DFI Winding Down? Who Will Take Their Place?

[AstroCreep]

Evening, Sharks.
Been a while; looks kinda empty around here these days.

So I'm thinking about an upgrade here in the next month or so, and my old standby, DFI, is apparently winding down their business. Has anyone heard anything about this at all? I read on one site that they were merely going to be shifting focus to mATX and smaller boards. I also read on their user/support forum that the forum was closing (in favor of a true "Contact support" system...apparently the forums detract from that some how?).
Either way, those seem like fairly negative signs in my opinion. and with Abit down, I don't have another company that I would easily go "Oh yeah, they make great boards".

What's everyone liking these days? Oh, it'll probably be an Intel rig again.

I have had negative experiences with Asus in the past (but would be willing to give them another shot if their support is better than it was five or six years ago), and my impressions of Gigabyte and MSI aren't exactly positive (Gigabyte for various reasons in the past and MSI for being fairly inconsistent in the QC area). Now given, all of these impressions are from five years ago (or long) and am open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks in advance!

[OS-Wiz]

Long time, no see. Yes, DFI is no longer making LanParty mobos. ASUS and Gigabyte have both improved stability and reliability-wise. I think ASUS has a slight edge over Gigabyte. Best bang for the bucks, right now, is either the i5 750 socket LGA1155 or the i7 930 LGA1366. If you live near a MicroCenter you can pick up a 930 for $200! See sig for more ideas.

[James]

I'd lean the other way, but that's just me being contrary.

Gigabyte and Asus are pretty much the cream of the crop these days.

I still have a bitter taste in my mouth from MSI, and several of their motherboards in the past.

[drs1771]

Gigabyte. Asus has begun manufacturing in China with cheaper components.

[r'aggro]

Sad, I had some good times tweaking on Lanparty boards and reading up at the DFI-street forums. They were the way to go during the socket A and 939 era.

[OS-Wiz]

Gigabyte. Asus has begun manufacturing in China with cheaper components.

Gigabyte fanboy speaking, or do you have the goods; got links to that info? To my knowledge that hasn't happened yet. And I've not seen where they intend to use cheaper components. So, enlighten me ... thrill me with the gory details!

[drs1771]

Gigabyte fanboy speaking, or do you have the goods; got links to that info? To my knowledge that hasn't happened yet. And I've not seen where they intend to use cheaper components. So, enlighten me ... thrill me with the gory details!

Doesn't your google work? Here's some fun reading for you.

I heard many voodoo warnings about the quality of ASUS products taking a nose dive since they moved their main FAB plant to China l

Made In China Direct Wholeseller... look at all those China made boards!

Asus migrates production to China

Here's a good one for you! After all that trashing and playing down Asus did on 2 oz copper PCB a couple of years ago..

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...oz-copper-lead

I hate to say it folks, but soon you'll be buying Asus at Wal-Mart.

BTW, OS.. I'm an authorized reseller of both Asus and Gigbyte. No fanboy here.. just the facts.

[vertices]

I always have issues with Asus boards. Gigabyte rarely lets me down.

[drdoom]

I have built systems with Biostar, MSI, ASUS and Gigabyte boards in the past 6 months. The Gigabyte board went bad after a couple weeks. All the others are running fine. I like the layout of the ASUS board the best. I have built 3 systems with ASUS board. I still have a P2B running.

[OS-Wiz]

Doesn't your google work? Here's some fun reading for you.

I heard many voodoo warnings about the quality of ASUS products taking a nose dive since they moved their main FAB plant to China l

Made In China Direct Wholeseller... look at all those China made boards!

Asus migrates production to China

Here's a good one for you! After all that trashing and playing down Asus did on 2 oz copper PCB a couple of years ago..

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...oz-copper-lead

I hate to say it folks, but soon you'll be buying Asus at Wal-Mart.

BTW, OS.. I'm an authorized reseller of both Asus and Gigbyte. No fanboy here.. just the facts.

Interesting read, thanks; but I didn't see anything about using cheaper components. I can only say that if ASUS' mobos enjoy the same rep as their vidcards, I don't really see a problem.

I think I've dealt with nearly every mobo maker's mobos over the years. In my experience, back in the day, ABIT made some very reliable mobos. DFI mobos were outstanding overclockers; loved my NF4 LanParty Expert!

Recently, over that last year/18 mos or so, ASUS has been the most reliable. In that time I tried 3 Gigabyte mobos (decision forced on me by customer), two didn't work right out of the box, and one customer brought his system back after a couple weeks, dying Gigabyte mobo ... and yes, I've had one ASUS mobo die during this period.

I think I'm very much like you, I recommend any brand the has proven itself in my experience; and for me, right now, that is ASUS regardless of where they are made.

[Wurm]

I have yet to have had a bad MSI board...

Some people hate them, I've been able to overclock like a champ on every single one I've owned since the Socket A / 462 era.

[Nater]

EVGA already took their place. The last generation (X58/P55) EVGA produced some enthusiast level boards that were well above and beyond what DFI did. They even produced an overclocking friendly 5520 dual Xeon motherboard. That's something more outlandish than DFI ever did.

They seemed to have slowed down as of late, that dual processor board probably took a lot of their engineering resources. It'd be nice to see SATA 3.0 and USB3 versions of the Classified boards, but it's really not necessary. LGA1366 is in it's twilight, a twilight that will be longer than usual because intel is delaying the release of the high-end Sandy Bridge processors to focus on the mobile and mid-ranged desktop parts.

For the record, the last two ASUS products I bought were so bad that I haven't gone back. Granted, that was four years ago so they may be back on track.

[AstroCreep]

Well thanks for the insight, guys!
Well, it appears that motherboards are like cars; people love what they love and each manufacturer has their ups & downs.

Well, I guess it's just a matter of who has the best feature-set at the best price right now. It looks like EVGA, Gigabyte, and Asus all have 3 year warranties, so that makes testing the waters a little easier (MSI only does 1-year? That kinda bites. )

Anyone have any experience with Foxconn boards? They seem pretty decent (performance wise) and are priced nicely...

[Wurm]

MSI has a 2 year.

One of my friends has a Foxconn Inferno Katana GTI and he is very happy with it.

[r'aggro]

EVGA already took their place. The last generation (X58/P55) EVGA produced some enthusiast level boards that were well above and beyond what DFI did. They even produced an overclocking friendly 5520 dual Xeon motherboard. That's something more outlandish than DFI ever did.

They seemed to have slowed down as of late, that dual processor board probably took a lot of their engineering resources. It'd be nice to see SATA 3.0 and USB3 versions of the Classified boards, but it's really not necessary. LGA1366 is in it's twilight, a twilight that will be longer than usual because intel is delaying the release of the high-end Sandy Bridge processors to focus on the mobile and mid-ranged desktop parts.

For the record, the last two ASUS products I bought were so bad that I haven't gone back. Granted, that was four years ago so they may be back on track.

I've noticed the evga stuff myself, but does crossfire even work on them? Would suck if they were sli only.