[NEWS] MSI and Gigabyte In Merger Talks
- Thread starter Buck
- Start date
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
This must not happen.
time
Storage? I am Storage!
God, NO!
Surely the design philosophies of these two companies are poles apart?
Surely the design philosophies of these two companies are poles apart?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I don't know. They both feature UFO-like objects on their retail packaging...
Gigabyte experience: Smartly packaged, solidly packed motherboard, along with a detailed user guide, a large poster with step-by-step installation instructions, and case sticker detailing DIP switch and front panel assignments. Upon installation, technician realizes he's forgotten to set the FSB speed DIP switch, but everything is utterly stable.
MSI experience: After digging motherboard out from under included MSI promotional materials (I think it's supposed to be a calendar), technician finds a manual, written in german. Fortunately, the technician reads german well enough to translate the instructions on the first page: "Slap everything in and pray, kemosabe". The board is utterly jumperless, so the technician does exactly that, encountering several problems that could probably be solved with the included diagnostic LEDs, if the manual made clear how the DLED's green and amber lights matched the black and white used in the (german language) manual. After realizing that by "pray", MSI actually meant "pray to the dark god Nyarlathotep, mother of 1000 goats", the technician makes virgin sacrifices under a gibbous moon on alternating Tuesdays, and replaces the brand name RAM with some cheap generic crap. At last, the motherboard boots.
And immediately crashes, freezing while actually in the BIOS.
After trying a couple different CPUs and dancing the unholy rituals of the snake-god Yig, the technician finally says "screw it" and bumps the CPU voltage a couple notches, letting the system boot long enough to install an operating system...
Which runs fine, unless you install the cursed program "Winzip", which for reasons known only to mad arab prophets and demented playwrights, causes the hard disk attached to the MSI motherboard to start ladder-seeking in a pattern that bears an uncanny resemblance to "My Heart Will Go On".
I'll say there's some differences between the two!
Gigabyte experience: Smartly packaged, solidly packed motherboard, along with a detailed user guide, a large poster with step-by-step installation instructions, and case sticker detailing DIP switch and front panel assignments. Upon installation, technician realizes he's forgotten to set the FSB speed DIP switch, but everything is utterly stable.
MSI experience: After digging motherboard out from under included MSI promotional materials (I think it's supposed to be a calendar), technician finds a manual, written in german. Fortunately, the technician reads german well enough to translate the instructions on the first page: "Slap everything in and pray, kemosabe". The board is utterly jumperless, so the technician does exactly that, encountering several problems that could probably be solved with the included diagnostic LEDs, if the manual made clear how the DLED's green and amber lights matched the black and white used in the (german language) manual. After realizing that by "pray", MSI actually meant "pray to the dark god Nyarlathotep, mother of 1000 goats", the technician makes virgin sacrifices under a gibbous moon on alternating Tuesdays, and replaces the brand name RAM with some cheap generic crap. At last, the motherboard boots.
And immediately crashes, freezing while actually in the BIOS.
After trying a couple different CPUs and dancing the unholy rituals of the snake-god Yig, the technician finally says "screw it" and bumps the CPU voltage a couple notches, letting the system boot long enough to install an operating system...
Which runs fine, unless you install the cursed program "Winzip", which for reasons known only to mad arab prophets and demented playwrights, causes the hard disk attached to the MSI motherboard to start ladder-seeking in a pattern that bears an uncanny resemblance to "My Heart Will Go On".
I'll say there's some differences between the two!
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I've used Gigabyte motherboards that were utterly unstable too you know. Your MSI board was probably just bad. Every manufacturer makes a board that needs to be sent back once in a while.
Aside from a couple of flaky BIOS revisions, my MSI K7T Pro 2a board has been fantasticly stable. The early releases of the BIOS trully sucked. The version that shipped with my board wouldn't even allow me to boot from my SCSI CD-ROM drive.
One of the later version horrifically ruined my video performance and even cause a blue screen or two. Once I reverted back to my stable working version (which I'm still using), this board has not given me an ounce of trouble.
On an unrelated note, this Abit NF7-S could not have been any easier to setup and run. This machine runs absolutly perfect and stable ever since it has been pieced together. The machine has only been powered off in the first couple days, but has been running 24x7 since then.
One of the later version horrifically ruined my video performance and even cause a blue screen or two. Once I reverted back to my stable working version (which I'm still using), this board has not given me an ounce of trouble.
On an unrelated note, this Abit NF7-S could not have been any easier to setup and run. This machine runs absolutly perfect and stable ever since it has been pieced together. The machine has only been powered off in the first couple days, but has been running 24x7 since then.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
Handruin said:
That is comforting to hear handy.
I'm presently putting together four systems with MSI K7N2G-L boards and the packaging is smart, the manual is helpful, and installation is easy.
Tea
Storage? I am Storage!
Tannin said:
Tannin. Mate. I have to say it. Great post!
Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
(Why thankyou, Tea. It was a great post. Indeed, if I may say so, a truly heartfelt and eloquent statement from the soul, and dripping with more than usual of my trademark combination of technical accuracy and hands-on street cred. I thought you'd like it.)
(Oh yez, I like it a lot. It capturez the MSI experience with almost photographic clarity and gut-wrenching force. One of your best.)
(Err .... Just one thing, Tea.)
(Mmmm?)
(Mercutio write the bloody thing, you fool!)
(Huh? Are you telling me you've got an aliaz you never told me about? How long have you been Mercutio for?)
(Tea. I'm not Mercutio.)
(Really?)
(Would I lie to you?)
(Yez.)
(Well, OK. Yes I might. But I'm not lying this time. That wasn't me. Mercutio is not one of my aliases.)
(Phew! I waz worried there for a moment. Can we go to bed now?)
(OK.)
(Oh yez, I like it a lot. It capturez the MSI experience with almost photographic clarity and gut-wrenching force. One of your best.)
(Err .... Just one thing, Tea.)
(Mmmm?)
(Mercutio write the bloody thing, you fool!)
(Huh? Are you telling me you've got an aliaz you never told me about? How long have you been Mercutio for?)
(Tea. I'm not Mercutio.)
(Really?)
(Would I lie to you?)
(Yez.)
(Well, OK. Yes I might. But I'm not lying this time. That wasn't me. Mercutio is not one of my aliases.)
(Phew! I waz worried there for a moment. Can we go to bed now?)
(OK.)
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Merc, you truly have a gift for communicating. You should put that talent to more use.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Thanks mubs. I don't particularly have an outlet for writing other than here.
re: MSI. I don't see them very often. In fact, I've seen five MSI boards, ever, outside retail packaging. The one I own, A K7T Pro ARU, is basically the template for the above rant. If nothing else is accurate about my post, I assure you that at least with the few samples I've seen, MSI seems to be king of cardboard trinkets inside their boxes. I don't know what that's about.
(I still have a couple samples of my all-time-favorite motherboard schwag, a 2-foot tall inflatable blue astronaut-lookin' thing that's emblazoned "Soyo Baby". I don't know what Soyo Baby's deal is, but he came with the 6VBAs I was buying in 2000.)
re: MSI. I don't see them very often. In fact, I've seen five MSI boards, ever, outside retail packaging. The one I own, A K7T Pro ARU, is basically the template for the above rant. If nothing else is accurate about my post, I assure you that at least with the few samples I've seen, MSI seems to be king of cardboard trinkets inside their boxes. I don't know what that's about.
(I still have a couple samples of my all-time-favorite motherboard schwag, a 2-foot tall inflatable blue astronaut-lookin' thing that's emblazoned "Soyo Baby". I don't know what Soyo Baby's deal is, but he came with the 6VBAs I was buying in 2000.)
Indeed, whats with the calander and little cardboard toys. With mine, I got a motorcycle that your supposed to cut out and prop on your desk...Got to wonder if they seriously think someone appreciates that crap. Hello MSI, your target market isn't a bunch of five year olds....Perhaps such trinkets are all the rage in Asia?Mercutio said:
Now that is funny.
I personally would love to see manufacturers cut with the wasteful and useless junk...including case badges and stickers etc....although, I suppose, there are some that like that kind of thing.
CK
The Grammar Police
Learning Storage Performance
CityK said:
Are you sure about that, CityK? Sometimes I look inside the box and it gives me cause to seriously wonder.