Patrick:
I know you help alot of people here and I am sure they appreciate all your help...but...you are starting to sound like you think you are the worlds expert on motherboards. I know you have tested thousands of boards and you use very stressful tests, and that does give you alot more experience than most of us, but that does not make you the authority on the subject, it just gives your suggestions more weight than some other people here. I think even if you have tested that many boards that does not make you the "final say" on all motherboards. The amount of mobo's you test is probably only a few percent of the total volume of motherboards shipping out from these companies. I am not trying to start a war with you, I am just trying to make a simple point...
No one likes a know it all....
You do have alot of experience and can be very helpful, but if you constantly tell people to get this or that just because you said so and that should be good enough, you will meet alot of resistance. We have had some good discussions in the past, and I know you are a very knowledgeable person, but you are not the world's authority if you know what I mean.
I would like to state again that I mean no offense by this post, and we have had some very civilized discussions, but I really feel the need to tell you this after reeading this entire thread. I agree with Technonut totally. We have been overclocking Athlons for awhile...going back to the beloved KA7, and we have had no trouble with these boards. The Abit boards are enthusiast boards that allow you to tweak the last ounce of performance out of your setup with a ton of bios tweaks, but these same tweaks can affect stability if you don't know what you are doing. I would never use an Abit board for a mission critical server or anything, but they are not meant for that. You can tell me forever that you test a gazillion Abit boards and they all fail, but if I have used several of them and had great results everytime, why should I take your suggestion over my experience? If another mobo manufacturer makes a board that offers something more than my Abit board, will I give it a try? Of course! I haven't had a reason to switch yet..