Conclusion

Knowing ASrock as a company that usually pumps out zillions of colourfull entry level boards, sometimes innovating by integrating older technology like eg AGP slots onto new platforms, makes them stand out from the crowd. Sadly when you mention ASrock, most immediately are thinking about cheap hardware, correlating it with poor build quality and durability, lack of features,...

Well let me tell you this 890GX board is absolutely bullet proof. I had zero issues with it during weeks of bashing. It even survived several short LN2 sessions and a 5 hour marathon one at the AOCM OC party in Mindfeld. There will be a short follow up on this article devoted to OC'ing the IGP soon as we have put down some good scores that might surprise friend or foe. The dutch overclocker Rol-Co also finished second with this budget platform in the first round of the Hwinfo Azerty AMD 555BE competition. Beating a lot of good overclockers with far more expensive motherboards.

The AMD 890GX chipset is well built, very easy to setup and an ideal multimedia platform. For gamers I would strongly advise to buy a separate graphics card. In case you opt for an ATI card you can use the Hybrid Crossfire to get that little bit of extra out of the board.



ASrock made a great bundle here. Time to step away from the cheap looking stuff; they have produced in the past. This board not only has the looks, but performs too, yet still retails at a value price. The 890GX Extreme3 can be yours around 109 euros, about 10% less then any other manufacturers 890GX motherboards. Besides the solid components and nice features like UCC, this package includes a great software bundle. A very good working OC tuner tool, rapid sharing of bios settings (OC DNA),...and to conclude Oc-Team BE broke 3 IGP world records with this board... says more than enough doesn't it.

ASRock 890GX Extreme3 Recommended for



Pros
+ Very durable and easy to use and abuse motherboard.
+ Solid 890GX chipset, ATI 4290, USB3.0 and S-ATA3.0 onboard.
+ Very easy bios to use, abundance of software tools.
+ Very cheap (109 euro's) but don't let this fool you !

Contras
- Thuban support wasn't up to standards at the time of testing
- Sideport voltage was always maxed out, though it runs with minimal volts.

I would like to dedicate this article to Rob Canta. Which always has allowed Madshrimps to test the ASrock gear. Rob quit ASrock early this month and is looking for new horizons to explore. Best of luck sir and thanks again for everything !