Someone here insisted that ASRock improved their motherboards and they were no where near as flimsy as the Z77 Extreme4 that gave me constant problems so I bought myself a ASRock Z97 Fatal1ty Killer motherboard and had to RMA it right off the bat when I got it last year. Rather than wait I got a MSI Z97 PC Mate that fired right up and has been rock solid. ASRock insisted that all of their motherboards were tested before shipping so I kept it as a spare. Yesterday I upgraded my nephew's PC using it and BAAM, no POST. Nothing, nada, zilch! Spent all day swapping out the G3258 and the Corsair RAM with my working PC Mate and no problems with the hardware. The first ASRock board would NOT shut off no matter what I did until I pulled the plug. ASRock said this was a known issue with the Z97 Fatal1ty model. Now I got one that won't turn on no matter what I do. How does a company like this stay in business? If the rest of you guys would stop buying this rubbish and recommending it then they might sit up and take notice about the quality of their junk being shipped to customers like me. [end of rant] RMA applied for and now I play the waiting game.

rjohnson11
Good luck with the RMA.

Yeah, seriously.

I am one of those *LOVE* Asrock people..Mine is great...
 
I've had to RMA one because *I* bent the pins....was a bit painful but no where near
as bad as Asus.....
 
sorry you're having issues.. >.<
 

I wouldn't ever consider buying asrock. Motherboard is too important and costly to play the lottery with cheap manufacturers.
 
Should have went evga, OP.

All my rigs I build anymore are with Asrock motherboards. The price is right, and they perform and overclock just as high as (dare I say it) EVGA boards... 
 
As for those saying good luck with the RMA, being as I've built so many with Asrock, I'm had to RMA once. The process was smooth as can be. They sent me a shipping label and 2 day air shipped me a new board for free. Not sure why you guys say "good luck", as if you think it's a horror story waiting to happen. 
 
Just saying that in my experience, they are big time bang for buck, have a great warranty and RMA's are smooth. What's not to love about that?
 
Sorry the OP had a dud. It happens, even with EVGA, we all know that.

dwoodward
All my rigs I build anymore are with Asrock motherboards. The price is right, and they perform and overclock just as high as (dare I say it) EVGA boards... 
 
As for those saying good luck with the RMA, being as I've built so many with Asrock, I'm had to RMA once. The process was smooth as can be. They sent me a shipping label and 2 day air shipped me a new board for free. Not sure why you guys say "good luck", as if you think it's a horror story waiting to happen. 
 
Just saying that in my experience, they are big time bang for buck, have a great warranty and RMA's are smooth. What's not to love about that?
 
Sorry the OP had a dud. It happens, even with EVGA, we all know that.

That is nice to hear that Asrock covered shipping both ways for you. That's not something we hear a motherboard mfg do very often.
 
You can find duds by every motherboard mfg indeed.
 

XrayMan
 
Should have went with Evga.      =)

More people might, if evga would offer more choices and more features to attract customers. Have you seen the RGB motherboards. With RGB keyboard/mouse and motherboard, at night your neighbors would probably think you celebrate Christmas 365 days a year.
 

Zuhl3156

XrayMan
 
Should have went with Evga.      =)

I might have decided on going with EVGA if their pricing was more reasonable. This was only selected for a backup PC just in case I ever needed one. The ASRock nor the MSI Z97 PC Mate support SLI but they do support Crossfire. I snagged the Z97 PC Mate for $99.99 with a G3258 included along with a $20 MIR. I couldn't pass on that. If I were smart, and I admit I am not, I would have sold the G3258 as soon as I got it and pocketed the money and bought the i5-4690k that I finally got. The G3258 was strong enough for me to play a few rounds of BF3 using a single EVGA GTX-680 with only short spurts of stuttering. Things are progressing nicely. All updates are installed and it reaches Desktop in under 30 seconds without any overclocking yet. I'm only going to set the XMP profile on the RAM and be done with it since my nephew doesn't do any gaming or anything intensive with it. Adding my last remaining spare 240 GB SSD gives it new life.

Glad you got it up and going ..MSI is good too..
 
 

I am another person who has had at least 3 (maybe 4) builds using the Asrock boards... I have only had a problem on the very first one that I ever bought, which was a nightmare.
 
I had to go through 3 to get one that worked...I think it went something like 1st had pcie slot dead, 2nd had bad memory slots on 1 or 2 sides ,-finally got a 3rd which is the one I am currently using & has been pretty rock solid for many years now.
 
 I will say the RMA's went smooth & the techs would answer all my issues immediately when asked thru emails quickly.  
 
I have heard of horror stories from every manuf., ..so it always seems like you are rolling the bones no matter what brand you buy. I am not saying /recommending Asrock, nor am putting them down - just telling you my story. I've used Asus, MSI, EVGA & Asrock over the years and have had an issue with 1 of each of them.  *IT happens.

Got to follow your gut, it'll bite you every time you don't!

Zuhl3156

fergusonll
Got to follow your gut, it'll bite you every time you don't!

My gut says stick with MSI from now on in. All three of my MSI motherboards are rock solid and stable.

I've loved every single MSI board I've ever had.  All two of them, but still... 
 
I've purchased on ASRock motherboard and it's been operating trouble free for 7-8 years.   As a rule of thumb, I tend to avoid anything that has Fatality in the name.   

No board yet?

Zuhl3156

Sajin
No board yet?

We're good. I found 1 bent pin and straightened it out.

Using an old Toshiba 240 GB SSD makes this thing lightning fast. Getting rid of those old spinners was the best thing I did. Instead of waiting 3 to 4 minutes I now reach Desktop in under 30 seconds. This should make him happy at least. Going to add some white Cold Cathode Tubes too to light up the inside for him as soon as they get here from NewEgg.

I too like the features in the BIOS especially the auto OC settings for the G3258 in there. IDK if it will work as well with a better CPU or not. I just selected the 4.2 boost from the Menu and it applied all of the appropriate vCore settings and it did not overvolt it a ton either. Running rock solid and stable with excellent temps never exceeding 54°C using the stock cooler from Intel at the preset 'Performance' fan profile. The Corsair RAM will only run at 1800 MHz despite it being rated at 1866 MHz using the XMP profile. A GSkill stick of Sniper 1866 RAM will run at its advertised 1866 MHz and there is only one setting that is different. It is the last timing setting that is a 28 in the GSkill RAM and a 27 in the Corsair RAM. I shouldn't have to mess with entering the RAM settings manually but I might give it a try later to see if I get the correct speed.

It'll boost higher but I figure 4.2 is good enough for him and it's safe to run at that speed too. I'd like to know how they figured the vCore presets because it sure does make overclocking life a lot easier for me. Is there a whole table of presets for each supported CPU or do they measure the CPU qualities and apply the appropriate voltage from there? Measuring the CPU default voltages and then calculating the correct OC vCore from there is a great idea but I'm not sure that they can write a BIOS that is smart enough to do that on its own.