Why is Asrock recomended often?

[Locut0s]

Having worked in computer retail for just over a year up here in Canada I don't get why AsRock is so popular both on here and in the US in general? I respect Aanandtech, it's still one of the best hardware review sites on the net but I don't get the AsRock recommendations that I frequently see. They are well known as a cheap brand and quality wise are very much on the low end from what I know. We hardly ever sell the brand here, at least I hardly ever sell it and none of the sales people I know here sell it either. I always recommend ASUS and or Gigabyte. Asrock's reputation is one of being buggy, RMA and crash prone. Now maybe that's not earned I don't know, again we hardly sell the brand. What's their reputation in the US?

 

[Gillbot]

I've had excellent results with all the Asrock products i've owned. I typically buy them first because they have great features for the price.

 

[Locut0s]

I've had excellent results with all the Asrock products i've owned. I typically buy them first because they have great features for the price.

Hmm... Well I guess it could just be lack of familiarity? For some reason they have a reputation as being low quality here.

 

[Gillbot]

I think quality is a misconception really. I've had great luck with MSI as well, but know of a few people that hate them. They are not considered a top tier brand but if you accept them for the price you pay, they often exceed expectations.

Some get tied up into comparing a $500 motherboard to a $100 motherboard. Of course, the lower end one will not "hold up", but if you accept it is a $100 motherboard and it performs close to the $500 one, I think it exceeds expectations in that aspect.

I always look to MSI or Asrock first because historically they have always treated me well. Some wouldn't touch them if they were free, but then again I wouldn't pay $500 for a motherboard if someone else gave me $400 to put towards it because i'm just too cheap.

 

[blastingcap]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Asrock = ASUS made in China. ASUS = ASUS made in Taiwan. Or something like that. Imho, the mobo is too important for me to trust to ASUS's Chinese subsidiary Asrock, so I prefer buying the Made in Taiwan ASUS.

 

[Locut0s]

I think quality is a misconception really. I've had great luck with MSI as well, but know of a few people that hate them. They are not considered a top tier brand but if you accept them for the price you pay, they often exceed expectations.

Some get tied up into comparing a $500 motherboard to a $100 motherboard. Of course, the lower end one will not "hold up", but if you accept it is a $100 motherboard and it performs close to the $500 one, I think it exceeds expectations in that aspect.

I always look to MSI or Asrock first because historically they have always treated me well. Some wouldn't touch them if they were free, but then again I wouldn't pay $500 for a motherboard if someone else gave me $400 to put towards it because i'm just too cheap.

Depends on what you mean by performs like a $500 board and performs like a $100 board. To me it all comes down to stability. And I too would never buy a $500 board. It's usually the difference between say a $100 board and a $200 board. If the $100 board crashes once a week with 24/7 up time while the $200 board never crashes during the same week that's not acceptable to me and worth the extra 100.

 

[Fallengod]

I dont know either but personally, I do not buy Asrock stuff.....

 

[notposting]

Asrock was a budget Asus division, however they were recently spun off into their own organization.

 

[Gillbot]

Depends on what you mean by performs like a $500 board and performs like a $100 board. To me it all comes down to stability. And I too would never buy a $500 board. It's usually the difference between say a $100 board and a $200 board. If the $100 board crashes once a week with 24/7 up time while the $200 board never crashes during the same week that's not acceptable to me and worth the extra 100.

Well in my S775 days, I first had an MSI board and someone convinced me to get a "good" DFI. The DFI clocked the same CPU much lower than the MSI. Later I was led to believe that a top tier Asus would better suit my OC desires. It ran about even, if not a hair faster than my MSI. Considering the DFI was nearly twice the price of my MSI and clocked slower, and the Asus was three times the price of my MSI and was basically even with it, I think the MSI did quite well.

Now lets fast forward to S1366 times. My first board was an Asrock and it would run a blistering 265 bclk but since everyone was convinced it was a junk board and wouldn't last I decided to pick up an Asus for comparison sake. The Asus wouldn't run anywhere near the Asrock as far as bclk was concerned. Granted, when I popped in the 980x, the droop on the Asrock was atrocious BUT it ran it chugging along happily. Once again, considering that the Asrock was 1/3 of the price of the Asus, I think the win goes to Asrock for value. Now, I will admit that I decided to keep the Asus because I felt it had a better long term survivability due to better cooling and beefier heatsinks. But, had I continues to watercool everything I would have gladly kept the Asrock.

 

[Magic Carpet]

ASRock have improved... I don't consider them low-quality.

Cheaper brand? Yes.

 

[JBT]

I recently bought the ASrock Extreme 3 Gen 3, for the price and features its GREAT. Stability? solid as a rock. Its been as stable if not more than any other motherboard I've owned. Multiple Asus', Abit, EPox, DFI, the list goes on. The only mobo I've had stability issues with was an old MSI, and it lasted till it was about a year and a half old so it was upgrade time anyways.

 

[Mem]

Asrock use to be part of Asus but that's no longer the case,they are popular now because of good reviews,good features and good value for money,also Asrock have some models in the high end to compete with Asus/Gigabyte etc....using solid capitors ,quality components.


I still prefer Asus(infact using Asus Z68 V/Gen3 at the moment) due to probably only brand still using quality Intel onboard Lan and excellent UEFI BIOS.

 

[Rvenger]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Asrock = ASUS made in China. ASUS = ASUS made in Taiwan. Or something like that. Imho, the mobo is too important for me to trust to ASUS's Chinese subsidiary Asrock, so I prefer buying the Made in Taiwan ASUS.

My Asus P8Z68-V/Gen3 is made in China. I think Asrock's quality is not cheap by any means. My Asrock Z68 Extreme 3 Gen 3 PCB and components felt of better quality than this Asus actually. Asus gets too much credit IMHO, their boards are on par but nothing spectacular. Buggy Bios on the Intel P67 and Z68 boards too.

 

[dma0991]

ASRock has made quite a few boards that are on par or better than the bigger players but due to the perception that the big 3 produces much superior boards, ASRock is usually a hidden gem that people would find if they actually had done some research before purchasing. I have an old P4 rig that is still running strong with an ASRock board. Given the fact that it could be nearly 10 years old, I'd say that being cheaper in price does not equal to being cheaper in quality.

They've really stepped up their game with their current GEN3 line and the black and gold color scheme is just beautiful. I'd hope they would improve on their UEFI BIOS in terms of the visual appeal as it is lacking when you're comparing it against BIOS like Asus.

 

[Zap]

I don't get the AsRock recommendations that I frequently see. They are well known as a cheap brand and quality wise are very much on the low end from what I know.

So, you're telling us that you are unable to accept change? :hmm:

 

[VirtualLarry]

I used to primarily be a Gigabyte man. I think that they were at the top of their game, with their P35 and then P45 motherboards. (P35-DS3R, DS3L, etc. and EP45-UD3P/R, one of the best overclocking 775 boards.)

I'm not so sure about Gigabyte quality nowadays. People complain about "boot loops" with their P67 and especially Z68 mobos.

ASrock, I've used their boards back in the S775 and S939 days, and they made some fairly unique, if under-appreciated boards, crossover boards with both DDR and DDR2, PCI-E and AGP, etc.

But they've been releasing more cutting-edge boards lately.

I just bought their 990FX Extreme4 AM3+ board, primarily because of the price and feature-set. It gave me everything I wanted (8+1 VRMs, front-panel USB3.0, and floppy and IDE, as well as SATA 6G.) All for only $160, which was discounted by Microcenter by $40 for buying it in a combo with a 1045T.

 

[Despoiler]

I used to primarily be a Gigabyte man. I think that they were at the top of their game, with their P35 and then P45 motherboards. (P35-DS3R, DS3L, etc. and EP45-UD3P/R, one of the best overclocking 775 boards.)

I'm not so sure about Gigabyte quality nowadays. People complain about "boot loops" with their P67 and especially Z68 mobos.

ASrock, I've used their boards back in the S775 and S939 days, and they made some fairly unique, if under-appreciated boards, crossover boards with both DDR and DDR2, PCI-E and AGP, etc.

But they've been releasing more cutting-edge boards lately.

I just bought their 990FX Extreme4 AM3+ board, primarily because of the price and feature-set. It gave me everything I wanted (8+1 VRMs, front-panel USB3.0, and floppy and IDE, as well as SATA 6G.) All for only $160, which was discounted by Microcenter by $40 for buying it in a combo with a 1045T.

Boot loops just got fixed in their recent beta BIOS. I can actually use my reset button again.

 

[Meghan54]

They are well known as a cheap brand and quality wise are very much on the low end from what I know.

So, you're telling us that you are unable to accept change? :hmm:

Well, I think Zap is on to something, but Locut0s, I think you meant to write, "They are well known as an inexpensive brand and quality wise are very much in the middle from what I know," because that's much more the truth than assigning AsRock a place down with ECS.

I, too, have over the decades built with both high end and low....low end the likes of PC Chips, FIC.....and high end like the best Asus, Gigabyte, Intel can provide (plus the rare SuperMicro I bought over the years), and let me assure you, AsRock is anything but cheap like ECS, et al, and compares much more favorably to comparable boards from Asus and Gigabyte.

My wife's computer, a 2500K running at 3.8GHz w/8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 and a Sapphire 2GB 6950 video card, was horrible getting a stable overclock with the original Gigabyte Z68-UD3H board she had. Scrapped that board for an AsRock Z68 Pro3-M and it's just worked and worked without a single issue. Accepted the OC settings and hasn't missed a beat in the 4 months its been running.


Now, am I equating all AsRock with all high end Asus/Gigabyte/MSI/Intel boards out there? No, but AsRock certainly has got its stuff together by offering all solid caps on its boards at price points neither Asus nor Gigabyte hit....granted, the caps are probably Chinese instead of the Taiwanese or Japanese caps boasted about on the Asus/Gig. boards, but only time will tell about their ultimate longevity. For the short term, though, the AsRock is doing everything I've asked of it as well as any other board I've used in recent memory and actually better than most have acted.

I'd definitely pick up an AsRock for another build, esp. when price is a large constraining factor....wouldn't hesitate to buy another.

I honestly think your perceptions of AsRock are a bit skewed.

 

[RavenSEAL]

I've loved every single one of my 4 Gigabyte boards <3

All of them still running tip-top.

 

[JBT]

Now, am I equating all AsRock with all high end Asus/Gigabyte/MSI/Intel boards out there? No, but AsRock certainly has got its stuff together by offering all solid caps on its boards at price points neither Asus nor Gigabyte hit....granted, the caps are probably Chinese instead of the Taiwanese or Japanese caps boasted about on the Asus/Gig. boards, but only time will tell about their ultimate longevity. For the short term, though, the AsRock is doing everything I've asked of it as well as any other board I've used in recent memory and actually better than most have acted.

Actually from the Newegg spec sheet and my AsRock Z68 Extreme 3 Gen 3 box.

Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

It's often recommended because they're awesome, especially for the money. And if you've followed closely, they've been one of (if not the most) the most reliable LGA 1155 motherboard manufacturers, plus they've had amazing prices. The color scheme for their Gen3 boards is the best IMO, too.

Got my board for $150 and will definitely buy ASRock yet again if they keep producing such top notch boards. For that much I got 3x PCIe 2.0 (x8/x8/4x or 16x/0x/4x), and it'll work at 3.0 speeds with Ivy Bridge. It has front panel USB 3.0, a CLR CMOS button on the back panel, a debug LED, power and reset buttons on the motherboard, eSATA, front and back panel FireWire, 7.1 channel audio, optical and coaxial, 4x SATA 6Gbps (2 off Intel chipset, 2 off Marvell controller), 6x USB 2.0 plus 2x USB 3.0 on the back panel and many other things. It also has an 8+2 power phase design if you're overclocking. In short, it's hands down the best Intel board you're gonna get for $150, and as of now stability has been solid.

Only thing I'd like to see change is the UEFI interface, which looks just a bit dated. It is very well organized and all the features you need are there, however. I'd give the board 4.5/5 stars.

Another worthy mention is the Z68 Extreme3 Gen3. It costs $122, and the only things you lose in comparison to mine are the third PCIe slot, 2x SATA 6Gbps, the debug LED and power/reset buttons, the FireWire, and the optical and coaxial. You do get video outputs like DVI and HDMI and support for Lucid Virtu and ISRT, but for enthusiasts IMO the IGP is largely worthless and you won't use ISRT if you have a decent-capacity SSD. Great bang-for-buck overall, too.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Only motherboard brands that have failed me in any department is ecs and msi.

The ecs g33 with my back then q6600 which came as a bundle from frys popped all the usb ports and eventually the ps ports declaring itself a real winner the chip was at 3ghz typical of any mobo.

Msi made some hot running p35/p45 mobos and a p35 platinum had a flaw with its southbridge heatsink making the fitting of a gtx280 impossible till i hacked off half the heatsink...eventually donated this to a second hand store in working order,it sucked for ocing.

Asus has been very good to me and gigabyte had its boot loop issues at times but never failed me either.

 

[greenhawk]

They use to be crap but I would be talking several years ago.

Times change and they improved. Now you get a good range of features at a good price and still maintain quality needed for having a stable system.

Most companies go up and down in quality over time (cost cutting, but design, ect), so what was bad before is good now, and what is good now could be bad in a few years time.

 

[MontyAC]

My 2 939 ASRock boards are still running perfectly, over 6 years old. No leaking caps or any problems.

 

[Rvenger]

Well, I think Zap is on to something, but Locut0s, I think you meant to write, "They are well known as an inexpensive brand and quality wise are very much in the middle from what I know," because that's much more the truth than assigning AsRock a place down with ECS.

I, too, have over the decades built with both high end and low....low end the likes of PC Chips, FIC.....and high end like the best Asus, Gigabyte, Intel can provide (plus the rare SuperMicro I bought over the years), and let me assure you, AsRock is anything but cheap like ECS, et al, and compares much more favorably to comparable boards from Asus and Gigabyte.

My wife's computer, a 2500K running at 3.8GHz w/8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 and a Sapphire 2GB 6950 video card, was horrible getting a stable overclock with the original Gigabyte Z68-UD3H board she had. Scrapped that board for an AsRock Z68 Pro3-M and it's just worked and worked without a single issue. Accepted the OC settings and hasn't missed a beat in the 4 months its been running.


Now, am I equating all AsRock with all high end Asus/Gigabyte/MSI/Intel boards out there? No, but AsRock certainly has got its stuff together by offering all solid caps on its boards at price points neither Asus nor Gigabyte hit....granted, the caps are probably Chinese instead of the Taiwanese or Japanese caps boasted about on the Asus/Gig. boards, but only time will tell about their ultimate longevity. For the short term, though, the AsRock is doing everything I've asked of it as well as any other board I've used in recent memory and actually better than most have acted.

I'd definitely pick up an AsRock for another build, esp. when price is a large constraining factor....wouldn't hesitate to buy another.

I honestly think your perceptions of AsRock are a bit skewed.

On the Z68 Extreme 3 Gen 3, a mid range, low cost board, has all Japenese solid caps. And they are gold in color. I seen on a couple newegg reviews some people were taking off eggs because theirs came in silver caps lol.