ASUS going to outsource some of their work to another company

[Nocturnal]

Will ASUS' quality fall and be passed on to the consumers as a piece of crap or will it improve at all? What are your thoughts? The news blurp can be read on the Anandtech main page.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I think you misunderstand. This isn't saying Asus is not going to make any more Intel-chipset-based boards. This is saying that Asus will not be OEM outsourcing motherboards for Intel any more. In other words, Asus built motherboards for Intel and then Intel put their name on them and sold them as Intel-built motherboards.

Get it? Intel-built motherboards are supposed to be the epitomy of stability without any overclocking at all. They have to be made by somebody and even though Intel does make chipsets, they don't actually build motherboards so they outsource to others to do that for them. It was big news when Asus took up the burden in years past because Asus is one of those BIG companies that produces some of the most stable (or so many claim) motherboards ever. So them building Intel motherboards ensured that stability Intel is suppsoed to known for continued.

What this is saying is that Asus wants to charge Intel more than Intel is willing to pay to keep making motherboards for them, so Intel said they could get a better deal elsewhere and they cut their deal. Asus will continue to make its own (and ASRock) motherboards and OEM to a lot of hardware vendors (Dell, Alienware, etc) based on Intel chipsets.

Just no Asus motherboards will be sold as Intel ones after this breakup.

 

[MichaelD]

Asus' quality was already questionable in my book.

I went thru two NCCH-DL motherboards (dual Xeon) which are I875-chipset based.

Both had stability problems and little quality control niggles like the Power LED headers not working on either board.

However, their customer service was exceptional. They were prompt and helpful in getting me replacement boards...but they shouldn't need to be replaced in the first place.

I wouldn't buy another Asus board at this time. My opinion.

 

[Dragon41673]

I've used ASUS boards for YEARS...but until recently I had NO issues with them. Now that I own this A8N-SLI Premium, I've been having issues because the Vcore isn't correctly reported in anything. People say it's the software, but I think it's the board itself. I can't get any higher then 2640 prime stable. For some that is nice...but for me it's crap since I see so many above 2.7 easily.

honestly this move in Intel's part might be a good thing, or it could be bad...won't know till a few years down the line