Damn,after reading this thread i dont got full trust for my DFI 680i LT board anymore.The X-fi crackle is still there after BIOS update.
There involved black magic,voodoo,all kinds of sacred and forbidden satanic rituals to bring this board to life but it works now. (fingers crossed)
Though it was pretty cheap,60€ equals ~ 95$ and i dont and cant RMA it since it has been welded with pretty harsh hand.
Already got one DFI bloodiron broken (they say the chipset is broken,call me blind but i think i would notice if the chipset would be split in half or would have a crack in it)
Maybe next board will be eVGA,i aint touching Asus for sure and if this mobo put the smoke out,no DFI either.
Someone already mentioned Europe got better laws in these RMA matters,just throwing guesses here but it could possibly be true.
Atleast here in Finland we got very strick touch to these matters and even if the customer were wrong, they might still refund cause they are affraid of the agency that makes sure customers wont get screwed.