DFI 748-AL: First Look at SiS 748

DFI 748-AL: Tech Support and RMA

The way our Tech Support evaluation works is first, we anonymously email the manufacturer's tech support address(es), obviously not using our AnandTech mail server to avoid any sort of preferential treatment. Our emails (we can and will send more than one just to make sure we're not getting the staff on an "off" day) all contain fixable problems that we've had with our motherboard. We allow the manufacturer up to 72 (business) hours to respond, and then we will report whether or not they responded within the time allotted, and if they were successful in fixing our problems. In case we don’t receive a response before the review is published, any future responses will be added to the review, including the total time it took for the manufacturer to respond to our requests.

The idea here is to encourage manufacturers to improve their technical support as well as provide new criteria upon which to base your motherboard purchasing decisions. As motherboards become more similar everyday, we have to help separate the boys from the men in as many ways as possible. As usual, we're interested in your feedback on this and other parts of our reviews, so please do email us with your comments.

DFI’s easily obtainable RMA policy can be found by visiting their U.S. website at www.dfiusa.com and by clicking on the “Support” hyperlink at the menu listed on the left of their home page, which makes for simple, straightforward access. The international DFI site is linked from this site, or can be accessed at www.dfi.com. Further Technical Support and FAQ’s are available at this main site. If you would like to RMA your DFI motherboard, DFI suggests that you should first contact the vendor from where you purchased your motherboard before reaching out to DFI’s tech support and RMA.

For US customers, Technical Support is available by email at techsupport@dfiweb.com. Since the DFI 748-AL is an Engineering Sample, we did not see any realistic way we could ask for technical support on an unreleased board and get response such that an average customer might receive. So, we did not go through our usual procedure of sending an email for tech support. Our past experiences with DFI technical support have been excellent, and we have seen nothing recently to change that opinion. We suspect you will continue to receive fast and helpful responses to your Tech Support questions for DFI products.

DFI offers very clear instructions for motherboard returns as well as any technical support questions — for both US and international customers. Those who cannot find a local resource should send their Tech Support inquiries to the main site in Taiwan. DFI seems to be expanding their on-line resources, and there was more on-line information available than we found in the last look at DFI. There is more good news, however, in that the information and resources are still easy to find – without going through endless links. DFI has done an outstanding job of making customer service a priority, and we think many of you will be pleasantly surprised at the responsiveness you will find in your contacts with DFI.