I've been shopping at NewEgg since they literally opened (back in 2001). I remember searching for NewEgg reviews, and finding out a lot of people did not trust this 'new company'. I was only 16 at the time, and I was working 20 hours a week making $5.15 an hour. In other words, I didn't have a lot of cash to spend, so I gave NewEgg a chance in 2001 when I ordered an OEM AMD Duron 950mhz processor for around $50, and a Open Box Socket A motherboard for a mere $25. Hell, for $75 I was getting a motherboard and a CPU (it was, and will forever be my favorite computer setup ever).
Over the past seven years, I have ordered a lot of shit from NewEgg. I've ordered more RAM and processors than you can shake a stick at. One of the biggest things I order from NewEgg are Open Box motherboards. I do this because, they usually close to 1/2 price of the new boards, and secondly I really don't need all the crap that comes with a motherboard. In case you didn't know, when you buy a open box board from NewEgg, you're basically getting the motherboard alone (if you're lucky they put it in a box, but lately they have just been shipping me the board wrapped in bubblewrap).
I haven't used a floppy drive in the past five years, so I don't need the FDD cable (truth be told, I have about twenty brand new ones from boards I have purchased just laying in a box in my basement). IDE cables are great, but I have a shitload of those too. Some motherboards come with SATA cables, and some even come with molex to SATA power adapters (which are the greatest thing in the universe, but they are all lacking).
And those manuals that come with motherboards? Forget about them. I swear, motherboard manufacturers don't even bother to update the manuals. They all consist of the same things;
1. How To Install CPU
2. How To Install RAM
3. Shitty Explanation Of Board Features
4. Shitty Explanation OF BIOS Features
Totally useless, unless you are clueless.
Anyhow, back to my original point. I have purchased many items from NewEgg over the past seven years. I've purchased new products (I ONLY EVER BUY NEW CPUS. I WILL NEVER EVER BUY A USED / OPEN BOX / REFURBISHED CPU), new OEM, refurbished, and open box products. I've only had mild problems with products I purchased in the past (PC SHIT.. or CHIPS motherboards failing after a couple of months), but now I can say I've finally had a problem with a NEwEgg product, and had to file for an RMA.
I bought a Open Box AM2 motherboard to go along with my new Athlon LE-1620 processor. I have pretty much always been either a Biostar or PC Chips guy when it comes to motherboards, but this time I decided to give Gigabyte a chance. So I ordered an open box GIGABYTE GA-M61SME-S2 motherboard. It retails new for $49, but I got it open box for $35 (keep in mind, this board is just for a hobby box, meaning I'm going to benchmark the CPU, screw around with Linux, and then sell it in a few weeks like I usually do).
I was really excited for the board and CPU to come, but when the board arrived I knew I was finally going to have a problem with a NewEgg order. Instead of coming in a box, they wrapped the board in bubblewrap! Usually when I order a board from NewEgg, they at least put it in a motherboard box. But not with this board.
I anxiously through the system together. And I booted it up, and was quickly let down.
It booted ok.
The VGA output was all messed up. After a careful analysis, the north bridge Geforce 6100 chip was having some serious issues. I had to keep constant pressure on the corner of the heatsink in order for the integrated display to function correctly. Not only that, but because I believe the South bridge was also in the same area, as the computer acted retarded (Couldn't recognize a SATA drive, gave hundreds of errors booting a Linux livecd, etc).
Sadly, I had to file a RMA request from NewEgg. I was really pissed off when I found out that NewEgg was going to charge be a $5 restocking fee (how can you restock a defective motherboard) and I had to pay $9 to ship the son of a bitch board back to them. That means, I spent a total of $41 for the board ($35 + $6 shipping) and will get a total of $27 back. I was really just planning on junking the board, but I have that beautiful AMD Athlon LE-1620 with a freakin' meg of L2 cache to use.
Pretty hard to buy a AM2 board for $27. I guess I can honestly say that after all of these years of being a Newegg customer, I am kind of pissed that I am losing 35% of my initial investment and a couple hours of my time because I received a defectvie board.
