Yeah, I am beginning to realize that all Thermaltake products are crap. Their coolers, fans, cases, and power supplies are all over-rated (literally, they don't measure up to their rated performance, whether it's TDP, voltage, CFMs, or dBA ratings they always seem to fall short of the claims on their packaging and in their spec sheets. Some of their PSUs actually caught fire when "pushing" them to their rated voltage. Most of their fans couldn't blow out a kitchen match despite having high CFM and static pressure ratings. I own exactly one of their fans; it's the worst one in my system, out of 9 120mm fans. Maybe I should remove it from my system before it catches fire or something. I give every manufacturer at least one chance to provide a decent product that does what it claims to do. I don't expect miracles, and I know a certain percentage of ANY product can be D.O.A. or have manufacturing flaws, so I give them a chance to rectify the situation if the first sample proves damaged. Seems like most of them would rather lose a customer and all the good faith he or she could generate, just to save a buck or two, even when the customer is absolutely in the right. Greed has no bounds - "Let The Buyer Beware!" is a good motto.
I had thought for a while that Thermaltake was a decent company but, just like you, I've found over and over again,their products really aren't worth what you're paying. It's like they cut so many corners to raise profit margins, that they say to hell with the product, your average joe schmo isn't going to know the difference.
However, with a little tweaking, their products are actually pretty decent.
For instance my Big Typhoon. (an old cooler, I know). It's actually a very good cooler....once you spend the time to lap it and get it flat. The way it came out of the box was crazy. It was so rough that you could EASILY sand a wooden table with it.
I lapped mine (took for effin ever), and now it cools every bit as well as a lot of the HDT coolers. But the fan orientation is the best. It blows down at the board and keeps everything nice and cool.
(Oh yeah, I changed the fire hazard fan too
)
Yes, Asus is wrong as usual, and exhibiting that same attitude they all get when they're on top, that 'We're the best so we're always right, RMA denied." attitude. The time is well past for universal overclocking warranties on enthusiast parts, and for companies like Intel to honor their own scenarios where overclocking is appropriate, like with the K series processor they sell for a premium only because it's unlocked for overclocking, and stop denying warranty coverage of their motherboards if overclocked. On the bright side, Intel now offers "overclocking insurance" on their "K" and "X" chips, $20 to $35 depending on the CPU, good for one free replacement no matter how many volts you put to it. That's a good deal for those who go for OC records and such, and even the slightly mad gamer may benefit from this. But it doesn't cover all the other parts that may burn, even though they were sold for overclocking.
Asus, similarly to Tt, are overrated IMO. All of the boards I've had from them, usually top tier enthusiast boards are always lacking. Whether it's voltge regulation, noisy onboard or other things such as an inadequate BIOS for OCing on a board marketed as a super badass OCing board (a comparable MSI product had a MUCH more extensive BIOS).
I think that if they market a product as an overclocking product, they need to set parameters as to what they may be able to do and then honor RMA's if they don't, at least, meet that criteria. Otherwise, it's just false advertising on their part IMO.
I just never tell them the product died overclocking. Pretty simple fix to that one. Hey company X this board no longer posts I need an RMA...poof RMA approved.
See and therein lies the problem. Most products work just fine at stock speeds, however, once you start to push it is where their deficiencies rear their ugly heads. So then how do you RMA a product like that? You send it in and their reply "there's nothing wrong with the product."
So then what?
and its probly what killed the old board you probly blew the vrm's off it 4Phase = cpu draw should not exceed 95watts 