ASRock 990FX Extreme3 AM3+ AMD 990FX + SB950 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS ASRock 990FX Extreme3 AM3+ AMD 990FX + SB950 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: Big board with lots of options
Decent UEFI BIOS

Cons: High Price for such low quality

Constant CPU throttling at stock speed makes many games unplayable

Very choppy gaming from the day I bought it.

Was misled when ASRock said this board supports the FX8350 processor then they take it off the list (I always wondered why I was getting such poor performance)

I wasted over $100 for a motherboard that doesn't work as advertised and I cannot be reimbursed.

I got much better performance out of a $45 Asus M5A78L

Other Thoughts: Had high hopes for this board. When I got it I was happy thinking I would be getting a board that would be a decent upgrade platform. Had performance issues from the day I "upgraded" to it. Everything about it looked right. Now I know this board is whats holding my PC back from being a stable gaming platform. Will not buy ASRock again.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Please load the BIOS default.
Allow better air circulation inside the chassis and area of CPU, VRM and North Bridge chipset to avoid throttling.
If you have any technical support inquiry, please contact us at http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp. We will assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp

Pros: Works. No problems installing or using this piece of hardware.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I'v seen a lot of bad things said about this board, but none of them have happened to me (yet)

Pros: Good price for the features.

Cons: Overall, this motherboard has functioned well. However, it has exhibited a very annoying problem of freezing all user input for 20 to 30 seconds every once in a while. I suspect it is due to the USB 3.0 controller/driver, but have never been able to remedy it.

Other Thoughts: This is my first and last ASRock motherboard. I just purchased and installed an ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 and it works flawlessly. I'm using it right now to write this review. No random freezes. Just works.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. As always, we glad to replacing the mainboard if it mainboard is defective.
Please contact us at user@asrockamerica.com. We can assist you shortly.

Thank you

AsRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@asrockamerica.com
Phone 909-590-8308

Pros: Great price, came with combo 8gb Ram. PCI slots, lots of SATA ports

Cons: Ram didn't work, very picky with any ram.
SATA drives would not run AHCI mode for SSD, both samsungs and a corsair said the same thing and wouldn't run ahci. BIOS said it was on, but software stated otherwise.

Other Thoughts: I thought it would be a great board. RAM issues from the get go. Used a FX-6350 125W and could never over clock it without blue screen issues. As others have stated about the 125W issues (VRM's are cheaply made and overheat), seems that they changed the specs of the board after many people purchased.

AVOID ASROCK, not a quality product. After replacing the MoBo with a Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 and spending 2 hours with Microsoft explaining why I needed to reactivate my Win7 serial due to a cheap board. All is well now.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. The mainboards usually work for years, unfortunately, due to nature of electronic product, it can happen. For the RMA mainboard, we replace the mainboard with stress test to assure working fine before shipped. As always, we appreciate your purchase and review. If you have any technical questions or warranty issues in the future please contact us at user@asrockamerica.com or call us 909-590-8308

Thank you

AsRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@asrockamerica.com

Pros: Everything! I've had this board for over 2 years now. This board is the best I've ever had and I've had a bunch of them. It's highly future upgradable and fast on the FSB 2600mhz. I have it paired with a Vishera 6 core AMD CPU and it handles everything I put it through with ease. Great Motherboard for the price!

Cons: Not one! Absolutely love it.

Other Thoughts: I recommend this board. Looks like at this time of writing it's 10 bucks cheaper than when I bought it.

If you're looking for a mobo, you can't go wrong with this one!

Pros: Has ran without any major hiccups since purchase. UEFI is very easy to use in comparison to old bios. Price is low for this chip set. Building on this board is pretty simple. The on board USB 3.0 works well. It is a pretty full featured board though I haven't tried everything.

Cons: On board audio died after about 1.5 years, so I just bought a real sound card:) Cabling for the front USB headers is not right. It causes the board to power off if you plug anything into it. Have tried the board in two different cases with the same result, and my friend who has this same board has the same issue... Dangerous to the board, so I just bought a cheap external usb to sit on my desktop.

Other Thoughts: Worth the money I spent to have this as an office build. I used it for gaming as well when I first bought it and it ran just fine. I paid about $20 more than what it is currently selling, for when I bought it in Dec 2011. Pretty well thought out layout for building and it looks nice. I have had many different configurations and components put on this board. The only thing that has been the same the whole time on this is my 16 GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 ram. (4 x 4GB), and I haven't put any more than a quad core in it either (3.8 GHZ). I gamed the heck out of it though for about a year before quitting gaming. Seemed very stable and this is not my first gaming rig :)
I just happened to look at the reviews on this board, which used to be a 4-5 egg product around the time I bought mine. I would tend to believe that with all of the DOA, etc. type problems people are having currently, that ASRock is now selling a crappier version of the original. Unfortunate for them and their customers. I would have bought others from them but will have to carefully consider on my next build.

Pros: None

Cons: Okay so I got my first board in 2012 from them and am now on my 4th (yes 4th) from them. My first one lasted 6 months and then the SATA ports died. I RMA'd they sent me another one that was DOA, so I sent it back and they sent me a 3rd one. The 3rd one lasted a week and just quit working all together. I think the VRMs failed on it, I am not 100% sure. So I RMA'd it again and ASRock sent me a brand new one. This one lasted about a year, it died today of course after the warranty is up. The computer I had this in had 19 days of total use looking at the power on time of my Hard Drive, which is the only Drive I ever had with the system. The 19 days was between all 4 boards. I don't use the PC that much as it is for LANs and what not. I checked all the other components and swapped in known working parts to test and it would not POST. The problem is the board. ASRock manufactures poorly designed products that do not last. AVOID AT ALL COSTS, buy something better.

Other Thoughts: System Specs:
ASRock 990FX Extreme 3 (Not Anymore)
AMD FX-6100 3.3GHz X6 CPU
Coolermaster Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler
G.Skill Ripjaws 16GB (4X4GB) 1333MHz RAM
(OEM) AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 GPU
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM HDD
Thermaltake 550W Evo_Blue PSU
Thermaltake Commander MS-I Case
Windows 8.1 Professional 64-Bit

Pros: Price.

Cons: Received a unit with a broken PCI-e x16 locking clip. That is being handled.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

Sorry to hear that the PCIE lock has broken.
We are more than happy send the lock.
Please contact our customer service at " user@asrockamerica.com ". We will assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp

Pros: It's well priced, and there were no issues with installation, there're no poorly placed SATA or case pins, etc.

Cons: After about 2 months the analog sound, all six jacks, completely quit. It's not even recognized as being in the pc (by any means), but works with USB audio outputs. The ram I received as a bundle with the board through newegg wasn't compatible with the board, and I've had multiple memory issues even after fully updating the CMOS. Also keep in mind that Asrock doesn't provide CMOS resetting like ASUS or other brands do. I had to physically transplant my CMOS into another board to flash it, after the board (due to memory errors) shut off during the initial flash.

Other Thoughts: I got the board looking for a cheap path to 990FX, and was disappointed. I'm now forced to by a new motherboard because (apart from the sound, and ram issues) the board doesn't seem to play nice with higher loads going to the processor. It unlocked my old 720 to 4 cores, and runs well at 3.2ghz/core stock voltages. It stutters and struggles with 125w processors on load though.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
For the sound issue, please turn the power off, clear the CMOS.
Set the UEFI/BIOS default.
Download and install HD audio driver at link " http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/990FX%20Extreme3/?cat=Download ".

For the CMOS reset, the clear CMOS jumper is on mainboard.
Please visit the user manual link under page 12 location 22 at link " http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/990FX%20Extreme3/?cat=Manual ".

For the BIOS update, the file can be download at link " http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/990FX%20Extreme3/?cat=Download&os=BIOS "
Click " + " (red cross) for BIOS update instruction.

If you have any technical support inquiry, please contact us at http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp. We will assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp

Pros: Price... That's about it. 990fx chipset I guess

Cons: After a 7 month period of lack luster performance, the board has died.
Ample cooling and airflow for the entire duration of use was still not able to prevent the inevitable. Random failure during low-load.
All in all overclocking of any kind was not an option on this Mobo.
Board is still under warranty, but I don't believe it is worth the time it would take to RMA.

Other Thoughts: Free advise: You get what you pay for... especially with motherboards.
The Asus Sabertooth r2.0 and the m5a99x evo r2.0 are both MUCH better options at competitive prices. Also look at the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

Sorry to hear that the mainboard has malfunctioned after 7 months which’s due to nature of electronic product, it can happen.
Please contact us with problem description at http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp. We will assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp