ASRock mobos

[weirdwolf]

Any thoughts on them?
Six Sata and USB ports sound good. Nothing about them on http://pclinuxoshelp.com/index.php/Motherboards
board in question
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157199

[T6]

i deeply hate asrock for the lack of quality of their products

recent models seems to be better than old ones but i still avoid them like the pest they are

any other option?

i recently saw some msi and gigabyte boards with better video card and similar price for the same cpu

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128469

nvidia video card, nvidia chipset

[Crow]

I try to use Intel, had problems with Asrock, never used MSI (that I know) and found Gigabyte as a good compromise between quality and price.

BTW that MoBo looks good T6

[Just17]

If buying a M/B today i would look to having SATA 6GB and USB 3 connections to help future proof the purchase. Of course any such boards would be a bit dearer ......

[T6]

the thing is that this is a cheap mainboard in microatx form

put a sata 3 on it sounds good but is maybe too much

usb3 is not a real standard yet, most mainboard will only have two ports and none in the front, it is still a mess

[weirdwolf]

Thanks all , Not sure what I want yet but it looked good on paper Have moved on to this possible choice, again any thoughts are welcome as I haven't chiseled anything in stone yet (6 sata 6 usb, upper end of my budget pricing)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130585
If any one has experience with this AMD chip set I'd like to hear it
 
This is in the running as well, just not happy with only 4 usb though, It's what I have now and they are all full. Putting in a usb card would be easy but adds to the cost then as well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130594

Cant Decide if I want this cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130585
Or this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103872

Will be checking out some Gigabyte mobos as well I suspect.

The pros on the Sempron are the low price, low power consumption and a good chance ( 65-70%) of being able to unlock a second core, plus a good ability for overclocking if you can't, if I would even need/want too.
The X3, well, 3 cores for $75.00 sounds awfully tempting, plus I could underclock it to lower the TDP as well from what I've read (makes it into a X3 415e Rana 2.5GHz more or less, which I'm not paying $140 for) which is still much faster than what I'm using now, a 1.4ghz single core.  

If buying a M/B today i would look to having SATA 6GB and USB 3 connections to help future proof the purchase. Of course any such boards would be a bit dearer ......

Yeah I hear you . Most are more than I'd want to pay and from what I've read would be a waste on me for what I do (no gaming or heavy crunching) and that there are still too many bottlenecks for the average user to really notice.

Finally cheaper is always better for me as I prefer to think of myself as "economically minded" although there may be better descriptions you're familiar with. But still I may go with a couple extra dollars this time.
   

[weirdwolf]

T6, Is the NVIDIA chipset the only reason you would pick this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128469

Over this one which has 6 sata vs 4 and the faster FSB on the above ?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128504
(just noticed this one has no IDE)
either will be a huge jump from the onboard SiS crap I've got now.

[ruel24]

run...Run...RUN!!! When you buy an Asus, you get a Mercedes. It has all the bells and whistles. Yeah, they're not as solid as they used to be, but still a good product. When you buy an Asrock, it's like buying a Daewoo, thinking it's just as good as Hyundai and Kia, only after buying one, you realize it isn't even close. You feel like you just made the worst purchase of your entire life.

[T6]

as you know, amd is not the preferred option in linux so nvidia sounds like a dream for most

the lack of ide only means hat you have a reason to abandon those old drives that probably are ready to fail soon, especially optical drives

another reason is that is a microatx but it has two pcie1x and two pcie 16x(maybe one at 8x)

that model doesn't have usb 3.0 and the sound card is a a alc 889, the usb depends on you if it is a problem or not but the sound card, i remember some problems on this forum with that particular card

there is another problem with that mainboard, it still has some electrolytic capacitors, some people prefer to avoid them but since this is a simple microatx, it is not uncommon to see those still used there, since this is a gigabyte, i wouldn't worry for that

the second link is practically the same mainboard, same details(sound card and capacitors) but using amd on everything, it is a risk to use that amd video card, you probably will have very good results with it but i can't guarantee that, 10 dollars more expensive, not sure if it is good or equal, i personally would choose the amd one because i don't like nvidia but nvidia is very good

[weirdwolf]

Have been looking mostly at MSI lately with AMD 760/710 Radeon 3000 setups (would prefer the 880g/4250 though), But the NVidia option is still hanging in there. The folks at Phoronix seen to like ASRock and the 880G chipset, maybe they got better, not sure if I really want to find out.
As far as the IDE stuff goes, I would feel kinda naked without them (not to mention needing to buy a new HD), and I want my floppy drive, even if I seldom use it.

my current favorite as per price. (same basic board w/880G is $10.00 more)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130560

[Just17]

and I want my floppy drive, even if I seldom use it.

Oh yes!

I think the way things are going I will have to hunt around for a USB connected floppy drive to ensure I can prepare floppies for the older machines, from a new PC 

[David_J_D]

+1 for ruel24 - Asus every time.

My various boxes 2 Asus 1 AMD Phenom ll X2 (other cores unlock but very unstable), other 775 with Celeron 3300 - Rock solid and quick for what they are.  Both dual boot win7/PCLOS XFCE
1 Asrock, Also solid, but slightly flaky BIOS - says my Athlon  ll X2 has 4 cores - IT DOESN'T - Win7/PCLOS XFCE
1 MSI - early 775 with 3.2 GHz HT P4 - also rock solid BUT elow (even for what it is) - Mint Julia

[Mike]

I use Intel or Asus, no problems with either....

[demilord]

weird becos asrock is made by asus,
I worked at a repair center and we repaired asrock motherboards too

[kjpetrie]

The first machine I used for pclos was an ASRock K7VT2 with a VIA chipset. Never gave me any problems but I wanted a bigger monitor and a SATA hard drive, so it's in the cupboard as a spare/loan machine at the moment.