just because there was an update, then you probably shouldn't. Since the first rule is pretty much : "If it isn't broken, don't 'fix' it".

Different case if it was security update or something (although at that point I'm not sure why those kinda things needs security update).

 

Armoury Crate... well.... I tried to install Armoury Crate to control my GPU's stuffs long time ago. The install failed for ionno what reason, twice. I gave up.

After seeing some troubleshooting help posts by peoples about armoury crate... at this point I kinda think it's a joke software or something. Even Reddragon keyboard software didn't give me that much trouble, in fact... no trouble at all :x

 

Rog Chakram, I lately looked at it and interested in it, mainly due to the analog thumbstick. Now that you said the battery seems kinda sucky, I probably gonna go for the wired version. If the mouse size isn't too big for my comfort. Thanks for the info.

 

The main issue I have with ASUS so far is pretty much due to where I live. In my country they're priced as seriously premium item here, even the budget models.

And that they basically "lock" QOL features by putting them solely on premium model of boards (Yeah, this one complaint is not just about ASUS tbh, but since it seems to me they have the most QOL features, well.... ).

[Kisai]

2 hours ago, SuddenInsanity said:

It wasn't that long ago I decided to try some Asus products out, and I have had a fairly mediocre to poor experience with them. I have primarily used a lot of Logitech peripherals or Netgear networking devices.

Armory Crate:
My first couple of issues are directly related to how Armory Crate updates firmware. I find it kind of ridiculous that the best workaround or solution is to uninstall it completely and then reinstall. If any firmware fails to install on the first try, I highly suggest to use the workaround instead of trying again.

 

I hate this software. Every time the GPU drivers are updated, it whines about some kind of degraded performance.

 

So, I've overall, had a generally positive experience with ASUS products, but not a perfect one.

 

Asus Zephyrus (Intel 8th gen)

- The battery died, I tried to get ASUS to send me a replacement, but the only option was to send it to Toronto. I declined and bought a battery off some fly-by-night battery shop online. Without the battery installed, the BIOS would not update, and without the BIOS update, Windows would not update or install. This beef is entirely at the ASUS support process. ASUS should have an authorized repair facility everywhere their laptops are sold, because relying on FEDEX and UPS to ship a multi-thousand dollar laptop , especially in Canada is a recipe for losing or destroying the device. Maybe this is fine for shipping back just a single component, but for sending back an entire computer, it's worse than Dell, and Dell will at least send a (contracted) tech to your site.

 

ASUS Gladius (first model):

The glue melted and the rubber parts of the mouse started to come off during the summer heatwave. I continued to use it until the mouse started having double-clicking problems. Despite having replaceable switches, it was IMPOSSIBLE to actually do without destroying the feet of the mouse.

 

ASUS Gladius III (third version)

Man the QA went down. The mouse wheel, out of the box would move in the reverse direction every 63 clicks. I tried to fix it by pulling the mouse apart, but it appears whatever the problem is unfixable. The mouse cable is no longer detachable (Which was the reason I bought the first one originally, because I tended to either wear out the cable or the switches.) 

 

In both cases, the Gladius mice had defects that I just dealt with instead of trying to have ASUS fix. But I'm so incredibly disappointed with the Gladius III that I just threw it aside, and switched to a wireless Logitech trackball (and that was a compromise because Logitech doesn't make any wired ones.)

 

I have had no issues with any ASUS motherboard or GPU to date.

[swimtome]

My ASUS story that I've mentioned before:
I had an old Sabertooth Z77 (3rd gen Intel) with dead ethernet port.  This motherboard came with an included plastic shroud over it to help direct cooling.

 

Warranty was back and forth, once I got RMA I had to pay to ship it back (~$30ish to ship it back then with insurance). 

Got it back several weeks later WITHOUT the plastic shroud.  Was told it was an 'accessory' that I shouldn't have included. 

Even though it literally comes attached, I didn't even know it comes off.  Took a five hour phone call to finally get them to send me it back.

 

And the punchline? Ethernet port died again 100 days later, just out of warranty.

[Ayrick]

Cant stand Armory crate, I don't install it on my person rig, but my sons like the RGBs so it gets installed for them.  One system seems fine running it, but the other refuses to respect fan profiles, preset or otherwise, and just blasts away.   Hardware wise just motherboards so far, though I suspect with EVGA gone I may be looking at their GPUs in the future.

[WolframaticAlpha]

6 hours ago, Kisai said:

-snip-

Pretty much mirrors my experience and what I have heard:

 

Good motherboards and good GPUs.

OK general laptops+ Fine gaming laptops.

Meh peripherals.

Below average software.

OK-Fine PC accessories if you can trade some performance for their aesthetics

 

Does some really cool stuff sometimes though.

 

 

All in all I think that asus is in a really nice spot between premium and general use(Dell, lenovo) and enthusiast tier. Their products are usually fine, and they certainly are the best when it comes to midrange-high end stuff. Their stuff isn't too overpriced and the quality is just fine. Also my experience with Asus support in india at least has been simply one of the best when it comes to manufacturers(comparing to gigabyte and zotac), and is bested only by the excellent support that Intel had when my mobo networking died in the ye olden days.

[EChondo]

I've had only one good experience with ASUS, and that is with a monitor(which I believe is a different division than their other products).

 

I've had bad experiences with two of their GPUs, one motherboard, and one laptop.

 

All hardware related(well laptop was BIOS but related to hardware) and every time I tried to get support I was either denied, given the runaround, or ignored.

 

So, I would only recommend their monitors and I hope you never have issues because their support is non-existent.

 

Thier support is the reason I refuse to buy the ROG Ally, which is ironic since I bought the Steam Deck and Valve's support historically hasn't been stellar but their Steam Deck support has been phenomenal.

 

Oh and ASUS's software has all been terrible. Have never had a good experience with it. But I don't have the Ally so maybe that's different with that system.

[Welshtechie]

Well not used a lot of Asus over the years.  Always found them premium priced rather than premium tech! However, I still use a blower style GTX 1060 6GB in my PC in my partners house and it has never caused me a single issue!

[Rumble]

So I have been a huge supporter of ASUS through the years, or I was.  Recently that changed.

For the longest time I had great customer service interactions and had no complaints about ASUS.  They would replace what was broken and gave a "decent" level of support.  Certainly more support than some companies out there.

Over the past two years though its become near impossible to interact with customer support without being told I'm on my own.

Worse is contacting a company and being told "You bought your laptop at Best Buy so you will need to get your technical support through them".

Sorry I don't trust Best Buys technicians after all the horror stories I have heard.

 

I have owned several Zephyrus G14 and M16 laptops over the years, RoG keyboards, Mice and was using exclusively ASUS motherboards in all my builds (I build about a dozen computers a year for people).

The sheer number of problems I have been having and their shift away from good customer service had led me to find other manufacturers.  It's a shame.  ASUS was great for a time.

 

I haven't really said anything about all their mistakes with public statements about warranty and bios upgrades and all that.  It's been covered, it's a shame, ASUS should try harder and do better.

 

That's just my experience.  Hope someone finds it helpful.

[Forbidden Wafer]

18 hours ago, EChondo said:

Thier support is the reason I refuse to buy the ROG Ally, which is ironic since I bought the Steam Deck and Valve's support historically hasn't been stellar but their Steam Deck support has been phenomenal.

 

Oh and ASUS's software has all been terrible. Have never had a good experience with it. But I don't have the Ally so maybe that's different with that system.

The ally is awesome. The only really bad thing is windows. Especially the stupid widgets that pop up from the left. The stupid windows update also borked the graphics drivers, and the Ally stopped being recognized as a tablet, which prevents the on-screen keyboard from showing up. Took a very long while to realize that was the problem. On win10 you had the explicit manual option to set this up, but win11 removed it. 

 

Asus fixed a lot of early issues. Whoever decided to seed it for reviewers in such a bugged state is crazy. 

 

Also, AMD still hasn't released the official drivers for it. 

[EpochMedia]

1 minute ago, Forbidden Wafer said:

The ally is awesome. The only really bad thing is windows. Especially the stupid widgets that pop up from the left. 

 

They fixed a lot of early issues. Whoever decided to seed it for reviewers in such a bugged state is crazy. 

 

Also, AMD still hasn't released the official drivers for it. 

I'll second this - I've gone all in on my Ally at this point as I love it so much. Bought it day one, recently put a 980 Pro 2tb in it and bought the XG Mobile 3080 as well (not even close to MSRP). This setup now replaces my older Strix Scar II laptop. I've had nothing but positive experiences with it and I'm sure I'm not alone, but anyone who browsers /r/ROGAlly will have probably seen their fair share of 'horror' stories. Detractors are always going to speak the loudest, while we happy few are content to just enjoy our toys.

 

Closer to the topic at hand, I had the fortune of building an absolutely silly PC last Christmas. ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, slapped a Thor II and Ryujin III in, and the most problems I've had with it are all early adopter DDR5 issues. They've mostly been ironed out after a few bios updates and I've had no issues over the last 6 months, maybe longer, I forget. I've not had the (mis)fortune of dealing with their customer service and I would still agree that they have a brand tax that probably outweighs the quality or aesthetic, but who doesn't have crappy support at this point? EVGA was my gold standard and they're mostly out of the game now. I've had bad run-ins with Dellalienware, MSI and Gigabyte so far. 

[Forbidden Wafer]

13 minutes ago, shadow1psc said:

I'll second this - I've gone all in on my Ally at this point as I love it so much. Bought it day one, recently put a 980 Pro 2tb in it and bought the XG Mobile 3080 as well (not even close to MSRP). 

I use it for games that don't feel right on my desktop. e. g. Underhero, Temtem, Aegis Defenders, Bastion, BitTrip Runner, Broforce, Crash Bandicoot, etc. 

 

Still playing strategy and 3D shooters on the desktop. 

[EpochMedia]

9 minutes ago, Forbidden Wafer said:

I use it for games that don't feel right on my desktop. e. g. Underhero, Temtem, Aegis Defenders, Bastion, BitTrip Runner, Broforce, Crash Bandicoot, etc. 

 

Still playing strategy and 3D shooters on the desktop. 

I bought it thinking at worst, I could start getting through my massive Steam backlog of a lot of JRPG/CRPG titles as well as just other things that would be perfect for that form factor. Maybe a little emulation after that, romhacks, etc. I ended up just completely falling in love with it. I think the caveat here is I have an auto immune disease that has kept me down/tired for the last few months and this thing has been perfect in bed, or with a dock and a portable screen on my roll-away bedside table. Its been invaluable in keeping me sane and I've put more hours into it gaming than I have any laptop in a long while. 

 

I sold my Strix Scar II and just use this as a 'laptop' now - I take it to work, dock it, use it for youtube/spotify while working, gaming on lunch. Decided to bite the bullet and hunt for an XG Mobile to upgrade the experience when I'm at work and am ready to dive into Baldur's Gate 3, or play anything more demanding on max settings. For the price I got the XG Mobile at, I'm basically in this for the price of a comparable gaming laptop (I got my 2070m equipped Scar II for like $1600 in 2017), but with slightly more mobility if I don't need to carry a portable monitor and a lot more freedom when I just want to play something simple. 

[-rascal-]

I think...ASUS expanded their product ranges, far too big, far too fast.

Ever since I bought an ASUS ROG Crosshair IV Formula (socket AM3, Phenom II era), all of my motherboards have been ASUS exclusive.

Up until 2018? So it was a solid 8 year streak, with 6 or 7 motherboards.

 

When I had to make the decision between an ASUS Maximus XI Hero and a Gigabyte Aorus Master (Z390), that was the "WTF ASUS" moment.

 

And that is when they began to really go off the rails with the whole ROG and RGB marketing hype.

ROG was their OC / X-OC products, back then.

Now you have ROG StriX, Cerberus, Zephyrus, TUF Gaming, etc, etc.

Like... how the F is a entry-level Intel B-series of H-series be considered as a ROG product??

IMO, that's like EVGA releasing a 'Classified' or a 'Dark' H610 chipset motherboard or something.

 

Like the ROG StriX B60-A Gaming is pretty much the PRIME B760-A, but with more "ROG" marketing slapped onto it...and +$40.