ASRock 970 EXTREME3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Asrock. Never. Again.

Cons: I am RMAing my second board, both have the same random failure to boot and random crash issues. And by failure to boot, I mean you hit the power button and nothing happens. Power button lights and the fans turn on and nothing else. Never even makes it to the bios boot screen. Tried clearing cmos and removing battery. No help. Updated to latest bios. No help. I know the other components work, I tested them. Then if you do get it to actually boot up, It is just a matter of time before it quits. No bsod,or error messages. It is working fine one minute and the next minute you have a black screen.

Other Thoughts: Decided to give asrock a try. What a huge mistake.

Also I like the fact that all the manufacturer responses try to make it sound like a memory issue or user error, when clearly this board is flawed to the core.

Pros: Nothing good to be said about this motherboard

Cons: This motherboard arrived DOA. I wanted to upgrade to a bigger case so I had to purchase a new motherboard. My computer is still brand new (2 weeks old). I transferred everything over to the new motherboard and case. It didn't work. I transfer everything back to the old motherboard with the new case and it worked just fine. Save yourself sometime and hassle and buy a more expensive motherboard.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Please trouble shooting the mainboard for below steps with known good components;
Turn the power off.
Remove the mainboard from inside computer to outside, place the mainboard on top of the empty mainboard’s box
Clear the CMOS
Reseat the CPU and heatsink fan as well
Test with single memory module (non-ECC, un-buffered), try with another known good memory if its same issue.
Video card with 6+6 power (if applied)
Power supply with connecting 24 pins + 8 or 4 pins ATX power to the mainboard
Plug the computer case’s power switch to mainboard's front panel power header and try again
If you have any technical questions please contact us at 909-590-8308 or http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp. We can assist you shortly.


Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@ASRockamerica.com

Pros: This board has an excellent and easy to use UEFI BIOS. The construction feels very solid, and it has proper heatsinks on the Northbridge and Southbridge chips, excellent at this price point. The onboard sound is good (I wouldn't drive an audiophile system with it, but for computer speakers/gamers, it's great), and it has more than enough USB ports.

Cons: The only reason that I take an egg off of this review is for the trouble that I had on the first day that I tried to build. It would resolutely give 5 beeps on POST, no matter what I tried, so eventually gave up on it for the night. When I came back to it the next morning, I tried to boot it up, and it worked perfectly. I still don't know what happened, but it was clearly a motherboard issue, and so worthy of inclusion here.

Pros: Looks awesome
One of only a couple AM3+ boards with specs I needed
Everything fit very well in my case

Cons: Unfortunately I had to remove it from my case because it was DOA

Other Thoughts: Waiting for replacement. I'll review the replacement board once I get it.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize that you having difficulty with mainboard. ASRock mainboards are fully tested to assure that they're working before shipped. Unfortunately, due to nature of electronic product, it can happen.
Please update replacement mainboard is working fine.
If you have any technical questions or warranty issues in the future please contact us at user@ASRockamerica.com

Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@ASRockamerica.com

Pros: Second one worked . . . for a little while

Cons: First one was DOA. I did a RMA and the second one worked for less than a year.

Other Thoughts: This board just didn't want to work. After the second one died I gave up and switched brands. Rest of the hardware functions perfectly and works great with new board. This one just sucked.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Sorry to hear the second mianbord has malfunctioned less than a year which due to nature of electronic it can happen.
Please trouble shooting the mainboard for below steps with known good components;
Remove the mainboard from inside computer to outside, place the mainboard on top of the empty mainboard’s box
Clear the CMOS
Reseat the CPU and heatsink fan as well
Test with single memory module (non-ECC, un-buffered), try with another known good memory if its same issue.
Video card with 6+6 power (if applied)
Power supply with connecting 24 pins + 8 or 4 pins ATX power to the mainboard
Plug the computer case’s power switch to mainboard's front panel power header and try again
If you have any technical questions please contact us at http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp. We can assist you shortly.


Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@ASRockamerica.com

Pros: The BIOS was quite a nifty bit of eye candy to see for a legacy builder like myself.(The ONE time it got past a POST that is)

Cons: The board was extremely defective and unstable, first off it was quite flimsy compared to the older boards I've worked with this made me very worried and stressed during installation. Secondly the 20+4=24 pin power connector area was completely unsupported from the board itself which was even more stressing when the next problem ensued that I noticed in order to power the board I had to pressure the 24 pin connector downwards toward the board with -EXCESSIVE- force.
The board posted once and was stable (with me pressing down on the 24 pin connector) long enough for me to look through the pretty bios and attempt to boot onto a windows 7 pro OS after 2-5 seconds of the booting sequence a BSOD into a nearly instant shut off afterwards I attempted to reboot and was unable to get to a POST ever again through multiple configurations of different hardware (less and different pieces) the board would not POST I even attempted to debug with a speaker and the board did not give any sound codes or blinks.(I used multiple different working and obviously compatible speakers)

Other Thoughts: RMA'd this board my refund was approved today I am now awaiting my payment credited to my card.

I would recommend everyone to stay away from this board and for newegg to simply salvage all remaining in their warehouses or at least test the things before they ship them.

The board doesn't follow the normal "cheap and quality parts" rules of technology I know it is cheap, and nowhere near quality satisfactory levels for this man.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
BSOD usually related to memory and its controller.
For the future reference, trouble shooting can be done by below steps with known good components;
Turn the power off.
Clear the CMOS
Test with single memory module (non-ECC, un-buffered), try with another known good memory if its same issue.
As always, we appreciate your purchase and constructive reviews are welcome.


Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@ASRockamerica.com

Pros: been wit this board since september 2012 and have no problems,easy to install ,worth the money i spend

Cons: none

Pros: Not DOA
Good BIOS
Easy to Overclock

Cons: the motherboard seemed to not give enough power to the usb ports, but the usb plug which powered the case usbs did.

Also there aren't any USB 3.0 ports on the motherboard for my case but i didn't take a egg for that.

Other Thoughts: It's a good first build motherboard.

Pros: None really to speak off, arrived defective, open box.

Cons: Where do i START with this one.. well, first off, I bought a new board, and I recieved an unsealed open box, it was VERY poorly packaged, Im honestly amazed it arrived in 1 piece.

Board booted up fine upon installation, but now throws up a Blue Screen of death and randomly reboots itself.

Other Thoughts: Had I got what I ordered, I dont think I would have had nearly as many problems as I have encountered.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
BSOD usually related to memory, please set the UEFI BIOS default, test with 1 memory stick in A1 slot, try with another known good memory if its same issue.
If you have any technical questions or warranty issues please contact our Tech Support at http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp. We can assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@ASRockamerica.com

Pros: None

Cons: 2nd time doa, googled the problems, all very common with no solutions AT ALL.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Please trouble shooting the mainboard for below steps with known good components since the second mainboard having same issue;
Remove the mainboard from inside computer to outside, place the mainboard on top of the empty mainboard’s box
Clear the CMOS
Reseat the CPU and heatsink fan as well
Test with single memory module (non-ECC, un-buffered), try with another known good memory if its same issue.
Video card with 6+6 power (if applied)
Power supply with connecting 24 pins + 8 or 4 pins ATX power to the mainboard
Plug the computer case’s power switch to mainboard's front panel power header and try again
If you have any technical questions please contact us at 909-590-8308 or http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp. We can assist you shortly.


Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@ASRockamerica.com