ASRock A75M-HVS FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: Cheap straight forward board with a decent amount of goodies loaded on it. USB 3.0 with a pretty high maximum amount of RAM.

Cons: I purchased 15 units of these boards to build new PCs at cost for a local non-profit in need. Cost was a big issue as I wasn't looking to make anything on the deal. Out of the 15, I have had 2 boards that are flaky as hell. I've done all the right troubleshooting things (build the system out of a case, remove components one at a time, upgraded to latest BIOS, etc.) but they will just NOT run and be stable with the SSD drive I purchased for them. I can install windows (Win7 64-bit and Vista 32-bit both tried) just fine. Drivers install. Updates run. And then... the wave of BSODs start. The units won't recover from sleep. BSOD from idling at the desktop. I've put an older mechanical SATA HD from a laptop on one of the motherboards and so far it has been more stable. You'd think that would point to the HD right? Well, I slapped the same HD in the aforementioned laptop and install windows... rock solid operation. So it isn't the hard drive. I got my hands on one of the other PCs I built and which has been running flawlessly for over 4 months now. I used it to swap components one at a time with this last troublemaker of a build. I’m down to the motherboard as the last component to swap and none of the changes fixed anything so I’m going with something on this last board is the ultimate issue. One of the two boards died and went all flaky within a week. RMAed it and so far so good. Now this second board has started up about 5 months after. Hopefully I can RMA it as well and get this last computer built and make the non-profit happy. I'm giving only 3 out of 5 stars because having 2 boards out of 15 have issues in the same sort of way is a pretty high fail rate IMO.

Pros: Features for cost are outstanding. Board has been solid since the moment I installed on it.

Cons: I had a little struggle with getting the UEFI BIOS screen to appear clearly on my TV (using as HTPC Motherboard), but that's likely a bigger issue with the TV and the AMD APU than the Motherboard I expect.

Other Thoughts: A lot of people are ripping on this board for failures and DoA. In my experience, motherboards can be very fragile during installation, so you should take this as a sign that this model may be more fragile than others. However, that was not my experience and I think if it's handled properly that failures should be rare and unlikely.

Pros: cheap, built in hdmi

Cons: Failing after 3mo.
Have to reset BIOS to get the board to boot.
Emailing support awaiting help.

Other Thoughts: ASRock may not be used in the future unless support comes through quickly.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Sorry to hear the mainboard has failed after 3 months of use which due to electronic product, it can happen.
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: None.

Cons: I've had problems with it ever since I got it back in January. At first it ran great for like the first month but then I had to reformat my computer and now it won't run in dual channel memory for some reason. This has been going on since February. I've tried everything including buying new ram straight from the list is says it supports. Nothing seems to work. I've contacted customer support and they didn't even seems to understand the issue. I've never been so frustrated, I don't even know what to do now.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please turn the power off, clear the CMOS, and reinstall both CPU and memory, if still having same issue please test with another known good memory to eliminate the issue. 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: Runs Good, Run better if I wasn't using Windows Home Server would have given it a better rating what I'm using it for just for music and small files they cant even support drivers for it bull cra*

Cons: I installed Windows Home Server & trying to use it for the first time but cant find any drivers that are missing to support this Motherboard called the company & they are really rude when I asked if they would be supporting drivers for it in the future so if your going to make a small Home Server THIS IS NOT THE MOTHERBOARD FOR YOU. USB SERIAL DRIVERS WONT INSTALL, VGA GRAPHICS ADAPTER WONT INSTALL & NETWORK CONTROLER WONT INSTALL ALSO TRIED BUYING A ENCORE WIRELESS CARD THEY HAVE NO DRIVERS TO SUPPORT THIS OPERATING SYSTEM EITHER

Other Thoughts: Wish went with better motherboard never again this Company rude costumer service

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Unfortunately, the mainboard does not come with Windows server drivers. Please visit mainboard drivers support link at " http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?cat=Download&Model=A75M-HVS ". As always, we appreciate your purchase and constructive reviews are welcome. 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: Nice Feature Package. The BIOS interface was was sophisticated with easy over-clock options. Certainly a nice price for an HDMI board with this kind of over-clocking range.

Cons: First one was a DOA failure. I though the same of the replacement initially. I actually built it outside of the case to see if it would start up. It didn't so I began pulling off items, like ASROCK mentioned on my first board. I restarted a few times, with no change. I placed all items back on, but forgot to latch down the CPU fan. Viola, the unit booted up. During this time both the VGA and HDMI were hooked up, so I'm not sure as stated by a previous post, that it makes any difference. I clamped down the CPU fan, and and mounted it into the case. Wouldn't come up the first time, so I unclamped and reclamped the CPU fan. For some reason, BIOS screen loaded up and it has been running ever since. So I'm fearful that if anything moves, the unit might not boot.

Other Thoughts: NewEgg was great as usual in getting my replacement to me in a timely fashion and working with me on this.
Even though I'm not happy with my experience, this is this first ASROCK MB failure, so I can't exclude them from future purchases. I have had many ASROCK MBs previously and realize that any manufacturing process has failures, but on this MB, it looks like there have been quite a few more negatives than I am used to seeing for ASROCK. Maybe tighter quality control on the production line on this motherboard.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please reinstall the CPU with cooler to check if the symptom still occurs. If still having same issue, try with another CPU cooler. In some cases, the CPU is not fully contacted to the socket will causing the issue. 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: Cost
USB 3.0
HDMI output
6 x SATA 3

Cons: Don't know ... no integrated wireless maybe ... ...

Other Thoughts: 5 Eggs !

Awesome board that have more then what i wanted ... the software technology work really well (XFast USB, Instant Boot, Tuner)

I really love the board !

Thanks newegg !

Pros: Cheap, had the specs I wanted

Cons: Dead from the get-go. No POST, no beeps, nothing. Tried battery trick, external video card, no joy at all.

Other Thoughts: Have another Asrock board which works fine. No more Asrock, though. They have NO tech support.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. AsRock mainboards are fully tested to assure that they're working before shipped. Unfortunately, due to 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. You can place the mainboard on empty mainboard box, clear the CMOS, reinstall the CPU with heatsink fan as well, inserts 1 memory module only in A1 slot, Onboard Video, power supply with connecting 24 pins + 8 pins ATX power to the mainboard, computer case’s power switch to mainboard power switch 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: Well, it work but there was a problem that I will adress in the cons

Cons: So when I first go this, I got it with a AMD A8-3850, and I tried to also run it with a SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6850. It would not run with the graphis card. It would cause my PC to die every time I tried to run a game or a video. But it ran fine once I took out the graph card, and ran off just the APU.

Other Thoughts: I did intend to do an RMA, but by then I had a huge power surge that blew through my surg proctor and fired everything anyways.....

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize that you having difficulty with mainboard. Please update the latest BIOS at "http://www.asrock.com/mb/download.asp?Model=A75M-HVS&o=BIOS", install the latest VGA driver, try with another known good VGA card to check if it solved the issue. 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: This is a very cost-reasonable motherboard with a few quirks - see other thoughts section.

It has a painless BIOS update procedure and and the graphical interface is a nice touch.

Cons: READ carefully CPU compatibility - if you buy newer CPUs they may not work with the original BIOS version (mine was 1.2 and my CPU was supported from version 1.6 and on) REQUIRING you to install a discrete video card in order to perform a BIOS update. Once this is done, your on-board video will work :-)

Other Thoughts: Initially the on-board video would not work and I had to install a vid card I had laying around in order to access the BIOS utility and perform a BIOS firmware update. Once that was done, everything has been working flawlessly...