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Joined on 01/14/10
First ASRock board
Pros: Small, affordable and stable. No quirky BIOS problems that Linux stumbles on!
Cons: Had some issues with the BIOS locking up with the 1.20 firmware. Upgraded both boards to 1.30, and have not had the problem since.
Overall Review: I have 2 of these, with Pareema 8GB (4GB x 2) RAM and A6-3650 CPUs. Everything at stock speeds, with memory manually set to 1600 MHz. CentOS 6.3 is installed on both systems. I'm not a fan of the UEFI BIOS, but I guess it is the future. Aside from the lockups I had with the 1.20 firmware, the BIOS has been quite reliable. On the plus side, both boards have been VERY stable. I am very happy so far, and would have no concerns picking these up again.
Pleasantly surprised
Pros: Works well, no errors so far.
Cons: No cool looking heat spreader (ha!).
Overall Review: I was a bit weary, having never heard of this brand, but I have had good experience with Newegg and off-brands in the past. So far, the memory has been excellent. I am running it at stock speeds, with no intention of overclocking at this time.
Real bargain
Pros: Cheap, full fledged AMD CPU with four cores. Performance per core is very acceptable. I don't know if you can get more bang for your buck. Oh yeah - has a decent low end graphics processor built in too!
Cons: CPU / GPU performance is not on par with more expensive high end systems.
Overall Review: I bought 2 of these to build a pair of general purpose servers. They are both currently running Linux. If you have realistic expectations for this processor, then you will likely find it more than capable. As the basis for a low end system, this CPU is difficult to beat. I find the performance to be close (maybe 80% overall, and equal for some tasks) to my 2 year old Core i7-860 system - yet the core A6 system with motherboard and memory cost considerably less than my i7 CPU did! The graphic processor is definitely not high end, but it is capable of casual game play, and easily surpasses most on-board graphic solutions. Plus, if you outgrow the GPU, all the A series motherboards I have seen have an open PCI-E x16 slot.