DFI: Not for the enthusiast!

[shaithis]

The below is a reply about an issue getting one of their brand new motherboards working with 3 PCI-E cards (the board ships with 3 16x PCI-E slots....)....I detailed the issue in full documenting the combinations and permutations that both work fine or have issues....

Bottom line is: Have anything out-of-the-norm? Don't risk buying DFI.

Dear Sir:

Interesting config you have there. I have hardly ever seen someone have both an ATI and NVidia card in one system. I assume it is for some sort of multi-monitor config? The addition of the Areca card makes it even more unique. In any event I will offer you an honest and direct answer to this question:

"What's the chances of getting this resolved please?"

The unfortunate answer is none. I could beat around the bush and say we will look into it, but the reality is that you have a highly unique config that will be next to impossible for use to duplicate without going to considerable expense in buying material. I know from years of experience in this field that it is just not going to happen. A bit of a hard answer but it is the truth. I would rather you know the truth than having us leave you hanging for months with answers like "we are working on it."

Regards
Wendell Smith
Technical Engineer
DFI Technical Support, Europe

Website : www.dfi.com

[Zak33]

/\

Well, honesty IS the best policy!

[peterb]

But at least the response was

a. Personal
B. Honest

so from a CS perspective it was quite good, although not particularly helpful at solving the problem (and I supose it is a bit of an unusual configuration!)

I guess its not so much teh cost of buying the hardware to replicate it, more the time taken to set it all up, and then do the fault finding on what is likely to be a one off.

[Mossy]

I have onlly ever heard great things about DFI motherboards and how orientated they are to the enthusiast. It may not be the response you wanted but I applaud the honesty within the reply.

[CK_1985]

Interesting...

So what is your set-up then? Is it really that esoteric? Also, have you had other boards that it did work in?

At least they were honest though, respect for that

[staffsMike]

I have onlly ever heard great things about DFI motherboards and how orientated they are to the enthusiast. It may not be the response you wanted but I applaud the honesty within the reply.

I agree. That is the sort of cs I like to see although obviously it still leaves you a little in the lurch.

My old company used DFI for years and still do to this day afaik, they were a great company to deal with and they always bent over backwards to help with issues (they were industrial pc's mind you).

I don't think it's that realistic to expect systems such as yours to not have issues and further more I don't think its that realistic to expect an issue that unique to be resolved. I can't think of a single manufacturer who would help you from my experience. You might know better though

[Thorsson]

Remarkably restrained I'd say, "I have hardly ever seen someone have both an ATI and NVidia card in one system" rather than "WTF are you playing at sunshine!"

[Bluecube]

Respect to DFI's customer services! I'll remember this next time I'm looking for a new motherboard. No mucking about at all, just a straight forward reply even if it's not much help!

[alchemistkevin]

lol.

[shaithis]

Well, with Physx becoming prevalent, expect to see a lot of mixed ATI/nVidia setups, it may be rare at the moment but it won't be for much longer.

3rd card is an Areca raid controller, again, while rare in the great scheme of things, it is the number 1 choice among enthusiasts.

The last company I emailed (Asus) about a similar issue with the Areca, fixed it within about 6 weeks with a BIOS update.

And I personally wouldn't call it great CS when your customer has just spent over £200 on a brand new piece of kit, identifies an issue with it and then tells them "tough luck".........Customer Service should include SUPPORT.

[staffsMike]

Perhaps they will attempt a bios update for just the raid controller.. It wasn't clear from the OP whether they would be willing to do that bit on it's own. Perhaps reply and ask if they could do that?

[this_is_gav]

I didn't think it was possible to mix GPUs - certainly in Vista anyway? Well, the GPUs may work, but drivers would be a nightmare. Was it just not posting or something when you had all 3 installed?

Kudos on the support too though - big tick in my box. It can take ASUS a month before you even get a reply, and when you do, it's rarely of much use. I can't think of many board manufacturers who'd give you such a personal response rather than just a collection of phrases from a multiple choice script.

[Hawker1986]

Well tbh I applaud their honesty. Quite refreshing. Now ive not tried this myself, but why can you not mix GPUs, surely a driver is a driver these days, install ATI catalyst control suite, then just install the graphics drivers from nvidia (ie without the nvidia console) and then PhysX software and it should work. Certainly the Nvidia PhysX features work with ATI, as ive got a proper Aegia physX card running the nvidia software with ATI graphics hardware? I know this doesnt help the RAID card problem, but still.

Hawker

[Clunk]

Well, with Physx becoming prevalent, expect to see a lot of mixed ATI/nVidia setups, it may be rare at the moment but it won't be for much longer.

3rd card is an Areca raid controller, again, while rare in the great scheme of things, it is the number 1 choice among enthusiasts.

The last company I emailed (Asus) about a similar issue with the Areca, fixed it within about 6 weeks with a BIOS update.

And I personally wouldn't call it great CS when your customer has just spent over £200 on a brand new piece of kit, identifies an issue with it and then tells them "tough luck".........Customer Service should include SUPPORT.

Personally, I think he's done the right thing and given you a no nonsense answer so you can either RMA or change your config. If he knows there's nothing he can do for you, then doing what he's done is the only "support" option available.

Just out of interest, why are you running mixed graphics cards, and what problems are you having?

[shaithis]

Running mixed video cards for physx/cuda.....which is supported in both XP and W7.

Problem is:

PCI-E 1: ATI 4870x2
PCI-E 3: nVidia 8600GTS
PCI-E 4: Areca 1210

= No post


PCI-E 1: nVidia 8600GTS
PCI-E 3: ATI 4870x2
PCI-E 4: Areca 1210

= No post



PCI-E 1: ATI 4870x2
PCI-E 3: Areca 1210
PCI-E 4: nVidia 8600GTS

= Works but Areca not recognised once BCLK passes 175MHz (No amount of messing with QPI frequencies fixes this either and if you remove the 8600 or the 4870 the BCLK doesn't effect the raid controller any more)...also the performance of the 8600 is massively hampered.


To those who think they did good, put yourself in my shoes.....you just built a system and found an issue and the manufacturer tells you "tough luck".......how the hell can you applaud them?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

PhysX is just waste of money if you need to buy dedicated hardware for it. How many gamers actually have more than one graphics card in their system?? How pre-built systems actually come with more than one graphics card too??

Even if you use your existing graphics card for both PhysX and 3D stuff at the same time what sort of performance hit are you going to see unless you have a high end card??

I can only see it as being a non-essential feature for a while TBH unless developers want to alienate a large percentage of the gaming public.

If anything it makes more sense for developers to better utilise the processing power of dual and quad cores better as these are becoming the mainstream standard for current PCs not multi-GPU setups.