Dear Computer,

I love you more than any of the other computers that I've ever owned.
Let's never fight again.

--Mike

The Good, the Bad, and the Really Good (EVGA)
On Saturday morning my Motherboard went belly up. Happily it has an onboard LED that let me quickly diagnose it as something related to memory.

EVGA's support was phenomenal. I called them twice on Saturday. I spoke with a real-life, knowledgeable, technician each time - without a wait. (And if you do have to wait (based on past experiences) their phone system will let you enter your phone number, a brief message, and they'll call you back when it's your turn in the queue - spiffy.)

Tech support helped me confirm that it was a memory-related problem. Most likely due to a failed memory controller (since I was getting a dreaded C1 post code on my LED). After trying some RAM from my other box (just to be sure), I concluded that it was the memory controller. *sniff*

EVGA let me do a cross-ship RMA. It cost $29.99, but that meant that on Monday they stuck a new Mobo on a plane, and it got here Tuesday - at which point I was able to quickly swap it into my box and then ship the broken mobo back to EVGA with a pre-paid UPS label. Really stinkin' nice frankly.

Some Concerns about the RAID-0
While waiting for my new/replacement Mobo I did worry a bit about whether or not I would have to rebuild my RAID-0 (which is what I run my primary OS and data partitions on). The rationale/worry was that a RAID-0 is more than just a set of disks working in tandem: it's a set of disks working with an additional piece of hardware to make a 'pseudo' drive. So, unlike a non-RAIDed disk, you can't just pull it out and slap it into another piece of hardware.

But, even if it came down to having to rebuild my RAID-0, that wouldn't have been a big deal. All of my data is backed-up RELIGIOUSLY, and I had an image of my OS/System that would have let me be back up and running in about 15 minutes, with some minor 'catch-up' (some additional installs and configuration changes) taking another 20-30 minutes.

Happily though, the RAID-0 just plain worked with the new Mobo - which is what I anticipated (after really thinking things through).

The moral of the story
There's not much of a moral - other than to make sure that you backup your stuff. I use Acronis True Image for system imaging and SyncBackSE for backing up data and files. Because I had a nightly backup of all my data (both internally to a non-RAID-0 disk for stability purposes, and to an external USB drive (as well as off-site via FTP)), I was able to fairly easily access my data and work on a 'roughing-it' Virtual Machine that I created on my server. Sure, I missed all my software, settings, and my three monitors - but I came through mostly unscathed.

That, and I'm growing more and more fond of EVGA. They really take a no-nonsense approach to customer service and returns. They figure that if I'm willing to pony up $$ to send in my mobo for a replacement, all they need to do is ask me if I talked to a technician. If I've done so, or can explain why the mobo is dead, they just 'let' me exchange the part. (Unlike other companies that I've worked with (Dell comes to mind) where there are grueling requirements in place before you can RMA something.)