MSI P67A-GD65 Vs. MSI Z68A-GD65

My MSI P67A-GD65 gave up on me three weeks back and after sending it back to scan to be replaced it turns out that they are refusing to replace the card and have canceled the RMA due to the cpu pins being bent. They sent it back this evening after doing an unauthorized credit card transaction where they took money from my card for both the cost of returning the card and looking at the board. They've refused to even look at the underlying fault and have used the bent pins as an excuse not to. Now the pins were all fine when sent back, I have photographs of every inch of the board and did a thorough inspection after reading aboiut people having similar issues with the MSI P67A-GD65 and scan using bent pins as an excuse not to replace/refund.

Now while I'm going to pursue this further I'm left in the position of not having a motherboard for my computer and really can't do without one for much longer so I'm planning on buying a new board tomorrow. I was going to get another MSI P67A-GD65 but a few people have been telling me good things about the MSI Z68A-GD65 so I'm wondering if anyone here has an opinion on which board is best.

Serephucus

Z68. It has all the features of P67, but you get access to the IGP for AVX instructions (video encoding, among other things) as well as SRT for SSD caching.

I'd try Overclockers if I were you. I've used them in the past, and I've found them very helpful (though I've never had to deal with their RMA department). I have heard a few bad things about Scan, so I tend to steer clear if I can.

Serephucus

Serephucus wrote: »

Z68. It has all the features of P67, but you get access to the IGP for AVX instructions (video encoding, among other things) as well as SRT for SSD caching.

I'd try Overclockers if I were you. I've used them in the past, and I've found them very helpful (though I've never had to deal with their RMA department). I have heard a few bad things about Scan, so I tend to steer clear if I can.

Looking through various forums a lot of pepole have had issue with Scan's returns. They seem to use the bent CPU pins in order not to look at the problem. I sent them pics of the pins as they were when I sent it back and was told that they could have been taken before the pins were damaged.

Serephucus

And of course they didn't look at the timestamp in the image metadata, or the record of when you posted the motherboard back to them...

Serephucus

Serephucus wrote: »

And of course they didn't look at the timestamp in the image metadata, or the record of when you posted the motherboard back to them...

Nope, they flat out refuse to acknowledge them and I'm going to be going to the demanding a charge back tomorrow morning for the money they took and then I'm going to be taking them to the small claims court. Shame they don't seem interested in keeping loyal customers, I've been using them a lot over the past year. Built 6 computers over the past 6 months and last night ordered the parts for 3 new builds but went with Hardware and Overclockers for the order.

Monotype

Wow, you've had extremely bad luck with scan overall. That's pretty poor show of them because pins can't get bent that easily in the post, I'd be more concerned with other pieces getting knocked off. I returned a PSU to them and it went pretty smoothly.
Have you got the board back and were the pins actually bent? That's fairly nasty that they charged you for looking at the board, on top of the unauthorised transactions.

On the original question - definitely the Z68 unless there's a big difference in price. Get the Z68 G3 rather than B3 too.

Monotype

Monotype wrote: »

Wow, you've had extremely bad luck with scan overall. That's pretty poor show of them because pins can't get bent that easily in the post, I'd be more concerned with other pieces getting knocked off. I returned a PSU to them and it went pretty smoothly.
Have you got the board back and were the pins actually bent? That's fairly nasty that they charged you for looking at the board, on top of the unauthorised transactions.

On the original question - definitely the Z68 unless there's a big difference in price. Get the Z68 G3 rather than B3 too.

Going to order it off of komplettlater tonight I think. 167 euro for it delivered seems reasonable enough, going to mean that I have to cut back in other areas for the rest of the month but need to be back up and running asap.

Monotype

Deleted User wrote: »

going to mean that I have to cut back in other areas for the rest of the month but need to be back up and running asap.

Ah who needs food anyway.

They also have the G45. It wouldn't have all the features of the GD65, but it's still a Gen 3 Z68 board for a good price.
http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/15_MOBO/02_INT1155/productdetails/20099574/MSI_Z68A_G45_(G3)_Socket_1155_ATX/Z68A_G45_(G3)/default.aspx
Actually, now that I look, that's actually cheaper than scan or even hardwareversand. Bargain alert maybe?

Overheal

as already said a quick browse of the intel chipset list would lend to the Z68 being the ideal choice. Unless you want to find a 2011 socket i7 (ha!) and go for something with an X79. New codename Panther Point chipsets are on the way for the 1155 in Q2 but doesn't help you right now.

Monotype

Overheal wrote: »

as already said a quick browse of the intel chipset list would lend to the Z68 being the ideal choice. Unless you want to find a 2011 socket i7 (ha!) and go for something with an X79. New codename Panther Point chipsets are on the way for the 1155 in Q2 but doesn't help you right now.

If you get a Gen 3 board, you get the main features of the Panther Point chipsets - the main one being PCI-E 3 (with an Ivy Bridge CPU). Luckily current sockets are forward compatible for once given that Intel's record has been terrible here in the past. I think it's very poor show however, that Intel will still have limited 6Gbps ports and a load of 3Gbps ones.

Dublin_Gunner

Personally, I NEVER use scan because I've had a few problems with them before a few years go.

Overclockers can be just as bad when it comes to RMA, not 1, but 2 friends of mine waited the guts of a year to get their money back.

Dabs.ie (though a smaller selection of components than Overclockers) have always been excellent to deal with in my experience. Prices are very competitive too.

But back to your question - the Z68 board. There really is little point buying a P67 board these days. Z68 are more feature rich, and go for in and around the same price.

Overheal

Monotype wrote: »

If you get a Gen 3 board, you get the main features of the Panther Point chipsets - the main one being PCI-E 3 (with an Ivy Bridge CPU). Luckily current sockets are forward compatible for once given that Intel's record has been terrible here in the past. I think it's very poor show however, that Intel will still have limited 6Gbps ports and a load of 3Gbps ones.

I dont use many Drives anyway for the SATA 6gbps but I was looking at the product page and salivating over quad channel memory.

Dublin_Gunner

Overheal wrote: »

I dont use many Drives anyway for the SATA 6gbps but I was looking at the product page and salivating over quad channel memory.

Eh, that's an X79 product page, different socket, and obviously different CPU support...

SB only has a dual channel memory controller.

Burgo

Had a pretty painless experience RMAing stuff with scan last year, got two dud ssds in a row and had no fuss with them.

Monotype

I was actually referring to the upcoming Panther Point chipsets about the SATA thing, but it's also poor show that they don't have all SATA 6Gbps ports in their top end boards either. The X79 platform is definitely for people with more money than sense. Most of those features will have no value in the real world. Quad channel RAM is of little use except for having 8 RAM slots. Most people won't even come close to using 8GB which can be done with 2x4GB (or even more with the recent 8GB modules that are showing up).

Also, on the original topic, can the board be returned to MSI? Although it will be costing you quite a bit having to post it twice.

Overheal

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Eh, that's an X79 product page, different socket, and obviously different CPU support...

SB only has a dual channel memory controller.

oh I know, I was salivating. sorry :pac:

Dublin_Gunner

Overheal wrote: »

oh I know, I was salivating. sorry :pac:

lol

Fair enough!

Just ordered the MSI Z68A-GD65 G3. Hoping to be back up and running by this time next week.