[nzlug] Re: NZLUG Digest, Vol 21, Issue 19

[Mathew Carley]

Hi Dirk,

Wouldn't recommend the Asrock brand of Motherboards - period. Quality 
reasons. (On a side note, I wouldn't exactly recommend Houston's VIP 
software either - don't tell them I said that).

Keep in mind that although some silly salespeople will try to pass off 
Asrock as Asus (technically, it is), these boards are the substandard 
versions and are re-branded as such so as to not tarnish Asus' 
reputation of producing (generally) good motherboards.

There are other brands - Chaintech, PC Chips and ECS (and Jetway if they 
still exist) - which I would generally recommend against for similar 
reasons. MSI is OK, providing you they've stopped using those cheap 
capacitors that burst after 18 months.On the flip side, Asus, Gigabyte 
(and Albatron), DFI and Abit are generally considered pretty good.

A little debate I found on PCWorld NZ: 
http://pressf1.pcworld.co.nz/showthread.php?t=71065

--
Regards

Mathew Carley
Carley Network Media Ltd. Suomen Sivuliike, Y-tunnus 2094223-0
A branch of Carley Network Media Ltd. (NZ), Company number 1547150

Phone (Helsingin Toimisto/Helsinki Office): +358 9 2316 3712
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>
> Hiho.
>
> I'm sorry to be OT, but I am having a little problem with my MoBo (the 
> weird looking,  strangely engineered and even wilder named Asrock 'K8 
> Combo Z' ).
>
> It has an AMD 64 3500 sitting in it's 939 slot and has half a gig of 
> Ram. All 4 drives (3 HD, one optical) are hooked up to the IDE 
> controller, with the Sata controller disabled via Bios.
>
> Now the weird bit.
>
> The computer powers up, recognizes all 4 drives correctly and 
> breezily, and then takes ca 30 seconds to come up with the Grub 
> message and another 30 seconds to finally display the GRUB boot menu.
>
> Once the correct partition is chosen via grub, the rest of the boot 
> process (Ubuntu or Windows) is just as quick as with my other mobos.
>
> Any ideas??
>
> Dirk
>
>
>
>
> --Dr Dirk Pilat
> Central Medical
> Oamaru