Is ASRock A Good Brand For Motherboards?

[yankeesfan1207]

I have made a list of parts for my first gaming PC and chose an ASRock motherboard, the ratings on pcpartpicker.com look good, but I want to be sure they are as good as they say they are. Here is the motherboard I am getting: https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h97pro4 I would like to know if it is a good quality motherboard, and if it will be a good match with my CPU, memory, and all the other parts of my build, here is the full list sofar: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Linkin506/saved/hrMD4D If you guys know a better motherboard that is around the same price, or if you think the one I already have on the list is good, please tell me, thanks a lot guys!

 

[JackNaylorPE]

AsRock began it's life as a low budget spinoff from Asus.... a means for Asus to sell to systems manufacturers w/o hurting their enthusiast. In then freed itself from Asus's shackles and began competing with it's former parent. AsRock took some series reputation hits in their early years when they offered designs with thin PCBs, cheap caps and only had 1 and 2 year warrantees. Later on they vastly improved their product line and compete on all levels with everyone else.

I don't know what the relationship is these days between Asus and Asrock as though they are supposed to be two separate companies, on my last RMA oif an Asus WS level board, all communications were from Pegatron which is Asrock's parent company.

To my eyes however, with a $900+ budget, I'd suggest a Z97 based build with just a minor price bump. You will find pretty much equal features in this price range from Asrock, Asus, Gigabyte or MSI and pretty much everything is the same or comparable except for price in each category. There's no wholesale answer as to one brand being better than another.

 

[Elemential]

Yes
ASROCK is known to make pretty solid and reliable motherboards.
You could save some money by going with the h97 anniversary
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h97anniversary

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($187.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($55.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($339.98 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.79 @ OutletPC)
Total: $934.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-14 16:33 EDT-0400
Here is a build I made for you
I had to skimp on the CPU and go with 200Mhz less but you'll get the advantage of more airflow in your case and also the MSI GTX 970. EVGA'S GTX 970 is known to be really loud and get quite hot sometimes and so gigabytes or msi's gtx 970 is more recommended

 

[RCFProd]

Very good motherboards, I have an ASRock motherboard myself.

 

[giantbucket]

I have two - one for my main home machine (Z77 Extreme3) and one for my office server (C226 WS, under their ASRockRack brand). love them both, 100%. would sooner buy another ASRock than look at Asus or Gigabyte.

 

[yankeesfan1207]

AsRock began it's life as a low budget spinoff from Asus.... a means for Asus to sell to systems manufacturers w/o hurting their enthusiast. In then freed itself from Asus's shackles and began competing with it's former parent. AsRock took some series reputation hits in their early years when they offered designs with thin PCBs, cheap caps and only had 1 and 2 year warrantees. Later on they vastly improved their product line and compete on all levels with everyone else.

I don't know what the relationship is these days between Asus and Asrock as though they are supposed to be two separate companies, on my last RMA oif an Asus WS level board, all communications were from Pegatron which is Asrock's parent company.

To my eyes however, with a $900+ budget, I'd suggest a Z97 based build with just a minor price bump. You will find pretty much equal features in this price range from Asrock, Asus, Gigabyte or MSI and pretty much everything is the same or comparable except for price in each category. There's no wholesale answer as to one brand being better than another.

What is the difference between Z97 and the one I have? I am kinda new to motherboards 😛

 

[theyeti87]

A few quick facts about ASRock:

Originally owned by ASUS, in 2010 was purchased and is still owned by Pegatron. ASRock is the #3 producer by volume of motherboards globally. AFAIK their bread and butter is motherboards.


Having built a few budget-oriented systems around ASRock mobo's, I have to give an approval to the company's products.

However, I'm not sure about this specific motherboard. A quick look through Newegg reviews makes me a little skeptical of this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157511&cm_re=ASRock_H97_PRO4-_-13-157-511-_-Product

The reviews are varied, but personally wouldn't chose this model.

Also looking through your build, you may want to throw in a SSD for your primary storage. There's no point in throwing money at this build just so the HDD can bottleneck the bejeezus out of everything.

 

[yankeesfan1207]

Yes
ASROCK is known to make pretty solid and reliable motherboards.
You could save some money by going with the h97 anniversary
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h97anniversary

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($187.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($55.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($339.98 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.79 @ OutletPC)
Total: $934.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-14 16:33 EDT-0400
Here is a build I made for you
I had to skimp on the CPU and go with 200Mhz less but you'll get the advantage of more airflow in your case and also the MSI GTX 970. EVGA'S GTX 970 is known to be really loud and get quite hot sometimes and so gigabytes or msi's gtx 970 is more recommended

Ok thank you. What is the difference between the motherboard on my list and the anniversary edition? (Besides price 😛) Also, will 200Mhz less for the CPU be noticeable in games and other programs? I will also look into the other brand GTX 970, thank you for telling me about that!

 

[RCFProd]

Your CPU & Motherboard combination is a lot better, Yankeesfan.

H97 Pro4 is a good motherboard, better features than the H97 Anniversary.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I can't see an SSD at this budget level; couldn't fit much on anything that fits budget... SSHD perhaps, would double the performance of the Blue.

 

[yankeesfan1207]

A few quick facts about ASRock:

Originally owned by ASUS, in 2010 was purchased and is still owned by Pegatron. ASRock is the #3 producer by volume of motherboards globally. AFAIK their bread and butter is motherboards.


Having built a few budget-oriented systems around ASRock mobo's, I have to give an approval to the company's products.

However, I'm not sure about this specific motherboard. A quick look through Newegg reviews makes me a little skeptical of this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157511&cm_re=ASRock_H97_PRO4-_-13-157-511-_-Product

The reviews are varied, but personally wouldn't chose this model.

Also looking through your build, you may want to throw in a SSD for your primary storage. There's no point in throwing money at this build just so the HDD can bottleneck the bejeezus out of everything.

Ok, thank you. since you said you wouldn't choose that model, which one should I go with instead? The anniversary like Elemential said, or a different one?

 

[RCFProd]

The ASRock H97 Pro4, as I already said a couple of times now, is a good motherboard.

Newegg reviews are quite pointless.

This is something I can conclude looking at several quality products that score poorly in Newegg.

They are notorious for that. It's better to avoid Newegg reviews.

 

[yankeesfan1207]

Your CPU & Motherboard combination is a lot better, Yankeesfan.

H97 Pro4 is a good motherboard, better features than the H97 Anniversary.

I see a few people have different opinions on this motherboard, I guess I will have to either look for other boards, or go with this one, since it is in my budget and you guys all said ASRock was good, thank you for your previous reply too, I did read that

 

[yankeesfan1207]

I can't see an SSD at this budget level; couldn't fit much on anything that fits budget... SSHD perhaps, would double the performance of the Blue.

I was in fact thinking of adding a Samsung EVO 850 250GB in this build, but it is pretty expensive just for a faster boot time for windows and some games and maybe a few other programs, I don't think windows takes too long to load, but I know a lot of people are different in opinion, I have had a slow laptop for about 2 years so I have the patients 😛 also, I looked up how to install an SSD and configure it and all that and it seemed a lot more difficult than just using one HDD, this is my first time building a PC so that is why some things might seem a bit more difficult 😛

 

[yankeesfan1207]

The ASRock H97 Pro4, as I already said a couple of times now, is a good motherboard.

Newegg reviews are quite pointless.

This is something I can conclude looking at several quality products that score poorly in Newegg.

They are notorious for that. It's better to avoid Newegg reviews.

ok thank you, I will probably look at other sites too for some reviews just to be safe, thanks for the replies!

 

[yankeesfan1207]

I have two - one for my main home machine (Z77 Extreme3) and one for my office server (C226 WS, under their ASRockRack brand). love them both, 100%. would sooner buy another ASRock than look at Asus or Gigabyte.

that is good to hear, thank you for the reply! we are all trying to figure out which is best for what I am looking for atm.

 

[theyeti87]

I can't see an SSD at this budget level; couldn't fit much on anything that fits budget... SSHD perhaps, would double the performance of the Blue.

I was in fact thinking of adding a Samsung EVO 850 250GB in this build, but it is pretty expensive just for a faster boot time for windows and some games and maybe a few other programs, I don't think windows takes too long to load, but I know a lot of people are different in opinion, I have had a slow laptop for about 2 years so I have the patients 😛 also, I looked up how to install an SSD and configure it and all that and it seemed a lot more difficult than just using one HDD, this is my first time building a PC so that is why some things might seem a bit more difficult 😛

It's not just load times for windows and games and file transfers. It's the <0.1ms global response time, you can count the wattage consumed on five fingers, overall it affects how everything runs.

A hybrid SSHD could be an option. I have one in my ultrabook, definitely faster than any HDD. I wish I could implant my user experience over the past 5 years of using SSD's. \

But this is a motherboard thread so I'll let the ignorance die.

 

[yankeesfan1207]

I can't see an SSD at this budget level; couldn't fit much on anything that fits budget... SSHD perhaps, would double the performance of the Blue.

I was in fact thinking of adding a Samsung EVO 850 250GB in this build, but it is pretty expensive just for a faster boot time for windows and some games and maybe a few other programs, I don't think windows takes too long to load, but I know a lot of people are different in opinion, I have had a slow laptop for about 2 years so I have the patients 😛 also, I looked up how to install an SSD and configure it and all that and it seemed a lot more difficult than just using one HDD, this is my first time building a PC so that is why some things might seem a bit more difficult 😛

It's not just load times for windows and games and file transfers. It's the <0.1ms global response time, you can count the wattage consumed on five fingers, overall it affects how everything runs.

A hybrid SSHD could be an option. I have one in my ultrabook, definitely faster than any HDD. I wish I could implant my user experience over the past 5 years of using SSD's. \

But this is a motherboard thread so I'll let the ignorance die.

So you are saying that it makes the amount of watts used lower? I am kind of noobish to some of this stuff, also, I don't really like the sound of a hybrid SSHD, idk maybe it is fine and I am just weird, but I have never heard of it before, maybe if you could explain about it a bit more or I can research it a bit.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I can't see an SSD at this budget level; couldn't fit much on anything that fits budget... SSHD perhaps, would double the performance of the Blue.

I was in fact thinking of adding a Samsung EVO 850 250GB in this build, but it is pretty expensive just for a faster boot time for windows and some games and maybe a few other programs, I don't think windows takes too long to load, but I know a lot of people are different in opinion, I have had a slow laptop for about 2 years so I have the patients 😛 also, I looked up how to install an SSD and configure it and all that and it seemed a lot more difficult than just using one HDD, this is my first time building a PC so that is why some things might seem a bit more difficult 😛

I agree, I don't see SSDs as practical for users like yaself.....

A top end SSD boots windows in 15.6 seconds
A SSHD bots windows in 16.5 seconds
A top end HD boots windows in 21.2 seconds

Until you have Z97 MoBo, K series processor, 2 x GFX cards, I don't recommend SSDs.... SSHDs do quite well .... for gaming, they automatically move your active game files to the SSD portion w/o any hassle.

BTW, asusde from newegg reviews.... you can see the best / worst of what the various MoBo Manufacturers have to offer here:

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/927-2/cartes-meres.html

These are the failure rates for MoBos that fail between 6 and 12 months of operation. The 1st number is the last 6 month's of data avilable and the 2nd in parenthesis is the 6 months before that.

- Gigabyte 2,51% (contre 2,02%)
- MSI 2,65% (contre 2,60%)
- ASUS 2,86% (contre 2,31%)
- ASRock 2,99% (contre 2,27%)

Data for the latest round or chipsets isn't available yet but you can pretty much expect Z87 and Z97 to be closely related as board designs didn't change significantly

- 3,41% Z87
- 3,17% H87
- 2,83% B85
- 1,71% H81

For h87
- Gigabyte 2,18%
- MSI 3,22%
- ASUS 3,67%
- ASRock 4,25%

Thoise numbers can be used to start all sorts of 'who's better" arguments but I would suggest ignoring them as not really much of a difference between 25 in 1000 and 30 in 1000. Those numbers can be vastly influenced by 1 or 2 proverbial "bad apple" model lines. What is important is avoiding the model lines at the top of the list:

- 8,80% ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
- 8,05% ASRock AD2550B-ITX
- 7,93% ASRock FM2A88M Extreme4+
- 7,25% ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0
- 7,20% ASUS Maximus VI Extreme
- 5,95% ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0
- 5,93% MSI Z87I
- 5,56% Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3
- 5,26% ASRock 990FX Extreme3
- 5,06% ASUS Maximus VI Formula
- 5,05% ASRock FM2A55M-VG3

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

The motherboard ASRock H97 PRO4 is a decent choice.

 

[theyeti87]

A SSD uses significantly less power than a HDD, which is what I meant when talking about wattage. a Hybrid is a single drive that uses a hard disk for the storage and some solid state flash modules for a massive and fast cache. They're better options for laptops that aren't capable of having two storage drives.

Still this is a detraction from the thread topic so I apologize. I just can't sit back and let someone install windows on a gaming rig relying on a HDD to boot.

 

[yankeesfan1207]

I can't see an SSD at this budget level; couldn't fit much on anything that fits budget... SSHD perhaps, would double the performance of the Blue.

I was in fact thinking of adding a Samsung EVO 850 250GB in this build, but it is pretty expensive just for a faster boot time for windows and some games and maybe a few other programs, I don't think windows takes too long to load, but I know a lot of people are different in opinion, I have had a slow laptop for about 2 years so I have the patients 😛 also, I looked up how to install an SSD and configure it and all that and it seemed a lot more difficult than just using one HDD, this is my first time building a PC so that is why some things might seem a bit more difficult 😛

I agree, I don't see SSDs as practical for users like yaself.....

A top end SSD boots windows in 15.6 seconds
A SSHD bots windows in 16.5 seconds
A top end HD boots windows in 21.2 seconds

Until you have Z97 MoBo, K series processor, 2 x GFX cards, I don't recommend SSDs.... SSHDs do quite well .... for gaming, they automatically move your active game files to the SSD portion w/o any hassle.

BTW, asusde from newegg reviews.... you can see the best / worst of what the various MoBo Manufacturers have to offer here:

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/927-2/cartes-meres.html

These are the failure rates for MoBos that fail between 6 and 12 months of operation. The 1st number is the last 6 month's of data avilable and the 2nd in parenthesis is the 6 months before that.

- Gigabyte 2,51% (contre 2,02%)
- MSI 2,65% (contre 2,60%)
- ASUS 2,86% (contre 2,31%)
- ASRock 2,99% (contre 2,27%)

Data for the latest round or chipsets isn't available yet but you can pretty much expect Z87 and Z97 to be closely related as board designs didn't change significantly

- 3,41% Z87
- 3,17% H87
- 2,83% B85
- 1,71% H81

For h87
- Gigabyte 2,18%
- MSI 3,22%
- ASUS 3,67%
- ASRock 4,25%

Thoise numbers can be used to start all sorts of 'who's better" arguments but I would suggest ignoring them as not really much of a difference between 25 in 1000 and 30 in 1000. Those numbers can be vastly influenced by 1 or 2 proverbial "bad apple" model lines. What is important is avoiding the model lines at the top of the list:

- 8,80% ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
- 8,05% ASRock AD2550B-ITX
- 7,93% ASRock FM2A88M Extreme4+
- 7,25% ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0
- 7,20% ASUS Maximus VI Extreme
- 5,95% ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0
- 5,93% MSI Z87I
- 5,56% Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3
- 5,26% ASRock 990FX Extreme3
- 5,06% ASUS Maximus VI Formula
- 5,05% ASRock FM2A55M-VG3

ok, so the lower number will be better, right? and I didn't see anything on that site for an H97 board, so would you recommend another board or will it be good enough? also, since you mentioned the boot time is only about 10 seconds less, I can definitely wait for an SSD, I might however look more into SSHDs.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

ASUS H97 Pro Gamer

 

[theyeti87]

I can't see an SSD at this budget level; couldn't fit much on anything that fits budget... SSHD perhaps, would double the performance of the Blue.

I was in fact thinking of adding a Samsung EVO 850 250GB in this build, but it is pretty expensive just for a faster boot time for windows and some games and maybe a few other programs, I don't think windows takes too long to load, but I know a lot of people are different in opinion, I have had a slow laptop for about 2 years so I have the patients 😛 also, I looked up how to install an SSD and configure it and all that and it seemed a lot more difficult than just using one HDD, this is my first time building a PC so that is why some things might seem a bit more difficult 😛

I agree, I don't see SSDs as practical for users like yaself.....

A top end SSD boots windows in 15.6 seconds
A SSHD bots windows in 16.5 seconds
A top end HD boots windows in 21.2 seconds

Until you have Z97 MoBo, K series processor, 2 x GFX cards, I don't recommend SSDs.... SSHDs do quite well .... for gaming, they automatically move your active game files to the SSD portion w/o any hassle.

BTW, asusde from newegg reviews.... you can see the best / worst of what the various MoBo Manufacturers have to offer here:

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/927-2/cartes-meres.html

These are the failure rates for MoBos that fail between 6 and 12 months of operation. The 1st number is the last 6 month's of data avilable and the 2nd in parenthesis is the 6 months before that.

- Gigabyte 2,51% (contre 2,02%)
- MSI 2,65% (contre 2,60%)
- ASUS 2,86% (contre 2,31%)
- ASRock 2,99% (contre 2,27%)

Data for the latest round or chipsets isn't available yet but you can pretty much expect Z87 and Z97 to be closely related as board designs didn't change significantly

- 3,41% Z87
- 3,17% H87
- 2,83% B85
- 1,71% H81

For h87
- Gigabyte 2,18%
- MSI 3,22%
- ASUS 3,67%
- ASRock 4,25%

Thoise numbers can be used to start all sorts of 'who's better" arguments but I would suggest ignoring them as not really much of a difference between 25 in 1000 and 30 in 1000. Those numbers can be vastly influenced by 1 or 2 proverbial "bad apple" model lines. What is important is avoiding the model lines at the top of the list:

- 8,80% ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
- 8,05% ASRock AD2550B-ITX
- 7,93% ASRock FM2A88M Extreme4+
- 7,25% ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0
- 7,20% ASUS Maximus VI Extreme
- 5,95% ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0
- 5,93% MSI Z87I
- 5,56% Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3
- 5,26% ASRock 990FX Extreme3
- 5,06% ASUS Maximus VI Formula
- 5,05% ASRock FM2A55M-VG3

You don't need to build a $2000 rig to make it "worth" having a SSD. Having anything above a HDD in your daily drive or gaming rig is worth.

Done. Good luck OP.

 

[yankeesfan1207]

A SSD uses significantly less power than a HDD, which is what I meant when talking about wattage. a Hybrid is a single drive that uses a hard disk for the storage and some solid state flash modules for a massive and fast cache. They're better options for laptops that aren't capable of having two storage drives.

Still this is a detraction from the thread topic so I apologize. I just can't sit back and let someone install windows on a gaming rig relying on a HDD to boot.

hey, don't worry about getting off topic, you are still helping me out, this was a question I had anyways I mean, if it is really worth spending the extra money for an SSD, I could do that, but I will look into it. But since there is only about a 10 second difference for loading windows, that really will not waste too much of my time 😛 so how bad could loading windows be on an HDD? And is setting up an SSD that much different than setting up an HDD, besides just choosing where to download things like games and windows instead of just automatically choosing the HDD?