ASRock X79 Extreme4 LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Mostly easy install. Paired with a I7 3820. Installed everything and brought Frankenstein to life. Only then did I learn that the USB 3.0 did not work. Had to RMA but since I was 31 days into ownership by the time I actually assembled it, I had to send it back to ASRock. New board showed up and I got it all going again. No troubles since.

Cons: Didn't com with enough hardware like MB standoff screws. Had to cannibalize an old computer. This is plain wrong. First board had USB 3.0 issues (i.e. they did not work at all). Had to RMA to ASRock. Had to completely disassemble and reassemble whole thing. Pain. Wait was about a week to get the replacement. I work for a living and the lost time (build time and lost work time) was expensive.

Other Thoughts: Now that it is working I have had zero issues. I would buy it again. You never know what you are going to get from any company these days. In the end, ASRock was responsive and courteous and fixed my one issue. This is my second review, my first got deleted.

Pros: Fast, well engineered board. Worked for 2 days with a i7-3930K.

Cons: Board failure after two days with good power, cooling and no overclocking. "5 beeps of death" Started beeping and I could still hear it going to a desktop. After several resets and a video card change it would no longer boot.

Other Thoughts: Never a perfect boad. Would freeze and choke in the two days it was working. I know the other parts are working fine.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Please trouble shooting the mainboard for below steps with known good components;
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 1 memory module (non-ECC, un-buffered).
Video card with 6+6 power (if applied), try on anothre PICE slot if its same issue.
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
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: Board works

Cons: I received the email as per my review on this motherboard.
I did state that I did downloaded the drivers from the site.
I have errors on all of them "audio, Intel (Chipset INF), Broadcom NetLink Gigabit Ethernet. All the listed drivers are current ones. Still have errors. I have been in contact with two (2) different ASROCK Techs.
This board is only working on Microsoft generic drivers.

Other Thoughts: Read my previious reveiw

Pros: Board seems good to work in most areas

Cons: The Audio sound works but the microphone does not.
I downloaded the drivers several time as per ASROCK
Tech. Still shows driver problem in the High Definition Audio systems files.
Broadcom NetLink Gigabit Ethernet has a glich in it too.
When I download Broadcom NetLink driver, it boots me off the network. Systems files show error in this one also.
The Microsoft generic driver works.
Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility shows error message also.
My printer will not work unless i unplug it and replug it in after applying the Trouble shoot repair.
All the drivers are current drivers

Other Thoughts: I installed Windows 8 first and had a mess.
Then I deleted that and installed Windows 7. No Problems.
So I deleted that and went back and reinstalled Windows 8
Upgraded the drivers off of ASROCK website because the disk that came with the motherboard did not work.
Need a working disk that is compatable with motherboard and Windows 8....

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Most of the mainboard’s drivers has already been build in with Windows 8 which’s not required to install unless device manager has showing question/exclamation mark. For the mainboard driver CD disc for Windows 8, unfortunately, mainboard has released before Windows 8, the drivers CD supports up to Windows 7 (64bit). However, Windows 8 drivers can be download at” http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/X79%20Extreme4/?cat=Download” . 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: RMA-able, everything thing works fine except SATA ports. :'(

Cons: ALL SATA PORTS DON'T WORK, except one. WOOOW. No seriously, I've tested all the SATA ports and only one of them works.

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. Sorry to hear the SATA ports have defective. Please try with another known good HDD/SSD and SATA cable to another SATA ports to eliminate the issue. If still having same 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: Installation went smoothly. No issues with fitting in my Lian Li case. Really like the SATA III, GUI BIOS and onboard video. If you vanilla this system down to only using the onboard video and a SSD it booted to Win 7 64bit in 12 seconds. Adding GTX 670 card and additional SATA III spindle drives adds another 12 seconds.

Cons: Clear CMOS button on back of MB next to ports not the best place. If you are fumbling around with cables you can accidentally press it. It happened only once so now I am careful.

Pros: The board is very easy to work around. Everything fit in and i got it working it just took some learning on my part. like setting up the boot order in the bios, i had an issue there. Its a good card though all in all.

Cons: Not a lot of fan ports but i don't know what the average is. but a fan controller fixed that problem.

Pros: Paired with an i7-3820 with no problems. Overclocking is dangerously easy! This was an investment in a long-term build meant to last a while with games and CAD. Highly recommended!

Combines well with:
i7-3820
GSkill Ripjaws x series quad channel 16gb
EVGA GTX-670 FTW
Intel LGA2011 cpu water cooler

Have not used RAID options at all.

Cons: I have always wished motherboards and their software had more fan control ports and more detailed fan control options. Some cases can hold 8 or more fans these days.

I suppose the chipset probably needs a fan unto itself, but my money is on that as the first thing to break.

Pros: Startup was uneventful, is running my Xeon E5-2650 with 16GB of G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series RAM with no hiccups whatsoever.
A solid & stable desktop board.

Cons: none noted.

Other Thoughts: I wish I could have tried out the overclocking features, but my Xeon E5-2650 is locked.

Back when first purchased in April some Linux "Live" distros did not have drivers available for the Broadcom BCM57781 LAN chipset.

Pros: The motherboard sounded great from the descriptions. The reviews left me skeptical but I never though much of it at the time

Cons: The board would not power on when I installed everything, so I RMA'd it back to Newegg. I was told that the CPU socket pins were damaged, and that I would need to contact the manufacturer. I don't know how this could have happened seeing as how the CPU was installed once, and cleanly and never touched again. So I tried contacting Asrock 3 TIMES! (twice by phone, and once by email) Never once have I gotten a reply. It looks like I have an expensive paper weight at this point. I highly recommend another motherboard at this point.

Other Thoughts: Should have gone with Asus it looks like.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. The CPU socket pins on the mainboard are very fragile and need to be handling with careful to avoid physical damage, please refer to RMA policy at "http://www.asrock.com/support/index.asp?cat=Policy". Please contact us at 909-590-8308. We can assist you shortly.

Thank you

AsRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@asrockamerica.com