ASRock X58 Extreme3: An Enthusiast X58 Motherboard at a Budget Price?
by Ian Cutress on June 2, 2010 4:10 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- ASRock
- X58
There are many conflicting points of view with the socket 1366 market. On one hand, it may be considered too expensive for the mainstream market, or that people suggest to wait for Intel's next enthusiast-level platform. With the next enthusiast platform potentially being released Q3 2011, those who have already invested in a 1366 have had great value in their investment, and any 1366 platform still purchased today will comfortably run along, awaiting for AMD to develop a more competitive platform.
The ASRock Extreme3 board is an upgrade over ASRock's Extreme board, featuring SATA 6Gb/s and USB3 capability, for an extra $20. This places the Extreme3 in territory already populated by popular motherboard manufacturers such as Gigabyte, with their EX58-UD3R, and MSI, with the Pro-E and Pro-E USB3 offerings. As a result, this board is competing on two grounds - if it gets more bang for your buck compared to cheaper ASRock boards, and if it performs well against other boards in the price bracket.
The tight default timings may put off people who want to overclock, but are not sure with what all the settings mean, and as a result cannot push the board and processor to where they want. If you know what you're doing, it isn't a problem with the ASRock, but they are slightly limiting their overclock market in this regard.
The PCIe lane count could also put off gamers wishing to run an SLI + PhysX setup with three cards. If the third card is a double slot, will block USB, Firewire, and a fan header - even the Power/Reset buttons, depending on the card.
Overall, the board is rock stable at our overclock settings. If we had the choice between the Extreme3 and the EX58-UD3R, We'd be happy to part with an extra dollar for SATA 6Gb/s and USB3 support, even if it means having slightly worse 3D performance, and a BIOS which can be frustrating to use at times. We feel ASRock would be wise to spend some time refining their BIOS up to the standard of what we find on similarly priced ASUS and Gigabyte boards. If they can do that, the X58 Extreme3 will go from being a strong contender to a no-brainer purchase at the $190 mark.
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529th - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link
See, that's what I like about the Asrock Bios, very simple. The EVGA bios on the 760 classified needs to be modeled after a better bios.529th - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link
correction, BIOSRajinder Gill - Thursday, June 3, 2010 - link
Not sure that ASRock would be the brand for EVGA to follow. ASUS would make more sense.dingetje - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link
I would not call $190 a budget price. That's a FAIL title if I've ever seen one.jonup - Thursday, June 3, 2010 - link
There is only four cheaper ATX X58 MB on newegg.com. Except for the Foxconn one the others are priced between $170 and 190. The median price of X58 is arround $240 and the mean price is not much off that mark. Keep in mind that the ASrock comes with lots of bells and whistles.So for everyone complaining about the term budget in the title, it is a budget X58 board.Taft12 - Thursday, June 3, 2010 - link
As the poster above me has shown, the only FAIL here is your understanding of this market segment.dingetje - Friday, June 4, 2010 - link
oh, I understand it's as low as it goes for an X58 mobo.calling 190 bucks a budget price however is ridiculous imo.
jonup - Friday, June 4, 2010 - link
In absolute terms you are right. In relative terms it is a budget solution period. There are socket 1366 people with more expensive cooling solutions for 24/7 use than this MB. And I am not talking about the record setting freaks.LoneWolf15 - Thursday, June 3, 2010 - link
on the VRMs will get noisy and/or die within a year to a year and a half.Better to skip it as unnecessary and lower the price.
zero2dash - Thursday, June 3, 2010 - link
Why in the world would you mention the old X58-UD3R when the X58A-UD3R is available for $199-$219 depending on retailer, has USB3, SATA3, 6ram slots, a 4 PCIe slots?I bought 2 of them at Micro Center to replace the ASRock X58 Extreme that died on me after 2 months of use folding@home. First ASRock board, last ASRock board I will ever buy. One day it refused to power on for no reason. Once I got the RMA back, I sold it used because I didn't want to bother with ASRock anymore.
Now that Abit is out of the business, it's Gigabyte or nothing for me (Asus in a last ditch pinch if I had to have a board, otherwise GB beats Asus on bang for the buck). 2x X58A-UD3R and 1 EP45-UD3P all f@h 24/7, high oc's - no problems on any of them. Love GB.