<<Bzzzzzzzzzzzzt ... wrong! Part of the Asus "rep" has always been their O/C'ing capabilities.>>
You're clearly speaking without actual facts behind this bold statement. Asus boards from the past, back when they earned their reputation, were never overclocking/tweaking motherboards. They were high quality, stable, and high performance boards. Just look at their early BX offerings for some examples, they were using jumpers to overclock, with a very limited amount of tweaking options. And even before that, they dont have anything for overclocking.
<<And cutting corners? Surely you are kidding, and if not, what proof do you have? And why would Asus even want to match itself against Abit, which certainly has one of the worst track records of any motherboard manufacturer. Abit is only a couple steps above PC Chips ...>>
Of course, I had more experience with Asus than you, I've used more than just the CUSL2, have you? Just ask any experienced system integrator, Im not going to argue with you here because you're not going to buy anything I say anyway. They want to match against Abit because Abit has taken a large share of DIY users away from Asus, in order to regain superiority in every segment, they had to spend R&D money on tweaking, in turn, sacrficing quality. A RMA% will prove this, MSI gets ~0.5% RMA, I'd like to see Asus beat that.
<<More anti-Asus propaganda. Sure, an Asus CUSL2 costs a bit more than an MSI counterpart, but you get a better PCB, more features (I don't wanna hear about that bogus "fuzzy logic" feature on MSI boards), an included USB breakout board for those additional USB ports, and a copy of PowerDVD. The extras more than make up for a $10 higher price. The only fault I find with Asus is their P/S connector location. I understand their reasoning for it, but it can be inconvenient at times - for example, the CPU exhaust shroud on a Fong Kai 320 midtower will not fit (without alteration).>>
Im not even talking about just the i815 boards, I mean, the MSI offering simply blows the Asus out of the water, take a look at the MSI 815EP Pro-R, you have some catching up to do here. Almost everything Asus made is relatively more expensive than competition. Have you ever looked at the A7V133? You call that a good PCB? Why pay $20 more for the same or worse product? MSI bundles USB brackets and PC2PC cables with every board, does Asus? Oh hell, that PowerDVD copy really gets me high.
Im very dissappointed in you, Midnight, you're still iracible on this topic. In my experience they have always been decent motherboards, or else I wouldnt own three of them. Dont take it too personally, I've gotten over these type of arguments. But before you start bashing others, you need to realize that Asus sure as hell aint the only one that knows how to make a motherboard, the smaller guys like MSI, Epox, and Iwill also make great mobos.