One of the things that I enjoy about being on a site like TechPowerUp.com is seeing the different cultural and economic viewpoints. This giveaway has shown how people react on both accounts. I (my viewpoint) think it is in very poor taste to give, as a prize, anything but your best, and some of the comments echo that. These prizes represent the company, and MSI should have asked themselves what this says about them. Others don't care that MSI, "one of the world's largest motherboard and video card manufacturers. In addition, MSI also manufactures a wide range of products including notebooks, gaming laptops, All-in-One PCs, servers/workstations, industrial PCs, household appliances, car infotainment products, barebone systems and communication devices among other things" - with "Revenue TW$74.61 billion / $2.54 billion (2011)" (from wikipedia)- would give away a discontinued, (
Newegg.com) previous generation product. This is not to bash MSI's products. Their use of "Military Class" components has contributed greatly to the quality and longevity of all motherboards today. I have a MSI N460GTX Twin Frozr II SOC that I absolutely love.
IMHO, bad form MSI, bad form.