Question Any verifiable information on which AIB is better in terms of their customer support/handling?

[impaired_banana]

In my last thread, I discovered that the performance gains between most AIBs aren't really there, so, you just buy what suits you better. However, I can't find any quantifiable information as to what are the good AIBs. I've read horror stories about Zotac, MSI, then, again, you have lots of them saying they're good.

Does anybody have links to verifiable things about companies? I heard that EVGA honors their warranties very well and globally, whereas others don't do things internationally. Is this true?

I'm looking for black-on-white stuff, because I know everyone's experiences are different, so, they can't really be taken as proof for anything.

Much appreciated.

 

[Karadjgne]

No such thing as proof, in the context you are looking for. I'll use your example of Evga.

They put their name on the 500N/600N psu. It's a craptastic psu that is not even 80+ rated and by all rights is not good enough to be used as a paper weight, never mind a psu, considering how light it is physically, since there's nothing inside it to give it any real weight. It makes Junk look decent.

Evga also puts its name on the G2 (SuperFlower Leadex) and G6 (Seasonic Focus+) psus, which are arguably some of the single best psus available on the 550w + class. You'd be hard pressed to find a reason Not to use, recommend or want one personally.

Same 'Company', same AIB, totally opposite ends of the scale. And every company is like that. MSI had simply the best Ryzen B450 mobo's around, the X470 title was all Gigabyte, but Gigabyte B450 sucked, as did MSI X470.

So looking for an AIB as a quantitative 'best' isn't going to work out, because all of them were the 'best' at something, and the worst at something else.

And that applies to service/support too. Evga has by far the best service/support team going, as long as you register your item, or you are SOL. XFX had the best warranty, was even transferable to a second party, so you'd get warranty coverage if buying from an eBay seller, for at least the remainder of the factory warranty or 1 year, whichever was longer. But good luck trying to claim on that warranty, it took forever in turn around.

As a professional, I used them all, from Asus to Zotac, in one way or another they all have had their fair share of hiccups. But, (to use Evga again) it's also a matter of volume. Evga had the lions share of the gpu market for quite a while, consequently they also had the biggest amount of RMA's. Same applies to Corsair AIO's. Noctua is absolutely no fun to deal with for a refund/repair, but when would you need one?

There's really only one conclusion to it all, the absolute best is the one you never have to use. As far as international goes, you'll not find black and white, pen and paper, proof. Because it changes due to local government decisions, global market costs, taxes and fees, embargoes etc. So the AIB's can and do change their policies according to what's in the best interests of the company as a whole. Corsair is Global, almost 100 countries world-wide, yet for some they insist on local repair/return, in some you ship international, depending on which country exactly you are in.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

AIB is any plug in board. Not a motherboard

graphics cards are AIB, but not motherboards

 

[Karadjgne]

AIB stands for Add-In-Board. So that's a generic term that basically applies to Everyone, since Everyone has an add in board of some sort. It's most general consideration applies to gpus, but also includes wifi modules, daughter boards, pcie adapters, sound cards or anything else that has a pcb involved in being plugged in.