MSI K8N Diamond Plus

I would have to agree that ASUS pretty much owned in 2005. But from the sounds of things, MSI is gearing up for 2006 in a very big way!

Over the last year, several companies have been able to make a name for themselves with their Athlon 64 SLI mainboards. Arguably, the two companies that were able to build the best reputations in this market were Asus with the A8N-SLI line, and DFI with their highly overclockable LAN-Party models. However, neither company was shy about pricing their offerings accordingly high.

While others also offered competitive products, they also felt the intense pressure of a highly competitive market. For example, Abit’s day-to-day business is governed more by financial woes than by product launches. ECS and Winfast (Foxconn) still have a ways to go before they become the household names they’re aspiring to become. Finally, although Biostar also launched several new products last fall, their market penetration has not been up to expectations, aside from the developing market in Brazil. Aside from Asus, only Gigabyte was able gain market share, thanks to a number of innovations. [Read the rest]