ASRock X58 Extreme3: An Enthusiast X58 Motherboard at a Budget Price?
 

The ASRock X58 Extreme3 is available (at time of writing) for $189.99, one dollar above the EX58-UD3R. For your extra dollar, a plethora of extra features over the Gigabyte board are available on the ASRock board - a full set of 6 DIMM slots for DDR3 memory, USB3 compatibility, SATA 6Gb/s connectivity, three PCIe slots (x16, x16, x4), Power/Clear CMOS/Reset buttons, and support for DDR3 ECC memory. The main question is whether this board performs as well as the UD3R, given any of these extra features, or even above the ASRock Extreme, which is $20 cheaper.

What we want to see in a budget board is finesse and capability - a BIOS that works, compatibility with components, and something that runs happily above stock. While the best budget boards undoubtedly won't have all the bells and whistles of a premium enthusiast board, if it runs decent and we can play around without too many issues, and the price is right, then it will sell. Off the bat, the ASRock Extreme3 is a happy little runner, with a few issues. We've had this board running for a couple of weeks now, with an overclock, in a variety of situations, and it's a board worth considering if USB3 and SATA6Gb/s are two features you're dying to have with a Socket 1366 processor on a budget.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3751/a...a-budget-price