ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: Bought a "returned" board and installed an FX4300 into it with and Artic 30 HSF. Runs about 44 C which seems hot to me for a cooler that claims over 300 Watt cooling.

This board runs fine for me. Memory is Corsair DDR3 ruchased from Staples.

Long history of Asus fialures prompted me to avoid Asus( diminishing returns: (failures after 3 years, then 2.5 years, and now 9 months).

So far, everything works fine but for my concern of the HSF.

Cons: Does the ARTIC 30 HSF really work better than the stock HSF?
I'm not convinced.

The hard drive connectors of 2-3 and 4-5 are "stacked" and parallel to the board, pointing toward the hard drives. Stupid design.

Other Thoughts: I do video conversions and captures and this combo does work about 20 percent faster than an Asus P5QL/EPU with a quad Core2 Quad 2.5GHz.

I haven't tried gaming, butboot-up and video response iis quicker.

Pros: Excellent. It does everything it says it will.

Built very well. Attractive. Components are laid out smartly. The manual is clear, easy, and comprehensive. Had zero issues with drivers. This is what motherboards SHOULD be. I'm very happy with this purchase.

Cons: None so far.

Other Thoughts: Two ATi HD7950 in crossfire. Sempron processor. 2GB Ram. Windows 7 x86.

Pros: It's the cheapest motherboard you can get with 3 PCI-E 2.0x16 slots.

It works well enough to do what I bought it for.

Cons: The driver install disk has loads of bloatware, beware.

One USB 3.0 port doesn't seem to work at all, and the other only works half the time, fortunately i don't need them to mine litecoins.

I'm not sure if any other I/O ports are faulty because i don't need to use them

Other Thoughts: Low cost or not, everything should work. I don't feel like taking the time to RMA so long as it does what I intended for it...

This is the cheapest/best motherboard you can get for litecoin/bitcoin mining.

OEM's should know better than to gratify bloatware developers... I recommend running a custom install from the disk to ensure you don't get stuck with any of it.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
For the USB 3.0 issue, please download and install the USB 3.0 driver at " http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/990FX%20Extreme4/?cat=Download ".
Test with known good USB cable and/or USB devices to eliminate the issue.
If you have any technical questions or warranty issues please contact our Tech Support 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 board is awesome it has every thing i need I've had for a few months and no problems yet.

Cons: When you buy this board make sure you are going to buy a graphics card because this mobo doesn't have on board video.

Pros: Bought this motherboard for a new mining rig. I was debating between this and a 4pci-e msi board but this one won out in the end. This board can handle a total of 5 gpus if attached with risers.

Right now I have 3 MSI 7950's max overclocked running on this board with no problems. I will be adding 1 maybe 2 more if I dont have any issues.

If you are a miner looking for the perfect board it does not get any better than this for price vs. performance.

Cons: Not really a con but I bought the board for $99 now, two weeks later it is $84. But that is not asrock's fault all tech gets cheaper, hell I think I am going to buy another one at this price because it is worth it.

Other Thoughts: More companies need to start releasing boards like this. Miners do not have the need for all the fancy bells and whistles, which this one does have, and I am not complaining about it, but all miners want is a strong and stable board with as many pci-e slots as you can put on them.

Pros: Stable. AM3+ is a big reason I purchased it. For future upgrades. Fantastic BIOS. A lot of ports/connections. Great gaming board. And it is $20 cheaper than when i bought it. Don's pass this one up.

Cons: For the price, none that I have seen.

Pros: Using it in my Main Build No problems at all. Using it with an AMD FX-6300 and no problems and very quick overclocked it via Bios to 4.2Ghz.

Cons: Overclocking is a bit odd likes to down clock the ram if not set right.

Pros: Very easy setup
got a free 8 gig stick of 1600mhz vengeance with it XD
Absolutely amazing looking UEFI bios - I wish my evga p55 ftw 200 had this!
Well laid out, no problems whatsoever so far

Cons: Like most boards, I wish they relocated their hd audio to the right side of the board, where the front panel will run to....but this isn't a con, most boards are the same way. Just annoying. It's also the cases fault for not having a longer run wire.

Pros: Installed all my components and it booted right up. Windows had no trouble booting with the new hardware.

Pros
Dr. Debug
New AMD processor support if I decide to upgrade
USB 3.0
If you run 2 GPU's it will switch the PCIE slots to 8x. Still have a 4x if you want to run a third.
Lots of fan connectors on the motherboard (4 3-pin and 2 4-pin).

Cons: No IDE support? I had a big old drive I used in my other PC's for storage. Guess I'll have to get an enclosure or get another SATA.
No onboard video which may be a con if you don't want to run a separate GPU.

Other Thoughts: Good board so far. It fits my setup well.

ASRock 970 Extreme4
4gb GSkill DDR3 1333
Two Radeon 7850 GPUs in Crossfire
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
ThermalTake TR2 600w PSU

Pros: It's a great motherboard, Dr.Debug is very helpful. The instruction manual is helpful as well although it's pretty self explanatory. Everything goes as should. I am very pleased with my first ASRock purchase. Also, the SATA cables included are great.

Cons: I bumped it down an egg because the first one I received was DOA, obviously not Newegg's fault. But worthy of a prefect score. Also, there are no extra screws that come with it to screw motherboard, but that's just a minor complaint.

Other Thoughts: Wish more screws came with it.