ASRock X79 Champion LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: This is not mine, I had to build it. For those of you who can afford more then two SSD's, or who can rake leaves and buy more then two, you want a real board with a Marvell 9182 or the 92 series, not a garbage ASUS with the Marvell 9128. Auto overclock is good but to hit 4.8 you need to use manual methods. Post is a little slow until you strip and set UEFI booting. Computing such as winrar had very nice times and sandra. The fact of you can run quadfire/sli is great. The best thing about this board is that it will use SSD's to their potential, with RAID's set the native and chip for Sata 3 smoke most all boards with easy 1000R 1000W on a good SSD. Xfast lan is not needed as it uses turbo from supplier with ease.

Cons: The USB 3.0 hardware is ok, has amazing read times off the Texas, but write is slow, then you must factor in the flash speed you have. In crossfire the board only seems to be 3-FPS under the top 2011 boards out. The formula has better audio.

Xfast USB bumps up the seed very well.

Other Thoughts: ASRock has been good ay updating the roms, I don't use the asrock website for drivers, no mobo MFG has the newest drivers posted, I use the newest, I also inject the newest roms out. So I care less about what is posted or on the driver disk.

If you have a windows disk/flash that is UEFI booting, or take the 20 seconds to make it UEFI booting, you can get any size disks to boot UEFI in MBR and not in GPT. The board runs UEFI boot and skips win boot and goes right into windows 8 at around 12sec.

For anyone who wants ultra ultra fast boot, there is a new thing called SLEEP.

My testing was using windows blue/ 8.1 , with the RAID rom 12.6.0.1867, RST-12.6.0.1033, the chipset 9.4.0.1017, this board is a great board. There is no board out that smokes it, all these boards in lga 2011 are so close except for Sata 3, the other boards are garbage with their ASmedia, Marvell Sata 3 controllers.

Pros: Newegg has been great

Cons: See update info below

Other Thoughts: I returned the board to Newegg for replacement. No luck on exchanging it for another brand. My fault. I would not have made this large ($3K) purchase here if I was diligent enough to read the Newegg motherboard warranty/return guidelines.

This is not a negative against Newegg. Newegg has been great and very responsive. They didn't always have the answer I wanted, but I understand they have rules for dealing with the return process. The Newegg customer service representative, Carolyn, has been very responsive and professional.

Asrock on the other hand has been horrible to deal with. All they wanted to do was to blame the other hardware I purchased. They are unwilling to admit they have a BIOS update issue with their motherboards. I am not the only one with this issue. There are countless threads of unhappy Asrock owners across the internet. (again, my fault for not exercising proper due diligence)

I have contacted Asrock, again, regarding updating the new board to support Windows 8 Fast Boot. Still no response.

I would HIGHLY recommend you learn from my mistakes:
1. Do NOT buy an Asrock motherboard!
2. Do your research on user forums. Search for problems other have had, not just good reviews.
3. DO NOT believe the claims the motherboard manufacturer makes regarding motherboard features or capabilities. Only trust real user's real-world experience.
4. DO buy from Newegg, they are fantastic, just DO NOT buy an Asrock motherboard!

If Asrock can fix this issue to MY satisfaction, I will gladly re-post here.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
For the Windows 8 Fast boot, it’s required Windows 8 installation with UEFI boot.
Please set Fast or Ultra Fast under BIOS, Boot, Fast Boot [Fast] or [Ultra Fast], save and exit.
Insert Windows 8 Installation disc to optical drive.
Press F11 repeatedly to bring boot menu once system is started,
Select UEFI X: "your optical drive" to install Windows 8 to enable the fast boot.
However, the fast boot also required VGA card with UEFI GOP.
If you have any technical questions or warranty issues please contact our tech support at 909-590-8308 or http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp. We can assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@ASRockamerica.com

Pros: Up until the motherboard died it worked great!
I rated it 1 egg only because I couldn't rate it 0 eggs.

Cons: The board died shortly after installing Windows so I never got a chance to use it.

Other Thoughts: Initial install went fine, up until it was time to upgrade the BIOS. The BIOS update reported successful but after reboot I received the dreaded debug code d6, no VGA card. Asrock seems content to blame the video card, an Asus GT680 (bought at the same time as the MB), but the card works fine in another PC. I tried 2 other video cards with the same d6 error.

This is not confidencece instillinfirstsexperiencece with Asrock.

I hope NewEgg will allow me to exchange this for an Asus board. :)

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. It seems BIOS update failure and can be replaced with another updated BIOS chip.
Please turn the power off, clear the CMOS.
Reseat the VGA card with 6 + 6 pins power (if applied) to check if its solved.
If you have any technical questions or warranty issues please contact our Tech Support at 909-590-8308 or http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp. We can assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@ASRockamerica.com

Pros: Not that it matters after the build but this was the best looking motherboard I have seen coming out of the box. Wanted to frame it and hang it on the wall instead...smile
This board hit the ground running. Smooth install. The other software provided (quick overclocking, fast ram, internet controller) is nice as well. Bios updates from site went very smooth. Booted up and running great. Very pleased with my 1st Asrock MB. Always was EVGA till they lost there edge.

Cons: Only thing that bothered me was they did not provide the felt washers for the screws that mount the motherboard to the case. Did not like the fact I did not have an go between to prevent grounding issues.

Pros: Tons of USB 3.0 I have 20 USB 3.0 ports!
Tons of SATA 3
Socket 2011, 64 GB of RAM
Can run 4 Titans

Cons: None, got mine used on eb(a)y because somebody didn't know how to install it. Paid $2forty for it opened.

Other Thoughts: Bought a CPU for this on Ama-zon for twohundred and everything else on newegg. Can't wait for IVY, because I am going to spend all the money I saved on the CPU.

Pros: Features, including CPU and ECC support, and the Creative Labs sound chip on the motherboard.

Cons: I give this one star because it will not post, and I cannot get tech support from ASRock. The board will not post, and it is now 15 hours after contacting ASRock tech support through email and I still have not recieved any kind of help. The board fails with the VGA fault post light on, then it trys again to boot, VGA light on again, retrys again and again in a loop.

I will think twice about buying another ASRock motherboard if this is the kind of support you can expect.

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
Check the mainboard’s CPU socket pins should not be bent
Reseat the CPU with heatsink fan as well if socket pins are normal
Test with 1 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
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: -awesome bios
-enough sata for most ppl
-tons of usb 3.0

Cons: -comes with a few ASrock programs and such that are kinda useless

Other Thoughts: IDK why this board has so many negative reviews, i love it, me and my buddy got one each and they both work fine. no problems at all. couldnt be happier with it

Pros: For me, everything worked straight out of the box. Nearly all of the components work as intended, no driver problems, all of the features work, overclocks pretty well, TONS of usb3 and other expansion options.

The latest driver update also changed the Fatal1ty boot logo, so you don't have the guy glaring at you anymore...POST is extremely fast, and it lasts for about 2 seconds before it tries to boot the OS.

This is one of the most future proofed boards out there. For the price this board is compared to its competitors, and the great features it has, it is a really solid buy.

For the people who have problems with their boards (any brand) not booting because they have a 3820 installed, this board boots up fine with one, and that's with the default BIOS installed.

The BIOS on here is super easy to understand too. I love the layout, and it has basically every option that I would need in a board.

Cons: The onboard motherboard power button doesn't click at all. When you press it down, you have to get some tweezers and wedge the button out. It's not a biggie because I don't have a bench system to make use of it.

When you have some drives connected to the Marvell SATA ports, the boot time is increased by around 4 seconds (going of the top of my head). When you have an external hard drive plugged in through usb, the boot time is increased by another 2 seconds. It's not really a con, but I'm just throwing it out there for anybody that may use the extra controllers on the board.

The bottom Molex PCIe power connector is rotated 90 degrees, so it's a bit hard to plug the cable in with cases that have little clearance between the bottom of the board and the psu (cases with 7 pci slots). You will have to plug in the molex connector before screwing the motherboard in. Cases with more pci slots shouldn't have this problem.

Other Thoughts: As the reviews on here state, the luck of the draw is pretty evident. If you're on the fence of buying this board, but are afraid of getting a DOA, take the chance. I did, and I am completely satisfied.

Great job ASRock!

Pros: Just a great all around performer and after having a dead board ASRock championed me and help me get a replacement fast. This is the first board with UEFI that worked without issue. Overall the board and the support have convinced me this is the top contender for high performance and use by power users!

Cons: Having a driver issue with the USB and have to continually re-install them. This has been a problem from day one and I hope that ASRock will figure this out because it is the only downside to this board.

Other Thoughts: If you are a power user and wondering if ASRock is up to the challenge that currently is held by the likes of ASUS, Gigabyte and EVGA (to name a few). I can tell you that this board is in fact up to take that challenge on!

Pros: good looking box

Cons: they said that i damage the motherboard but it came broke and they wont be covering the warranty that i got with it was a three years warranty am just sad and i bum out right now i love newegg but this is the last time i buy a motherboard by them

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. For the damage issue, 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