I'll vouch for my board again
I've really enjoyed using it. I think it cost me $170 in July, and certainly feels quality at that price. If it is even cheaper now, I'd say it is a great way to direct more budget towards the GPU and CPU. I plan on keeping my board for a couple years, while everything on it gets upgraded.
Personally, a decade ago in the core 2 era, I was a huge fan of the Gigabyte ultra durable series (UD). But now those look "cheap" to me. My AM4 board is the only new board I've had in quite a while. Last one I bought brand spankin new was in 2011 I think, was for an i5 750 build. I went gigabyte on that, and was quite pleased. Basically the same experience I had with them on core 2.
If you get the chipset you want, and the VRM looks solid, you can really go with any board as long as it has the features you want \ need. I chose my board based on the VRM *looking* pretty tough and solid, as well as it having plenty of high speed USB3, digital optical SPDIF so I can connect it directly to my audio receiver, looking nice /w its large VRM heatsink setup and black PCB... nothing busy to tacky to look at. Another big push for me was built in 2.5 gig lan. Trust me, if I buy something and it falls below expectations, I'll tell pretty much anyone interested. That said, my personal hands on experience is quite limited when it comes to current gen tech. But I've been doing my best to stay informed via the net. From what I have seen, if I had to re-buy my MB and HAD to pick something else, I'd probably go with another ASUS board or an MSI board. The more expensive gigabyte stuff also looks fine.
