- May 9, 2013
- 8
- 0
- 10,510
The MB in question is an Asus SaberTooth Z77. When I assembled my PC, I noticed that RAM slots A1 and A2 weren't working. I took the MB to the authorized service center of Asus in India (DigiComp), and they said that a few CPU socket pins were bent and that I would have to pay to replace the socket since it wasn't covered by warranty.
I agreed readily since there was a good chance I'd damaged the pins myself and they were charging a very nominal fee (~$10).
Now, when I returned home and did a bit of research, I found a few things which raised my hackles:
- Socket replacement is supposed to be a non-trivial task, and I rather doubt that the service engineers in India have the necessary tools/finesse to do a good job here (after all, these guys are not even real Asus engineers, they've just been authorized by Asus).
- The fee they're charging seems to be too low. In the US, Asus seems to be charging ~$60 for this kind of work, and I'd have expected the fee to be higher in India, given that it involves replacement of a component which may have to be imported from outside. So I'm doubtful about the quality of the new socket I'll be getting for such a low price, apart from the quality of the replacement work the engineers will do.
- In general, I just don't see too many people getting their sockets replaced in situations like these. They either try to straighten the pins themselves, get the entire MB RMA'd somehow or just take a hit and buy a new MB.
So my question is, given the factors stated above, do you think it's worthwhile to even wait for the repaired MB, or should I just go out and buy a new one (and keep the repaired one as backup as-and-when it arrives)?
In case I should buy a new one, which one would you recommend? Given that the bent-pin problem seems to be a big liability on the purchaser, this time I want to buy something which is just "good enough" and see how things go. Would the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 be a good candidate?
I agreed readily since there was a good chance I'd damaged the pins myself and they were charging a very nominal fee (~$10).
Now, when I returned home and did a bit of research, I found a few things which raised my hackles:
- Socket replacement is supposed to be a non-trivial task, and I rather doubt that the service engineers in India have the necessary tools/finesse to do a good job here (after all, these guys are not even real Asus engineers, they've just been authorized by Asus).
- The fee they're charging seems to be too low. In the US, Asus seems to be charging ~$60 for this kind of work, and I'd have expected the fee to be higher in India, given that it involves replacement of a component which may have to be imported from outside. So I'm doubtful about the quality of the new socket I'll be getting for such a low price, apart from the quality of the replacement work the engineers will do.
- In general, I just don't see too many people getting their sockets replaced in situations like these. They either try to straighten the pins themselves, get the entire MB RMA'd somehow or just take a hit and buy a new MB.
So my question is, given the factors stated above, do you think it's worthwhile to even wait for the repaired MB, or should I just go out and buy a new one (and keep the repaired one as backup as-and-when it arrives)?
In case I should buy a new one, which one would you recommend? Given that the bent-pin problem seems to be a big liability on the purchaser, this time I want to buy something which is just "good enough" and see how things go. Would the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 be a good candidate?
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