I just had to share two recent examples of why I will always prefer SuperMicro:
First, had a Motherboard's IPMI die a couple of weeks ago. Board was almost two years old from invoice date - out of 1 year hardware warranty but still inside 3 year "labor" warranty. Contacted SuperMicro support to ask how they would handle it and they suggested to just RMA it and if it was not covered they'd return it to me as is. Got it back today - in the form of a brand new replacement board. I know from experience that ASUS and ASROCK probably wouldn't have even responded to my support ticket at all - much less replaced the out of warranty motherboard.
Second, I purchased a used chassis on eBay recently. It came without the proper fan brackets on the midplane. It was a great deal and the seller didn't have another one and didn't have the fan brackets. So I guessed on what they might cost to buy and settled with them for a partial refund. Now for why I love SuperMicro - no matter where I looked I couldn't find the right part number for the brackets. So I took a picture of what was missing and sent a note to SuperMicro's support email explaining what I needed and asking if they could identify the part number. Next day I get this response: "If you give me a shipping account and address I'll ship you three brackets at no cost". Can't beat that kind of service - especially since I freely admitted I had sourced a used box from eBay and was trying to repair it before reselling it.
These are the reasons why - given a choice, used or new - I will always prefer to buy SuperMicro.
First, had a Motherboard's IPMI die a couple of weeks ago. Board was almost two years old from invoice date - out of 1 year hardware warranty but still inside 3 year "labor" warranty. Contacted SuperMicro support to ask how they would handle it and they suggested to just RMA it and if it was not covered they'd return it to me as is. Got it back today - in the form of a brand new replacement board. I know from experience that ASUS and ASROCK probably wouldn't have even responded to my support ticket at all - much less replaced the out of warranty motherboard.
Second, I purchased a used chassis on eBay recently. It came without the proper fan brackets on the midplane. It was a great deal and the seller didn't have another one and didn't have the fan brackets. So I guessed on what they might cost to buy and settled with them for a partial refund. Now for why I love SuperMicro - no matter where I looked I couldn't find the right part number for the brackets. So I took a picture of what was missing and sent a note to SuperMicro's support email explaining what I needed and asking if they could identify the part number. Next day I get this response: "If you give me a shipping account and address I'll ship you three brackets at no cost". Can't beat that kind of service - especially since I freely admitted I had sourced a used box from eBay and was trying to repair it before reselling it.
These are the reasons why - given a choice, used or new - I will always prefer to buy SuperMicro.