Thoughts; Support; HEXUS.right2reply
At just over £90 including VAT at the time of writing, the EQS A72K9-CF represents the cheapest way to equip your PC system with a Crossfire Edition mainboard. Sapphire's version sits at £100 including VAT and it's nearly identical to the EQS; no surprise given their PC Partner ties. DFI's offering will debut at the wrong side of £150 upon introduction later this month, leaving the EQS as the only shipping Crossfire Edition mainboard, at least in the UK.Given that information and knowing that the EQS A72K9-CF is a solid all-rounder with good performance, a fine feature list and good layout, it's an impressive mainboard in isolation. However, the current generation of Crossfire graphics boards have glaring limitations and while price is falling fast on those X850 XT-based Master boards, Crossfire as a platform is just not worth buying into just now.
Further, given that nForce4 mainboards are more feature rich, as flexible, and you can buy nForce4 SLI mainboards for less money than the EQS, nearly all of which will have greater appeal to the enthusiast, it's hard to recommend the EQS in all good conscience. If you absolutely must have Crossfire with Socket 939 and you don't want to wait and spend nearly £70 more for the DFI, then the EQS appeals.
Otherwise it's a staid mainboard with not enough honest appeal, or a price to make it worth a purchase. Especially versus strong competition from nForce4-based SKUs. We're in arguably a golden age for mainboards just now, especially with Socket 939 and PCI Express, and the EQS doesn't put a hair above others on the market, never mind its head and shoulders.
EQS Support
I hinted to you on page 4 while I talked about the BIOS that the EQS support mechanism was worth talking about some more. And in Europe that's definitely the case. With EQS UK the worldwide service centre for ATI graphics products (barring North America and Canada) and EQS UK also the worldwide service centre for all of Sapphire's products from mainboard to graphics, the company is certainly setup to well support their European customers.Each EQS customer gets a voucher that's part of their mainboard box (that can be cut out and kept separate if you need to get rid of the box) that entitles you to a speedy and free RMA, should your product become faulty. EQS promise to turn it around within 10 working days, with an internal turnaround target of 2 to 5 and you get a new voucher on the box it's returned in should you need to RMA again.
There's no need to return the product to trade or retail for a replacement or repair - which can often take quite some time due to stock levels, testing procedures and a replacement with the vendor - and EQS retain a stock of mainboards going back nearly 5 years at their UK base to service customers effectively and quickly, should a repair be impossible and a replacement be required.
While that information doesn't change our opinion on the A72K9-CF itself, it's an aspect of an EQS board purchase that requires some attention and thought. The support of a product is almost as important as the product itself, so HEXUS pledge to take support into account in our evaluations of PC component products and indeed anything else we evaluate, since it can make a difference to what you buy and where you buy it from.
Our world renowned TRUST.HEXUS system is arguably the best way to gauge the quality of customer care and technical support you're likely to find with reputable UK retailers.
HEXUS Awards
EQS A72K9-CF Crossfire Edition Mainboard
HEXUS Right2Reply
Now you’ve read our take, have a read what the manufacturer of the EQS A72K9-CF Crossfire Edition mainboard has to say in response to our editorial.Commenting under our world leading HEXUS Right2Reply initiative, Boyd Chung, Major Account Executive for EQS LTD writes:-
Thank you for an honest and forthright review.
However we still think the Crossfire platform is better than nForce SLI. The reasons are as follows:-
- X1300 to X1800 is just around the corner once released will outperform the competition across the board.
- Comparison between 7XXX and X850 is rather unfair as they are not from the same generation of technology and also the cost factor.
- ATI cards generally perform better under the Direct3D in comparison to the same line of technology as nVidia.
- ATI Crossfire is by hardware and is compatible with all applications whereas SLI will only give better performance for software specially compiled to take advantage of SLI
- The price of EQS A72K9-CF CrossFire motherboard is very reasonable. It is a great value motherboard with Full Features, Overclockable, 3 years Warranty and Direct Technical Support down to End-user.
Thanks again for the review.
Cheers!!!
Best Regards,
Boyd Chung:-
EQS LTD - Major Account Executive
Please note that a manufacturers own comments are not necessarily the views of HEXUS; a manufacturers comments published under the world-leading HEXUS Right2Reply initiative are provided so that HEXUS readers can see both sides of the coin – the opinion of HEXUS and the opinion of the manufacturer – upon which HEXUS readers can make the most informed purchasing decisions.
