ASRock 890GX PRO3 AM3+ AMD 890GX HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: DDR3. onboard power, reset, clear cmos buttons. extra fan slots for case, cpu, misc fans. worked great with my Phenom II 955, overclocked to 4.2GHz @ 1.4v.

Cons: has trouble with USB 3.0, drives are not detected a lot of the time. bluetooth USB 2.0 dongle and wireless touchpad receiver get unknown device errors sometimes at boot.
SATA controller has gone faulty, all HDs say cable error in health status and read\write speeds drop very low sometimes.
AM3+ FX8320 will not overclock past 4.0GHz, bad power fluctuations from motherboard. does not even claim to support these cpus though
UEFI BIOS does not work correctly with HDMI display attached.

Other Thoughts: could have been a great board. i got some good use out of it over the last couple of years but lots of headache also.
on to a 990FX...

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please download and update the latest BIOS at "http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/890GX%20Pro3/?cat=Download&os=BIOS".
Set the BIOS default.
However, the FX-8320 is not in mainboard support list "http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/890GX%20Pro3/?cat=CPU" which’s potentially limited to over clocking and/or malfunction. 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. We can assist you shortly

Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT

Pros: Good layout. Dr Debug. On board power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons.

Cons: Only lasted about a year.

Other Thoughts: The Dr Debug led shows the error code 62. Can't get it to post. Just stopped working one day. Replaced it with a Gigabyte board.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Sorry to hear the mainboard has malfunction after 1 year which nature of electronic product, it can happen. Please trouble shooting the mainboard for below steps with known good components; remove the mainboard from inside computer to outside. Place the mainboard on empty mainboard box, clear the CMOS, reseat the CPU socket with heatsink fan as well, inserts 1 memory module only in A1 slot, Onboard Video, power supply with connecting 24 pins + 8 or 4 pins ATX power to the mainboard, plug the computer case’s power switch to mainboard's front panel header and try again. If still having same issues please contact our tech support at 909-590-8308. We can assist you shortly.

Thank you

AsRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@asrockamerica.com

Pros: Great speed and functions with all current devices. Expandable, upgradeable. Good Technical Support and good warranty. Great value for the bucks.

Cons: Died after 4 months. RMA worked well but took three weeks for the turnaround process.

Other Thoughts: Great board, great company. Why it died is unknown.

Pros: Better than ASUS comparible board, ie north and south bridge. Customer service is also 110% better than ASUS. Its a pretty board for the price.

Cons: Had to RMA the first one due to bios issue. 2nd one worked like a charm. *** not con but worth mentioning: C.S. was friendly, helpful and quick.

Other Thoughts: This board saved my XFX 6870 the other day. some how, i dont know how, a piece of cheese landed on the back side of the card. the board immediatly cut power and saved it. i cleaned it with isopropyl alcohol and the card is perfect. What a surprise win. I will buy ASROCK M.B.'s for as long as they manufacture them. Thank you ASROCK for making such an awesome product. I would like if possible an update on compatible 8 GB ram sticks for this board since it lists 32GB as max.

Pros: XFast USB - Really fast when it works
Bios - Easy interface
Overclocking - Easy through Bios or Utility
AM3+

Cons: XFast USB - Doesn't work right all of the time
USB 3.0 Ports causing problems constantly (Corrupted 2 different external hard drives and they don't always recognize a device when it's plugged in). Nearly impossible to delete and re-install the driver.

Other Thoughts: It seems like there could be a lot of potential with ASRock boards but they need to work the bugs out. All drivers are the most up to date and bios has been flashed and still these nit-picking issues are there. I have had much better success with Gigabyte, MSI and Biostar boards.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We're sorry for that you having issue with XFast USB . This function is not compatible for all external drives in the market. However, USB 3.0 is the fastest speed at this moment and XFast USB function is for boost extra speed. 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: Worked great for a few months.

Cons: worked great up until the bulldozer launch. i got a fx 8120 and it could not read the temps and keeps throttling the cpu, i rma'd that cpu and am waiting for a new one to come. however it started doing it again for my old phenom 955 when i put it back in. starting about a week ago i am getting random blue screens about 2 times a day and my computer just randomly turns off at times to. I have narrowed all my problems back to this mobo.

Other Thoughts: I know this is deactivated but i wanted to leave a comment because of my problems. I am in the process of rmaing this board and will probably end up getting a asus sabertooth mobo. the customer service is terrible with asrock there answers to my questions help me in no way at all and made the problems worse. (they told me to install a bios that does not work with the bulldozer chip when i told them i had a problem with it)

Pros: Good when it worked

Cons: Had the board for about 6 months...starte acting weird when going to sleep. One day i come home to turn it on, it makes a deathly noise and then doesn't boot anymore. Checked everything only to find the mobo died....I've heard a lot about this happening with ASRock....taking my money somewhere else

Pros: Great Price. Great Features. Solidly built board. Works with cost effective memory and top of the line. Using AMD x6 CPU. Has 16 GB of mem with 32GB memory possilbe. Ordered 5 of these (as well as 5 of the 880G Pro3) and all 5 worked off the bat. If you know need 1 of these, you are ok.

Cons: All of the 5 890's and 3 of the 880's HAD THE SAME MAC ADDRESS causing lots of connectivity issues. This is problably the first time out IT team has seen this as normally MACS are unique and hard coded by the manufacturer.

Just received an order to outfit 2 call centers with newer hardware. I know which manufacturer to avoid.

Other Thoughts: If you DO have more than 1 of these systems on the network, then, get some PCI NICs (disable onboard) and you will be fine.

Pros: nice features nice set up. the new bios is easy to use and navigate. Lots of wigets and what nots for the money

Cons: Infuriating! they took the time to paint on it "supports 8 core!" but didn't bother to upgrade the bios in order to do it. (don't have extra cpus just laying around silly me) Then it wouldn't read my hdd. Tried another hdd , then after this all was said and done it decided it didn't like to power on and read the second hdd. had to reset after then it would. Then to top it off the usb hated any of my devices i had attached to it.......over all it went back i lost 50 bucks to flash the bios and lost a weekend of quad riding....im done with asrock

Other Thoughts: Maybe i need a little less caffine.
Newegg rmaed it no problems thats why i hve came back for 8 years now

Pros: Tons of features at a great price, AM3+ socket, easy overclocking, VRM heatsinks, plenty of RAM clearance for large CPU coolers, and it looks good to boot. Unbeatable value when it works.

Cons: I have had such success after taking a chance on this board for my personal rig that I ordered another for a friend's build. Unfortunately, the 2nd board died within an hour with a Dr. Debug error 19 of "Pre-memory southbridge initialization." When I unboxed the board I did notice that the anti-static bag had already been opened, but everything else appeared to be in order. Going to RMA and keep my fingers crossed for the same results I expected after my original experiences with this mobo.