Pros: Great board at a great price with good features.

Cons: Board arrived with memory slot 2 dead. Just used slots 1 and 3 and all was fine. Then next morning turn the PC on and wouldn't boot or go into bios. Returned the board to Newegg for a full refund. Not gonna be to hard on ASRock because they do make decent boards I think I just got a bad on out of the bunch. Only thing I didn't like about the was the memory slot clips felt really cheap. Also the 4 pin PWM fan headers can only control 4 pin PWM fans. This is quite annoying, how many people used $20 fans on a $65 motherboard other than the CPU fan.

Other Thoughts: Just glad Newegg let me return it easily.

Pros: I reviewed the ASRock FM2A78M PRO4+. While this motherboard model and Bolton D3 chip set have been around since 2013, it still supports up to FM2+ processors from AMD.

I chose this M/B over other brands because it has four memory slots. The M/B has a nice layout with four of the six SATA ports pointing upward, whereas the other two point towards the front of the case. I've never been a big fan of front facing SATA ports. It also has an internal USB 3.0 header port that could be used for an internal USB 3.0 card reader. I think that ASRock could have squeezed in two more USB ports above the HDMI socket. The old adage; waste not, want not applies here. Again I have seen other similar M/B models with eight rear USB ports.

This M/B has three graphics ports: A VGA, a DVI-dual port and an HDMI. I have heard that it will support up to three monitors, but I have not tested that feature. It also offers internal Com and parallel port headers, for those needing these legacy ports. You will need to supply the back plates.

The UEFI BIOS boots the system very quickly, even with Windows 7. It had no problem booting off of a low-cost $anDisk 128GB SSD drive. The UEFI BIOS is beautifully executed. The supplied driver disk installed the system drivers with no issues. Setup was a breeze! I had to manually adjust the BIOS to operate my G. Skill memory at the rated XMP-1866 MHz speed. But that is standard operating procedure with most new BIOS.

ASRock provides a nice App Store updating utility you can run from Windows. Be sure to download the latest version from their support web site. This app will help you update the BIOS and all of the supplied utility programs from ASRock. A quick charging App for USB hand held devices is also supplied.

Cons: It seems to want to over-volt my AMD A10-5800 processor. This causes it to run too hot.

Other Thoughts: I purchased this M/B to use-up an older AMD A10-5800 CPU chip I had laying around my shop. I am not sure if it's this M/B, or the CPU chip, but it runs way too hot. At the first boot it was running at close to 174°F, according to Speccy. The CPU voltage also seems to bounce around a lot in CPU-Z (poor M/B voltage regulation?).

I tried updating to the current P1.90 BIOS, but that did not seem to help. I also shut everything down and pulled the HSF unit off to make sure it was making good contact with the CPU's top surface. Cleaned the two surfaces with 91% alcohol. I also made sure there was not any cat fuzz under it either. I am using the stock cooler that AMD supplied with new heat sink paste.

I also turned the CPU voltage down in the BIOS. The BIOS indicates a max CPU voltage of 1.550 VDC, whereas AMD specifies 1.450 VDC as the safe limit in their specs. I have the M/B set to 1.350 VDC currently and that brought the CPU temperature down to 125°F range. So far it seems to run stable at this lower voltage.

I do not have any over-clocking features activated to my knowledge. I have not pressed the "X" button during the BIOS boot-up. This is supposed to trigger a built-in automatic over-clocking feature. I suspect that the heat sink AMD provided is not flat and this is causing a poor mechanical contact with the top surface of the CPU. I am going to try honing it with some fine emery cloth later, then remount it and see if that helps.

The G. Skill memory seems to run at normal temperatures with the stock voltage of 1.500 VDC. The system seems very stable; it has installed over 200+ updates from MS-Update for Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, without any issues. After I refinish the heat sink and get the CPU temp under control I will try running some burn-in software to see how stable the system really is. I can fully recommend this motherboard, it was very easy to setup, but please pay close attention to your CPU temperature.

Pros: Price, it wasn't DOA, easy-to-navigate bios software

Cons: It refuses to recognize any HDD plugged into the SATA slots. In fact on the 'board map' , it persistently views all slots as 'empty'.

Other Thoughts: I have been unable to make this motherboard function properly. In searching online, I found it is actually a fairly common problem. Due to some outdated firmware it refuses to see any hard drive plugged into it.
Changing the cables, hard drives, etc have done nothing to solve this. As per suggestions, flashed and undated bios software. While some claimed this worked? It did not for me. Avoid this motherboard at all costs and save yourself some hassle.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Mainboard supports SATA HDD/SSD/ODD drives out of the box regardless of any BIOS version that shipped with mainboard.
Please connect the drive firmly to the port.
Test with another known good SATA cable and drive.
Check the power connector has firmly plugged to drive.

Enter BIOS, Advanced, Storage Configuration to check drives detection.

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: 4 memory slots, 4 PCI-e slots, good layout, good quality, this board does everything I need it to, and more. Packaging was good, shipping fast, good instructions, no problems with any plugin devices. Online driver update was sweet. With an AMD A8-7600 APU, Windows 7 Pro 64 and NO video card, Windows Experience Index rated computing at 7.4 and graphics at 6.9.

Cons: The shipped drivers didn't recognize the A8-7600 APU I installed properly, 'automatic overclock' set max frequency at 4700, and the USB3 ports didn't work before updating. Note that these are minor problems easily fixed by doing a driver update. Also no built-in coffee maker. :)

Other Thoughts: Asrock's website doesn't show the right specs for this board, memory max is higher than 1866MHz. There is no 'onboard video' unless you use an APU, Be mindful of possible clearance issues if you have tall heat sinks on your RAM and use an oversize processor heat sink.

Pros: Easy bios, sturdy board, good boot times, easy driver loads.

Cons: Should have checked the supported CPU list because my Athlon X4 XK860 was not a supported CPU until BIOS update 1.90, but you can't update the BIOS without getting into the the BIOS to instant flash. If your computer starts, and the CPU, RAM, PSU, and GPU are all working in other PC's check your CPU because it might be un-supported. (It would never make it to POST, no beeps or anything) Hope this helps someone

Pros: Great board, runs everything with no problem ! it really feel like a high end board ! I'm very satisfied of this product !

Cons: none