ASRock 970 PRO3 R2.0 AM3+/AM3 AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: not bad looking works? i guess

Cons: regular BSOD's weird placement

Overall Review: This was my first build, and it went off without a hitch. I was willing to forgive the fact that several cables weren't long enough to reach because of the the weird placement of there plugs on the motherboard, and had to be left out in the middle of the case. After I got all the drivers and stuff installed, I finally was able to test out some games. After a little while though my testing was cut short by a BSOD. I double checked that I had all the correct drivers installed and that they were up to date. They started to happen all the time though, but I didn't know what to do about it. a few days after the initial BSOD I was asked if I had had any trouble with BSODs on pc part picker, because of my mobo. I looked into it, and apparently its a common problem with this mobo, which I would have known if I had payed more attention. So I'm stuck with it for now, it will probably be the first thing I upgrade though, as my computer is almost unusable if I plan to be on it for any extended period of time.

Pros: Very fast motherboard. 2 USB 3.0 jacks in the back and support for 2 in the front. Overclocking is very simple.

Cons: The connections for the front headers are in an awkward place, forcing you to stretch cables to their very limits if you're using a larger case.

Pros: none

Cons: Motherboard just crashed on me

Overall Review: The motherboard was working fine for about 3 months and then it just failed on me. It would not come back on having to ship back to Asrock to replace...

Pros: Great Layout - Good Features - Great Price!

Cons: AM3+ issues with Piledriver tech. Not fully supported. BSOD's for days! Cant go 3 hours without a freeze or BSOD

Overall Review: I purchased this board back in February of this year, I am a Broadband Analyst by trade and my home PC is a must! This was a budget build but had I known these would be the case I would have put out a bit more. CPU - FX6300 Ram set 1 - G.skill DD3-1333 PC3-10666 4 G sticks X2 Ran Set 2 (Purchased it this weekend) PNY XLR8 8Gb stick -1600 Mhz -Cas 9 - 1.5v - DDR3 PC3 12800 When I received the board I stick a fresh isntal of Windows 8 on it, after contacting Microsoft about various BSOD's they remoted in ran their test for about 5 min and another BSOD issue - logged back in tried again and crash they tried for 3 hours. This is after me trying to reinstall Win 8 3 more times OFC. So, Windows 7 - installed fine, posted, default UEFI Bios settings - BSOD's or freezes and pretends to be receiving input. Tuned settings, turned X-boost on - stabile for days with X-boost, but it seems to have an excelorator problem, Games when played are out of sync videos are choppy. Turn X-boost off tand that goes away but so does the stability. Bios was under volting and does not detect proper timings from both sets of ram. changed to 1.5 V on ram and proper timings (9-9-9-24) and still no resolve. Extensive ram testing, multiple NEW sticks of ram (I've invested more in new hardware at this point than I would have if I would have purchased new $200 board =x) needless to say after MONTHS of trial and error, and doing my part in ironing out all possible bugs, its past my return time for new egg, and the flimsy structure on the board and its odd PCI-E clips (Broke on day 1) I now have voided any chance of an RMA with ASRock. AVOID THIS BOARD! Months of work, and still giving me issues... This board is coming out next pay period and I will never buy anything from ASRock again.. Oh and customer service / Tech support from them - It's non exsistant.

Pros: It worked for a day. It looked pretty cool.

Cons: It worked for a day and then it died. I was expecting a little more from it. I went and bought a mobo at a local computer store to make sure it was the mobo that died so now I am returning it to newegg. Maybe someone else will have better luck than me.

Pros: Cheap, Has standard features for UEFI motherboard, Supports up to 64GB of DDR3 RAM

Cons: VRM throttling with 8 core processors Poor compatibility with PCI-E 3.0 GPU's Brown PCB My specific motherboard has an issue with Windows 7 where video card drivers won't load up after a cold boot - you must perform a software restart to get full driver functionality Constant driver issues with ethernet and HD audio

Overall Review: VERY IMPORTANT: upgrade the BIOS to its latest version. Any version lower than the current will cause severe compatibility issues with Windows 10.

Pros: I bought this for my first PC build and it's running great! I've had no issues with it at all-none worth mentioning that is. It's definitely a good buy if you're looking for some good customization but not looking to spend tons of money!

Cons: The only issue that I have had thus far is that sometimes putting memory in it can be a bit of a hassle, but I've never been to fond of doing that so no eggs lost here.

Overall Review: The only thing I do have to say is that I have not yet used the X-Boost feature to auto overclock the CPU. Most people that would be interested in doing this would probably be looking for a higher end motherboard anyway.

Pros: Good Looks Easy Installation GUI BIOS - easy to Navigate Plenty of SATA and USB options

Cons: Over Clocking tools for Windows OS for changing Speed via OS interface is a bit clunky and slow to establish, then doesn't always work well.

Overall Review: All in all a great board for a budget build. I typically stay away from ASRock due to some previous misfortune when trying to save a few dollars with them...but after about 6 years of not using an ASRock Board, I can safely say that this was pleasant and quite rewarding bang for the buck on this board. It is not as good as the ASUS board, but if you are on a tight budget for a gaming build, this Mobo will fit the bill quite nicely and save precious dollars for the Video Card without sacrificing future upgrade paths or limiting potential of current hardware.