ASUS has good products but they always set their pricing high above all of their competitors.
It's amazing that so many consumers trust this brand and are willing to pay so much more for it.
Seems ASUS thinks it doesn't have any good competitors??
I've purchased many ASUS products in the past, video cards, motherboards, monitors, etc., because of the quality of their products. However, ASUS, especially with its X99 motherboards, has stepped down a notch in their quality control, if many online customer reviews are to be believed. And I believe them.
MSI has stepped up as a huge major player with both motherboards and video cards, and due to their quality with decent pricing (at least in the recent past), have seen my money more these days. Even EVGA will see my money when it comes to my purchase of a GTX 1080 (or 1080 Ti, should one come out) later this year. With the whole GTX 1080 pricing scheme started by Nvidia with their Founders version and OEMs, such as ASUS and MSI price gouging their consumers, EVGA has stepped right in to offer high quality GTX 1080s at reasonable prices and great online user reviews.
Guess MSI would rather follow in ASUS' footsteps to increase bottom line profits than to offer their customers a good deal? I think that's a mistake that simply allows good competitors to take market share from them. But good companies can ignore competition, if they wish. Many do, right up until they can't any longer. Consumers will follow certain name brands as long as they don't get burned but when they do, they will switch to other very good competitors in a heartbeat - those willing to offer good value and quality with reasonable prices to their customers.
Don't get me wrong. I like ASUS. I like MSI. I have used many products from both, but when quality and/or pricing is unreasonable, I've gone to ZOTAC and EVGA for video cards before, and will again. Both are very good companies.
When money becomes the major focus of an otherwise good company, I, for one, will ditch them when there are good, hungry competitors offering me a better deal. Right now EVGA is that company for my GTX 1080. I've used their brand before and they have never let me down. Due to the ASUS X99 motherboards I would be interested in getting, with bad reviews, I will be going with the MSI X99A Gaming Pro Carbon. It's currently reasonably priced for what I need, and has good reviews.
So, my whole point is that a company can be a good company but when they start to focus more on how much money they can get out of their customer AND ignore their competition, they are making a huge mistake that will bite them in time.
ASUS is so huge that it may take some time for them to lose enough customers to start working to keep them again, but I hope they don't ignore both their customers and competitors for long. They've offered great products at reasonable prices in the past. They are the only ones stopping themselves from doing it now.
would take the $199 3GB evga mini over this all day and save $130.
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