u/HeightDisastrous5130

Late to the party here - always wanted a set but never found a good enough reason to shell out…

After 12 years of hard graft, my ancient Klipsch Pro Media 2.1 finally bit the dust. Snaffled an immaculate set of Bose Companion 3 Series II from Cex with a 5 year warranty.

Wow.

Okay a slightly processed edge to the sound (I don't mind it, I have a ST130), but overall it's crisp, smooth and enough of a punch in the bass to keep me happy. Fantastic sound, low profile and perfect for my gaming setup and desk.

Given my knackered OG ASUS ROG ALLY X, thought I would reach out to the folk on here and see what they recommend?

Can you pop a vote and then just write one sentence please?

View Poll

UPDATE: For those interested, it might not be as dead as first suspected. Whilst I cannot get past the boot logo, it does buzz when plugged in and for a few seconds the LEDs around the sticks light up, so the device is clearly communicating at some level. Previous MOBO failures didn’t even do this!

I’m going to dismantle and check the interfaces + connection to make sure none have disconnected or shifted etc to ensure it’s not hanging at a hardware check…

Well fully dismantled and tested each ribbon connection…still nothing. Nothing loose and no rattle - 2x of the sticker for the RAM came off when I breathed over it so I suspected by the state of the adhesive…maybe it’s RAM that overheated/desoldered.

UPDATE 2: CEX £449 for a Mint Condition and comes with 5 year warranty sounds like a decent shout 🤣🤣🤣🤣

UPDATE 3: On the plus side, I bought some shares in AMD @ $78ea years back - so I’ll cash a few out and buy myself something shiny…it just won’t be made by ASUS

INITIAL START:

Bought my ASUS ROG ALLY 2023 on release date from Curry’s UK…which never arrived. It was stuck at a DPD hub for nearly a week.

After getting nowhere with DPD, I escalated and complained to Curry’s which eventually advised IT HAD BEEN STOLEN. After much more complaining, Curry’s sent me a new one!

For 2 weeks, I was over the moon…until the SD Card reader failed and destroyed a 512GB Sandisk Extreme Pro I had bought especially. Certainly frustrating, but the HORROR RMA stories I had read persuaded me not to send it in. Not the end of the world really…’can’t play more than 1 game at a time anyway can you!’ piped my partner.

Smooth sailing continued…for another 48 weeks, until the device wouldn’t boot past the ROG boot screen. I try everything. I sacrifice another PC. Nothing. Decided to send it in for RMA and lo and behold…a dead motherboard. THANKFULLY, it had the good grace to die within the 1 year Curry’s warranty.

1 month later, I get it back and it runs like a dream! For another 42 weeks and LO AND BEHOLD, same symptoms - nothing past the ROG boot screen. This time, as a U.K. citizen, I’m out of warranty and I’m not covered by EU laws. So I go full Karen at ASUS - I unleash AI scripted hell. After about 20 emails, 4 escalations, legal threats - the works, they cave and ‘out of good will’ begrudgingly agree to fix my Ally.

Fast forward, another 50 weeks, I go to turn it on and WHAT DO YOU KNOW, NOTHING PAST THE ROG BOOT LOGO.

3 DEAD MOBOS
2 YEARS, 11 MONTHS

I worked in IT hardware brokerage for a decade, and this device makes 15K HDDs spinning 24/7 for YEARS on end, notorious for failing, look like Stonehenge. I’m staggered. This is the least reliable piece of technology I have ever seen or owned.

I only bought this in 2023, because Steam Deck’s were rarer than rocking horse turds and I was promised 2x the performance.

I regret not waiting just a few months and snaffling up a Steam Deck Oled.

I’m so disappointed ASUS…AND I NEVER GOT TO FINISH ELDEN RING