Methinks you didn't read what I typed.

I didn't say everything Asus (or any other manufacturer) makes is the best. I said I'll only buy Asus now. Those are two very different things.

The Asus boards I've had, P5A, A7V133, A7A266, AV8NX all had very good reviews. I do check sites like Tom's Hard OCP, etc. Personally, I usually wait about 6 months after something has hit the market so there's time for lemons to surface.

You get what you pay for. A "name" board isn't necessarily more expensive just because of the name, it can frequently mean a greater chance of reliable performance. That's how they got to be a "name".

Once a company has a good reputation and has proven itself over time, they're probably going to stay that way.

MSI isn't "bad", they're just don't have the same track record as Asus and nowhere near the market share. VIA's Eden looks like something to watch for non-gaming entertainment uses but it's not a workstation. Abit will probably (I hope) get better after they recover from the pirated capacitor thing.

One thing to consider about Asus is they give a nearly-unlimited exchange support for dead boards. You pay the shipping to them and they send you a tested replacement. Elitegroup (I have a couple of BookPCs, really nice but dated now) makes cheaper boards but the tech support is lousy, that's a generous term.

I'll check a couple reviews at reputable sites and that's about it. If you're really checking "tons" of review, you're doing it as a form of recreation. There are plenty of good, reliable review sites and once you've learned where they are, you should be able to research a mobo very quickly. If you're fairly new to researching these things or a student, maybe it makes sense to put more time into it. If not, your time is probably worth far more than any "savings" you'll get from overly extensive research. Unless, as I said earlier, it's something you're doing for recreation.

I do agree with you about the Antec cases. I've got two here right now. Quite nice. That's another lesson, isn't it? Buy the $30 case and cut the snot out of your hands or bend the cover trying to get it back on. Same thing with power supplies, buy a cheapie and it won't scale. False economy.

256M is fine for most people, no question. If you're going to do A/V, better up that. Oh, don't know about whatever board natb1 bought but it would be a great idea to use one strip of 256M instead of smaller ones. That leaves at least one slot open for expansion down the road without pulling what's in there.