Quote Originally Posted by humeyboy View Post
TBH Asrock is not yet a great company and does not even have a proper forum for help!

These Mobos need to be cheap, £200+ for 2 of their models is approaching stage where you buy an Asus or Gigabyte.

Added to fact they have basically overclocked switches to get PCI-E 3.0 (going by post by Asus rep) and there is no way to know if when PCI-E 3.0 is validated if it will be accepted officially!

He stated that PCI-E 3.0 same as all previous revisions is not just about speed but more power and all modern Mobos should have good enough circuits to carry this higher power as the hardware is now on the Intel CPU not Chipset and hence Asus/Gigabyte/MSI are all doing upgrade to PCI-E 3.0 with a simply Bios upgrade!

Also the model with the NF200 will never be any more than PCI-E 2.0 on the slots connected to it!
First off, I've bought ASUS and Gigabyte. Gigabyte is great stuff. ASUS is often decent, though I haven't bought as much from them recently due to pricing, and what I have heard from reputable friends on customer service experiences. Still, good boards.

I've owned ASUS, Intel, Gigabyte, MSI, Abit, and AOpen over the past fifteen years, starting with 486 processors. This Asrock board is my first by them --but it's every bit the quality those have been. Your "need to be cheap" comment implies that Asrock is still a budget arm of ASUS, which it is no longer. They have been spun off, and they make budget AND enthusiast boards, with features and quality to match.

The ASUS rep is correct in that PCIe 3.0 support is dependent on the processor. Every manufacturer has said in their documentation that an Ivy Bridge processor is required for PCIe 3.0, so I don't see what the issue is here. As for the "overclocked switches" bit, whether it is true or not, the comment sounds like someone trying to disparage their competition. PCIe 3.0 support is there, when the processors come out. Most informed buyers are choosing mainboards with PCIe 3.0 support not because of that feature, but it is a bonus on top of an already good mainboard.

I doubt I'll change your mind --but unless you own one, I don't think you have the ability to say whether their product is good or not, as you haven't experienced their product. I'm happy with mine, and wish you luck.