Belated Friday Rant - ASUS motherboard mass suicide

I was so busy yesterday that I forgot to post my usual Friday Rant.  However, due to poplar demand, I've posted it today ... sorry it's late.

Early last week we suffered the first motherboard failure in ages - a ASUS Striker Extreme board that we've had since last September.  It dies in pretty much the usual way for a motherboard.  Apply the power to it and it starts to power up (lights, fans and so on) even though the power button hasn't been pressed, and then dies.  OK, no problems.  I RMAed the board, and apart from getting the feeling that everyone along the RMA chain wants me to forget that I ever had the board in the first place (and that the process could take a month), I've no problem with the board going kaput.

Anyway, the other day, in the middle of some benchmarking, the second ASUS Striker Extreme board decided to die.  Same symptoms. 

Gaaahhhh! 

I can live with one PC in bits for a month, but not two, especially at a time when the lab is caught up in the middle of Vista SP1 testing, no way.  And definitely not if the RMA process is going to take a month.

So, I placed a call to my favorite parts source and ordered two Abit IP-35E boards.  Not as nice as the ASUS boards but they'll do for what I want.  When I get the ASUS boards back I'll keep these as spares since about 80% of the lab PCs are based on Intel 775LGA processors. 

It feels like my work is never done ... is that a noisy fan I can hear on one of the PCs now ... ? 

Have a great weekend!