ASRock H61M/U3S3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: everything, great included utilitys, fast, cool, stable

Cons: only 2 ram slots and no usb3.0 front header plug

Other Thoughts: first time useing asrock and so far its excellent, cant beat it for the price

Pros: PRICE! Very few options can compare to this board at this price.

Everything ran perfectly right out of the box. USB 3.0/ SATA 3.0.

Cons: At this price point I can't complain. BUT:

-There's only 2 RAM slots.
-Limited fan controllers
-No USB 3.0 headers

But at this price, I really couldn't care. It has the essentials covered.

Other Thoughts: On my budget build I have this set up with an i5 2500, 8 GB RAM, and a 6870.

Performance exceeds expectations. I've had this for over a year and no hiccups yet. If you're strapped for cash, this is a solid option.

Pros: Handles all my stuff i have on it, GTX 560, 12Gb Ram, I5 Core 2500k, 620 Watt PS.

Cons: USB 3.0 Ports does not work and it makes me mad sort of.

Other Thoughts: Wish the 3.0 ports would work so i could use them for my 3.0 cable i have like an External Hard Drive since im all out of 2.0 Ports and from what i heard is it is back wards compatible with 2.0 so i used a 2.0 cable and still does not work so i know for fact it is ruined or something happened when i bought it. But i never thought of testing it out when i had any cables to hook up to 2.0

Pros: Easy to setup, great features, no complaints so far.

Cons: Would really love a couple more fan controllers!

Other Thoughts: Not sure what the culprit is yet, but in the last week I've experienced two BSOD. Possibly related to the graphics adapter. Have since updated some drivers, haven't done much else for diagnosing.

Computer is absolutely blazing fast, from power on to windows desktop in about 15 seconds.


Intel I3 2120 Sandy Bridge
G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL (2x4GB)
Corsair Carbide Series 300R case
Samsung 830 MZ 128GB SSD

Also a USB 3.0 pci-e adapter so I can use the 3.0 front case ports.

Window 7 Pro 64bit

Running on board Intel HD Graphics.
Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W PS

Pros: arrived quick. went in easy. posted fine.

Cons: everything worked fine but the sound. tried all sounds ports, multiple speakers. finally had it checked out by a computer shop and yes its the board that's bad. brand new out of the box BAD.
Bought as a Christmas present, and now its turned into worse gift ever, since was out of newegg gracious 30 day policy. asrock will answer phones but not provide any sort of advance rma for a board that was BAD out of the box. nice product support there.
called first time and support line said "closed for the week, due to chinese new year!" seriously!!
Now if I want sound I have to lose my computer for at least a week while i ship bad one to them and then take there sweet time sending me a new one!

Other Thoughts: how about some advance rma options since the board was bad by no fault of my own. its a BRAND NEW board.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Sorry to hear that sound onboard has malfunction which due to nature of electronic product, it can happen. Thank you for your purchase and review. If you have any technical questions or warranty issues in the future please contact us at user@asrockamerica.com

Thank you

AsRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@asrockamerica.com

Pros: shipping.

Cons: bad sound, lousy asrock customer service, no advance rma.

Other Thoughts: bought board as a present for christmas, and by time it was all said and done it was out of newegg 30 day warranty, so off to asrock who although quick to respond have done nothing to help. offer no advance rma, even though this board is brand new, and only been in new computer for a week. so now no computer for who knows how long while i ship bad board to asrock and they ship new one.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize that you having difficulty with mainboard. AsRock mainboard come with limited warranty and we’ll glad to do the service to customer under RMA policy at " http://www.asrock.com/support/index.asp?cat=Policy". If you have any technical questions or warranty issues in the future please contact us at user@asrockamerica.com. We can assist you shortly.

Thank you

AsRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@asrockamerica.com

Pros: Nothing now.

Cons: I have 5 separate computers for various purposes and all but this motherboard have no ethernet problems. It drops network connections randomly. I chalked it up to something software side, but am now having second guesses.

Where I KNOW it's failing:

Booting up and even getting past the initial bios options screen takes up to 30 seconds. It then flashes to the boot screen for my SATA drives, flickers, and then returns to the initial menu screen and freezes.

Maybe a bad hard drive I thought. So I unplugged ALL my SATA devices and restarted. The BIOS options screen still hangs for thirty seconds goes into the BIOS boot screen, flickers, returns to the BIOS menu screen. Freezes.

Bad BIOS maybe. So I try to check it out. Keyboard doesn't respond. Try 3 other keyboards which were all plugged into working computers. Nothing.

O.k. so I guess Ill remove the CMOS battery for 15 minutes and try again. Same hang, same freeze, same keyboard problem.

Plus on several fresh installs of Windows, FRESH, as in, not even connected to the internet yet, it blue screens at least once a day. I chalked this one up to human error for a while.

But with 3 personally built computers and a laptop all working fine, im doubting less my own possible mistakes or abilities and more the mobo's death.

Other Thoughts: Even if some of the problems are indeed my fault, there are certainly enough major problems that I know are not mine that makes this mobo defective.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize that you having difficulty with mainboard.
For the issue, please check the CPU and system are not over heated.
Remove HDD/SSD drives, external USB devices except keyboard and mouse in USB 2.0 ports (black).
Clear the CMOS.
Turn the power back on
Press F2 to enter BIOS when prompted
Set BIOS default, save and exit.
Plug HDD/SSD drives to mainboard one at the time to check if the symptom still occurs.
If you have any technical questions please contact us at http://www.asrock.com/support/tsd.asp. We can assist you shortly.

Thank you

AsRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@asrockamerica.com

Pros: Been a great board for a low budget gamer and home PC. For the price you can't really beat it.

Cons: Only lasted 1.5 years. Died on me this past weekend.

Other Thoughts: I have found that in my environment most ASRock boards only last about 2 years. This one ran a little short. However, as mentioned before, you still can't beat it due to the low pricetag. Time for an upgrade!!!

Pros: H61 chipset with SATA 3. Turns on and booted up the first time.

Cons: the HD audio plug next to a PCI port. Good thing my wireless card has a cutout for it for the connector to the HD audio to clear.

More minor is the getting to the BIOS screen, as it doesn't remind you to press F2 or delete, like other systems out there.

The thick instruction manual....you only use a small portion of it, as it is written for a million other languages. Stuff on BIOS features, should belong in the paper manual. Luckily I downloaded that documentation ahead of time on a different computer.

Only one SATA 3 cable supplied.

Other Thoughts: Remember... this is an inexpensive board. If I was paying $100 more for this board, the cons listed would have caused an egg or 2 to be deducted.

Pros: First build picked this and put the "Intel Pentium G620 Sandy Bridge 2.6GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core CPU" for a gaming computer for my son. I cant imagine a better build my son was totally frustrated til he got this pc build, now his pc matches his skill level.

Cons: No Complaints working better than expected

Other Thoughts: Just ordered the next step down for a basic desk top non gaming build should be more than good.