High end Asrock, Bisostar, and ECS P67s!?

K

Kardonxt

2[H]4U
Joined
Apr 13, 2009
Messages
3,681
I am really surprised to see high end mobos from (what i consider) the bottom tier Mobo manufactures.

I am thinking of giving them a try since some of my favorite mobos were built by the more off brand companies like Abit and DFI.

Do any of you know if these companies have stepped up their game to deliver some overclocking beasts? Or are these just junk with a nice color scheme? Unfortunately i have been unable to find many, if any, good reviews on them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135282&cm_re=p67-_-13-135-282-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157225&cm_re=p67-_-13-157-225-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138289&cm_re=p67-_-13-138-289-_-Product

If they are junk i suppose i can get an asus or gigabyte like everyone else but it's so damn boring lol.

Edit: on a side note what's with all the lame overclocking reviews everywhere. "Well this is what we got on stock cooling." or "This is what we could get at 1.35 volts." "This corvettes really fast we could safely do 25mph in a school zone and 70mph on the express way without an issue"

Screw that! Clock it like you stole it! I want to know what these mobos can do.
 
Last edited:
Asrock aren't a bottom tier manufacturer. They're part of ASUS, most of their market is in the East and they do a lot of HTPC stuff but lower tier? Certainly not.
 
^^^agreed. I have an asrock p67 extreme6 (just built a few days ago) and it is a fantastic board. Tons of connections very stable and under $200 on newegg. I am really glad I went with this board.
 
it seems there are a ton of asus issue threads. Should I just wait a few more weeks before deciding on a mobo? I will admit the asrock fatality mobo looks great.

Any opinions on the other mobos?
 
I just pulled the trigger on a fatal1ty board myself best looking p67 out right now in my opinion
 
I've generally found ASUS to be one of the most reliable manufacturers. Far more so than EVGA and Gigabyte anyway. You can find tonnes of issue threads for any mobo manufacturer.

The only issue with asrock is that I believe their support is 'internationally' based (i.e. in Taiwan). That was last time I checked but correct me if I'm wrong:).
 
I've used a few ECS boards in the past, and i seriously abused the shit out of them. I've even had some covered in sealant and running TEC's, not a single failure. A moot point considering we're talking about P67 boards, but stories are always nice.
 
Kardonxt said:
it seems there are a ton of asus issue threads. Should I just wait a few more weeks before deciding on a mobo? I will admit the asrock fatality mobo looks great.

Any opinions on the other mobos?
Click to expand...

If you are like me (not a beta tester), wait for the dust to clear then decide what to get at that point. Right now, there are not enough reviews (or should I say "beta testers") to make any clear recommendation based on stability, features and brands yet. Mostly it's a personal opinion(s) and do not really have any solid test or analyse to back up anyone's claim(s) yet.
 
Thanks for the input every one. I sold off all my i7 rigs but my q6600 is still chugging along. I guess i can hold out another month and let the dust settle a bit. Maybe micro center will drop their cpu prices even more in the meantime :)
 
I personally wanted to stay away from ASUS as i did not like my p5k vanilla. The only reason why i went with them when i did was because i had to buy from Amazon an thats all they had in my price range at the time. Even though i went with ASRock a subsidiary the feature set UEFI and ports sold it from me and from my few dealings with building asrock mobos have been positive. I suggest though from not installing xfast usb program as that plus one windows update made my ethernet port disappear. System restore fixed that problem. Otherwise very solid.
 
ecs doesn't look to shabby. I wish hydra preformed better or they ditched it and lowered the cost. But it still looks like you get more features than other mobos in this price range anyways.
 
Kardonxt said:
I am really surprised to see high end mobos from (what i consider) the bottom tier Mobo manufactures.

I am thinking of giving them a try since some of my favorite mobos were built by the more off brand companies like Abit and DFI.
Click to expand...

I would be more worried about support / RMA issues with those companies rather than the board itself. Who has your back 6 months down the road when you have an issue? I am not saying it is bad or it is good, I am just saying that is something I would check into. You guys get issues with the "big guys" and we can help you out, with the guys listed here, you are on your own.
 
Asus, EVGA or Gigabyte for me due to support, overclock ability, reliability and quality. I wouldn't go near these three listed unless i wanted a cheap WHS/NAS.
 
Kardonxt said:
just saw the saber tooth pics on the front page. I hope the review comes soon :)
Click to expand...
Heck yes. This board looks awesome - whether or not the supaprotectiveshield actually does anything... who cares! :p

Seriously though, it does look nice and I want it.

As far as the OP's concern, I've heard good things about Asrock as of late. The Biostar was able to OC the new 2600K to 5GHz on air (any decent board and CPU should be able to do this, apparently).

Guess it just comes down to choosing your poison as they all seem to be generally the same - although, some lacking EFI and consistent BIOS updates. But, they are fairly new so who knows what kind of support they'll get down the road.
 
From Intel P45 to 890FX Boards Biostar boards have been breaking OC records and are quality why are you lumping them together with the crap realms of ECS and Asrock?
 
Kardonxt said:
it seems there are a ton of asus issue threads. Should I just wait a few more weeks before deciding on a mobo? I will admit the asrock fatality mobo looks great.

Any opinions on the other mobos?
Click to expand...

As others mentioned, if you want a good shot at having a frictionless experience you want to wait a month or so for the teething problems associated with a new chipset to get resolved by others willing to deal with the pain. ;)

The reason you are seeing so much traffic about ASUS boards is probably because they sell more then anyone else.
 
SpongeBob said:
From Intel P45 to 890FX Boards Biostar boards have been breaking OC records and are quality why are you lumping them together with the crap realms of ECS and Asrock?
Click to expand...

Because most of us care if our mobo lasts more than the 5 mins it takes to run some suicide benchmarks. It will take a lot more than "world record overclocker!" on the newegg description page to convince me they don't belong in the crap realm. I see bad ECS and biostar mobos all the time at the shop i work at. Granted not normally higher end boards.

Ive had to RMA biostar mobos in the past and it was not a ton of fun.

I'm open to evidence that they have stepped up their game. But "I like biostar so they arnt junk" isn't going to convince anyone lol
 
Kardonxt said:
Because most of us care if our mobo lasts more than the 5 mins it takes to run some suicide benchmarks. It will take a lot more than "world record overclocker!" on the newegg description page to convince me they don't belong in the crap realm. I see bad ECS and biostar mobos all the time at the shop i work at. Granted not normally higher end boards.

Ive had to RMA biostar mobos in the past and it was not a ton of fun.

I'm open to evidence that they have stepped up their game. But "I like biostar so they arnt junk" isn't going to convince anyone lol
Click to expand...

I don't think any of them are junk,I think they all have stepped up there game..the problem is RMA/Warranty in my mind..The ASROCK boards looks awesome but the warranty and questionable RMA process is whats keeping me from buying it until I hear some positive feedback on the subject...But saying there junk I think is just crazy..
 
As far as quality... I do notice on the description @newegg, for ASRock it's 2 years limited warranty but for brands such as ASUS and Gigabyte it's 3 years. Is this indicative of their quality? Look wise I do like ASRock's Extreme6 board.
 
Well as i thought may happen micro center solved my dilemma of picking a motherboard.

2600K $279
Asus P8P67 Pro $159

A no-brainer at that price.

I have been really happy with how fast asus is pounding out bios updates and the support on the [H] forums.
 
Kardonxt said:
Well as i thought may happen micro center solved my dilemma of picking a motherboard.

2600K $279
Asus P8P67 Pro $159

A no-brainer at that price.

I have been really happy with how fast asus is pounding out bios updates and the support on the [H] forums.
Click to expand...
Hopefully you won't have any issues. I agree though, the support from ASUS on here is amazing thus far.
 
Well, there seems to be quite a few that experience problem on the Asus boards. I just helped a friend put together a P67 Pro with a 2600K from scratch (all parts are brand new) without a single issue. Boots right up on first attempt, updated BIOS to 1253 from 0402 and it went as smooth as silk. It recognized the 2TB HDs right away and Setup Windows 7 in 15 minutes. Seems to be very snappy at anything we do. I must say I'm impressed. But hell no, I'm still holding on to the 1366 systems I have currently. Don't know for how long, though. I might snap and involunatarily jump the gun.

I must admit, the UEFI things feel weird to start with, though. Didn't have much time playing around with it, but it just feels unBIOS now.
 
Last edited:
I went ahead and got the ASROCK EXTREME 6 to play with is a nice looking board and all the reviews ive seen it performed well..I still plan on EVGA when it comes out but until then I will play with this..Can't wait to get that 2600K folding..
 
Kardonxt said:
Well as i thought may happen micro center solved my dilemma of picking a motherboard.

2600K $279
Asus P8P67 Pro $159

A no-brainer at that price.

I have been really happy with how fast asus is pounding out bios updates and the support on the [H] forums.
Click to expand...

I think you mean P8P67 (non-pro):D
 
i got the asrock p67 extreme4. none fo that fatality crap for me. the extreme4 looks like a good board though. i should have hte case and psu to try it out next week :)
 
I jumped on the fatality for the red and black color scheme, and for the fact they are a subsidiary of ASUSTek and no other reason. So far it's worked very well, but the bios does need some work like they all have. After you disable the splash screen you no longer need to see a giant face staring at you and in the menus the face is obscured by the menus for the most part. Also, I got my board for $219 right before newegg ramped up the price..so that influenced my decision.
 
fsh42na said:
I think you mean P8P67 (non-pro):D
Click to expand...

No i mean the pro. There normal price on the non pro is $159

But if you buy an i7 2600k and p8p67 pro combo you get the pro for 159.

I just picked it up last night.

Edit: Proof.
p67pro.jpg
 
Last edited:
I don't think that there any real junk boards out there now. As someone else said the lower tier companies (with the exception of PC Cowchips - they still around?) have realized that they have to step up their games to compete with Asus and Gigabyte. I was seriously considering the Asrock Extreme 4 and 6, but the 1 and 2 yr warranties made me pause. Eventually, I went back to Asus and got the P8P67 pro. Asus' presence here on [H] forums helped give a gentle kick in the ass too:D
Having said that, I still might pick up an Asrock extreme 4 just because to play around with if I can find a good price ($150 shipped)
 
Kardonxt said:
No i mean the pro. There normal price on the non pro is $159

But if you buy an i7 2600k and p8p67 pro combo you get the pro for 159.

I just picked it up last night.

Edit: Proof.
p67pro.jpg
Click to expand...

No proof needed;) I forgot about the nice prices on the combos. My local MC only has the non pro :mad: and I had to pick up the pro elsewhere. There are too many geek/nerds around me buying up the good stuff!
congrats on the awesome deal!!
 
before the microcenter sale I was strongly considering the Asrock extreme 6. I will admit all of the asus support on the forums was already pushing me towards the pro or the sabertooth.

Luckily i ordered online for instore pickup as soon as i saw the deal. When i got to the store and looked around all the pros were gone.
 
Sir_Poop_Alot said:
It's a P8967 Pro because I got the bundle this past Friday... I am holding it in my hands as I am typing this so it's definitely a Pro!
Click to expand...

gardonxt already straightened me out on that. I forgot all about the MC combo prices on the mobo. Now if only the fellow geeks and nerds, who visit Santa Clara MC , would leave me a mobo then I too could have gotten a pro:mad:, LOL.

Enjoy:D
 
fsh42na said:
I don't think that there any real junk boards out there now. As someone else said the lower tier companies (with the exception of PC Cowchips - they still around?) have realized that they have to step up their games to compete with Asus and Gigabyte. I was seriously considering the Asrock Extreme 4 and 6, but the 1 and 2 yr warranties made me pause. Eventually, I went back to Asus and got the P8P67 pro. Asus' presence here on [H] forums helped give a gentle kick in the ass too:D
Having said that, I still might pick up an Asrock extreme 4 just because to play around with if I can find a good price ($150 shipped)
Click to expand...

I am definatly anti ASUS..BUT the support they have shown on the [H] is outstanding to say the least..
We will see how good the Extreme 6 is when I get it..If it is a dud I will just send it back..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top