ASRock H77M-ITX LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Pros: -Nice Bios GUI
-Good amount of features at a low price
-Internet flash worked perfectly
-On board LAN supported by ESXI

Cons: -On-Board LAN suddenly stopped working. Using this board for a home-lab running ESXI 5.1. While working on it, I lost connection to the management console. No longer had an IP. Card shows data traffic (led) but unable to use it after re installing OS.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize that you having difficulty with LAN onboard. Please download and install the LAN driver at "http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H77M-ITX/?cat=Download ".
Check the local network area (router, switch, modem) and cable connection.
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: Has a lot of features that more expensive boards have:

Supports a wide variety of RAM
USB 3.0 header and USB 2.0 header
HDMI,
HD Audio
Manual Included on CD
Optical Audio out

Cons: Mine came with one defective RAM slot. This is something that should have been caught in quality control. But, hey, you get what you pay for.

Other Thoughts: When I first tried to boot this up it would power off after 3 seconds. After some troubleshooting I figured out that one of the RAM slots is defective. It boots up fine with one stick in the slot closest to the CPU. As soon as I put any RAM in slot 2, the problem reappears. I tried different RAM, tried changing them around, tried changing the settings in the BIOS, but it just would not take it. I decided not to bother going through an RMA, and just going with 4GB since that is really all I need at this point. I will most likely buy a larger mobo anyway since my HTPC case will support it, but this is going to do for now. I do want to point out that I called ASRock support and got on the phone with a tech right away, though obviously it wasn't someone in the United States, but he was helpful in giving me some tips on other things I could try and told me if it still would not boot with both memory sticks that I could RMA it. I chose not to. I will keep it for a backup board when I get another one. It is great though that ASRock as phone support available though.

Pros: Its ok when it works. Form factor is great.

Cons: I paired this board with i3-3225. Both components were bought elsewhere,but I bought other stuff (like case,RAM etc) from newegg. I had an old 2G ddr3 ram lying and the system booted fine with this RAM. After 2-3 weeks, I tried to upgrade the RAM (that I got from newegg) to 16G and board doesn't POST. No display, nothing. BIOS screen doesn't even showup. As somebody else mentioned, I tried replacing most of the parts like RAM, CPU etc...Still no luck.
So, I've asked for RMA. ASRock really needs a phone number for such important issues like RMA, DOA etc. Common, 100$ is decent $ to have some warranty phone support. Otherwise they are losing market. ASUS, Gigabyte are way better in handling DOA, RMA issues (not holding retailor responsible here,coz of 14 day return policies).

Other Thoughts: 1-800-ARO-KSUX - Common guys, phone number to speak helps!.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please check the using memory is in the mainboard's support list at " http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H77M-ITX/?cat=Memory " to avoid compitable issue.
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
Check the mainboard’s CPU socket pins should not be bent
Reseat the CPU with heatsink fan as well if socket pins are normal
Test with 1 memory module (non-ECC, un-buffered).
Using onboard Video (CPU with iGPU supported or test with VGA card)
Power supply with connecting 24 pins + 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 still having same issues please contact our tech support at 909-590-8308. We can assist you shortly


Thank you

AsRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@asrockamerica.com

Pros: Works as advertised. Cable management could be better but usable. Recommend upgrading to latest BIOS.

Cons: The SATA jacks are bunched up at the edge of the board, which in my case, puts them up against the power supply preventing right angled SATA cables from being used in two of the four jacks. The SATA jacks are also not staggered, again to allow for right angled SATA cables.

Other Thoughts: Case: IN WIN BP655.300TB3L
CPU: Intel i3-3225
Memory: Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz
Optical: ASUS 12B1ST blu-ray burner
SSD: Intel 330 180GB
HD: Hitachi 2TB 7200 RPM

Pros: Works well with my Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 right out of the box. Very nice bios, with plenty of overclocking features for an H77 board.

It is the small things this board has that will make you not regret this purchase. For example, the memory slots don't have locks near the graphics card so you can swap or insert memory AFTER you have installed your graphics card.

Cons: It was a little difficult to install everything due to the form factor, but that isn't the manufacturers fault.

Other Thoughts: I highly recommend installing the 24 pin connector last. It will save you many headaches trying to install the case switches and connectors.

Pros: Decent price, form factor, price.

Cons: Only can get one memory slot to work. Tried both the compatibility listed GSkill Sniper F3-12800CL9D and Corsair's low profile CML8GX3M2A and could only get one DIMM working and therefore only 4 GB of RAM. Updated the BIOS, tried manually setting timings, and called technical support. Might be an issue with the memory controller on the Intel i5 3570 processor, might be an issue with the motherboard. Also - major issue - one chassis fan header. Need at least two for any decent case fans.

Other Thoughts: ITX and smaller machines are the way forward.

Pros: Solid board, houses my G550 and Kingston 8G memory with no problem.

Cons: Cannot get the quiet fan feature to work with the CPU fan, resulting in a full speed CPU fan, giving out a lot of noise. However, the quiet fan control works with chassis fan. So I swapped these two. I plug the CPU fan into CHA_FAN, and chassis fan into CPU_FAN. This way, the CPU fan can be quieted down, but leaving the chassis fan in full speed. Now it is not a problem for me anymore since my chassis fan is very quiet even at full speed.

Pros: Many options
UEFI
GUI UEFI/BIOS
Overclocking ability

Cons: The only knock is that I can't get the GUI UEFI to properly display on my HDTV over HDMI.

Pros: Its a great set of features for the size. The price is very good and the quality is great. BIOS/UEFI updates come out quickly and the layout is good.

Cons: I love everything about this motherboard but I cannot get over one major problem. The motherboard has terrible sounder interference problems. The audio has some background noise during regular desktop computing but when I try to game with my Radeon 5800 the noise kicks into over drive. I have the newest realtec drivers. The problem is clearly hardware. The filtering is just no good and the pre-amp is picking up a ton of noise. Its much worse with headphones on. I ended up buying a Fiio e10 USB DAC/AMP just because the audio was so bad out of the H77M-ITX

Pros: Worked fine right out of the box. Nice BIOS. Runs cool.

Cons: None really. The on-board front panel connector might be a little cramped to get your fingers around.

Other Thoughts: Combined with a fast Core i3 and 8GB of ram, this thing makes a very capable, inexpensive workstation computer.

Highly recommended.