Personally, I would rather have the original board which has been repaired by a professional.

To me it isn't worth anymore. The thing aboot boards is, at least in home use, I don;t think they are under that much stress. And if one does crap out it's probably a .50 part like a resistor or caps.
I was looking to buy a game and this guy wanted more than I thought it was worth, because it had a newer Rottendog board in it. To me, that changes nothing aboot the game. I came to buy a game that works, it works, old board probably worked for all I know. If it's a wear item sure I can see that...but not a board.

The best time to use an aftermarket board is if the original has been really hacked, or is missing when you got the game. I've run several rottendog boards with no problems.

I put one in my HS2 a few months ago and it has worked perfectly. They're fairly cheap too so I didn't mess around with trying to get my old board repaired. I've used aftermarket boards in three of my pins so far and only one gave me grief, but that was fixed by putting in a higher voltage transistor.

Best time to use aftermarket board is if you have a gottlieb system 1 LOL

I have a PinLed I belive in my Judge Dredd. Awesome board with all the built in protection to prevent frying components. Light years ahead of the stock one.

BUT .... If you want LED's they Ghost like crazy. Not sure if they fixed that but mine ghosted its few years old.

http://www.pinled.de/shop/product_info.php?cPath=2_12&products_id=28

Newer stuff is better over all if you need to replace something and cannot find the orig. They use surface mount parts with circut protection, etc. For example rotten dog TZ clock board is in a league of its own over stock.

In most cases, I prefer original boards that are unhacked and properly repaired. There are plenty of originals floating around in most cases.

What protection are you speaking of?

Parts used on WPC PCBs are readily available and for the most part inexpensive. Repairing a surface mount PCB is out of the abilities of most pinball collectors, because they don't have the right tools on hand.

And system 80!

yes,if you have a main CPU board that has massive acid damage from the batteries its wise to cut your losses right off the bat and just get a new board if they are available.Saves alot of time and intermittent faults you are tracing down endlessly.

I have had problems with almost all boards and I just feel better putting in a completely new board with new/better parts. They are working perfect for me. I replaced both flipper opto boards (with magnet type), fliptronics board, and both trough opto boards with new upgraded models and they are working great! Best upgrade was getting the ColorDMD though. My pin's LEDs no longer strobe and the high power board no longer hums due to the high power board no longer having to power the old DMD. ColorDMD made my pin quiet, haha.

I prefer original boards also. No reason for the preference for original boards. Glad we have the aftermarket available though for sure.

I always prefer and I suggest repair the original board where it is both possible and practical.

If it is missing or badly corroded from battery damage or other influences then sure, replace with a replacement that often has more modern parts and sometimes design than was available when these machines were built 20/30 years ago.

Personally - I AVOID ANYTHING that has surface mounted components as these are not easily repared by a hobbyist. I have many replacement boards (from several companies) that do an admirable job in some of my machines.

Sometimes parts that were used on original boards are simply no longer available at any price so I guess your hands are tied in those cases.

I have a rottendog pdb in my DW, old one was hacked a bit. Haven't had any type of issue with it.

And Homepin.. as far as original boards go, My best bet for my Dracula mist opto board was to buy your replacement, and so far it's been great!
The old one was crispy like a burned tortilla, not repairable.

I prefer to repair original boards also, but the aftermarket boards will likely last longer. Most of them are more efficient in some method (requiring less power, running a bit cooler) Aftermarket display boards not requiring high voltage will likely never need to be repaired or replaced for a long long time. I've got a modern aftermarket power supply board with the added benefit of LED status indicators for the voltages.

If someone would rather have all original components and pay more for them over aftermarket I will gladly sell you some! People do not realize there's an inherent lifespan in electronics. Whether it is with Moore's Law, or the simple fact that most electronic devices are used daily. I am the opposite, I'd pay a little more for the young components myself.

I usually if I can drop Rotten Dogs/ new designed boards into the restored games I do. The new flipper boards have a better design and I can set tension of the flipper buttons. CPU, Flipper, Driver and AV boards have all the bugs designed out and are less likely to fail and give the owner problems over time. Forget the old over worked and poor designed W/B boards unless you like "dickin" arounds with problems!! They are old and failing more and more.