Honored Contributor
Honored ContributorLooking at all the hue and cry for support on this board, here's what I think after looking at the photo's of the ones posted and the ones on the Intel(Altera) site.
1. This S5 Advanced kit may have been manufactured by Altera/terasic and since the FPGAs in question are different from the original board contents as to what Intel/Altera website says, this is no longer an Intel/Altera/Terasic manufactured board. 2. This board looks like a re-worked board. They must have gotten some of the original Altera board and replaced the original S5 FPGAs with cheaper S5 versions, removed the memory and components and sell them. This explains why the original board costs $14000 and this one's sold on Ebay for $1250!! Do you think that this will be the original one , that too at so much of a price difference? I'd say , these boards may have been defective and sold off for a cheaper rate. This seller company on Ebay (who's selling them) have procured them and done re-work on them. This is why you got the boards without warranty, software, etc . From the image posted on Ebay, it doesn't look "New" to me. Rather like old board that has been re-conditioned. Bottom-line: If you're gonna buy development kits/board, buy it from an authorized retailer/vendor. This way you know what you're getting is original, tested and works. If you get them from online ecomm sites like Ebay from other unknown sellers, you don't know what you're getting. It will be like opening a Pandora's box. These are just my thoughts on this issue.
