Before I start, I would like to apologize if my post sounds like a flame post to some of y’all. I just would like to take the opportunity to voice out my concerns as a new owner of GTX 1070 FTW.
I am from Malaysia whereby EVGA does not have an official presence over here however this brand has a certain appeal in the market being rare and generally perceived higher quality compared to regional brands based within fellow Asian countries no thanks to multiple positive reviews via reputable sites and youtube reviewers.
Here I am after receiving a paltry one-month worth of job bonus totaled to RM 4,000. I have decided to upgrade my existing PC and decided to get myself a GTX 1070 FTW from Amazon US (after conversion it cost me RM 2300, which to me was a rather huge savings compared to the local price of RM 2600. The RM 300 savings would allow me to procure a decent EVGA 500B PSU to tie me up for the time being.
I have to say that the experience of getting an EVGA card has nothing but a disappointing one. I am not entitled to the Powerlink promo, not entitled for the Gear of War 4 code giveaway. Being a ham-handed fella, I have asked my local IT online forum members whether anyone is willing to assist in helping to apply the said cooling pads (if I can get my hands on, fingers crossed) and none of them are willing as to avoid any negative repercussion stemming from the DIY MOD. The subsequent alternative was to send over to EVGA’s Technical offices in Taiwan for the RMA exchange and postage alone will cost me approx. RM 200
This is as opposed to my experience I had assisting my office colleague in his Polaris card from a certain Taiwanese brand with a penchant for gaudy dragon images on their gaming range products. (I did not buy that brand because initially I still don't wish to make my system internals to look like a disco-fied Chinese restaurant, and yes I am Chinese for the record). This brand was actually very helpful in situations such as bricked cards due to crappy BIOS mods, willing to accept RMA after my colleague unscrewed the backplate, etc). This company may not have all the bells and whistles of free gifts, step up programs etc but to me a simple personalized call with a supporting follow-up email really sealed the deal for me for my next upgrade in the near future (since this company has products for Nvidia cards too).
I am not here to ask for full refund neither for a free, all cost bearing RMA program, but I just humbly appeal the corporate heads to consider having a regional technical office either in Malaysia or even Singapore to serve the greater part of South East Asian countries and also to have the step up program extended to our end also not just limited to luxury confines of certain Western Hemisphere countries at the very least in the foreseeable future. With the current situation in hand, I am anticipating a rather huge cut down in resell prices for my card in the foreseeable future should I decide to upgrade to a better card.
These are my rant after blowing 65% of my monthly salary (which is the same of amount of my received bonus) on a GPU which I had high hopes for but just gave me concerns and trepidation time and again after receiving it within less than a month.
Thank you for reading.