Beware US Robotics (and others)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom B.
  • Start date Start date
T

Tom B.

I input the term "microATX" into Google and received over 93,000 hits.
I thought surely this form factor would be supported at least by major
manufacturers. WRONG!

Wonderful US Robotics (USR) lists an internal modem on their website
but doesn't/didn't list any dimentions or case form factor
information. I thought surely USR would have designed the card for the
smallest form factor and provided a simple bracket change out to make
the card compatible with both standard and microATX form factors.
WRONG!

Even though USR had/has and excellent opportunity to provide great
products that the public needs and wants to purchase, they choose to
support only one standard when it would be quite easy and inexpensive
to do otherwise. They then list the product on their website with lots
of pretty pictures that really don't mean anything but then fail to
list the very information that is critical to knowing what the product
is fully compatible with.

WARNING! Assume nothing. Be as aware of what the clueless, dumb ass
manufacturers don't tell you as what they do. Lately they seem to be
specializing in how to piss off customers while providing marginally
usable products.
 
I input the term "microATX" into Google and received over 93,000 hits.
I thought surely this form factor would be supported at least by major
manufacturers. WRONG!

Wonderful US Robotics (USR) lists an internal modem on their website
but doesn't/didn't list any dimentions or case form factor
information. I thought surely USR would have designed the card for the
smallest form factor and provided a simple bracket change out to make
the card compatible with both standard and microATX form factors.
WRONG!

Even though USR had/has and excellent opportunity to provide great
products that the public needs and wants to purchase, they choose to
support only one standard when it would be quite easy and inexpensive
to do otherwise. They then list the product on their website with lots
of pretty pictures that really don't mean anything but then fail to
list the very information that is critical to knowing what the product
is fully compatible with.

WARNING! Assume nothing. Be as aware of what the clueless, dumb ass
manufacturers don't tell you as what they do. Lately they seem to be
specializing in how to piss off customers while providing marginally
usable products.
Click to expand...

LOL.

mATX doesn't require anything different, EVERY PCI modem works in a
mATX board, system. mATX specs a shorter motherboard, not a narrower
case or shallower cards/brackets. AFAIK every single modem USR makes
is mATX compatibe, it would be very hard to make a modem that isn't
mATX compatible.

What you might mean, is FLEX, flexATX. Flex uses a shorter (desktop)
or narrower (tower) case and bracket. It would be pointless to knock
USR or any other manufacturer for not conforming to flex, unless they
specifically mentioned flex-compatible with the 2nd bracket included.

I realize you're just ranting, but you are the "dumb ass" here because
you tried to do something beyond your skill level. Anyone with a
moderate amount of hardware experience knows that a product has to be
specifically supportive of flex, and that most aren't. If the product
had "lots of pretty pictures" it should've been fairly obvious what it
supported.


Dave
 
You really should have set your rant to music maybe a te deum? USR doesn't
exist anymore its 3com. I doubt any manufacturer will be spending a lot of
money on developing parts for the micro-sized micro market. The other guy
is right you are in over your depth. What you going to do if it doesn't
work when you put it together?

claus
 
mATX doesn't require anything different, EVERY PCI modem works in a
mATX board, system. mATX specs a shorter motherboard, not a narrower
case or shallower cards/brackets. AFAIK every single modem USR makes
is mATX compatibe, it would be very hard to make a modem that isn't
mATX compatible.
Click to expand...
Correct. He's referring to a case that was designed for ½ height PCI cards.
A couple of days ago I purchased a D-Link NIC at office depot and was
surprised to see that there were 2 brackets in the box (full and ½ height).
Don't know if it's the same for their modems but it might be worth a try.
 
Geez Dave with your vast knowledge and experience in building PC's,
maybe you can lend some light on the subject of PC components and
formfactors. You see, I've building PC's since the early 1980's and I
recently wanted to build a microATX just to see how everything goes
together. You undoubtly know that the spces for the board are located
at -

http://www.formfactors.org/FFDetail.asp?FFID=2&CatID=1 and can be
downloaded at -

http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/matxspe1_1.pdf

The specs for the case I'm using are located here -

http://www.antec-inc.com/specs/Minuet_spe.html

The motherboard is an A-Open board whose spces can be found here -

http://usa.aopen.com/products/mb/MX4GVR.htm

You'll notice that the height of the Antec case is less than the
height of a so-called normal PCI add-in card. I've been through most
of the computer standards referenced at -

http://www.paidsky.com/it/hstandard.htm

but I have found no definitive and bullet proof formfactor standard
regarding add-in cards. Server chassis, I believe, come in a variety
of heights referenced by terms such as 1U, 2U high and so on. Form
factors for these applications can be found at -

http://www.adexelec.com/faq.htm#pcikeys

So, Dave, with your vast knowledge and experience, tell me how you
know if an add-in card will fit a particular case or chassis when a
DUMB ASS MANUFACTURER such as US Robotics doesn't even bother to
refernece any type of formfactor or list card dimensions in their
specs?
 
Geez Dave with your vast knowledge and experience in building PC's,
Click to expand...
So, Dave, with your vast knowledge and experience, tell me how you
know if an add-in card will fit a particular case or chassis when a
DUMB ASS MANUFACTURER such as US Robotics doesn't even bother to
refernece any type of formfactor or list card dimensions in their
specs?
Click to expand...


You're lacking the experience to know what you needed.

The Antec product page for your case reads "Accepts half height
expansion cards". Did the USR spec claim it was a half-height card
w/bracket?

Open your eyes, look at the case! Does it look like it uses a
standard-height bracket? Of course it doesn't... wasn't that a VERY
GOOD CLUE that you might need something special, which wasn't mentiond
in the USR specs?

Were you planning on using a hammer to make it fit?
Do you have a magical shrink-ray gun to accomplish this?
Did evil hackers corrupt your monitor so the brackets looked very
short?

Buy a ruler and get over it.
 
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