ASUS PRIME B660M-A D4 DDR4

la scheda è arrivata velocissima grazie alla ottima logistica di Amazon. Purtroppo non ho potuto utilizzare la scheda perchè l’esemplare che mi è arrivato, nel mio PC dava sempre un errore iniziale (in rosso e su sfondo nero) “CPU Fan Error”. Ho dovuto pertanto chiedere il reso ad Amazon. Peccato perchè a livello di componentistica e per un utilizzo “officw” del PC, si tratta di una scheda madre discreta.

L’ Asus Prime Z490-P è una scheda madre entry level adatta ha chiunque voglia costruire un Pc che sia compatibile con la decima generazione di CPU Intel. La scheda madre, o anche motherboard, è la parte più importante di un qualsiasi PC in quanto ha il fondamentale compito di gestire e alimentare correttamente e contemporaneamente tutte le varie componenti ad essa collegate, quindi processore, memoria RAM, disco fisso, SSD, scheda video, masterizzatore, e così via dicendo.

Asus ha così ha deciso di realizzare un prodotto che caratterizzato da una struttura semplice, solida, completa e dalle qualità sopraffine che consentono, anche a colui che è alle prime armi, di poter operare ad un elevato livello performante. Nonostante abbia qualche piccola mancanza per arrivare all’eccellenza e sia un prodotto appartenente alla fascia media, rappresenta di sicuro uno dei “must buy” se si vuole passare alla undicesima generazione senza dover per forza spendere cifre esorbitanti Andiamo a scoprire meglio nel dettaglio di che cosa si tratta:

ok about this motherboard. the good and the bad. ok it at the start. let’s start there. instructions to use it is easy and you can overclock if you need to or you can go straight to the bios and select your hard drive or USB stick. if you’re reads reinstalling windows. have a USB stick or thumb drive and install Windows onto it. you can plug it into your PC go to the windows website and install Windows onto your flash drive. the faster your flash drive is the faster Windows will install it will take at literally 8 to 10 minutes. that’s including typing into your CD key to activate it. it’s that fast. now the bad thing even if you have windows on your C drive or one of your hard drives it still won’t detect it. it took me 6 hours to figure out I had to reinstall Windows over my already working Windows drive. I have a separate hard drive Just for Windows SSD and other windows programs like soundcard and TeamSpeak and other things you need. but it’s still a pain when you have to reinstall everything at all over again. but reinstalling all your other operating systems making sure your websites recognise you and doing all your operation systems. is a real pain in the bottom. but if I knew I had to do it then I would have started a lot sooner. I had to plug in my old power supply old motherboard old RAM old monitor just so I can go onto internet. and go onto Google so I can figure out but to do. but they’re videos all show them automatically seen the operation system for windows to boot up from. so it didn’t help me. so be careful buying this motherboard it’s good but unless if you know you have to reinstall Windows you may not like it.

I’m a long-time user of ASUS motherboards and routers. My ROG MAXIMUS VIII Ranger ran at 25% overclocked every day, courtesy of a huge Noctua double fan cooler. The hardware requirements for Windows 11 reminded me that the i5 K CPU is only 6th generation, so it was time to change. My choice of the Prime Z490-A and i7-10700K was more based on working efficiently than a gaming rig.

The first motherboard was an Amazon Warehouse as new purchase. I’ve had excellent deals from Amazon Warehouse in the past but this wasn’t one of them, and clearly a used faulty return. As I was running Microsoft Windows and Office, the change of Motherboard and CPU meant buying a new licence. The many hours spent trying to sort the first motherboard weren’t repeated with the second. The known error with the Intel ethernet adapter “appears” to have been fixed. The layout for cabling and access is improved when compared with the Ranger. However, the diagnostics are reduced to multi-coloured LEDs (I miss the Ranger Q-code alphanumeric readout), there are limited chassis fan headers, the chipset needs the retro-fitted fan (it runs at 50 C at normal speed). The ASUS description states that it supports [ASUS] Thunderbolt 3. However, my ASUS PCIe ThunderboltEX 3 card requires a 5 pin header but the motherboard has a 14 pin header, so my EX 3 card has to be replaced by a new 3-TR card that Amazon have just increased in price from £90 to £133!

A quirk that I haven’t come across before. The BIOS.cap file download identified by ASUS “Armoury Crate” has a different number than the BIOS. ASUS Support say that the BIOS shown in Armoury Crate is out of date!

It has the potential to be a good motherboard for the money, as it’s currently running air-cooled at 35% overclock, quiet and cool. The first motherboard appears to have been faulty and old stock (ASUS Support advised not covered by warranty). The ethernet adapter problem affects other manufacturers too. The first motherboard was returned to Amazon as it was the worst motherboard that I’ve installed. The replacement works well as of October 2021. There is a serious Intel CSME vulnerability, and whilst there is a detection download and a fix, they are not easy to find.

It’s cost more than £500 to update for Windows 11 and several days trying to sort the first motherboard. Our Surface Book laptop appears to be Windows 11 compliant. Windows 10, Android and unsupported Office 2010 or Libre Office will suit me just fine for the rest of my kit.

ASUS UK advise they no longer issue RMAs. The 3 or 5 year warranty for a motherboard is handled by the retailer by arrangement with the retailer. If the retailer doesn’t have an agreement with ASUS or it is bought from a private seller, there doesn’t appear to be a way of returning a faulty item. I had a VRM stage fail on a new ROG motherboard bought from a private seller; ASUS UK don’t want to know. Before buying an ASUS motherboard, check with a seller that they have an agreement with ASUS to handle the ASUS warranty for the stated number of years.

Elle n’a pas durée longtemps, j’ai utilisé la carte 2 jours et après j’ai eu que des blocages (écran bleu à répétition)…
Dans la boite le Q CONNECTOR était incompatible avec la carte, incroyable… Il faut faire attention car maintenant amazon envoi des produits qui sont reconditionnés alors que le produit était soit disant “neuf” c’est un peu inadmissible, je dis cela car j’avais des doutes sur cette carte. Faites attention, vérifiez bien vos articles.