ASROCK versus ASUS

"ElJerid" wrote in message
...

"Piotr Makley" wrote in message
...
Asrock and Asus motherboards are both made by Asustek. So what is
the main difference between them?

I am told that Asrock is a cheaper range so is one range positoned
to be cheap and the other to be more expensive but with more
features? Or do both ranges aim at broadly the same market but
one
is built better than the other?


I've seen somewhere that Asrock was a Chinese daughter company of
Astek
intended to allow Asus to compete with companies like Elite eo in
the
motherboard entry market. So recently I decided to purchase my first
Asrock
P4VT8, where the box mentioned plenty of nice features, all at a
very nice
price.
When installing however, I discovered a lot of "anomalies". Some
examples:
- the board has 2 SATA connectors, but drivers have to be loaded
from
diskettes at initial setup in order to recognize SATA drives;

Isn't this a condition of Windows rather than the motherboard? AFAIK,
Windows XP, and obviously older versions, requires drivers to be
loaded prior to installing.

JAD wrote:

Wow, haven't talked about pulsar watches in some time. I have a
Pulsar time computer. The last of the LED era. Red and emerald
green readout, huge and pretty darn ugly ;^) but works like a
charm. I have another that I haven't thought about for some time,
it was a graduation present from my folks (circa 1976), you got
me hunting for it now.

I have an Intel offering from the same period. It was a prize for
my first version of floating point for the 8080, submitted to the
user group. Nowadays I spend no more than $10 US for an LCD
display calendar/stop watch combo, which lasts about 5 years.

--
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

ElJerid wrote:
"Piotr Makley" wrote in message
...

Asrock and Asus motherboards are both made by Asustek. So what is
the main difference between them?

I am told that Asrock is a cheaper range so is one range positoned
to be cheap and the other to be more expensive but with more
features? Or do both ranges aim at broadly the same market but one
is built better than the other?



I've seen somewhere that Asrock was a Chinese daughter company of Astek
intended to allow Asus to compete with companies like Elite eo in the
motherboard entry market. So recently I decided to purchase my first Asrock
P4VT8, where the box mentioned plenty of nice features, all at a very nice
price.
When installing however, I discovered a lot of "anomalies". Some examples:
- the board has 2 SATA connectors, but drivers have to be loaded from
diskettes at initial setup in order to recognize SATA drives;

That's about the OS, not the mobo

- when shutting down the computer, power is still delivered to on-board USB
connectors, resulting in USB devices (6 in 1 card readers, for ex)with leds
always on;

That's normal. Same with PS/2 ports. ATX always has some power going to
the ports.

- the board crashes randomly (up to 3 - 4 times a day);

The board doesn't crash, windows does.

- the temp and voltage reports of the board are wrong: cpu temp is mostly at
72°C (although feeling cold), -12 V is reported -0.17 V, and so on.

Where did you get those readings?

- there is no dual channel DDR available (but I must say dual-channel is not
mentioned on the box);

You don't know your chipsets.

- installation of windows 2000 worked normally, but install of Win XP was
totally impossible (Win setup freezes early, at "press F6 to load additional
disk drivers").

This is a windows issue, not a mobo issue.

This could have been an isolated single bad experience, but I did some
search on the net and encountered a lot of idenditical or similar
experiences.

Because there are a lot of similarly inexperienced people who know just
enough to get themselves stuck.

I always loved Asus and installed many of those boards for P3 and P4 without
any problem. My first trial with Asrock was a total failure and I even
couldn' t get valuable support. I soon replaced the P4VT8 by an Asus P4P800
(price difference is not that big), and all problems above disappeared.
This was my first and last Asrock !!!

ASUS certainly make good boards. I like ASUS and Gigabyte. Had a board
die just inside of warranty, took it to the distributor, got a new board
a couple of weeks later that was better than the one I had. So, my wife
got an upgrade for the price of a few sticks of ram and a bottom of the
range CPU. I'd certainly consider giving Asrock a try if it met my needs
and price was important.



--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

"Peter A. Stavrakoglou" wrote in message
...

"ElJerid" wrote in message
...

"Piotr Makley" wrote in message
...
Asrock and Asus motherboards are both made by Asustek. So what is
the main difference between them?

I am told that Asrock is a cheaper range so is one range positoned
to be cheap and the other to be more expensive but with more
features? Or do both ranges aim at broadly the same market but
one
is built better than the other?


I've seen somewhere that Asrock was a Chinese daughter company of
Astek
intended to allow Asus to compete with companies like Elite eo in
the
motherboard entry market. So recently I decided to purchase my first
Asrock
P4VT8, where the box mentioned plenty of nice features, all at a
very nice
price.
When installing however, I discovered a lot of "anomalies". Some
examples:
- the board has 2 SATA connectors, but drivers have to be loaded
from
diskettes at initial setup in order to recognize SATA drives;

Isn't this a condition of Windows rather than the motherboard? AFAIK,
Windows XP, and obviously older versions, requires drivers to be
loaded prior to installing.


I know this, but the installation freezes just befor the stage where it's
normally asked to hit F6 and insert the floppy with the drivers. Windows
2000 however installs without problems (except later crashes), and the Win
XP CD was checked on 2 other computers with Asus mobos and installed
correctly. Only the Asrock freezes at install.

I've seen somewhere that Asrock was a Chinese daughter company of Astek
intended to allow Asus to compete with companies like Elite eo in the
motherboard entry market. So recently I decided to purchase my first
Asrock
P4VT8, where the box mentioned plenty of nice features, all at a very
nice
price.
When installing however, I discovered a lot of "anomalies". Some
examples:
- the board has 2 SATA connectors, but drivers have to be loaded from
diskettes at initial setup in order to recognize SATA drives;

That's about the OS, not the mobo

That's what I thought first, so I returned the Win XP CD to the dealer where
it was tested and appeared to install without problems. So I took it back
home and tried an install on 2 othersPC's without problems.

- when shutting down the computer, power is still delivered to on-board
USB
connectors, resulting in USB devices (6 in 1 card readers, for ex)with
leds
always on;

That's normal. Same with PS/2 ports. ATX always has some power going to
the ports.

Right, but not at the point that the leds on a card reader remain on when
power is down.

- the board crashes randomly (up to 3 - 4 times a day);

The board doesn't crash, windows does.

Also just after a clean install, and without any application installed or
running ???

- the temp and voltage reports of the board are wrong: cpu temp is
mostly at
72°C (although feeling cold), -12 V is reported -0.17 V, and so on.

Where did you get those readings?

As well from Sandra as from Aida 32

- there is no dual channel DDR available (but I must say dual-channel is
not
mentioned on the box);

You don't know your chipsets.

Right. That's why I mentioned it was not on the box, but only an expectation
from me due to the fact that I always used i868 or i875.

- installation of windows 2000 worked normally, but install of Win XP
was
totally impossible (Win setup freezes early, at "press F6 to load
additional
disk drivers").

This is a windows issue, not a mobo issue.

Don't believe. I think it's an incompatibility between OS and the P4VT8, or
the P4VT8 is defective !

This could have been an isolated single bad experience, but I did some
search on the net and encountered a lot of idenditical or similar
experiences.

Because there are a lot of similarly inexperienced people who know just
enough to get themselves stuck.

Maybe, but there are many, all with analog problems. And although not an
"expert", I'm not "inexperienced", as I installed more than 100 individual
PC's (I mean not auto-installs through a network), mostly in sophisticated
video capture and editing configurations..

"ElJerid" wrote in message
...

"Piotr Makley" wrote in message
...
Asrock and Asus motherboards are both made by Asustek. So what is
the main difference between them?

I am told that Asrock is a cheaper range so is one range positoned
to be cheap and the other to be more expensive but with more
features? Or do both ranges aim at broadly the same market but one
is built better than the other?


I've seen somewhere that Asrock was a Chinese daughter company of Astek
intended to allow Asus to compete with companies like Elite eo in the
motherboard entry market. So recently I decided to purchase my first
Asrock
P4VT8, where the box mentioned plenty of nice features, all at a very nice
price.
When installing however, I discovered a lot of "anomalies". Some examples:
- the board has 2 SATA connectors, but drivers have to be loaded from
diskettes at initial setup in order to recognize SATA drives;
- when shutting down the computer, power is still delivered to on-board
USB
connectors, resulting in USB devices (6 in 1 card readers, for ex)with
leds
always on;
- the board crashes randomly (up to 3 - 4 times a day);
- the temp and voltage reports of the board are wrong: cpu temp is mostly
at
72°C (although feeling cold), -12 V is reported -0.17 V, and so on.
- there is no dual channel DDR available (but I must say dual-channel is
not
mentioned on the box);
- installation of windows 2000 worked normally, but install of Win XP was
totally impossible (Win setup freezes early, at "press F6 to load
additional
disk drivers").
This could have been an isolated single bad experience, but I did some
search on the net and encountered a lot of idenditical or similar
experiences.
I always loved Asus and installed many of those boards for P3 and P4
without
any problem. My first trial with Asrock was a total failure and I even
couldn' t get valuable support. I soon replaced the P4VT8 by an Asus
P4P800
(price difference is not that big), and all problems above disappeared.
This was my first and last Asrock !!!


Sounds like you had bad memory to me.

ElJerid wrote:
I've seen somewhere that Asrock was a Chinese daughter company of Astek
intended to allow Asus to compete with companies like Elite eo in the
motherboard entry market. So recently I decided to purchase my first

Asrock

P4VT8, where the box mentioned plenty of nice features, all at a very

nice

price.
When installing however, I discovered a lot of "anomalies". Some

examples:

- the board has 2 SATA connectors, but drivers have to be loaded from
diskettes at initial setup in order to recognize SATA drives;

That's about the OS, not the mobo


That's what I thought first, so I returned the Win XP CD to the dealer where
it was tested and appeared to install without problems. So I took it back
home and tried an install on 2 othersPC's without problems.

*sigh*

It's not about the cd. And the hardware was not identical.



- when shutting down the computer, power is still delivered to on-board

USB

connectors, resulting in USB devices (6 in 1 card readers, for ex)with

leds

always on;

That's normal. Same with PS/2 ports. ATX always has some power going to
the ports.


Right, but not at the point that the leds on a card reader remain on when
power is down.


- the board crashes randomly (up to 3 - 4 times a day);

The board doesn't crash, windows does.


Also just after a clean install, and without any application installed or
running ???

Yes. You need to learn:
1. about your hardware, and just about hardware in general
2. about software, and specifically OSes



- the temp and voltage reports of the board are wrong: cpu temp is

mostly at

72°C (although feeling cold), -12 V is reported -0.17 V, and so on.

Where did you get those readings?


As well from Sandra as from Aida 32

Try the BIOS next time, but that should be identical. If not, you'll
discover why many people don't trust those programs you've cited.



- there is no dual channel DDR available (but I must say dual-channel is

not

mentioned on the box);

You don't know your chipsets.


Right. That's why I mentioned it was not on the box, but only an expectation
from me due to the fact that I always used i868 or i875.

Again, it has abolutely no bearing here, except to illustrate that you
know just enough to get yourself in strife (or get yourself
disappointed). It's not a bad thing, we all start out somewhere.



- installation of windows 2000 worked normally, but install of Win XP

was

totally impossible (Win setup freezes early, at "press F6 to load

additional

disk drivers").

This is a windows issue, not a mobo issue.


Don't believe. I think it's an incompatibility between OS and the P4VT8, or
the P4VT8 is defective !

There are hardware incompatibilities. An 'OS incompatibility' is a
problem with the OS and the programming.


This could have been an isolated single bad experience, but I did some
search on the net and encountered a lot of idenditical or similar
experiences.

Because there are a lot of similarly inexperienced people who know just
enough to get themselves stuck.


Maybe, but there are many, all with analog problems.

You mean analogous, right?

And although not an
"expert", I'm not "inexperienced", as I installed more than 100 individual
PC's (I mean not auto-installs through a network), mostly in sophisticated
video capture and editing configurations..

Yes, anyone can click 'yes' and 'OK' and 'I Accept' and fill in a few
numbers. You're at the level of knowledge where if you push yourself a
little further, you'll break through and understand how much there is to
know, and how little any one person will be able to know in terms of
computers (both hardware and software).

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

"K-Tel Ronco" wrote:

SNIP
" I am told that Asrock is a cheaper range "

I have to agree with that. In a number of years of building The Asrock is
the only boards I Have ever had a failure on (and I have used some crap).
Not a catastrophic failure I may add, rear usb ports died. However I bought
it thinking it was a quality item. I forget the model, was one of these
maplin bundles that at the time seemed like a great deal.

Might be a common fault? The one I dealt with had exactly the same
fault and I've noticed a couple sold on eBay in the last few weeks
with the same problem.

--
iv Paul iv

"ElJerid" wrote:

When installing however, I discovered a lot of "anomalies". Some examples:
- the board has 2 SATA connectors, but drivers have to be loaded from
diskettes at initial setup in order to recognize SATA drives;

Normal. No current OSes have native SATA support so you need to
provide drivers during setup.

- when shutting down the computer, power is still delivered to on-board USB
connectors, resulting in USB devices (6 in 1 card readers, for ex)with leds
always on;

Again, normal. Any port which supports HID devices or has wake
support will require power even while the machine is supposedly
switched off. Illumination of the LED is a function of the card
reader, not the motherboard.

- the board crashes randomly (up to 3 - 4 times a day);

Possible you had a faulty board but that alone is inconclusive.

- the temp and voltage reports of the board are wrong: cpu temp is mostly at
72°C (although feeling cold), -12 V is reported -0.17 V, and so on.

Monitored how? If in the BIOS it might indicate a faulty board but if
you were using monitoring s/w it's more likely the software was at
fault.

--
iv Paul iv

CBFalconer wrote:
JAD wrote:

Wow, haven't talked about pulsar watches in some time. I have a
Pulsar time computer. The last of the LED era. Red and emerald
green readout, huge and pretty darn ugly ;^) but works like a
charm. I have another that I haven't thought about for some time,
it was a graduation present from my folks (circa 1976), you got
me hunting for it now.

I have an Intel offering from the same period. It was a prize for
my first version of floating point for the 8080, submitted to the
user group.

That sounds cool.

Nowadays I spend no more than $10 US for an LCD
display calendar/stop watch combo, which lasts about 5 years.

Yep, I used to do the same thing, invariably Casio, and they'd last and run
perfectly until the plastic strap broke (oxidised). Then it was about the
same price to get a new watch as it was to get a new strap.

However, I then went into business for myself, a consultancy business, and a
nice watch just seemed to make the difference youknow? When you're charging
someone $1,000 (NZ) a day they pay up better if you look good. My Pulsar is
a nice, chunky stainless steel watch with gold trim. Analogue but also with
a digital display at the bottom so I have calendar and alarm functions etc.
The business is long gone (due to injury) but the watch endures.
--
~misfit~