Had bad RMA experience w/ ASUS Z370; Board suggestion before returning.

[silversurfernhs]

Hello,
[TLDR]
I am wondering what the community would suggest as a replacement to my Z370-E from ASUS, since I had a terrible support and RMA experience with them.[/TLDR]

I have never had anything but good things to say about the several WS and standard boards from ASUS, but with this last platform jump, i ended up with the Z370-E basically because:

* it looked spec'd like every other board
* had all of my requirements (sata, nvme, pcie slots)
* it looked prettier than other boards

It handled my rather complicated system pretty well, but i noticed that my 960 pro would only run in x2 mode and not the advertised x4 mode in the topmost m.2_1 slot. I didn't want to sacrifice sata 5/6 by using the bottom m.2 slot due to my 5 drives (2x10tb hgst, 2x5tb hgst, 512 850pro). The top m.2 slot is supposed to only sacrifice sata1.

I inquired with ASUS and went through the motions of all the suggestions and that lead to an RMA. I am downplaying the process, but it was unreasonably infuriating given no 1 person paid any damn attention to the ticket. The RMA process took a month on top of a couple of weeks of email support. This resulted in them sending my same board back with a note that they could not replicate the problem.

Even though Newegg returns were past their date, i inquired with them and explained this to them, and they issued a return regardless. Great support, unlike ASUS. So now i have to send the board back, but i need to order and preferably install and get running again on a new board before i send this one back, as i cannot lose any more time without my primary system.

I had a bad board from Gigabyte back in the X58 days, but i am willing to give any reputable manufacturer a shot, even ASUS if you guys think it was just a fluke and that a different board would be unlikely to have this problem again.

What do you suggest?

i7 8700k
32GB Dominator Platinums @ 3000MHz
980ti
2x10tb hgst
2x5tb hgst
512 850pro
avermedia gamer hd60
sound blaster ti fatality
ax860 psu
2x aura strips
550D case

 

[WildCard999]

I'd look at the Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 7 if it's within budget.

https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8377/gigabyte-z370-aorus-gaming-7-motherboard-review/index.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gigabyte-z370-aorus-gaming-7-coffee-lake-motherboard,5262.html

https://wccftech.com/review/gigabyte-z370-aorus-gaming-7-motherboard-review/

 

[DRagor]

Have you considered possibility that fault lies in your 960 pro, not the motherboard? Have you tested that in any way (like putting the drive in bottom M.2 slot to see if it runs x2 or x4 there)?
As for new board, it would help if you listed exact slots your devices require - soundblaster I guess PCIe x1 but avermedia gamer? Also exact type of aura strips would be nice, but I guess you might be limited to Asus boards only if you want to keep them.

 

[silversurfernhs]

Have you considered possibility that fault lies in your 960 pro, not the motherboard? Have you tested that in any way (like putting the drive in bottom M.2 slot to see if it runs x2 or x4 there)?
As for new board, it would help if you listed exact slots your devices require - soundblaster I guess PCIe x1 but avermedia gamer? Also exact type of aura strips would be nice, but I guess you might be limited to Asus boards only if you want to keep them.

It runs in x4 mode in my wife's z97 asus itx board. Also i ran those ssd benchmarking tools like atto and crystaldisk, and they perform about what x2 mode would be performing according to other threads. I thought it could be a resource sharing problem, so i did the basic removal of everything, even GPU from the board and ran tests/magician and it still read x2 and performed x2... such a nightmare this has been.

 

[silversurfernhs]

I'd look at the Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 7 if it's within budget.

https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8377/gigabyte-z370-aorus-gaming-7-motherboard-review/index.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gigabyte-z370-aorus-gaming-7-coffee-lake-motherboard,5262.html

https://wccftech.com/review/gigabyte-z370-aorus-gaming-7-motherboard-review/

It doesn't look like that one has wifi/BT. Not a deal breaker, but for $250, i was hoping for it to be included, like the ASUS one. I like the failover if my router goes out while i'm not at home, it will kick on to the wifi of our building. I also have a couple of BT peripherals.

 

[DRagor]

It runs in x4 mode in my wife's z97 asus itx board. Also i ran those ssd benchmarking tools like atto and crystaldisk, and they perform about what x2 mode would be performing according to other threads. I thought it could be a resource sharing problem, so i did the basic removal of everything, even GPU from the board and ran tests/magician and it still read x2 and performed x2... such a nightmare this has been.

Ok, that makes it quite clear then, and a very surprising that ASUS guys could not replicate problem. If anything, this may look like BIOS corruption. Did you tried updating BIOS? I've heard early Z370-E (and F and few others) had some problems with BIOS not working properly, maybe it's one of them.

 

[Zerk2012]

Get this board if available where you live, I've used 2 of them with no problems.

https://www.asrock.com/MB/Intel/Z370%20Extreme4/index.asp

That gaming 7 has Vram heat issues.
https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comments/7dz5qy/gigabyte_z370_aorus_gaming_7_high_vrm_temps/

 

[smashjohn]

I think the M2 share the bus with NVMe & SATA. You might see if it runs in x4 mode without any other drives connected.

EDIT FOR CLARITY:
Your motherboard manual says that the M2.1 slot and SATA1 slot share the x4 bus. The system is probably splitting that bus x2/x2. Make sure you're using SATA2,3,4,5 for your sata drives if you're using M2.1 for your NVMe drive. This might save you the whole RMA process.

 

[silversurfernhs]

I'm thinking the Taichi, but it's butt ugly.

 

[silversurfernhs]

I think the M2 share the bus with NVMe & SATA. You might see if it runs in x4 mode without any other drives connected.

EDIT FOR CLARITY:
Your motherboard manual says that the M2.1 slot and SATA1 slot share the x4 bus. The system is probably splitting that bus x2/x2. Make sure you're using SATA2,3,4,5 for your sata drives if you're using M2.1 for your NVMe drive. This might save you the whole RMA process.

That's exactly how i have it and ASUS said it should be working in x4 mode under this config. Sata1 isn't even populated because i accounted for that. The only toggle for that slot is Auto, PCIE and SATA, which i've obviously selected auto and PCIE in troubleshooting.

 

[smashjohn]

I think the M2 share the bus with NVMe & SATA. You might see if it runs in x4 mode without any other drives connected.

EDIT FOR CLARITY:
Your motherboard manual says that the M2.1 slot and SATA1 slot share the x4 bus. The system is probably splitting that bus x2/x2. Make sure you're using SATA2,3,4,5 for your sata drives if you're using M2.1 for your NVMe drive. This might save you the whole RMA process.

That's exactly how i have it and ASUS said it should be working in x4 mode under this config. Sata1 isn't even populated because i accounted for that. The only toggle for that slot is Auto, PCIE and SATA, which i've obviously selected auto and PCIE in troubleshooting.

Bummer. What an odd problem. Sorry I couldn't help.

 

[silversurfernhs]

It runs in x4 mode in my wife's z97 asus itx board. Also i ran those ssd benchmarking tools like atto and crystaldisk, and they perform about what x2 mode would be performing according to other threads. I thought it could be a resource sharing problem, so i did the basic removal of everything, even GPU from the board and ran tests/magician and it still read x2 and performed x2... such a nightmare this has been.

Ok, that makes it quite clear then, and a very surprising that ASUS guys could not replicate problem. If anything, this may look like BIOS corruption. Did you tried updating BIOS? I've heard early Z370-E (and F and few others) had some problems with BIOS not working properly, maybe it's one of them.

I tried updating to 607, which was the latest before RMA and then to whatever was the latest right after i got it back from RMA. Same deal either way.

 

[silversurfernhs]

I might be crazy but i kinda want to try again with a different board. The boards suggested so far haven't had wireless or bluetooth, and while thats not a dealbreaker because i have some wireless dongles for that junk, i would prefer for it to be built in at their price ranges. I was hoping that they would RMA me a new board, but they just sent the same one configured how i had it before when i checked the bios. Maybe i just got a shit board.

Also, don't get me wrong, the speed of the nvme drive at x2 is like ftl speed compared to even the 850 pro that used to be my boot drive on the z87 platform.

Having thought about it all day, i think i am going to get a replacement, and if it doesn't work out right when i get it, i will return it and buy the Taichi, or maybe just order both and see which one it works in.