ASRock H61DE/S3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: worked good

Cons: stopped working and booting to bios

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Please trouble shooting the mainboard for below steps with known good components;
Remove the mainboard from inside computer to outside. Place the mainboard on top of the empty mainboard’s box
Clear the CMOS
Reseat the CPU and heatsink fan as well
Test with 1 memory module (non-ECC, un-buffered).
Using onboard Video (CPU with iGPU supported or test with VGA card)
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 power header and try again
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: Absolutely fine with every aspect of this board, except...

Cons: If you want 16 gbs on this board, at the highest threshold for ram, you're gonna need 2 sticks of 8g. Don't even bother thinking you can find 4 good single-sided 4gb sticks. It's IMPOSSIBLE.

Other Thoughts: Bought, and returned, 3 sets of different ram (4 sticks) trying to reach 16gbs on this thing...ram recommended on their own site. I've never, ever, ever, EVER had to deal with such nonsense as figuring out how to max out ram on this MB.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for that you've issue with the mainboard's memory requirement. Basically, this mainboard has stated under specification "Due to chipset limitation, if you plan to install three or four memory modules on this motherboard, please install only single-sided memory modules and to install two memory modules on this motherboard, please install them on DDR3_A1 and DDR3_B1 DIMM sockets. 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

» Due to chipset limitation, if you plan to install three or four memory modules on this motherboard, please install only single-sided memory modules.
» To install two memory modules on this motherboard, please install them on DDR3_A1 and DDR3_B1 DIMM sockets.

Pros: Works! Kinda!

Cons: This is by far the worst Mobo I have purchased to date. One big thing is that you cannot use 4 duel sided ram chips in this mobo. It would be nice if the description had told me this before purchase. Now I have to RMA the first ram pack and had to purchase two 4 gig sticks. Second major issue is that there is a substantial amount of static coming through the sound card.

Other Thoughts: I will never buy another Asrock mobo again. I will stick to Asus from now on.

Pros: Good overall board, only one gotcha that isn't made very clear in the product specs or manual.

Cons: The only way you can install 16GB of RAM is to buy 2 8GB sticks, while this board has 4 slots, you can only use 2 at a time if you are using double-sided DIMMS.

Other Thoughts: The manual states:

If you install four single-sided DIMMs on this motherboard, they will run at DDR3 1066 only.
It is not recommended to install the double-sided DIMM on DDR3_A2 slot.

No where is it mentioned that you cannot use 4 double-sided DIMMs, but it will NOT boot with 4 DS DIMMs installed.

Pros: Not bad for the price. Good board for a budget build if you don't want to go with a micro board like I didn't. System booted up on first boot without a hitch. Absolutely no problems with this board AT ALL. Lots of fan headers.

Cons: Not really a con as it was an over sight on my part. But I needed 3 USB headers (1 for card reader, and 2 for the case inputs). There are only 2 on this board. Yet there are LOTS of fan headers. So I have all these fan headers not being used, yet I have to go out and get a PCI USB card or something so I can connect my card reader. I'm not sure if this is the board's fault or the case's fault. I'm using an Antec One Hundred and the top inputs use 2 USB connections. In addition, I'm not too fond of the GUI BIOS or whatever you wanna call it. You can use the mouse to select items in the BIOS.

Other Thoughts: Overall, i recommend this board if you're on a budget build and don't wanna shell out a lot for the board but want something decent. Has a sufficient amount of USB ports and even an HDMI port. Good board.