Well here's what I think and know about them.
They are made by Hsing tech, which is the PC Chips/Elitegroup/PCWare/Alton/Amptron/ECS group of companies, and a few more that hang their name on Hsing Tech boards, like Dallas micro.
If they work when they get to you, they will work until a) you mess with them, b) a capacitor blows.
Returns can be quite high, but Amptron usually has better quality standards than the rest of the Hsing tech lot, so you might have just a reasonable DOA rate.
They can be quite FAST!??! Yes, they don't really put in safeguards to stability and you can tweak them up really nice, however inexperienced users will often complain they are unstable, that is because of this and because....
Hsing Tech boards get a slightly worse rep than they deserve because they are cheap and therefore get into systems that also have cheap PSUs Cheap RAM, Cheap CPU coolers, cheap everything else. Therefore they would seem to exhibit more problems than would entirely be their fault.
So, if you are getting these boards, set them up with conservative timings for stability, don't use them in highly demanding environments, (High ambient heat and humidity etc) or the cheaper capacitors might not like it, make sure the CPU is supplied adequate cooling and that the PSU is stable, and dont necessarily blame the board until you've checked it out with top brand components.
Most people seem to kill these boards when upgrading parts, CPUs that load the voltage regs too highly etc, so take note of the max CPU recommended and don't push your luck.
All in all though, they are pretty good value for the price, they have their tricks and wrinkles to get used to, Amptron has the best support out of the Hsing Tech companies, and if the boards are treated with care they can provide many years of service. I've got some 7 year old 486 boards from them going strong and one 6 yo pent board working good.
I haven't had one die on me, I've bought them dead as bulk junk, and never figured the cause of their demise, apart from a couple of times it was the capacitor problem and I've had them run and run.
However, in your situation, unless you are trying to justify your continued existance as support personnel or trying to spread a tiny budget very thinly I would, despite what is mainly a neutral experience with them on my part, while being appreciative of their economy, recommend that you source some motherboards from a company that has a bit of a better reputation, and will stand behind them with more weight when it comes to RMA issues. The general computing public is kinda rough with our darlings and you want to look good.
regards,
Road Warrior
