Feeling Suicidal Doesn't mean you won't do the right thing ..
If you are an overclocking person, don't touch ECS - even the 680i ones made by OEM, because the support is not there. ECS was bought by PC-Chips group some time back and these are big "bread & butter" outfits with very chequered history, including the unmentionables. They've tried to have a go at the overclocking crowd to get some exposure but they just can't hack it. Like Foxconn are doing now but with little success not that they can't do it but the bean-counter's numbers don't add up unless they buy into that exposure like, say, DFI. DFI, at one time, a minor "rebadger", only had prominence because of one or two OC in-house spotlighters but other than that, their boards were - you won’t believe it. Nowadays, nobody makes a bad bog-standard mobo, much like cars for the mass production trick had been surmounted. OC is a very, very tiny proportion of the makeup, mainly as loss-leaders for the sake of exposure. It worked for a time with Abit and perhaps DFI but the big boys like Asus have driven deep into their "territory" and these boys are bringing with them, their price-screw ratcheting know-hows. So, Striker no go, P5N SLi 680 go !! The money to them makes almost no difference but the name game could have been a plus, but not is this instance, ah sorr…y…
It will consolidate into a few biggies who are making boards for everyone, including some well known OC boards. And all because IBM wanted cheap but reliable PCs and they used that excuse of a success story to champion "democracy" against the "commie ********". It is not so much about democracy but greed for within the realm that is driven by greed [& fear], greed will work. Now, when the chinese gets too big, the democratic ones will ratchet-up the level of sabots like CIA-ing internal unrest by showing only the fat-cats are getting rich and the majority of poor peasants are missing out on the big deal [listen out, boy, these things don't happen here because slaves are not the poor ..besides, they are free now, aren't they], lack of freedom of religion, international name & shame, etc. Anything you care to register, it is being done and those chinese might seem to play into the Rich-Poor politics, much like Russia did and lost out, but in reality, it's all about power politics and NOTHING else. The chinese are winning , so far, because they have a tradition based on nation-building/national-values, much like family values but it won't last. Same will happen to any newcomer like India, Brazil, that threatens the "accumulated pile" horded by yankee-do-dah/chosen ones/japs/eu. Commodity prices have soared because the inroads made by the chinese demands for power …. which is predominantly used to feed the greed of …. the "rich chosen ones". How ironic and the yanks have quite a few dam-lines in readiness and so far, the currency exchange dam has held. Having everything strategic based on the US$ meant discounts [otherwise known as debt reduction] by way of "loans" because the US$ is not based on metal like gold but on, "I promise to pay…" "Boy, if we go down, y'all will come with us…" with a Texan accent, if y'all don't mind…… Want another recession? It's gonna be an international this time round. Talking about the rich merely means being able to see the rich living off the sweat of the poor …; it always have been so for wealth doesn't grow on trees. It comes for someone else. Is it suprising then that the "rich" never wants the truth told? That'll be a shamful day when all is told … and that can only happen when the majority becomes interested in the truth, not indulgences. Surely the sight of a 500-pounder occupying a whole table at the burger joint stuffing 5 McCows in one go will bring a blush to the 300-pounder stuffing 3 McCows at the next table … not in the land of the free … grab .. for in democracy, anything goes, y'all hear, boy…