Blogs Too many cooks

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2010/09/02/too-many-cooks/

 

I have to agree. When first came across the product page for my current board (Asus R3E), I had a good chuckle.
The main issue is, indeed, figuring out what the feature really does, if anything. Most of the individual descriptions don't seem to tell you anything except that it is really really good at whatever it is meant to do, and you cannot live without it.
Pure marketing. After months with it, I still don't really know what some features are meant to do.

 

There is some odd branding, that's for sure. There was a mobo box that had 'Power is Love' or some nonsense on it.

 

I personally like the feature: "It just works"

 

Yeah, this has annoyed me in the past too.

It seems like a form of "overcompensation".

 

I guess it doesn't help when the competition is so fierce.
For example if Asus started to strip all these names from the boxes all together and simplify it, an average Joe would walk into a shop, compare an Asus box with a Gigabyte box and think the Gigabyte board is better, due to all these so called features.

 

I get the feeling that many companies think we're still 10 year old boys at heart and haven't yet grown out of our passion for blinking LEDs, Lamborghinis, fighter jets and "IT'S OVER 9000!!!!" references (ok, personally I haven't quite grown out of it completely, but I don't have it plastered all over my room nowadays).

I always grimace and clench my teeth slightly whenever I see an advert for some computer part with a "TURBO V8 CORE!" slogan on it, or whenever I see an Antec Dark Fleet or those horrible Xclio cases at stores. I really wish they'd cut it out already - the majority of PC builders are adults with enough money to afford high-end parts.

I don't buy the "more features for consumers" line either - Joe Average does not buy motherboards, he buys a crappy low-end 15-inch HP/Toshiba/Dell/Acer laptop. Motherboard buyers are well-informed enough to know what they want.

 

My board says "Time Manipulation Technology" on the box. Sounds good till you realise it only means you can set the system time in the bios.

 

Aw man, no time travel? I was just going to buy that DeLorean on eBay!

 

As a system builder I routinely disable or ignore most of the features on that list. Perhaps 10% of them are useful: TurboV (Evo or other wise) for tweaking OCs in windows, OC Profile for backing up BIOS settings & EZFlash for making new CPUs work. CPR helps but calling every POST fail an OC fail really helps consumer confidence Everything else is just marketing fluff.

 

p.s. if your current mobo doesn't have enough features head over to and 'like' ASUS UK's FB page to win one with an even longer list: http://www.facebook.com/pages/CyberPower-UK/334469688104#!/asusuk?ref=ts

 

It wouldn't be so bad if the manual actually told me what to do most of the descriptions are very brief.

 

That's nothing. I saw a steamer that listed "Frequent use may result in increased skin longevity" in it's features.

 

IT industry (and PC market in particular) is pretty much exactly the same as automotive industry [working for both so I have good perspective]. Tons and tons of really worthless information and additions. 95% of which is completely mystic and magical for statistical PC/car user. Amount of acronyms, snappy slogans and other dreary nonsense is absolutely appalling. And worst thing is that, it will be even worse with every passing year. Used many mobos over the years and in all honestly used only 2 branded features - with my current MSI Eclipse SLI. BIOS update (once) and tested Green Power Box system, but it is completely useless addition if you running computations on a permanent basis (WCG/BOINC/SETI). Software is badly designed, and energy savings are negligible (1-5W).

 

i hate the crap they give you on the driver cds (not the drivers obviously)

 

this is why you NEVER press the "instALL" button on Asus DVD.

 

The fun side is, the majority of customers won't be able to read the features on the box until they get the box delivered, since it was just ourchased from a random website. So it's just a page filler in my opinion.

Manager: So Tim, please add this new motherboard to our web listing
Tim: Sure, will do. Let's see ....... MONKY BALLS, that's a lot of useless crap to type in.....


Manager:

 

Lesson one in buying motherboards:
Look at performance reviews rather than the manufactures so called features list.

 

I always have a good chuckle at the terrible English translation in Asus motherboard manuals. You can tell no one who actually speaks the language wrote it.

 

translates to "ASUS" (as long as you don't use any of the branded buzzwords)

I find it most annoying when the features on the box are called differently when using the product.
i.e. the name on the box differs from the setting in BIOS