Reviews on Newegg.com

[shinto]

I got to know of Newegg.com from this forum and I must say it is very reliable for purchase online. However, I noticed something very suspicious about their reviews.

After extensively researching about PC components on the newegg.com site, I ordered and built a PC of the following;

MB: ASUS A7V8X-MX SE KM400/VT8235
CPU: AMD ATHLON XP 2500 BARTON
RAM: KINGMAX DDRAM 512MB DDR333 PC-2700
HD: 80GB WESTERN DIGITAL 7200RPM 8MB

I must say I am not into games so based on the reviews on the ASUS A7V8X-MX SE KM400/VT8235 motherboard, I went for it.

Unfortunately, I find the board to be junk in terms of both the onboard Grahics and Sound. Well, I know someone would say you got what you bargained for.

Based on my experience with this MB, I wrote a review about a week ago which has not reflected to date. My problem is not with what I bargained for, but if I'm right, it's my suspicion of censorship of reviews. If I had got fair review, I would have gone for a different MB. I'm not a gamer, but I appreciate seeing my online pictures in good quality.

Surprisingly the quality of the new board in terms of graphics and sound is worse than what I get from my old pentium II (266 Mhz) PC.is worse than The pic

[glc]

It's a Via board - what else can we say?

[lil Jimmie]

Always get a second and third opinion don't just go by the reviews at newegg.

Even though some of them are good for a few chuckles :)

[Hi Ho]

There are a lot of people that write user reviews that don't know what they are talking about. Also, there are a lot of people that may think it looks fine. User reviews, no matter what website, aren't a very good thing to go by.

[shinto]

Yes, I get your point and well noted but my issue is with the censorship.

[Hi Ho]

I do believe they censor certain bad words but I don't believe they censor anything else. What is it that you think they censored? If you are really disatisfied by the onboard video, VIA is pretty bad, then you could just pop in something like THIS (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-215&depa=1). In many of the reviews on for that motherboard it seems that they added an AGP video card instead of using the onboard.

[shinto]

I guess I may have to buy Graphics and Sound cards to replace the onboard ones. It looks like I might as well buy a new MB.

Originally posted by glc
It's a Via board - what else can we say?

What is wrong with Via boards?

In order not to mix up topics, I guess I would have to introduce that topic in a differnet forum.

[Hi Ho]

VIA isn't known for making very stable chipsets. they seem to have a lot of problems. It's not the motherboard manufacturer. Asus is among the best. It's just that it has a VIA chipset that isn't to great. My Asus motherboard has a VIA chipset and I have had a lot of problems. If you get a new motherboard you could just send that one back to Newegg for a refund.

[Blue_Gundam2002]

Newegghas never censored any of my reviewe, I posted both bad and good reviews.

[shinto]

My review was about the quality of the onboard graphics. That it was not even enough for internent surfing.

Other reviews gave the impression that only gamers may need to replace the video card. My review was to caution others who might think if you are not into gaming that the the board is cool. To me it is not even adequate for ordinarly pictures.

If someone had written a similar review and it had been posted, I would have taken note. I have tried to give my opinion to others like me, who if the learn that it is not adequate for ordinary pictures may consider other MBs. The fact that my review has not appeared makes me believe that probably other nagative reviews might have been ommitted too.

[Hi Ho]

Oh, I see, I didn't know you wrote a review. I have written reviews at Newegg and sometimes they take hours or even days to show up but they always show up intact. I have written both negative and postive reviews. What reason would they have to censor negative reviews anyway?

[shinto]

Originally posted by Hi Ho
...... If you get a new motherboard you could just send that one back to Newegg for a refund.

I don't know if I can return it for a refund. I would be glad to do that but I do remember reading something that said It could only be replaced. I am not sure about that.

[Vigo]

You can, but you'll get tagged with shipping costs and a 15% restocking fee. I wrote a few reviews for Newegg 1 bad, the rest good. I think I saw one of them go up once like a week later. I don't think they censor reviews; they're just horrible at getting them up. I assume they screen the reviews (at least the reviews about the web site/store).

[shinto]

Thanks guys,

I just requested for a a RMA for Refund since I have already reverted to my old PC.

Since I'm stuck with the underlisted components, I would appreciate some advice for a MB. I'm not a gamer but I appreciate high quality pictures and most of all, the sound quality.

CPU: AMD ATHLON XP 2500 BARTON
RAM: KINGMAX DDRAM 512MB DDR333 PC-2700
HD: 80GB WESTERN DIGITAL 7200RPM 8MB

I don't know if I have to move this thread to an appropriate section.

[Hi Ho]

Well you probably want to go with a seperate video card and sound card if you want really good video quality and sound quality. That Radeon 7000 I linked to earlier would be just right. ATI cards have better 2D quality than Nvidia. The best 2D quality, however, would be a Matrox card but they are expensive. THIS (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-468&depa=1) motheroboard would be a good replacement. It has an Nforce 2 chipset which is about as good as it gets for AMD. As for the sound card, if you are a big audiophile but don't need any surround sound then THIS (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=29-121-103&depa=1) M-Audio sound card is excellent. If you don't want to spend that much or you want all the frills of surround sound and other features then a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=29-102-162&depa=1) is a great choice.

[greg20]

It appears newegg does censor some negative reviews, but they do inform the buyer of this practice. If you go to any product page (maybe it's only on product pages that have reviews), and click on the "more info" in the yellow "Making buying decisions based solely on these reviews is not recommended" bar, the box that opens says:

"The customer opinion reviews are used at the discretion of Newegg.com as a marketing device for positive and constructive ways to share the benefit of the product. It is not used as a source for negative commentary as we cannot endorse the validity of any negative comment. Therefore, the Newegg.com site is moderated to remove any unproven biased negative comments. It is not the intention of Newegg.com to mislead any customer and therefore all purchase decisions should not be solely based on the customer review."

I've had nothing but positive experiences with newegg myself.

[glc]

Actually I don't know why your video is not even suitable for surfing - the KM series video is no great shakes but it should at least be watchable. The KM's seem to be the most stable of the Via chipsets in my experience, but I would still prefer NForce.

My choice for what you want to do would be a NForce2 board with the IGP onboard video - this is pretty decent video, GF4 MX quality - and if there's a board with this and the Soundstorm audio, that would probably take care of that issue too, the Soundstorm is supposed to be near-Audigy quality. I don't know if any exist - but the Asus A7N8X-VM/400 would be worth a shot - if the Realtek audio is bad, you can always drop a card in. The video will be decent as long as you have a little extra ram to dedicate to it - with 512mb that should be fine, I believe the video will eat 64mb of that. It does have an AGP slot if you don't like the IGP video.

[rcx21000]

Originally posted by shinto
That it was not even enough for internent surfing.

Are you sure you have the right drivers? With the default WinXP drivers for my FX 5200, it took 3-4 seconds to re-render a webpage when I scrolled, but after I got the dirvers, it was perfect :)

[shinto]

Are you sure you have the right drivers? With the default WinXP drivers for my FX 5200, it took 3-4 seconds to re-render a webpage when I scrolled, but after I got the dirvers, it was perfect

rcx21000,
I used the original drivers that came with the MB. I also checked from the ASUS website if new drivers had been issued. My O/S is Win2k. Could that be a problem?

Actually I don't know why your video is not even suitable for surfing - the KM series video is no great shakes but it should at least be watchable.

glc,
I have been using an old pentium II MMX PC which I consider its video quality to be acceptable. with the leaps and jumps in technology, I expected to get a quality from this MB to be if not better, be comparable. Well, when I say it is not suitable for surfing, I mean that it does not give you the quality that would make you appreciate whatever pictures come on your monitor. For example, the image of the "GOOGLE" logo that loads up is like a print out from an exhausted toner catridge.

[glc]

You are probably using the windows default VGA driver then - which is 16 color. Win2000 doesn't have native drivers for the Via onboard graphics.

[shinto]

You are probably using the windows default VGA driver then - which is 16 color. Win2000 doesn't have native drivers for the Via onboard graphics.

I certainly installed the drivers for the Via graphics. During the installation, It was the 16 color default VGA drivers. I later loaded the drivers that came with the MB but there was no significant improvement from the default VGA even though the colors changed to 255.

[fudtone]

What are your display settings currentley?

[shinto]

I can't remember it settings now. I Have RMAed it. I'm now researching for a replacement MB.

[Panama Red]

Personally, I think you just had a bad board or the drivers weren't installed correctly. I've built 3 systems using that board and had zero problems with video or audio. My son uses his with a 2200+ and has his hard drive nearly full of his music. Coupled with a set of Logitech Z-340's he claims it sounds better that his stereo system. Plus he watches DVD movies on a 17" CRT and says the picture is great. Same for my daughter's machine with a 2500+. Good sound and no graphics complaints.

[Hi Ho]

Now that I know the whole story I'd be willing to bet that you had the drivers installed incorrectly. 256 colors is not good. It should have been set at 16 million or higher.