I do have to disagree on this summary. The boards were running much higher SOC voltage than needed just by enabling EXPO, and were not using over current protection correctly. In 2023, users shouldn't be enabling one BIOS setting which is heavily advertised as a feature, and having the board auto over-volt the CPU to failure. But mistakes happen, I think the issue these two had is that ASUS tried to hide the mistake rather than stand behind their product and make it right. ASUS also wanted to fly 3 reps to GN but then went silent when they said they were going to record everything. But this was definitely not a single sample that they were given, and the parties were upset not over the fact that something went wrong, but at the effort to cover it up and not honor warranties, especially when boards cost so much.
I do agree however that a YouTuber cannot remain unbiased. While a YouTuber can avoid bias towards a single company, their revenue is driven by views which biases the platform towards drama and click bait. I definitely think it is over the top. On the other hand, that's just the nature of all US based media. I think on the whole, GN does a good job of advocating for the consumer, and functioning independently of bias for or against a given company. The testing they did to blow up CPUs was definitely not real world, but the board shouldn't have let the CPU short, melt the copper and burn the socket either. They were trying to re-create a failure mode that takes months in the real world. Whether that's valid scientifically or just a good way to get clicks because burning PCs always get lots of clicks, is debatable.
I think you got to take anything with a grain of salt. This issue was with AMD platforms so your Intel board would have been fine.
I can't see any other motherboard series mentioned by GN than X670E with X3D processors. They didn't expand the "I hate ASUS" statement to other models/chipsets/series.
JTC literally mentioned the ASUS Apex Z790 issue with
two samples and pointed out a year-old issue with the Z690 Hero motherboards, which was a clear design flaw. He also mentioned the X3D issue. He had not much more to tell, so he filled the video with some general statements.
I'm not defending ASUS, and I hate how they sometimes act. I had problems with their support in the past, and they clearly pointed out that the management is forcing actions this way. This is nothing new, but also not only they are doing similar things. It's just that problems, like burning CPUs and sockets because of BIOS mistakes, are not something that happens often. ASUS simply handles this whole problem the wrong way and will lose much more because of their statements and actions than a simple motherboard fix or replacement would cost.
It's still brought down to literally only the X3D processor issue and ASUS marketing behavior. You may like or dislike ASUS, but there is no other thing that they did on a global scale that should convince end-users to quit buying their motherboards.
All I remember from the past 3-4 years are 2 issues with ASUS motherboards. ASUS Z690 Hero turned around capacitors - ASUS was replacing motherboards, clearly their fault, but handled in the right way. ASUS Z690 Apex memory slot issues - ignored by ASUS as long as RAM could reach the specified frequency (which was somehow much lower than it should be) - clearly not handled well. Everything else mentioned by YouTubers from the pre-X3D issue is their luck or their problems with marketing that don't directly affect end-users.
Believe me, other brands make problems for reviewers too, and most other large brands were hiding issues with their products in the past, forcing reviewers to post only good info.
I see that all who have never been in the reviewing business (I talk in general about what I see on the web) think it's all nice, and it's only fun. They are shocked when someone says otherwise. Guys get "free samples," play with new toys, and everything is great. There are a lot of problems about which no one is mentioning. It's a regular, full-time job, so you deal with good and bad moments all the time. If reviewers talk loudly about problems with vendors and post it on popular websites, then they usually lose marketing contacts, so no more samples. Often if you talk the wrong way with vendors, then you lose samples too. I mean, even if you talk, not to mention making videos against any vendor. I respect that GN is not afraid to bring problems like that with ASUS, and more often, say straight if there are some design flaws in various products. Most others do nothing. People don't realize how hard it is to convince a single (counting on the market) vendor to provide samples in the first place. Easy is only to lose them.
