Originally Posted by
enorbet2
I'm curious as to why you have had so much trouble with that board and if it could be something else like PSU? or if you have just been extremely unlucky. I have had zero problems with my Asrock Z77 Extreme. Whenever I see posts sating things like "I'll never buy Western Digital/Seagate/Insert Manufacturer, again!" it makes me think of the old adage that even if MTBF is 0.1% if it happens to you it's 100% and your reaction, though understandable, is not logical nor meaningful.
In this case you also mentioned Asus, and IMHO, to write them off as being in the same league as PCChips is ill-advised. Don't get me wrong we all can do it. I have an aversion to MSI because of a series of bad mobos, but apparently I was just unlucky because the odds are high that most will have no such problems. Unfortunately with mass production and especially in interactive component systems, we basically can research which manufacturers get high marks, and then take our chances.
Just FTR, I have installed 3 distros from my Plextor SATA DVD connected to ASMedia ports and to Seagate SATA drives on ASMedia ports. Something is wrong in your system and yes, it is possibly your mobo, but it is not on all mobos even of roughly the same model. It could be that they filled in with another brand of support components as all manufacturers do when availability or price changes. Sorry for your difficulties and glad you found a workaround.
We are still best off betting with the odds.