Joined on 04/15/04
Decent card for mythtv
Pros: No fan for quiet operation, XvMC compatible. Has vga, dvi, s-video and component out. Low (50% max) CPU usage on a 2600 Sempron.
Cons: Using "Standard XvMC" and deinterlacing Linear with 2600 Sempron playing HD content is not totally smooth, but good enough for now. Don't know if fsater/better CPU would matter.
Overall Review: Have yet to try component-out. BioStar K8M800-M7A, Sempron 2600, KnoppixMyth R5B7, PVR-350, Air2PC-HD
Poor contrast/brightness
Pros: Took a chance on the newegg special for this. Like the size.
Cons: Bad contrast/brightness control, text is washed out. Tried changing via monitor, but couldn't find a good setting. So went to the Advanced Settings under Display Properties on video card and dropped gamma down to 0.5 (and 1.0 on my vista laptop) to get text to show good, however pictures are now too dark....there is no good setting for these.
Overall Review: Would not recommend at all, would not buy Spetre again. Should have spent another 100.00 for a good brand. In fact we purchased the 28" Hanns-G display at work and they are great!
Appears bad and ASRock support was no help
Pros: Recieved motherboard
Cons: Board failed to boot. ASrock support was dismissive. When turning on power (PSU, then case power switch), nothing...no fan spin up, nothing...like I never turned on power. To ensure that it wasn't due to memory, I removed the memory with same result. Sometimes a low battery may cause problems, so I removed the battery, as I had another one around. I placed the used battery in, turned power on and beeped (due to no memory). I powered down and tried to boot again but nothing, no fan, no nothing. Pulled out the battery, waited 30secs and put it back in, it would start to boot. I ran Intel's IDPT tool (Fedora USB boot with IDPT), it would fail on base clock (--> 102), but not sure if the IDPT tool was updated for 7th gen cpus, so I disabled testing base clock and it passed the test. I booted the system an SSD with Linux and Emby server, and it ran fine. So the issue was getting to boot without having to pull the battery, wait 30secs and put it back in. ASrock support was of no help. Support form requires you to enter the OS being used and as soon as they saw Linux, they say we can't help you. Apparently they didn't bother to read the actual problem and that it didn't matter what OS was being used!
Overall Review: No I would not recommend an ASRock motherboard. I've built many systems over 30 years, this is the first ASRock board and the last.
1 of 2 going bad...
Pros: Bought on sale at a good price from Newegg! One of the two is working fine at work for the last 4 months in a server room (where temp and humility is controlled).
Cons: The one I have at home is dying. 5 ports are now bad and several others are flaky and loosing connectivity intermittently.
Pros: Small, cheap...bought 3 of them when they were on shell shocker.
Cons: Weak connection compared to internal laptop G card, sometimes it won't connect automatically from cold start. Got a (Air) different mini usb adapter, which has (Link) better connection and speed.
Overall Review: Unlike the other one, you need to install the drivers/monitor software even for Vista and Win7. The other ones worked with Vista/Win7 without installing drivers...drivers needed for Win2000 and XP though.
Defective Monitor!
Pros: ...
Cons: Defective. Got this during the 72hr sale on newegg, have to pay $33 to ship back (no refund).
Overall Review: I've ordered several 28inch Hanns-G monitors for work, but they were slightly different models. We had no problems with them. Apparently Hanns-G is skipping on QA and/or quality now, so beware!