I'm actually stuck trying to decide between a MSI board an ABit board
Quite a tough decision!!
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The board I'm using and the one I replaced were both excellent motherboards (replaced the onld one do to obselence). They did have problems with their caps a while back, but I'm pretty sure thay got that worked out.
to be honost i don't think any of the big name boards are bad per say . it all depends on what you want to do and how much money you have to spend . i don't think you are making a bad choice if you get msi .
from what I've read the 8x really show no performance increase. If you can get one close to what a 4x board costs then go for it. But if it's gonna cost ya a bit more, 4x is pretty good. IMO.