Too many cooks
Posted on 2nd Sep 2010 at 11:27 by Richard Swinburne with 25 comments
I never really gave much thought to the continual obsession of branding every possible motherboard feature. Of course I've I noted the new name for a new chip or feature as I do reviews, but that's about it.
Recently though, I sat down and did a very unmanly thing: I read through the manual of the board I was testing. Actually, first I browsed through the motherboard's reviewers guide while Windows 7 installed - these are documents issued to the press to tell us what range of results the company is getting internally from a few standard tests (usually 3DMark of some kind), so we know our board isn't broken. It's also used to highlight how to use the groovy new features.
Once I got reading and quickly got lost among the many, many names the company uses for every conceivable facet of its board design. In fact, after some deciphering, it even appears some features have different names depending on the method in which you use them!
I'm sure the company is trying to get across the fact that the board is full of great features, but the consequence is that it's a communications mess, shouting about a vast matrix of forced acronyms and mini-brands that offer little in the way of explanations.
This isn't just limited to one company; all three of the major Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers are obsessed with branding each and every feature.
That said, at the moment, on its high-end boards, Asus does seem to be taking it to the next level. Let me give a demonstration of a list of branded features of just ONE Asus AMD motherboard:
I'm sure Asus wants to shout about the design advantage it feels it has, and that consumers must be made aware of every single thing the board does, but my feeling is that's not going to be achieved by this torrent of branding.
In contrast, if we look at another big company such as Intel, we can see it builds only a few, very strong well known brands that it markets to the general public - such as Pentium, Core, Centrino, vPro. Within these brands there are some technical features which get a marketing name (eg SSE), but these aren't plastered over every CPU box. They're in the background there just for who ask.
Of course, not even Intel gets it right - particularly when it comes to model numbers - and Nvidia has a famously tortuous relationship with product names as well. So Asus and the other Taiwanese motherboard companies clearly aren't alone in this. Simplicity is difficult.
Recently though, I sat down and did a very unmanly thing: I read through the manual of the board I was testing. Actually, first I browsed through the motherboard's reviewers guide while Windows 7 installed - these are documents issued to the press to tell us what range of results the company is getting internally from a few standard tests (usually 3DMark of some kind), so we know our board isn't broken. It's also used to highlight how to use the groovy new features.
Once I got reading and quickly got lost among the many, many names the company uses for every conceivable facet of its board design. In fact, after some deciphering, it even appears some features have different names depending on the method in which you use them!
I'm sure the company is trying to get across the fact that the board is full of great features, but the consequence is that it's a communications mess, shouting about a vast matrix of forced acronyms and mini-brands that offer little in the way of explanations.
This isn't just limited to one company; all three of the major Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers are obsessed with branding each and every feature.
That said, at the moment, on its high-end boards, Asus does seem to be taking it to the next level. Let me give a demonstration of a list of branded features of just ONE Asus AMD motherboard:
- Turbo Key II
- Core Unlocker (accessible through 3 different methods: onboard switch, POST screen shortcut and in the BIOS)
- EZ Flash 2
- CrashFree BIOS 3
- BIOS Updater (different from EZ Flash?)
- CPU Level UP
- GPU Booster
- iGPU Speedstep
- OC Tuner Utility (see Turbo Key II, 'second generation' apparently, but why doesn't this get a #2 unlike everything else?)
- Express Gate
- OC Profile
- AI Net 2
- Asus Hybrid Processor: TurboV EVO
- Asus EPU
- Asus TPU
- Turbo Unlocker
- TurboV (non-EVO)
- TurboKey (#1 not #2 - software only, different from TurboV)
- Auto Tuning (see OC Tuner, see Turbo Key II)
- Asus Hybrid Switches (see Turbo Key II, see Core Unlocker)
- Asus Anti-Surge Protection
- Asus MemOK!
- Asus Fan Xpert ('new and improved' apparently, but again, not #2?)
- Asus QFan ('new and improved' too but no #2?)
- Asus MyLogo 2
- Asus Precision Tweaker 2
- Asus Stepless Frequency Selection (SFS)
- Asus CPR (CPU Parameter Recall)
- Asus AI Tweaker
- Asus WiFi-AP @n
I'm sure Asus wants to shout about the design advantage it feels it has, and that consumers must be made aware of every single thing the board does, but my feeling is that's not going to be achieved by this torrent of branding.
In contrast, if we look at another big company such as Intel, we can see it builds only a few, very strong well known brands that it markets to the general public - such as Pentium, Core, Centrino, vPro. Within these brands there are some technical features which get a marketing name (eg SSE), but these aren't plastered over every CPU box. They're in the background there just for who ask.
Of course, not even Intel gets it right - particularly when it comes to model numbers - and Nvidia has a famously tortuous relationship with product names as well. So Asus and the other Taiwanese motherboard companies clearly aren't alone in this. Simplicity is difficult.
25 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyThe main issue is, indeed, figuring out what the feature really does, if anything. Most of the individual descriptions don't seem to tell you anything except that it is really really good at whatever it is meant to do, and you cannot live without it.
Pure marketing. After months with it, I still don't really know what some features are meant to do.
It seems like a form of "overcompensation".
For example if Asus started to strip all these names from the boxes all together and simplify it, an average Joe would walk into a shop, compare an Asus box with a Gigabyte box and think the Gigabyte board is better, due to all these so called features.
I always grimace and clench my teeth slightly whenever I see an advert for some computer part with a "TURBO V8 CORE!" slogan on it, or whenever I see an Antec Dark Fleet or those horrible Xclio cases at stores. I really wish they'd cut it out already - the majority of PC builders are adults with enough money to afford high-end parts.
I don't buy the "more features for consumers" line either - Joe Average does not buy motherboards, he buys a crappy low-end 15-inch HP/Toshiba/Dell/Acer laptop. Motherboard buyers are well-informed enough to know what they want.
Manager: So Tim, please add this new motherboard to our web listing
Tim: Sure, will do. Let's see ....... MONKY BALLS, that's a lot of useless crap to type in.....
Manager:
Look at performance reviews rather than the manufactures so called features list.
translates to "ASUS" :D (as long as you don't use any of the branded buzzwords)
I find it most annoying when the features on the box are called differently when using the product.
i.e. the name on the box differs from the setting in BIOS
1. The fastest mode for gaming, encoding/decoding, heavy workhorse stuff.
2. Idle, surfing, really quiet mode
I really don't need 30 'toys', I just want 2.
The first culprit of it for me was my abit AN8 back in the day. Between OTES cooling and various stupidly-named overclocking features I found myself quite lost as to what most of it was for. I would have gotten to grips with the board and overclocking in general much sooner had they used normal, functional, google-able names for the various parts and featues.
+1
Though I wouldn't mind a third mode.
Idle (web browsing), casual (light gaming, increase fan speeds slightly), intense (intense games, turn off all extra windows stuff to free up memory, max fan speeds).
On the other hand, it's extra entertainment for PC builders and reviewers.
I don't think anybody walks into a shop without having a predetermined plan, then looks at the boxes, then buys a motherboard.
I don't think any shop outside asia even has the boxes on display, and only people that build their own rigs buy motherboards and those people don't browse boxes, especially since you need a motherboard for the exact type of CPU you want and the type of GPU setup you plan to get so you can't really get a random, motherboard based on the look of the box.
Mind you the point is still OK if you say 'webpage' instead of 'box'.