Why is Asrock recomended often?

[MoxJr]

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.

rofl @ your ignorance

 

[pauldun170]

I will only buy Asus boards made in Taiwan, but only if they are flown by 767 and not by cargo ship..and only if they are shipped by fedex and the driver hasn't had chinese in the past 2 weeks.

Asrock...I will buy if it is was made in China but only if is under $120 and only if it passes a smell test. If it smells like onions that bitch get RMA'd.

 

[Shawn]

I will only buy Asus boards made in Taiwan, but only if they are flown by 767 and not by cargo ship..and only if they are shipped by fedex and the driver hasn't had chinese in the past 2 weeks.

Asrock...I will buy if it is was made in China but only if is under $120 and only if it passes a smell test. If it smells like onions that bitch get RMA'd.

Onions??

 

[dajeepster]

Onions??

yeah.. haven't you heard!?... people in the forums can smell your breath a node away and the pron sites stop working...

 

[billbobaggins87]

lolwhat

 

[Zaap]

Others have probably said it already, but ASRock used to have a bad reputation, but in recent years they make really good quality stuff with a lot of nice features for a good price.

I was looking back at some builds I've done for other people: I built a system back in May, 2009 with an ASRock A780 motherboard as a dedicated database server for a small company. That little machine has mostly been running 24/7 day in, day out, serving up database records ever since with zero problems. Talk about rock stable.

I built 12 client machines last summer with the ASRock H67M-ITX and i5 2500K's- every single one of those is still humming right along with no problems.

I also built a couple of machines with the ASRock P67 Extreme4 board- both pre and post B3. Same story- every one of them rock stable.

So while I myself used to shy away from ASRock because I though they had bad quality, my actual experience with them has been exactly the opposite.

Over time, it seems motherboard makers can change their act. The flip side of ASRock (that's never burned me once) is some brands I used to trust explicitly in the past I've been burned a few times more recently. Asus stands out in that category. Back in '06-'07 and before, I trusted Asus boards without fail. I never had a problem with them. Then in the next few years I started noticing the reliability across their entire board line took a major nosedive. Every now and then draw the short straw and get a spectacularly unstable board from Asus. Across all my client builds, they went from the board maker that never caused any trouble, to the one that caused the most trouble.

On the flip side, I had so much bad luck with Biostar right off that I swore off them for life- but now I hear people tout Biostar as a very good make- so clearly they changed what they were doing.

In a nutshell- judge motherboards by model and current reputation first, and by brand second.

 

[pauldun170]

When it comes to motherboards, I've been operating under the following assumptions (which I wouldn't be surprised if those assumptions are based on nonsense)


ZOTAC is best left for ITX junkies who don't mind an occasional RMA\Driver issue and meh support.

ECS (EliteGroup) and FOXCOM is best for those whose name is copyrighted and whose ass consist of a factory that poops out PC's. (you just need it to last up to the warranty ends...)

Intel - Not sure who actively pursues Intel boards but I know a fun game of convincing morons to buy one for their brand spanking new Bulldozer.

EVGA - Best purchased if you want your video card label to match your motherboard label. Gonna claim ignorance on these boards

ASRock - See all the posts in this thread

JETWAY - Best purchased when the processor you have is no longer made and the only motherboards left for your proc on newegg are $40 Jetway boards.

ASUS - Generally high quality boards that occasionally exhibit low quality issues (WHY MUST YOU POST TWICE ON STARTUP!!! WHY MY USB3 PORTS FLAKEY!!)

GIGABYTE - Rule #1...cheap lowend Gigabyte suck (slightly). Just buy an ASROCK or Biostar you cheap bastard. Mid priced low feature Gigabyte boards are meh when compared to equally priced high feature Asrock boards. Mid to High end Gigabyte boards are solid.

MSI - For those who don't have memories of MSI boards and think ASUS\GIGABYTE\ASROCK boards are for sissies. Ever notice how these are always free in a bundle or discounted?

Biostar - Like ASROCK with lower quality VRM and bios. Good value boards

Where they are made is irrelevant.
The label only shows where final assembly occurs.
Every component could be made in China but if the final assembly occurs in Taiwan then thats the sticker it gets.
The opposite is also true.

 

[Gillbot]

When it comes to motherboards, I've been operating under the following assumptions (which I wouldn't be surprised if those assumptions are based on nonsense)


ZOTAC is best left for ITX junkies who don't mind an occasional RMA\Driver issue and meh support.

ECS (EliteGroup) and FOXCOM is best for those whose name is copyrighted and whose ass consist of a factory that poops out PC's. (you just need it to last up to the warranty ends...)

Intel - Not sure who actively pursues Intel boards but I know a fun game of convincing morons to buy one for their brand spanking new Bulldozer.

EVGA - Best purchased if you want your video card label to match your motherboard label. Gonna claim ignorance on these boards

ASRock - See all the posts in this thread

JETWAY - Best purchased when the processor you have is no longer made and the only motherboards left for your proc on newegg are $40 Jetway boards.

ASUS - Generally high quality boards that occasionally exhibit low quality issues (WHY MUST YOU POST TWICE ON STARTUP!!! WHY MY USB3 PORTS FLAKEY!!)

GIGABYTE - Rule #1...cheap lowend Gigabyte suck (slightly). Just buy an ASROCK or Biostar you cheap bastard. Mid priced low feature Gigabyte boards are meh when compared to equally priced high feature Asrock boards. Mid to High end Gigabyte boards are solid.

MSI - For those who don't have memories of MSI boards and think ASUS\GIGABYTE\ASROCK boards are for sissies. Ever notice how these are always free in a bundle or discounted?

Biostar - Like ASROCK with lower quality VRM and bios. Good value boards

Where they are made is irrelevant.
The label only shows where final assembly occurs.
Every component could be made in China but if the final assembly occurs in Taiwan then thats the sticker it gets.
The opposite is also true.

This is fairly accurate actually, however, for Intel boards I would argue that they are some of the most stable if you can live without their lack of bells and whistles and don't overclock.

 

[bryanW1995]

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.

No boot loops here. This is my first gb mobo, I'll definitely be back to them in the future. Had problems with MSI, EVGA, and Asus, my best experiences have been with gb and abit (RIP).