To Return or Not to Return?

[bbolaro]

As I posted previously, I stupidly bought an 8500 OEM from newegg which had 4ns RAM as well as clocking at 230/230. The RAM won't clock higher than 250, although the core clocks to 285. And I'm not willing to take a major risk volt modding it. I may just be being overly picky and ridiculous as this is already a nice board, but I am considering returning it. However, with restocking, shipping and repurchasing it's another $40 at least added to the $189 I've already spent. So I'm looking for your input and advice. As an investment, is it worth it to return and buy a new one or keep it and deal with it? And if I do return what company whould you recommend?

[funnyperson1]

bump, cmon he needs some advice on this.....

[AntmanMike]

at guru3d.com, they have BIOS's.m You can flash the current OEM bios with a standard ATI one or a custom one.guru3d.com (http://www.guru3d.com) Hope this helps.

[mbigna]

Why do you want to return it at all? A stock Radeon 8500 should last you at least 2 years even if it doesn't overclock well. Did I miss something? What would you want to replace it with?

[flounder43]

Return it, to get a retail one, telling them that you are not satisfied, and that you found yourself misled...

Offer to send the extra money to get a Retail Radeon...along with your card, which you apparently found substandard...

[juliendogg]

if you can afford to i'd return it for a retail version or at least a 250\250 oem. from what little i know of flashing the bios it's not going to help your overclock much and i do know it's not recomended for any card with 4ns ram.

[Fightingpiper]

Yea but Flounder doesn't newegg list everything that is OEM as OEM. I do not believe this gent was misled but just unhappy that he couldn't overclock his purposly bought (cheaper) OEM card to retail card numbers. Its not neweggs fault that it doesn't overclock as well as he would have liked. It's like getting bad stepping on a CPU. You can pay more for guaranteed stepping or pay less and take a chance. he took a chance. or I could be wrong-its been known to happen.

[Silversinksam]

Originally posted by AntmanMike
at guru3d.com, they have BIOS's.m You can flash the current OEM bios with a standard ATI one or a custom one.guru3d.com (http://www.guru3d.com) Hope this helps.


You cant flash an OEM 8500 with 4 ns Ram


And you can get the Bios flash file Here as well, thanks to Pinky hosting it (http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52759)


If I had recieved an OEM with both a 230 core and 4ns ram I would send it back to Newegg, and buy an OEM with a 250 core and check the Vmem to see if you have a Retail 8500 with an OEM bios, if so Flash it and you will be happy, or simply use it with powerstrip like im doing cruising at 300/300


If your still confused read this http://www.overclockers.com/tips757


Its a total cr@pshoot buying an OEM Radeon at this time as they come in these OEM flavors:

OEM 250/250 with 3.6ns ram
OEM 250/250 with 4ns Ram
OEM 230/250 with 4ns ram
OEM 230/230 with 4ns ram
OEM 250/250 with 3.5 Vmem (really a Retail with OEM bios)
OEM 250/250 with 3.15 vmem


And if you find yourself in a position where you will have to solder resistors to attain Retail speeds and are not good at soldering buy a retail card or hold out and wait a month for Gigabytes Retail radeon 8500 its awesome and way better than ATI's retail version

[flounder43]

Originally posted by Fightingpiper
Yea but Flounder doesn't newegg list everything that is OEM as OEM. I do not believe this gent was misled but just unhappy that he couldn't overclock his purposly bought (cheaper) OEM card to retail card numbers. Its not neweggs fault that it doesn't overclock as well as he would have liked. It's like getting bad stepping on a CPU. You can pay more for guaranteed stepping or pay less and take a chance. he took a chance. or I could be wrong-its been known to happen.

Yep, his mistake.

[Silversinksam]

Originally posted by flounder43


Yep, his mistake.

Actually I admire Newegg for at least listing exactly the Oem version they are selling primarily the core speed OEM @230

Many Pricewatch vendors may be selling the 230 core 4ns OEM version and you would never know till you got it hoping it was at least a 250/250 with 3.6ns ram

Newegg isnt the bad guy as I see it.


:eh?:

[bbolaro]

Newegg is definitely not to blame here, just my own stupidity. They're a great company. I'm only asking what I should to to remedy a mess that I created.

[OnDborder]

Actually, when the 8500 became able to purchase, I went to Newegg's site to order one. I called and talked to a Newegg sales rep about the difference in OEM and retail. She said it was just the wrapping was different and no extra software. So I ordered one. The next day I read on the 3drage site that the OEM's had lower numbers, so I called Newegg back and explained to them what the problem was. They had already had it in the shipping process. But the sales rep informed me that they had just received a memo from ATI explaining the situation that day and had not known about it the day before. So he said to just reject the shipment when it arrives with no restocking fee.
Newegg is "top-shelf" in my book.
That was then, this is now. Newegg has in bold lettering "Core 230 MHZ" now in their description of the card.
Return the card and eat the restocking fee if you aren't happy.

[Fightingpiper]

If you are not happy and their return policy allows you to return it then do it. Thats what return policies are for. Granted your gonna be charged a restocking fee. When you return it someones gonna get a great deal on it because its probably go to there refurb section and sell for less. Personally I would keep it. You have a card thats better than 95% of the peple out there and should last you for a few years. Are you actually gonna see any realworld differences in the performance of your card vs. a retail one? probably not enough to justify the restocking fee and higher price of retail. Benchmark scores are not everything-value is just as important and you have a pretty good value.

my 2 pennies

cheers!

[Silver]

I do believe that guru3d is down for good.:confused:

[Wega!]

I would keep it. Put some good heat sinks on the RAM's, and I'm sure you will be able to overclock them good. I've just got my Radeon (with 4ns RAM) up to 272/285Mhz.