Which Is The 'best' Motherboard Available In Thailand?

[CosmicSurfer]

I don't consider any shop in Pantip or Fortune to be high-performance no matter what they claim. The staff in most of these shops are essentially nomadic.

You, I would trust. Me, I would trust. My former partner, I would trust.

After that - no way.

Jedi Cool promotes themselves as a High End shop.. Remember that we as Farang newbies to Thailand, speaking little or no Thai, and reading less, have few resources for finding the truly knowledgeable & reliable shops... this is especially difficult for those of us without our own transporation, or live in areas that are not convenient. Many live within a limited world, and rarely get out to make new contacts or investigate new areas.... ands even if you see a computer shop in a new mall.. how would we know just how good they are, and how they compare with the ones in high profile places like Pantip and Fortune.

CS was ordering RAID 1 to use on the 2 320 GB HDD's! The reality was that one of the HDD's was named as RAID 1 and the other was sitting UNALLOCATED in the case! Which means just nothing else as that HDD wasn't partitioned or formatted or assigned for to use in an RAID system!

You don't know when the RAID array dropped out. Could've been JEDI on their second attempt - could've been the OP who reformatted after encountering problems. Could've been the array reported an error, and the OP (or JEDI) simply chose to continue - automatically dropping the array.

Having built some of the first IDE RAID systems in Thailand - and even with Celeron processors - I think I know what I'm talking about. There are many ways/reasons the RAID could've dropped the array, you can't just blame it directly on JEDI.

Actually I know virtually nothing about RAID, aside from what I've read about it when I decided to use it as one of my Back-up/Data Security options... That was one of the reasons I chooose this board... From Day One, I instructed Jedi to install RAID 1... Everytime they Re-installed the O/S, I reminded them that I was using RAID 1, and they should take care to protect my Data, and make sure that the RAID 1 was working... EVERYYTIME. I was fanatical about this.

And the only drives that have ever been reformated was the 80 GB O/S drive. Jedi did notice a ticking noise coming from one of the data drives, and they replaced it... (Took over a week to get a new 320 GB Seagate.. NONE available in Thailand at that time.) BUT... Before they dismounted and removed the bad drive, they made me copy the Data to my 250 GB drive, as they weren't sure what would happen when they took out one of the Raids and put in a new one.. The Tech was concerned that as the new one would be blank, it would make the older installed drive blank too... WHAT???? I couldn't understand why this should be, as my research told me that one of the features of RAID 1, is the ability to swap out Bad drives, without losing data... and why didn't this tech guy know that.. But Who was I to insist.. Safer to copy the data over. When they installed the new one, I reminded them again that I was running RAID 1 and they should be sure to maintain that set-up.

I should have picked up this RAID problem earlier. I blame myself for not knowing that under RAID 0 drives are combined and only show one drive in Explorer, with a Drive Size equal to the size of the largest drive (which is what I was showing)... Raid 1 should show 2 individual drives, each with their drive Sizes, and JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) shows One Drive with the size the combined total...

From DAY ONE, I have never seen my full complement of 4 Drives in Explorer, only in the BIOS... I have only ever seen 3... 80 / 250 / 320.

The point is, JEDI should have realized that the RAID was set up wrong immediately on the Original build... and they should have noticed this every time they reinstalled Win XP. I certainly reminded them everytime.

Today RAID is an everyday part of computer configurations.. This was definately something that Jedi is responsible to know if they are building computers for people looking for more speciallized systems, as the majority of their customers are.

I think you know RAM testing software isn't reliable anyhow... in any case, could be timing issues, slot configuration issues, even BIOS issues which could affect how the RAM performs. Certainly, mixing different memory in a computer can often cause problems. For best reliability one should always buy the same memory from the same lot - and if upgrading memory, should generally buy all new memory and dump the old memory, even if it is the same make, model, and timing.

All the Memory was bought from Jedi at the same time... Each set bought as a Matched Pair.

But how, in Thailand, can you ever guarentee the same Batch?

As for recommending/not recommending a shop - I agree you should make your decisions on the information available - but be sure that the shop can be blamed for the problem in the first place. As for me, I don't recommend any shop any more. I do tell people who ask me to call my old partner, or Set It Up, depending on what they need.

So how do we contact your "old Partner"??

Who is "Set It Up" and how do we contact them????

Spread the Knowledge.

CS

[onethailand]

Haha...

RAID is not everyday, not by any stretch of the imagination. If the tech knew what he was doing, he would've known that he could've rebuilt the RAID array once the second drive was replaced. I think it's pretty clear that they aren't what they claim to be.

Set It Up is in Seri Center on Srinakarin Rd. I use them for buying components, but not to build machines even though I'm sure they're quite capable.

You have Reimar looking things over now so probably no need to contact them or my old partner - but if at any time you do need help, let me know and I will get in touch with my old partner (don't see him that much lately).

Come to think of it, if I knew I could draw enough business, I might be half tempted to open up again.

[Guest Reimar]

Haha...

RAID is not everyday, not by any stretch of the imagination. If the tech knew what he was doing, he would've known that he could've rebuilt the RAID array once the second drive was replaced. I think it's pretty clear that they aren't what they claim to be.

Set It Up is in Seri Center on Srinakarin Rd. I use them for buying components, but not to build machines even though I'm sure they're quite capable.

You have Reimar looking things over now so probably no need to contact them or my old partner - but if at any time you do need help, let me know and I will get in touch with my old partner (don't see him that much lately).

Come to think of it, if I knew I could draw enough business, I might be half tempted to open up again.

There wasn't any RAID installed, just named an HDD as RAID1-Data! There also wasn't any RAID driver installed or the BIOS set to work with RAID. While editing the HDD Header, there was only a simple NTFS File System but NOT any RAID reservation as it should be.

As there wasn't any RAID installed, there wasn't any way for to "rebuilt" one!

Cheers.

[CosmicSurfer]

Come to think of it, if I knew I could draw enough business, I might be half tempted to open up again.

I see that there have been over 900 Views of this Thread... that seems pretty indicitive of a suppressed need.

If you locate in a central location, like Fortune, that caters to a more Expat cliental, and not as Touristy as Pantip, I don't think you'd have any trouble attracting enough Business to make it worthwhile... Or even the New IT Building that is opening soon on Ratchada, across from Carrefour & Robinson. (The one that had the Big Fire just before it was scheduled to open.).. Even Pantip if you could get a good location at a decent Rent.

I've been saying for years that this town needs a Good place, where people can come and just TALK with someone to define their needs and get real information, not just a sales pitch and a lie...

As they say.... "Open it... and They will come!!!"

and not only farang.. but I'm sure that word would spread quickly in the Thai community... All the people that are keeping Jedi in business also need a place to go.. If I'm having all these problems, just how many Thais are having the same issues.. or worse.

I'm Farang and I know how to get pissed-off and yell until I get what I paid for. It's what I had to do with Synnex, before they finally replaced and upgraded my bum ASUS DVD. Too many Thais don't insist on getting decent Customer Service, and just keep quiet and accept the abuse.. but that doesn't mean that they like it, or aren't interested in a decent deal.

GO FOR IT !!!!

CS

[CosmicSurfer]

There wasn't any RAID installed, just named an HDD as RAID1-Data! There also wasn't any RAID driver installed or the BIOS set to work with RAID. While editing the HDD Header, there was only a simple NTFS File System but NOT any RAID reservation as it should be.

As there wasn't any RAID installed, there wasn't any way for to "rebuilt" one!

Cheers.

I Bow to Reimar's superior knowledge and experience....

and acknowledge my own ignorance.

CS

[Guest Reimar]

There wasn't any RAID installed, just named an HDD as RAID1-Data! There also wasn't any RAID driver installed or the BIOS set to work with RAID. While editing the HDD Header, there was only a simple NTFS File System but NOT any RAID reservation as it should be.

As there wasn't any RAID installed, there wasn't any way for to "rebuilt" one!

Cheers.

I Bow to Reimar's superior knowledge and experience....

and acknowledge my own ignorance.

CS

Lack of knowledge isn't ignorance!! Fortunately we're all imperfect humans with different knowledge and that is good so! How would the world be if there perfect humans?

Cheers.

[onethailand]

As there wasn't any RAID installed, there wasn't any way for to "rebuilt" one!

Haha... bloody hel_l... that explains it...

CS - actually we were one of the first to look at Fortune - and came very close to taking the spot where Anacom is now - right by the escalator. But we weren't generating enough profit to make that worthwhile, so we eventually passed on the spot.

The Tokyu building is a guaranteed disaster - no business will survive there because of the way the road in front is designed. I wouldn't move there if they paid me to.

Pantip - no way. Could've easily gotten space there but I don't like Pantip at all. Sleazier than Castrol.

The Thai community knew us - my partner was the original Cyrix overclocker, and I was the loudmouth farang But we were also known for picking unknown mainboard manufacturers and making them popular (Gigabyte and Abit) because of their tweakability. So whenever they had a problem, they came to us.

The trouble was, in those days Thais wouldn't pay more for computers with better specs - they only wanted the cheapest things they could get - can't really blame them. So we mostly had to depend on our farang clientele, who of course came and left every couple of years. Wasn't enough to survive then, even though we built plenty of systems for many of the international schools, as well as the network and machines for Chiva-Som when they were the top spa in the world.

Even had clientele I can't talk about... and one particularly notorious one I can talk about was our massage parlour tycoon Chuwit - whose son had heard about us and insisted that we were the only ones to build his machine. We built him a high-end gaming system - and then Chuwit wanted to pay by check (which we didn't accept at the time).

He says "Do you know who I am???" (we didn't) - then "I am the owner of Juliana's (now La Defense)" - I guarantee this check - come see me any time.

We took the check - first and last one ever - and it cashed. Though in retrospect I probably should've gone and cashed it at his establishment!

Actually, though, you've given me an idea - don't know if I will pursue it but might be worth looking into - thanks. And I do own thailandcomputer.com but haven't done anything with it yet.

Edited September 18, 2008 by onethailand

[CosmicSurfer]

The Thai community knew us - my partner was the original Cyrix overclocker, and I was the loudmouth farang But we were also known for picking unknown mainboard manufacturers and making them popular (Gigabyte and Abit) because of their tweakability. So whenever they had a problem, they came to us.

Actually, though, you've given me an idea - don't know if I will pursue it but might be worth looking into - thanks. And I do own thailandcomputer.com but haven't done anything with it yet.

A quick walk thru Pantip and Fortune easily shows that times have changed... High end stuff everywhere.... It seems the Market has caught up with the avilability of components... The Demand is there...

Now it needs Service to match.

Times Have Changed....

It's a Call to Arms

It's Your Duty

CS

Edited September 18, 2008 by CosmicSurfer

[onethailand]

A quick walk thru Pantip and Fortune easily shows that times have changed... High end stuff everywhere.... It seems the Market has caught up with the avilability of components... The Demand is there...

Now it needs Service to match.

Times Have Changed....

It's a Call to Arms

It's Your Duty

CS

LOL.

As I was saying... many claim to be high-end, none really know the difference except by using more expensive parts. The right parts were usually not hard to find even back then - just that most other shops didn't know which pieces were good and which worked with other components and which didn't...

Duty? Pshaw...

[spacemunk]

Haha...

RAID is not everyday, not by any stretch of the imagination. If the tech knew what he was doing, he would've known that he could've rebuilt the RAID array once the second drive was replaced. I think it's pretty clear that they aren't what they claim to be.

Set It Up is in Seri Center on Srinakarin Rd. I use them for buying components, but not to build machines even though I'm sure they're quite capable.

You have Reimar looking things over now so probably no need to contact them or my old partner - but if at any time you do need help, let me know and I will get in touch with my old partner (don't see him that much lately).

Come to think of it, if I knew I could draw enough business, I might be half tempted to open up again.

Open up! Sure as hel_l i would be a regular...haha.

I myself would be opening up a Internet Cafe or a Cyber Cafe known by many. Would also be selling hardwares and doing PC upgrades/repairs.

[onethailand]

Open up! Sure as hel_l i would be a regular...haha.

I myself would be opening up a Internet Cafe or a Cyber Cafe known by many. Would also be selling hardwares and doing PC upgrades/repairs.

Had an internet cafe too a couple of years ago - closed it Jan 2007. Poor choice of location, even though it was just off Saladaeng station in Thaniya Plaza... these days opening a cafe is much more complicated due to the new Internet law requiring identification and logging of activity for 90 days.

If I find the right place at the right price, I might do it - but I'm not keeping my hopes up.

[spacemunk]

Open up! Sure as hel_l i would be a regular...haha.

I myself would be opening up a Internet Cafe or a Cyber Cafe known by many. Would also be selling hardwares and doing PC upgrades/repairs.

Had an internet cafe too a couple of years ago - closed it Jan 2007. Poor choice of location, even though it was just off Saladaeng station in Thaniya Plaza... these days opening a cafe is much more complicated due to the new Internet law requiring identification and logging of activity for 90 days.

If I find the right place at the right price, I might do it - but I'm not keeping my hopes up.

Nice.

Yeah hard to find a good location with a good flow of ppl traffic.

Back in Singapore the internet law is the same. We had to note down Identification of Users and keep a track log of all traffic in the PC's.

I also used to OverClock and keep up to date with the latest hardware....But over here its like the hardware is all out of date....haha.

Abt 6mths ago i went to Zeer and asked them abt the new graphic card GTX280 and they all gave me a "<deleted> u talking abt" look

[CosmicSurfer]

ALL HAIL THE GREAT and ALL POWERFUL REIMAR ....

Computer is back and all seems fine now..... (fingers crossed)

Now just have to get the RAID installed.... I had to hold off until I find a faster method to move my data onto External drives, and then create the Raid, and move it back.

Too much data.. Too little time.... Too many duplicates of the same info, photos and songs.

Time to clean house.

CS

[onethailand]

Way to go Reimar...

CS - for your RAID, if you are doing RAID 1 (mirroring) with a 1x1 array, and the second hard drive is blank and same make and model, you should be able to setup RAID by asking the controller to mirror the existing drive. If the process fails for whatever reason it should not damage your primary hard disk.

[Guest Reimar]

Way to go Reimar...

CS - for your RAID, if you are doing RAID 1 (mirroring) with a 1x1 array, and the second hard drive is blank and same make and model, you should be able to setup RAID by asking the controller to mirror the existing drive. If the process fails for whatever reason it should not damage your primary hard disk.

1: You're right for the most RAID controllers but unfortunate the onboard controller of CS Computer didn't support that function.

2: But maybe damage the Data HDD you like to convert! Bad idea!

To be on the safe side, just a few days, until all is copied to an external drive and after that back to the Raid-Volume. And as CS told, time to clean house (old drive)! Maybe that saves a lot time as well!

Cheers.

[onethailand]

Way to go Reimar...

CS - for your RAID, if you are doing RAID 1 (mirroring) with a 1x1 array, and the second hard drive is blank and same make and model, you should be able to setup RAID by asking the controller to mirror the existing drive. If the process fails for whatever reason it should not damage your primary hard disk.

1: You're right for the most RAID controllers but unfortunate the onboard controller of CS Computer didn't support that function.

2: But maybe damage the Data HDD you like to convert! Bad idea!

To be on the safe side, just a few days, until all is copied to an external drive and after that back to the Raid-Volume. And as CS told, time to clean house (old drive)! Maybe that saves a lot time as well!

Cheers.

According to my research, his controllers should support that function - though as I have not looked at it myself I can't say for sure - the MB was a P5KR, correct, and he was using the onboard Intel RAID controllers?

As for damage - shouldn't happen because no write should take place to the primary drive until such time as the secondary drive has been mirrored and ready to convert into RAID array.

But I do agree - nothing wrong with being safe and backing up to an external drive, and or doing a bit of housecleaning.

[Guest Reimar]

The RAID onboard of that MB isn't the same as documented by Asus!

I wouldn't take the risk for to "test" the function working correctly and loose the data instead! It's my own computer, I had an external backup anyway and wouldn't mind! But otherwise?

Cheers.