Improvement & Suggestions
- Thread starter Warner
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- May 25, 2004
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Get rid of the 'Killer' network device, and just use the good old tried-and-trusted Realtek/Intel NIC controllers that 'just work'.
These new 'Killer Network' things are just gimmicks, too many people reporting problems with them.
These new 'Killer Network' things are just gimmicks, too many people reporting problems with them.
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2006
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- 3,700
[quote author=xmad]
Remove bios updates from Live Update[/quote]
[quote author=Bernhard]One PCI slot at least on all mid to upper range boards. [/quote]
There are 6-8 years old sound cards much better than any Realtek CoDec.
Remove bios updates from Live Update[/quote]
[quote author=Bernhard]One PCI slot at least on all mid to upper range boards. [/quote]
There are 6-8 years old sound cards much better than any Realtek CoDec.
Suggestions huh? Here goes...
Regarding the offset feature, I find the offset feature unnecessary since the automatic configuration handles overclocks that don't wear down the CPU just fine. Contrary to popular belief the power savings from decreasing vcore are minimal in real life scenarios (5-15 watts or so) unless you're doing it wrong. However, it's a nice feature to have for people wanting direct control of the voltage (as long as they use a reliable voltage meter with 1% accuracy boundary).
There's something that bothers me with the way hardware is made these last few years. It's all about the looks nowadays and everything else is secondary . So here are some suggestions:
- Get rid of the guns, shields, blades and cheesy color themes on some feature-full boards. Some people want to show off and as a corporation Microstar needs to follow the trends in order to sell... that's common sense. There are some people however who don't want stuff that appear to be attractions of a circus. Most computer engineers want their hardware to look plain and simple, maybe not as simple as the typical brown or green PCB color but still relatively simple. At least a couple of feature-full boards (with strong VRM, extra controllers, etc.) should be like that. Adding marketing stuff about how your hardware does not look like a circus is a plus.
- Make the hardware more resistant to user errors by adding extra protection.
This already happens on the CPU VRM side of middle-end to high-end boards with those admirable new renesas transistors and on even higher-end boards with the inclusion of the said transistors on the PCH and RAM VRM areas. This needs to stay. Every part that the user can change through software must become idiot-proof.
A nice addition would be over current protection on the board power connectors. Single 12v rail power supplies have their OCP limit set too high. Try to draw more than 5-10 amps from an 18-16AWG wire and plastic melts, board fries. The primary rail (12v) is a major offender of this with ATX and EPS connectors frying themselves. Adding OCP on the board should not be all that hard anyway (hint: use the back side of PCB if there's lack of room).
- Add Server CPU and ECC RAM support where applicable. Engineers love this kind of features. Easy to implement too. Make sure the extra controllers you add are compatible with server-oriented OSes too.
- High end Microstar boards have all those nice information LEDs all around them. This is great and must stay. It would be better however if all those where a few more and placed near each other (some high-end Intel boards are like that). Being able to turn them off through the BIOS is great too.
- At least a BIOS chip on the board should be in a socket, not soldered. Even if the board has many BIOS chips if they all go wrong (unlikely, but still possible) then the user either needs to RMA or grab the iron and a programmer... and void the warranty in the process. Chip in socket means making everyone's life easier.
That's all I can think of right now. Everything of the above should be applicable in practice. Of course the implementation is up to you. Cheers!
Regarding the offset feature, I find the offset feature unnecessary since the automatic configuration handles overclocks that don't wear down the CPU just fine. Contrary to popular belief the power savings from decreasing vcore are minimal in real life scenarios (5-15 watts or so) unless you're doing it wrong. However, it's a nice feature to have for people wanting direct control of the voltage (as long as they use a reliable voltage meter with 1% accuracy boundary).
There's something that bothers me with the way hardware is made these last few years. It's all about the looks nowadays and everything else is secondary . So here are some suggestions:
- Get rid of the guns, shields, blades and cheesy color themes on some feature-full boards. Some people want to show off and as a corporation Microstar needs to follow the trends in order to sell... that's common sense. There are some people however who don't want stuff that appear to be attractions of a circus. Most computer engineers want their hardware to look plain and simple, maybe not as simple as the typical brown or green PCB color but still relatively simple. At least a couple of feature-full boards (with strong VRM, extra controllers, etc.) should be like that. Adding marketing stuff about how your hardware does not look like a circus is a plus.
- Make the hardware more resistant to user errors by adding extra protection.
This already happens on the CPU VRM side of middle-end to high-end boards with those admirable new renesas transistors and on even higher-end boards with the inclusion of the said transistors on the PCH and RAM VRM areas. This needs to stay. Every part that the user can change through software must become idiot-proof.
A nice addition would be over current protection on the board power connectors. Single 12v rail power supplies have their OCP limit set too high. Try to draw more than 5-10 amps from an 18-16AWG wire and plastic melts, board fries. The primary rail (12v) is a major offender of this with ATX and EPS connectors frying themselves. Adding OCP on the board should not be all that hard anyway (hint: use the back side of PCB if there's lack of room).
- Add Server CPU and ECC RAM support where applicable. Engineers love this kind of features. Easy to implement too. Make sure the extra controllers you add are compatible with server-oriented OSes too.
- High end Microstar boards have all those nice information LEDs all around them. This is great and must stay. It would be better however if all those where a few more and placed near each other (some high-end Intel boards are like that). Being able to turn them off through the BIOS is great too.
- At least a BIOS chip on the board should be in a socket, not soldered. Even if the board has many BIOS chips if they all go wrong (unlikely, but still possible) then the user either needs to RMA or grab the iron and a programmer... and void the warranty in the process. Chip in socket means making everyone's life easier.
That's all I can think of right now. Everything of the above should be applicable in practice. Of course the implementation is up to you. Cheers!
P
PinzaC55
Guest
Make at least 2 of the included SATA cables have flat (ie not right angled) connectors at BOTH ENDS and make the connectors black not white. Have the Overclock/Reset buttons in a place where they are accessible and not obscured by the sound card as they are on my Big Bang Xpower ii. Make sure that when you actually install components on the board that those components don't obscure fan headers as the GPU on my mobo does. In other words actually build a PC and take note of things like this.
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