On Fri, 21 Dec 2018 14:12:34 -0600, Char Jackson
wrote:

Bottom line, it needs to work properly. Anything less isn't good
enough. The good news, I guess, is that no one is pointing fingers at
the RAM or any peripherals.

-
I'd want to have swapped in another MB, an ASUS proper (or Gigabyte
for a quarter to half the price). ASRock tech saying to you it's an
Intel issue ... come on. There may be an issue, that it also may not
be only limited to ASRock, among half-a-dozen possible board brands,
could be only as much conjecture over establishing stability in the
latest and upper-end of CPU product offerings. Intel, however, I'd
give, at least to bet my money on, the benefit for rigid
implementation of design within standards.

The CPU works and no differently than the first is my bet.

Gracefully easing onto a suitable platform and MB, one which also
works, would seem a matter now of diplomacy, between a layer of
distribution sources and how they view their commitment to provide a
product that fulfills both its advertisement for a reasonable
expectancy a customer is (legally or not legally) entitled.

Time is less material, waiting and an inconvenience, than a present
status of your capital investment and keeping that working for you on
an expected return of acceptable value. Time's just a variable in
part of a game for realizing that value. Were it not -- you might be
in a computer shop, with that same CPU, on a tested with a working and
certified platform, possibly ordering "out-house" on a same
preassembled premise -- for two to three times more cost outlay than
it's taking you to research and study all this yourself. . . .Playing
it for keeps: keeping appreciation on your money (not for a loss for
"restocking fees" or assessed extra shipping charges, among some
"jobber" production-distribution practices).