Asus does have a US based service dept, but that doesn't mean much. As I mentioned above, the service reps were unintelligible for the most part, with no authority to actually do anything, and it still took quite a while to locate a board and ship it. I will still continue to buy Asus products, because they generally are decent quality, but not because I think they will handle anything better if something goes wrong. My new Z77 board is great, and I didn't mind paying more for it over competitors because it has lots of features I find useful. However, margins are so thin on electronics these days that to maintain any profit, ALL manufacturers have had to cut service quality, since it gets used by the fewest people for a proportionately greater cost. That 2 or 3 year warranty sounds great when you buy it, but no matter what, it's still a huge hassle if you need to use it. I had a similar experience when my Onkyo AVR had some non-critical issues. Way more trouble to get a new one (at least 2 months AND pay shipping on a 30lb box) than just deal with one faulty HDMI port. This is what you get with most electronics these days. Can't remember it now, but a website that discuss these issues has a motto of "If you can't fix it, you don't own it."