<<Actually, Asus Boards of late do not seem to be living up to their once lofty stanards as the Rolls Royce of OEM Boards. That's not to say they are crap, but at one time I use to be able to say that out of hundreds of systems I put together using Asus boards, I could count on one hand the number that were troublesome. Unfortunately I can't claim that anymore. Of Course of those hundreds I spoke of, almost all had BX Chipsets,where as the ones that seemeed to be troublesome either had Via Chipsets or the AMD Iron Gate Chipset.>>
Troublesome with VIA chipsets? Hm... let me count, P3V4X, CUV4X, K7V, A7V... all have been nothing but GREAT boards. Sure they can be more troublesome than the BX/Intel solutions, but again, they're the least troublesome among these VIA boards(or excluding Intel boards). Not to be contrary to your statements, it's not Asus' fault VIA chipsets are troublesome. Furthermore, I havent seen anybody else, including MSI, making less troublesome or higher quality VIA based boards than Asus.
<<Red looks around to see if Modus is going to swoop down to tell him he's full of it>>
LOL.
<<On the other hand,the MSI Motherboards have been wonderful. Ever since they came out with the 6163 it seems that any board they produce is one of Quality. Though I haven't used any of their Socket A Boards, their Slot A's have been awesome and their VIa Chipset Boards have worked well for me too.>>
Indeed, indeed. They turn themselves from a virtual unknown, to probably one of the most recognized and respected board makers in around 1 1/2 years of time. That, is VERY impressive. No doubt about it, MSI is my favorite board manufacturer(despite owning Asus boards). I have heard nothing but praises to their SlotA boards, their SocketA boards are decent but lacked multiplier adjustment in order to be in contention with Asus and Abit. Good news though, their upcoming K7T Pro2 will feature multiplier adjustment.
<<Though it would be easy to say that the downgrading of Asus Board's from their once lofty position could be due to non Intel Chipsets, the fact that MSI seems to be able to build great boards with them has to lead me to a different conclusion.>>
This is the part I dont understand, MSI have been making better non-Intel boards than Asus? Ok, aside from the K7Pro(Irongate), it's virtually a hands down win for Asus so far. You see, their MS-6309, while a very decent board, was no match for P3V4X/CUV4X. MSI chose to skip KX133 which I thought was not very smart. And their K7T Pro didn't draw any attention because of the fact that A7V and KT7/KT7-RAID are offering multiplier adjustments. Quality wise, MSI never seem to be able to overtake Asus, although I would say they can easily match them.
<<Maybe in an effort to be the first out with the most features, Asus is sacrificing QC , something which I truly beleive hurt the reputation of Abit.>>
Sacrificing QC? Ok, maybe they're sacrificing QC for features and stuff, but are we seeing any quality/reliability declining from Asus? That IS exactly what hurt Abit the most and I sure hope Asus doesnt turn into a goat like that. As far as I've seen Asus has been sucessful being first to the market, w/ lots of features, and still obtaining the lead in quality.
<<Just let me emphasize that I am not saying Asus is crap because they aren't, their 815e and Socket A Boards are praised through out the industry. Hell, maybe the staus they once held was just impossible to maintain with all the recent changes in technology.>>
Again I fail to see your point, do you have any numbers that evidently shows Asus has been doing worse than they are two years ago(in regard to quality)? I agree though, its very hard to make the balance between quality, and features.
Now I sure do sound like an MSI hater. I bought an MSI board for my cousin and immediately, it won my hearts. Their BX Master, to date, is still one of the best BX boards in the market. Their MS-6309, arguably one of the best S370 VIA 133A boards. The problem I have with MSI is that, they usually need to take two cycles to make a truely mind blowing product. 6163->6163Pro->BX Master, MS-6309->MS-6309rev2(694 Master), MS-6167->K7 Pro, K7TPro->K7tPro2. This is one of the qualitys they lack that Asus is capable of offering, look at Asus's boards this year, CUBX, P3V4X, K7V, A7V, CUSL2, all have been mind blowing boards first time out. While MSI offered some of their own with likes of 815E Pro(IMO better than CUSL2), 694D Pro(dual VIA133A), and K7T Master. If MSI can achieve the kind of promptness(first time great products) Asus does, along with it's superior quality control, Im sure MSI can take over Asus in a very short period of time.