Asrock motherboard quality?

All about them.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
boe
Posts: 331
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2004 9:47 am

Asrock motherboard quality?

Post by boe » Mon Apr 10, 2017 4:09 am

Hello,

I'm getting ready to build my next system. I've tried plenty of gigabyte and MSI boards in the past and found their quality control less than optimal. Anyone try asrock motherboards? Any opinion?
Last edited by boe on Mon Apr 10, 2017 4:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Asrock

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Apr 10, 2017 4:31 am

boe wrote:Anyone try asrock motherboards? Any opinion?

Lots of us, just search the forum: since Intel 8x chipsets, they have been (and they are) among the finest available.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Asrock motherboard quality?

Post by Abula » Mon Apr 10, 2017 5:07 am

Personally own 2 AsRock motherboards, and they work well, i have had less issues with it, than with MSI, Gigabyte or Asus, that said, i do think their boards are more plain, less flashy, and dont give an impression of quality by the looks of them, compared to lets say a Rampage or Maximus, so if you are after something like that look elsewhere.

boe
Posts: 331
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2004 9:47 am

Re: Asrock motherboard quality?

Post by boe » Mon Apr 10, 2017 5:30 am

Thanks! I don't need flashy lights just lots and lots of fan connectors, slots, quality audio (I game on occasion and listen to music) and QUALITY. My computers are well cooled. I don't overclock and I buy quality power supplies so I'm not sure why I've had so many defective motherboards from Gigabyte and MSI - usually it is something like a bad memory slot (switched out memory) or BT stops working(even with a clean install of windows - not listed as a device). I can still use the systems but not at full utilization.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Asrock motherboard quality?

Post by Abula » Mon Apr 10, 2017 5:50 am

boe wrote:Thanks! I don't need flashy lights just lots and lots of fan connectors, slots, quality audio (I game on occasion and listen to music) and QUALITY.
About audio.... i dont think you will ever have really good quality audio from Realtek codec integrated soundcards, which is what most include in their motherboards, even though they name it differently, at the end its same, there are very few motherboards with other sound cards, once comes to my mind, MSI Gaming Z170A GAMING M9 that uses C-Media 6632A, which if i remember correctly the same as my omega eclaro, talking of which, i would recommend if you really like audio to go into a dedicated sound card or a USB DAC.

About the fan connectors, there is something you should know about AsRock, they usually have only 2x Autodetect headers, usually CPU_FAN1 and CHA_FAN1 (sometimes CPU_FAN2), this headers work very nice, they sense if you plug a 3pin or 4pin fan, and switch automatically, they can undervolt the 3pin or control via PWM the 4pin, now the rest of the headers, meaning CHA_FAN2,3,4 will be only PWM, no voltage control. By this what im trying to warn you, is that you need to plan properly you fans. If you want a ton of headers that are PWM/VC, you should look into Asus, all of their headers are switchable on the bios so you practically dont need any planning, you can setup everything on the bios. That said, i still like more AsRock fan control on pure bios than Asus, but this is more a matter of personal preference.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Asrock motherboard quality?

Post by Abula » Mon Apr 10, 2017 3:30 pm

Just as a final comment, not trying to steer you to AsRock fully, as i do think Asus might offer something you do want, but i was reading Techpowerup, and stumble on a new review, ASRock X370 Taichi (AMD AM4) , its not that easy to get a perfect 10 on TPU, not saying asrock is perfect, but really to me its a good mobo maker, one that i consider first for price, but also for what it offers all together, either way, dont expect the best, its just good value mobos, that work, at least to me.

boe
Posts: 331
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2004 9:47 am

Re: Asrock motherboard quality?

Post by boe » Mon Apr 10, 2017 7:49 pm

Thanks for the info about the fans and other info!

lb_felipe
Posts: 270
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 12:21 pm
Location: São Paulo, SP, Brasil

Re: Asrock motherboard quality?

Post by lb_felipe » Tue Apr 11, 2017 3:07 pm

Abula wrote:Just as a final comment, not trying to steer you to AsRock fully, as i do think Asus might offer something you do want, but i was reading Techpowerup, and stumble on a new review, ASRock X370 Taichi (AMD AM4) , its not that easy to get a perfect 10 on TPU, not saying asrock is perfect, but really to me its a good mobo maker, one that i consider first for price, but also for what it offers all together, either way, dont expect the best, its just good value mobos, that work, at least to me.
Abula, if I didn't understand wrong, now ASRock (at least that one) has all headers able to control PWM and/or DC fans. I just don't know about hysteresis, but it allows 0 to 100% PWM duty cicle, with 1 percentage point steps, like the previous ones.

Note the CPU_FAN1, CHA_FAN1, CHA_FAN2 can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use. But that doesn't mean that the other two headers can only control PWM fans. They can control DC fans as well. Simply select this type of fan manually.

In the end, all 5 headers allow you to control DC fans as well.

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: Asrock motherboard quality?

Post by CA_Steve » Tue Apr 11, 2017 5:04 pm

lb_felipe wrote: Abula, if I didn't understand wrong, now ASRock (at least that one) has all headers able to control PWM and/or DC fans. I just don't know about hysteresis, but it allows 0 to 100% PWM duty cicle, with 1 percentage point steps, like the previous ones.

Note the CPU_FAN1, CHA_FAN1, CHA_FAN2 can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use. But that doesn't mean that the other two headers can only control PWM fans. They can control DC fans as well. Simply select this type of fan manually.

In the end, all 5 headers allow you to control DC fans as well.
The best resource is Asrock's product comparison webpage. The motherboard selector page lets you compare one against another for features. Once selected and compared, you can scroll down to the Connector section where it will tell you how many chassis headers there are and how many of them will control both 3-pin (voltage) and 4-pin (PWM) fans.

boe
Posts: 331
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2004 9:47 am

Re: Asrock motherboard quality?

Post by boe » Tue Apr 11, 2017 5:29 pm

Lots of good info everyone! Thanks for all the responses!

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Asrock motherboard quality?

Post by Abula » Tue Apr 11, 2017 10:21 pm

lb_felipe wrote:Note the CPU_FAN1, CHA_FAN1, CHA_FAN2 can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use. But that doesn't mean that the other two headers can only control PWM fans. They can control DC fans as well. Simply select this type of fan manually.

In the end, all 5 headers allow you to control DC fans as well.
In my two motherboards this is not the case, only CPU_FAN and CHA_FAN2 can undervolt or pwm, that depends on what type of fan you connect, but the rest cant be selected, they are simply pwm fan headers.

Post Reply