ASRock Z68M/USB3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: None

Cons: This was an RMA replacement - today the onboard LAN began to seperate from the motherboard. If I open it up and push down on the lan port it works, but eventually it heats up and stops working.....

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Sorry to hear the second mainboard has LAN issue which due to nature of electronic product, it can happen. Please check the LAN LED lights are on, test with another known good network cable 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: Had this board 6 months now and have had no issues. USB 3 works great. Sata 3 is a plus. Board still going strong. Great price for a z68 board.

Cons: none

Pros: Solid caps, decent performance.

Cons: Died after 9 months casual use. Not even overclocking!
Board will not post.
Contacted ASRock for warranty repair/replace on July 10.
Will update with how responsive customer service is with ASROCK!

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We're sorry to hear that the mainboard has failed after 9 months of use. Due to the nature of electronic product it can happen. As always, we glad to replacing the mainboard if it’s defective. In addition, we’ll stress test on returned mainboard before ship to assure mainboard's working properly. 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: Decently fast performance with an i7-2700K. Exceptional with a GTX570.

Cons: SATA 3.0 ports were defective from the start. Would not recognize eSATA devices, but didn't notice until i plugged a SATA 2.0 hard drive in one of the ports. A disk read error was the result upon reboot, and for a hard drive that was perfectly functional.

Other Thoughts: Fortunately I put an additional 3 years' insurance on this board, to go with ASRock's 2-year warranty. Currently requesting action on my warranty from ASRock. Since this board is discontinued, I may request one that has a rating closer to 5 stars. Even the Fatal1ty board is not out of the question, which will require me to replace my case.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Unfortunately, the mainboard not support for eSATA devices except plug in to onboard SATA ports with SATA cable. For the disk read error, please try with another known good HD drive and check if it's still having same issue. 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: finally got around to adding a SATA 3 6gb drive and usb3 and it works flawlessly.

Cons: nothing that the specs don't tell you

Other Thoughts: underrated board and a cheap mainstream solution for a z68 system

Pros: total of 6 SATA ports, 2 sata3. I was able to put blu ray and SSD system drive on the sata3, and 4 mechanical drives on the sata2 without issues. the mechanical drives raided up without trouble. Z68 is great for the advanced features like quick sync.

Many people here had issues with DOA boards, obviously mine was fine.

Cons: Nothing

Other Thoughts: this board setup without issues, and my ASRock extream4 board in my desktop has been running for almost a year now and no issues at all. All in all, a great value option, as I used to use ASUS, but the new features on those boards just jack up the cost and really dont seem to add much to the end user experience. I have been very happy with my ASRock boards.

Pros: Both boards run and they are cheap

Cons: I built two identical setups with all new parts and i5-2300 Procs. Both work reasonably well for a while but have random BSOD running W7-64ultimate. No heat related issues (first thought) it seems to be the SATA ports. Getting W7 to recognize the ports was a problem and it has lost them on a few occasions. I'm not buying these again as I don't have time for that. Only event log entries are for the DVD drive having a SATA error.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. BSOD usually related to memory, hard drive, mainboard and/or CPU. Please try with another 1 stick known good memory, install the mainboard "INF" driver at "http://www.asrock.com/mb/download.asp?Model=Z68M/USB3". 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: ASROCK took my first board back

Cons: This one had same issue - boot up and says to insert disk or select boot device. Go into BIOS change HD to primary boot device and starts fine. Leave it off for more than 8 hours and it won't boot again. Go into BIOS and the DVD is back as primary boot device and won't boot without disk. Two issues. One - even if DVD is empty the bios should try second device. Second - if I change the BIOS and save/exit then the BIOS should stay the same. Same issue as first board, but no reply from ASROCK when I email them this time.

Other Thoughts: At what point does ASROCK have to stop the RMA dance and replace with a different board or refund my purchase price?

I have to pay shipping for the RMA everytime.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize that you having difficulty with mainboard. Please verify that the HDD has detected in the BIOS, in some case HDD failed to detect by mainboard and cause unable to boot. Beside, power supply causes the system to instability or even will not detect the drives due to not providing enough power. There’s a good chance to swap a power supply to test. 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: Z68 chipset and very affordable. Plenty of features and one of the few boards that have a floppy controller that works (don't laugh). Went together easily without a single issue. Ended up with a fast system that didn't hurt the pocket book.

Cons: Back connector bent slightly when I tried the integrated video. Not much of a concern, since I've added a vid card. Connector panel interface didn't fit snug against case, but that could be the case. Front corners of board are unsupported due to its size, but that's normal. Shorter boards like this should include plastic corner supports.

Other Thoughts: Impressed that the floppy worked. Several other MB's I've tried have had trouble, believe the RF from modern boards and power supplies don't get along with the old magnetics.
Started with Win7 and switched to Win8 beta on it. Got a core I3@3.3GHz, 8GB DDR3@1600, 2 HD & 1 DVD. Have been running 24 hr/day for over a week now and no hardware problems (Win8 is really terrible). First build with ASRock, would do it again.

I saw posts about LED issues, mine work fine. LEDs are polarized (you have to plug them in the correct orientation!) and I'd suspect the LED/case beofre any MB.

Pros: One led light works? Easy installation.

Cons: Well. I plugged in all my connectors and couldn't get my pc to start up. After 80 posts on neweggs with advice and troubleshooting ideas with fellow nerds and 9 youtube videos of my setup I've confirmed my mobo isn't working properly.

Other Thoughts: It happens. But having to uninstall all my parts and send back the mobo is still a pain. I wouldn't recommend this being other people have had the same issue. And I bought Ram to work for this board..

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize that you having difficulty with mainboard. Please follow steps to trouble shooting the mainboard; remove the mainboard from inside computer to outside. You can place the mainboard on empty mainboard box, check the CPU socket pins are bent or missing then reseat the CPU to the CPU socket as well, inserts 1 memory module only with proper DRAM voltage that require with ram, clear CMOS 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