I guess your priorities change with the knowledge that whatever you send out the door or mail to a customer can just as easily be returned, that tends to mind focus on what is and isn't important in a system build.
when you are building one machine you can put up with the motherboards fickleness but when you are building many, the last thing you want is to be stopped every fourth machine, swapping out memory and customising bios settings, what you need is the minimum amount of fuss and the fewest problems.
We all like the latest/fastest best performing but that often comes at a price and not just in monertary terms, newly released boards can often be very fickle indeed until there second or third release with umpteen bios upgrades, there is a lot to be said for going with a motherboard at the end of it's production run.
Thats not to say I do!! I'm just as big a sucker as all the rest of you. lolol
Martin
Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.