I'm not really sure that I can rate MSI, "in general", but I will give my best shot to comparing them to Asus.
We only have about 6 different models of MSI motherboards in the Lab. While we really like the design of the latest AMD DDR boards, I can't really speak intelligently regarding the rest of their product line.
Asus is still our primary vendor (at least for now) and we have put most of our efforts into testing any manufacturers boards that claim to have better baseline specifications than Asus boards.
We started looking at MSI after they became the first manufacturer to pass the AMD Assured Program certification requirements for DDR, back in September of last year. That got our attention as they beat Asus to the punch and followed through by having a much more stable board in every revision we have seen.
After kissing some butt (and because we already had 3 Pre-shipping 266MHz CPUs and 12 Sticks of 2100) we were able to get our hands on two boards just before Halloween. It's been love (or lust) ever since.
While we waited and waited and waited from ANY boards from Asus. We actually suspected that they were going to pull the product completely last month when Asus deleted ALL mention of the board from their web site INCLUDING PREVIOUS PRESS RELEASES! By then, MSI had already gone through it's second revision.
Still (to this day) the only versions of the Asus A7M266 that we have ever seen are the shipping production models and they are very unstable (crashing about once per hour), so we just won't sell or endorse them. Period.
The other thing we really like about MSI is how co-operative they have been about explaining their positions, and helping us to obtain as much information as possible to, "help us, help ourselves". I suspect the logic behind this is so that we can help clients using their boards, so they don't have to. In any event, who can complain about it?
Asus (on the other hand) seems to just want to keep everyone in the dark all of the time regarding EVERYTING, and they flat-out refuse to notify us of revisions (something that everyone else does automatically).
Since November they have completely stopped providing ANY sales, marketing, service or support assistance to anyone (as far as we can tell). If you talk to anyone in California, they just tell you that they are working on it and blame somebody else in Taiwan. If you call Taiwan, they tell you to call Asus USA marketing in California. Can anyone say, "CIRCLE JERK?"
The Asus Reseller square offers nothing. No features, no services, no support, NOTHING. Why have it at all?
They don't even monitor their own web based "NetQ" support section. In fact, without going into archives, no user can see more than 50 support messages at one time. Oh, big help!
As for the knowledge base, the A7M266 it is not even listed! We've reported over 15 different BIOS issues and have yet to receive a single reply so it's not like there aren't any issues.
To top that off, we have reported errors in the printed materials with nine different motherboards; however, Asus has yet to make a single correction and some of these misprints (and completely inaccurate definitions) go back over a year. A good example would be to read the BIOS section of ANY Asus manual. I guarantee that the manual doesn't match what you see on your screen. I could live with that if they would at least enable F1 help. (Something that according to Award is required for all officially released BIOS's) Hitting F1 on ANY line in the BIOS should tell you exactly what that field is for and what the different options mean, but not with any Asus based BIOS.
This is basic stuff, NOT rocket science. This single issue alone (either correct manuals or F1 BIOS help enabled) would prevent HALF of Asus' technical support questions and problems.
We are really disappointed that Asus has gone out of their way to make things so difficult. It seems clear that there needs to be some major changes in the company. The only thing that keeps us buying CUSL2's and A7V133's is performance. We figure the rest of the stuff out on our own or with help from other experts. PERFORMANCE IS THE ONLY REASON WHY WE RECOMMEND ASUS.
Now all we have to do is get Tom Pabst to bitch at them, maybe THEN they will change. It seems clear that we (and the thousand or so other people and companies that are complaining about these issues on Asus' web site) just don't have the power to make them listen or react.
As for the question at hand, I would have to say that our limited relationship with MSI to date has been wonderful. They have been real good about support, printed materials, research data and prompt revisions in hardware and software. Based on what I have seen so far, I would have no problems recommending ANY of the boards that we have tested so far. Nor would I have a problem with the statement that MSI documentation, support, and communications far exceed anything offered by Asus at this time (or for the past 9 months). I hope that answers your question.
Steve Benoit
Stable Technologies
'The way IT should be!'
Like I said I maintly play flight sims so I will probably go with the K7 Master without the SCSI. I'll give you a post when im down and ready to start makeing those big purchases. Once again Thx
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram