ASRock 970 EXTREME3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: AM3+ Socket, Crossfire-Ready, plenty of fan headers, and has a pretty neutral color scheme. Mine didn't arrive DoA.

This motherboard is pretty awesome spec-wise, especially for the price.

UEFI has a lot of settings available. I thought my old motherboard had a good bit of settings (BIOSTAR A880G+) but this one just takes it further. I do highly recommend everyone taking a nice exploration trip through UEFI and observe every setting.

Supported my Phenom II X3 720, unlocked it, and OC'd it without issue. Board came with latest firmware pre-installed.

You can enable or disable HPET (not sure if it works better on or off with this particular board).

Got this board when it was $10 off. Fit perfectly right in my budget, and yet I somehow missed it when I was first searching through motherboards... As a friendly tip, do make sure you observe "all" options for a hardware purchase, or you might miss a great deal, such as this board :p

Cons: My Phenom II X3 720 has its 4th-core re-locked after improper shutdown (maybe only sometimes?), and the only way to re-enable it is to go through UEFI, disable the core unlocker, and then re-enable it. To be fair though, this isn't the most supported feature, and to be totally fair, all of my improper shutdowns so far have all been from me setting improper OC values :p

I kind of wish the PCI-E 2.0 slot was at the beginning of the slot area instead of the PCI-E 1.0 small slot. No big deal in my case though (both my situation and literally my case :p).

The software ASRock promotes is, pretty meh (both in functionality and "looks"), but then again, it really depends on your specific usage and needs. Personally not sure how useful the XFAST LAN feature is for majority of users. If anything I suggest checking it out yourself, but don't be surprised if you find yourself removing it shortly afterwards.

I also found the USB 3.0 ports pretty unstable, in the one situation I used them (tried doing a factory restore to my Nexus 10). To be fair here though, I used the drivers directly from Etron, and not ASRock. Since I don't have any USB 3.0 devices or anything that would benefit from a tiny bit of extra speed, I have it disabled from UEFI.

There's a "very" small handful of options in UEFI that, don't really have too much description available, either in UEFI itself, the included manual, or even online. The most confusing one for me is the "AMD AHCI BIOS ROM" setting.

Also, to save you some headache, do "NOT" check the setting for "PCI Lock" under System Configuration in Windows 8 or touch "usefirmwarepcisettings" from bcdedit. I was not able to get the setting to enable itself "nicely" (first time I tried I was greeted with some major devices like USB and Network being unable to start; second time included an at-boot BSoD). This may be related to UEFI, but is likely a non-issue for majority of users.

Other Thoughts: I bought this motherboard because it was AM3+, had Crossfire support, had a 8-pin CPU power connector, and had UEFI. I am really impressed with the pricing too.

I was pretty scared of the DoA reviews for this motherboard in-particular, but my motherboard arrived in working condition :)

I was originally going to settle for a MSI 970A-G46 motherboard for the same reasons, but had some serious doubts after hearing about its 125W CPU power limit and "varied" 8-core CPU support. But this board wasn't plagued with such an issue, and supports 140W CPUs just fine (apparently).

Windows 8's Ultra-Fast Boot feature is nice, and supported with this motherboard, given that your GPU has a UEFI GOP VBIOS. If at all in doubt about whether your GPU supports this or not, just contact your GPU OEM and inquire about it. I was able to get a UEFI GOP VBIOS for my MSI R7850 PE 2GD5/OC without too much trouble. Just be aware of any extra notes your OEM provides you with such a VBIOS (I lost memory and AUX voltage controls on my GPU). You should also flash the UEFI GOP VBIOS as soon as possible (it doesn't interfere with a non-UEFI Windows install). Also note that the Ultra-Fast boot feature is pretty dependent on your HDD speed. My WD 500GB Blue SATA Drive doesn't break records.

No idea if TCP Offloading works with the included Realtek adapter or not (was never able to verify it working from Windows).

A tip about dual-channel memory; If installing only 2 RAM sticks, put one in the very first slot (closest to the CPU), and then one in the 3rd slot. Might be common knowledge or just universal with majority of motherboards, but it took me a few UEFI reboots to take notice my memory was running in single-channel for a while, until I moved the RAM stick from slot 2 to slot 3 :p

The case headers are towards the very bottom of the board, maybe about an inch from the far right edge. My old motherboard (BIOSTAR A880G+) had the headers up a bit higher on the right edge, and when installing my reset switch, I basically only assumed the header would be in that same general area. SImply put, my reset switch wire won't reach the header on the motherboard. My case is pretty unique though (VTEL) and most modern cases shouldn't have their power and reset buttons super-far from each other.

You can also use a 4-pin CPU power connector just fine in the 8-pin connector. I didn't really have any doubts about this, but it's nice that it works :)

Temperatures and voltage numbers may seem higher when monitored within Windows than what they're set at in UEFI. This is what I've experienced anyway with HWMonitor from CPUID. I'd trust UEFI's values more though if at all in doubt.

There seems to be no specific setting in UEFI for Secure Boot. No idea how big of a deal this really is though, and it might even be best there's no setting. This does not affect UEFI boot from what I can tell though, and maybe the setting appears when another setting is modified...

Pros: inexpensive.
bios easy.
supports 32gb of RAM

Cons: not good for overclocking

Other Thoughts: have had this board about 2 years. at the time, i wanted an am3+ board but didn't want to spend a lot of money. got exactly what i wanted. great budget board, even better if you don't plan on overclocking, because you won't get very far before the mosfets overheat. never had to deal with asrock customer support, but i like their naming conventions... makes it easy to know what you're getting and they are very competitively priced

Pros: Amazing! It does everything it needs to do very well.

Cons: Absolutely nothing :)

Other Thoughts: Idc what anyone says. I got an ASUS mobo for my very first build and the first time I started it was one of the biggest disappointments I've ever had. It would take multiple times to power on and even when it did I had to manually boot it up from the BIOS. So I decided I didn't like my first computer building experience until I got this mobo!!! Once I installed this mobo it powered on and booted up the first time!!! I've had it for about a month now and have had 0 bad experiences with it. Couldn't be happier with it!!!

Pros: It worked fine as intended at first.

Cons: The biggest con for me is the fact that my onboard LAN has completely ceased to function. I thought I might have just gotten a little unlucky, so I bought a new PCI-E LAN card. Now it is failing as well. The funny thing is, I put it into another machine and the card works fine. Put it back on this board, and it works for about 15 minutes then automatically FAILS. I have todisable the adapter, then re-enable it in order to get it running. The problem with that is that it only works about 50% of the time.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
For the LAN issue, please check the local network devices (Modem, Router, switch, cable) causing the issue.
Check the Windows has infected Virus and/or malware.
If possible, install fresh Windows to check if the symptom still occurs.
If you have any technical issues or warranty questions 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: durable,
plenty room for expansions

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: hasnt failed me so its awesome

Pros: I bought this motherboard a year a ago and it's been great. I was able to unlock the fourth core on an AMD Athlon x3 450 and it was stable. Works well with the new fx CPUs also. It feels solid and durable.

Cons: No cons so far

Other Thoughts: If you are on a budget this motherboard is a good option. Asrock knows what they are doing when it comes to motherboards.

Pros: Works fine with linux mint 15 64 bit except for one small problem.

Cons: I paired this mobo with a FX8350 with 2x8 stick of RAM.
The Bios is P1.70 and see's both sticks.

I added GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="iommu=pt iommu=1" to grub.

Ran this:
check-my-memory.py - version: SJ 2013-02-22
OK, you're root
ANALYSIS:
Total of physical memory modules found 16384 MB in 2 memory module(s)
BIOS offers 8147 MB as usable
Memory seen by OS 7879 MB
BIOS version 10/12/2012
CPU is PAE enabled
CPU is x86_64 64-bit enabled
OS is x86_64 64-bit

SUMMARY:
Memory difference between DIMM hardware and BIOS offering 8237 MB
Memory difference between BIOS offering and memory seen by OS 268 MB
Memory difference between DIMM hardware and memory seen by OS 8505 MB

ADVICE:
Your BIOS is not offering all of your physical memory. Try to update your BIOS, and/or enable 'memory hole remapping / hoisting' in your BIOS to get more usable memory

Finally: show more detailed memory info from lshw. This can take up to 30 seconds ...
description: System Memory
size: 16GiB
description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 667 MHz (1.5 ns)
size: 8GiB
description: DIMM Synchronous [empty]
description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 667 MHz (1.5 ns)
size: 8GiB
description: DIMM Synchronous [empty]

Finished

And than ran this:

dmesg |grep AMD-V
[ 1.096361] AMD-Vi: Found IOMMU at 0000:00:00.2 cap 0x40
[ 1.096364] AMD-Vi: Interrupt remapping enabled
[ 1.096600] AMD-Vi: Initialized for Passthrough Mode



Linux Mint still only sees 8G of ram. I would like to see if there is a solution to this before I have to RMA the board.

Other Thoughts: If it wasn't for the memory issue I would give the board 5 stars.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Please install both memory on A1 and B1 or A2 and B2 slots.
Verify that mainboard has detected both memory with dual channel under BIOS, Main.
If detecting memory with single channel on A1 and B1 or A2 and B2 which will be causing the limited memory usable issue.
Turn the power off, clear the CMOS.
Test with another pair known good memory to check if its solved.
If you have any technical issues or warranty questions 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: Looks nice.
Decent packaging.

For Newegg:
Fast Shipping! Bought on a Sunday, came on a Tuesday. You rock, Newegg!

Cons: When I saw this board, It looked promising despite the negative reviews. Most 1-egg review are due to DOA. I took my chances, and what do you know, I GOT A DOA AS WELL. The board wouldn't post or anything. It just powered my fans. I reinstalled my old motherboard, and it worked fine. The ASRock mobo looks fancy, but poorly made. Like other reviews, it is REALLY FLIMSY. My mATX is more sturdy than it... Heatsinks on the board are protected by a piece of thin plastic. ASRock put no effort in putting a "Please remove plastic note". This board came with no screws for your case so be prepared; however, I'd go against buying this particular board! Getting a refund and going for another brand.

Other Thoughts: I've built two computer builds with ASRock before. Worked great. I recommend going to another brand if you want a more reliable and stable motherboard that'll last you longer. I have nothing against ASRock, but they really need to put more effort into their product.

Newegg's RMA was a breeze.

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.
For the future reference, pre-trouble shooting can be done by below steps;
Turn the power off.
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 single memory module (non-ECC, un-buffered), try with another known good memory if its same issue.
Video card with 6+6 power (if applied)
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
As always, we appreciate your purchase and constructive reviews are welcome.

Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@ASRockamerica.com

Pros: There's lots of good things about this board, aside from the fact that it's slick looking. The UEFI BIOS, I've never had a BIOS I could run with a mouse before, that's pretty sweet. Mostly runs smooth, I'll get to that in a bit. It's really easy to overclock everything from the BIOS, love it! There's also a lot of fan inputs, my last board had the problem where I didn't have enough inputs for my fans.

Cons: No USB 3.0 input to connect to the front. All the heatsinks I tried had difficultly fitting on the cpu.

One big problem I've had that a few other posters suggested is the freezing problem. Occasionally with increasing frequency my system will just randomly freeze up. From the reviews and feedback from ASRock they suggested the cpu was overheating causing the freezes.

Other Thoughts: At first I was a little hesitant to buy this board with all the DOA's and general negative reviews, but I just decided to go with it based on the fact that someone told me a majority of the DOA and negative reviews are from kids who don't know how to properly assemble a computer. Not sure how true that is, but it made me feel better about it.

Aside from that, I'm going to try running some tests regarding the freezing problem. Also since I just got my new case I might have installed a fan wrong so we'll see if maybe that's causing part of the increasingly frequent freezing. Might also upgrade to water cooling and see how that works.

I'll update my review if I figure anything out.

Pros: I was able to get two of these on sale for $75 each. I put in AMD FX-8120 CPUs with 32GB of DDR3 1600MHz Memory. These systems are being utilized for virtualization so this motherboard really helped make this happen in a much more affordable manner.

Cons: Number of SATA and USB 3.0 ports, but you get what you pay for there. If you want more ports, go bigger.