I was wondering if anyone has had any issues with the Asrock quality? I was looking to purchase a new mobo and Gigabyte and Asrock seem the be the only ones in my price ranks with the features I want. I heard that overclocking with them is pretty easy with their bios but sometimes their cards come DOA or have DOA usb ports.
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Asrock Quality
- Thread starter Fr0nt1ine
- Start date
This is my experience, so that i don't have to write it again:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1039988339&postcount=12
But i don't overclock. I had 1 come DOA.
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1039988339&postcount=12
But i don't overclock. I had 1 come DOA.
dmoney1980
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I've had a Asrock z68 pro3m motherboard for 2 years now, and not a single issue with it. Keep in mind that all mobo manufacturers have a 2-3% failure rate.
Good summary ...
To put it differently. My first contact with Asrock, despite FUD from various ASUS loyalists, was in 2005 with the Asrock DUAL SATA2. It had the ULI1695 chipset. The board was costing about 55 euros and was beating in some benchmarks even the highest NForce boards that DFI maniacs were buying at more than twice the money. Not surprisingly, after the ULI1695 and 1697 giving Nvidia a run for her money, on cheapo Asrock boards, NVidia bought ULI only to effectively kill it and get rid of it once and for all.
This is an official italian thread about the Dual SATA2 started in 2005. It is June 2013 and the thread is still alive, with people using the board and many have even added SSD to it. 1855 pages over 8 years.
http://www.hwupgrade.it/forum/showthread.php?t=998913&page=1855
That was the board that won me over to Asrock. And i dare say, the board that made many european users discover Asrock. The boards are thinner than ASUS, but unless you are a gorilla wanting to wrestle with the board, it shouldn't be a problem. The critical components, are good enough (VRM, heatsinks, capacitors). 8 years later, the most common problem, even if you search in english fora, is the same: Bulging capacitors. People that recapped them, keep using them just fine.
If a 55 euro board still has active thread in enthusiasts' forum 8 years later, how bad could the quality be? The only thing that nowdays i am careful, is to always buy "all solid caps" motherboards. The ultracheap boards, come with a mix of solid and electrolytics. Taken my lesson from the DUAL SATA2, i avoid the temptation, just because, i know the electrolytics will die easier, even when in storage.
At the time, there were people telling me "That board looks like a toy, it won't last you 6 months and Asrock sucks". 8 years later, the "toy" still has active thread, Asrock is the 3rd biggest motherboard manufacturer and DFI, which was the queen of the era, is no more...
This is an official italian thread about the Dual SATA2 started in 2005. It is June 2013 and the thread is still alive, with people using the board and many have even added SSD to it. 1855 pages over 8 years.
http://www.hwupgrade.it/forum/showthread.php?t=998913&page=1855
That was the board that won me over to Asrock. And i dare say, the board that made many european users discover Asrock. The boards are thinner than ASUS, but unless you are a gorilla wanting to wrestle with the board, it shouldn't be a problem. The critical components, are good enough (VRM, heatsinks, capacitors). 8 years later, the most common problem, even if you search in english fora, is the same: Bulging capacitors. People that recapped them, keep using them just fine.
If a 55 euro board still has active thread in enthusiasts' forum 8 years later, how bad could the quality be? The only thing that nowdays i am careful, is to always buy "all solid caps" motherboards. The ultracheap boards, come with a mix of solid and electrolytics. Taken my lesson from the DUAL SATA2, i avoid the temptation, just because, i know the electrolytics will die easier, even when in storage.
At the time, there were people telling me "That board looks like a toy, it won't last you 6 months and Asrock sucks". 8 years later, the "toy" still has active thread, Asrock is the 3rd biggest motherboard manufacturer and DFI, which was the queen of the era, is no more...
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Justintoxicated
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RIP DFI, I'm still rocking mine on x48 though, best MB I ever purchased. I hear you on cheaper boards using inferior caps. I remember when epox was a good deal until the caps exploded.
Sodapopjones
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I feel old now... I had DFI Lan Party Ultra-D, and an EPoX EP-8KTA3 back in the day...
I haven't had an issue with my ASRock as far as QC goes, but it does suffer vdroop and the vrms get fking hot... I have seen quite a few DOA's recently though, I don't know if its because ASRock is extremely popular now, or if the QC has gone downhill since.
Yes, well, i don't buy the ultra cheap ones either (boards below 50 euros), with only 1 recent exception, this one:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/NVIDIA/N68C-GS FX/?cat=Specifications
Just because it's AM3+, but it can run an Athlon 5050e with DDR2. It's the usual "white elephant" boards that only Asrock comes up with...
I don't expect it to be an everlasting board, but i didn't want to buy a used one and for 37 euros...
Asrock is very popular in Italy and Germany for non OC boards. It's the second selling brand after ASUS i believe. For office PCs Asrock is the usual choice for small builders that sell assembled PCs. And enthusiasts on a budget also get Asrocks, be it overclockers or not.
Sodapopjones said:
Yes, i remember the LAN party Ultra too, it was like overclockers' heaven back then.
DOA is the most common issue with Asrocks for years now. They lack QC apparently. I had a 790g arrive DOA, but, well, not exactly. The board itself was running, but the integrated video wasn't. But technically, i call it DOA, because i RMA'ed. The funny is, that it was common. Other people with the same board had the same problem. So it's something that was easily slipping their QC.
In Europe, Asrock has been popular for many years now. It's just in USA that it's only now taking off. In Italy, several of the shops i buy from, have only ASUS-Asrock-Gigabyte,with more ASrock models than Gigabyte or ASUS-ASrock. MSI is more difficult to find and Biostar is a rarity.
For overclocking, Asrock may be inferior to ASUS, unless you go get the best available, but otherwise, Asrocks do their job. Vdroop or not, it will hang in there and the VRMs will hold up. I was running the 1090T on a 3+1 phase mATX board for a while. Granted, it wasn't supposed to, but they released BIOS that supported it anyway. It had throttling issues after some time encoding video in summer, but can't really blame the poor thing. With ambient at 34C and low RPM case fans, a 3+1 mATX can't do miracles with a Thuban. But unlike MSIs, it didn't catch fire. When temperature dropped, it stopped throttling. Yes, it had vdroop. But it kept going. 52 euros. And wasn't originally specifically stating it supports 125W either.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/A790GMH128M/
Now it happily runs an Athlon II 240.
Asrocks may have some quirks initially in BIOS settings that you have to figure out (like LLC or the way the auto fan speed works) or some early BIOS bug, but once you find the quirks and update the BIOS, they 're loyal workhorses. That's why they put them in office PCs here. Everytime i had instability with an Asrock, it turned out to be driver issue or RAM running higher clocks than the board liked.
Simply, nowdays that solid caps exist, even for a cheap office motherboard, it makes no sense to go ultracheap and buy this one at 33 euros:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/960GM-VGS3 FX/?cat=Specifications
Which has 3+1 phase and also electrolytic capacitors,
when for 48 euros, you can get 4+1 phase, all solid caps + digital PWM. 2 SATA3+6 sata2 ports should be enough for office use.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/970DE3U3S3/?cat=Specifications
DFI died probably exactly because it was making overclockers' boards. Which are an ethusiastic comunity, but a minority. Asrock went up, probably because it made boards for the masses. And that's why i love Asrock. They ll go cheap on accessories (the 970 extreme3 comes with only 2 sata cables, which if you are first time builder, as insufficient, manual is spartan), they ll make the PCB thin (probably they gain on the amount of copper they put inside), they may cheap out on the number of phases, but for standard use, it will make the job, it will perform like higher end boards, it will be stable and will give you the most features for the price. And there are people that overclock even low end ASrocks and stay happy for them for years.
Simply, in the electrolytic caps era, when you were taking a 55 euro ASrock board and overclocking it, you couldn't expect that the board would have all 125C rated capacitors. Probably they were putting 95C. So, compared to an expensive ASUS with 125C caps, the chances are always that the caps of the Asrock would bulge first... Still, almost everything i 've read, shows that virtually all users got a good 5 years out their dual sata2, despite overclocking the crap out of it. Those that didn't overclock, have much less problems. At this point, if you overclock in the first place, means that by now, you probably regard a s939 CPU obsolete and will have moved forward.
Nowdays, Asrock puts on lower boards, the same japanese Nichicon caps that puts on higher end boards. This should ensure an even longer life.
Simple fact is, if you 're not an overclocker, it's hard to avoid Asrock, because they 're reliable (once past the DOA stage) for a great price. Everytime i buy an Asrock, i say "next time, i will try Gigabyte or ASUS". When that time comes, i simply can't justify to myself, the extra money and i end up buying Asrock again... Last time i had bought ASUS was in socketA days. One board good (KT400), one (KT600) with a birth defect, where it was randomly forgetting the BIOS settings, despite battery being good. It was actually the KT600, which was expensive at the time, that made me go to Asrock, thinking "yeah, i bought the expensive ASUS and what did i get? A buggy board. So i may as well try the "el cheapo" one now". I 've seen ultracheap Asrocks on FM2 catching fire recently, but in general, if you get the boards over 50 euros, they 're reliable and solid. So i tend to buy 2 for every build i make and have peace of mind that i have a spare no matter what accident may happen. After years i end up with more obsolete parts than i can care about, so i give the parts away to friends or people that need them...
Gillbot
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People often scoff at me, but Asrock is high on my buy list. They've had great products lately and have performed very well for me especially considering the price point.
Michaelius
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No problems so far in last 18 months since i got this mobo.
Altrough I'd stay away from asrock haswell mobos at the moment - seems they still have some bios problems and need more time.
Altrough I'd stay away from asrock haswell mobos at the moment - seems they still have some bios problems and need more time.
Sixthsense
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No major issues with my asrock z68 ex4 that serves as a hackintosh platform (which is overclocked btw). I have a Z77 Ex6 that has no issues as well.
I have an h67 asrock mobo I bought open box. It worked perfect when I got it except for the built in remote didn't work. My guess is that's why it was returned, I got it for a steal so I didn't really care. About 6 months later asrock did a bios update for the board and the remote started working. Other than that no major problems with the board. The board also didn't come with the io shield (which was said it might not since it was open box) I bought one from asrock for $5, it came with in 4 days of me mailing them a check so I was pretty surprised at how fast it shipped out from them.
Sodapopjones
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I went Gigabyte this round... the Z87 ASRock boards are just subpar QC wise... If you're not OC'ing or care about "Flex" you should be fine.
I have fond memories of my NF3 and NF4 Ultra-D's, but DFI killed themselves in my mind when they stopped supporting DFI street. That was the best part of DFI ownership IMO. The boards themselves had some crap parts on them like the chipset fan that basically came broken.
ccityinstaller
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The "flex" you are referring to is so overblown, not the least amount by Dan_D here @ [H]ard...I am running my 3770K without the IHS and the retention socket installed, which *Should* make any PCB flex more then normal, and I haven't noticed a SINGLE issue..
I will happily take the exact same features/robust overclocks that other brands offer for way less money!
Sodapopjones
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The "flex" you are referring to is so overblown, not the least amount by Dan_D here @ [H]ard...I am running my 3770K without the IHS and the retention socket installed, which *Should* make any PCB flex more then normal, and I haven't noticed a SINGLE issue..
I will happily take the exact same features/robust overclocks that other brands offer for way less money!
Even if you downplay the "Flex" issues, the bios are still a disaster on the Z87 boards...
I just hope I have no issues with my UD3... I haven't rand an Intel CPU in 13 years.
KazeoHin
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I've built with TONS of Asrock boards for clients: I honestly would buy an Asrock board for my next mobo upgrade. Their quality is up there with Asus in my books.
Well, here's a little flex for you!
Gigabyte 990FXA UD3http://www.overclock.net/t/1023100/lightbox/post/20140695/id/1500935
http://www.overclock.net/t/1023100/official-gigabyte-ga-990fxa-series-owners-thread-club/6070
Fortunately, it's "ultra-durable".
Krenum
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Asrock is great! I have owned 3 of their motherboards and never had a problem with them. They also have pretty good prices and documentation with their products. I'm still using their Z68 Gen 3 in my main computer.
I highly recommend them.
I highly recommend them.
SeegsElite
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This is my third ASRock motherboard. I've never had an issue once. If you aren't looking for some specific feature or overkill on build quality ASRock is a great budget solution.
Hagrid
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I own a few and they work great.
The "flex" you are referring to is so overblown, not the least amount by Dan_D here @ [H]ard...I am running my 3770K without the IHS and the retention socket installed, which *Should* make any PCB flex more then normal, and I haven't noticed a SINGLE issue..
I will happily take the exact same features/robust overclocks that other brands offer for way less money!
I handle a lot of motherboards. The ASRock boards easily feel the most cheap and look the worst from a build standpoint. Most of the time they work but my experiences have been hit and miss with them. I've got friends who own ASRock boards and not a damn one of them has been happy with them. (They purchased these boards / systems prior to actually consulting me about them.) I know two people that have had a horrible time getting those boards RMA'ed.
I haven't seen any of their Z87 boards yet. So I can't comment on that. I'm sure I'll have one hit my test bench eventually.
Just installed my first Asrock Extreme 4 board last night. No flex that I saw. Booted up the first time, and kicks ass. Fantastic BIOS setup, great board layout.
Why pay more when this works as good as the more expensive boards? Exactly. No reason at all.
Why pay more when this works as good as the more expensive boards? Exactly. No reason at all.
Just installed my first Asrock Extreme 4 board last night. No flex that I saw. Booted up the first time, and kicks ass. Fantastic BIOS setup, great board layout.
Why pay more when this works as good as the more expensive boards? Exactly. No reason at all.
I don't know how people miss the flex in these boards. They flex under their own weight. It's just not something you see in higher end boards. They are just so bad it's laughable. I'm not saying you should flex the thing on purpose, but if you handle the ASRock board and virtually anything else you'll see a pretty clear difference. I've even got pictures of the warping PCB's in some of the reviews.
Is warping a problem? Not under most circumstances. It's a cost cutting measure and something that speaks about the quality of the boards themselves. They are not equal to other boards.
The one thing we can't do in a review is cover longevity and long term quality. My short term experiences with ASRock aren't usually all that great. I do not trust most models will pass the test of time. I've seen Intel, ASUS, and other boards last for a decade or more. I doubt many ASRock's ever will. I guess I just like nice things and I'd rather something be overbuilt than marginal. To each their own.
I usually keep my boards for 2 years. Ill report back at that time to let you know if it still lives..
I'm actually very curious to see how long term ownership of some of these boards pans out.
You can google old models and see for yourself. I have posted an example of my own local fora, where people still use the 939 DUAL Sata2 (a 55 euro board), put SSDs on it. etc. My own Asrock 939 boards still work, so do the 790g.
The problem is old boards was usually electrolytic capacitors. Now with all solid caps, this becomes secondary. The flex, unless severe enough to damage the circuitry or interrupt the continuity of the copper inside the board, should be irrelevant to the longevity, within reasonable limits. It is a bit similar to reviews of PSU that comment: The wires are thin, are the minimal allowed specification. Well, fortunately, unless you do something very odd, the wires aren't cut and copper cables take some decades before they present damage.
If you search for Asrock reviews and awards, you will see that very often they are reviewed in german. Why? Because in Europe, Asrocks are classic office computer motherboards. And offices while don't care about overclock, do care about stability and reliability.
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Sodapopjones
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My UD3 feels like a tank compared to my old 880G Extreme 3, but the 880G did make it over 3 years of pushing it to its limits, the VRMS are just weak on their boards.
Comixbooks
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I read alot of bad stuff about ASROCK on the overclocking forums so I avoided them just because of that even though the LOOK nice and have nice box designs =)
Asrock, made its fortune and reputation targeting the non overclocker crowd. You, overclockers, have your particularities. That is also why you pay more. But, Asrock has with most models (a model may be bad design, it can happen), developed the art of saving on production costs, by balancing well, where to cut, keeping in mind the price range, the probable identity of the user that will buy the specific model and a hierarchy of what is more imporant for the above criteria.
For example, i 've been buying cheap Asrocks since s939 days. I avoided the ultracheap, because they have dangerously weak VRMs, although on most boards, they have the throttling safety mechanism, that will prevent fire. But there are exceptions.
This year, for the first time i bought an ultra-cheap one (below 50 euros). This one:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1039814606&postcount=23
It works fine. But i bought it, knowing what to expect from that board, this is why i took the risk on an ultra low price. Given my past history with ASrock boards, what immediately caught my eye was:
- It uses the "old" blue PCB colour, which i had last seen in s939 boards.
- The plastic, especially in the retention bracket looks visually very cheap. Like a chinese cheap toy or something. It has a "rough" look, it doesn't seem as "polished" as my 970 asrock, but it is perfectly stable. Also, contrary to my 970 extreme3, the bracket isn't held in position by metal screws, but by those plastic thingies, that look like push-pins.
- The heatsink that you see is the same heatsink that they used in s939 boards that i have.
- The VRM phase is very weak. Few chokes, few mofsets (2 next to each choke).
-Electrolytic caps everywhere, not even the "solid caps for CPU power", that my matx 790g has.
But at the end, it's a 95W board for 37,50 euros and more important, what is the most probable market target? An overclocker? No. A gamer? No. An office. I mean, you can't really expect too much. So i put a low TDP Athlon in there and it has no problem.
It is a recurring theme in Asrock to recycle old stock. I see in new boards the same heatsinks that i had in s939 boards or 780/790 boards. They just paint them with new colour or cover them with some metal piece with logo for aethetics, but under, it's the same old heatsink. Or, as i said, as soon as i saw the PCB of that board, i had a flashback and thought "i am back in socket 939 era".
They must have huge stocks of some stuff they can use on different boards and a good management strategy of material.
On the other hand, if you are an overclocker, in the recent years, Asrock does have boards for you too. But you will have to pay a premium. If you pay less, you can also expect to lose some Mhz in overclock.
But, longevity, should be the lesser issue, since, overclockers that are hardcore enough to know the details of a board, won't stay with that board for over 5 years. They will have upgraded. Still, as i showed in another post, there are people that have been overclocking dual SATA2s since 2005 and still have them running. At some point, an electrolytic capacitor will blow. But it will be the most natural death that a board with electrolytic capacitors will have. An ASUS that was bought at the same time for more money, will probably have better caps. But that's why it costed much more.
Asrock today, may have weaker VRMs on cheap boards, but unless you go ultracheap, the VRMS are good quality, enough to avoid fire. And the solid capacitors even on low boards, are Nichicon, which is one of the top 3 japanese manufacturers. It may be that they are lower lifespan capacitors than the "gold" ones, but at the end, they 're better than electrolytic, no matter how you see it. And the caps, were always the primary source of failure of a motherboard, with electrostatic discharge coming second.
That's all. You want something more "durable"? You can pay more and get the "Fatal1ty" or whatever they call them. But Asrock's selling point was never "excellence above all". It was "get the best bang for your buck".
I bought the Asrock 970 extreme3 for 63 euros (4 of them). I know it's 4+1, but i don't overclock. But i got SATA3, USB3, digital PWM (the voltage of the CPU is literally like stuck. At first i thought the monitoring program had frozen) and solid caps. What other board gave the same for less money? It's thin. So were my previous Asrock boards, but they still run. As for flex, i have seen it in a 790g i have, it had a flex out of the box, part of it has to do with how much time they leave it in the "oven", but still runs fine. I have seen it flex when trying to install the PSU 24 pin cable, but just a bit of care (like, put your finger underneath to support it, just in case) and it's nothing destructive.
I too, had a mystical fear of Asrock back in 2005, because i had never heard of it and ASUS guys were snearing at them, but, 8 years later, i m happy with them. I consider them "smart buy" and i don't like throwing money out of the window just to satisfy my vanity or buy overkill boards or features. I know what i want, what to expect for the price, i am happy.
Sorry for yet another long post, i don't work for Asrock.
I just don't understand why in the USA, there is this fear each name Asrock is mentioned. I understand an overclocker wants high end features, wants to get the last Mhz he can get, but, ASrocks have been out for many years now, google for European fora, people, including budget overclockers use them since ages and they aren't simply a catastrophe waiting to happen. If Asrock is no3 manufacturer now, it means, someone has been buying them. Maybe not so much in USA, but if they were unreliable garbage, by now they would have shut down.I 've seen they have problems in quality control of boards coming out DOA from factory, but at the end, it's a risk worth taking, at least for me, considering the potential benefits.
And, with the price of new hardware, how many of you, will you actually keep your boards for over 10 years for example? If many people still use 8 year old Dual SATA2 and the most common issue of those that failed was blown caps, now with solid caps, they should at least get the same lifespan too. Being thin, unless we talk of a model with serious design flaw or defective batch, is more of psychological problem. Like i said, i was to buy a cheap Corsair PSU and remember "The cables are minimum gauge rating, they are very thin". How many times have you read "My PSU has a cable that doesn't provide power anymore. I think it was thin so it was cut? Or "a power cable of my PSU was thin and the copper inside tarnished to the point it no longer conducts electricity well, so my HDD won't spin".
If you want the best of the best, bragging rights, the best overclock you can get, buy ASUS. If you have more modest needs and want smart buys, Asrock is the best option.
Michaelius
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Speaking about longevity a friend of mine used that legendary Asrock PCI-ex/AGP combo mobo (iirc it was on ULI chipset ? ) for 4-5 years.
Mine together with Sandy 2500K is working close to 2 years now
And people suggesting Asus because they are better
Mine together with Sandy 2500K is working close to 2 years now
And people suggesting Asus because they are better