This review also focuses on the MSI 890GXM-G65. The ASRock as well as the MSI board performed well. Although MSI's board is a bit faster and also more efficient in idle power usage, the ASRock is the better choice. Not only is it a full ATX board, it also has Firewire support and a better accessory pack. Overclockers will like ASRock's better VRM design. ASRock offers the better package and if you're looking for a new board which offers onboard graphics this will be the right choice.

The ASRock board being a a full ATX mobo has more overclocking options the the MSI. The legacy VGA port could perhaps be replaced by a DVI to VGA. If you want a cheaper mobo you could go for the ASRock 880G Extreme3 board with a 880G Chipset, which clocks 140MHz slower at 560MHz but has the same feature set and is app. 10% cheaper.

Overclocking:

The ASRock board does have all features, the reviewers reached 3.85GHz for a Phenom II X6 1090T @ 1.4375VCore, but it lacks the possibility the see SPD values in the memory configuration of the BIOS. The board only remembers the last settings.

Benchmarks:

3D Mark 2003, 3D Mark 2006, Lame MP3, Power Consumption, Cinebench, Far Cry 2, x264 HD.

Compared To:

MSI P55-GD65, ASRock H55M Pro, Intel H55, Intel DX58SO, Intel Core i5 750, AMD Phenom II X4 620.

Conclusion:

Without a doubt, this is a good representative of the AMD 890GX family. Original features include an eSATA 6Gbps bracket in addition to the regular eSATA 3Gbps functionality, as well as well-developed semi-automatic overclocking features. This mobo doesn't have a (legacy) PATA port.

Overclocking:

An AMD Phenom II X4 810 was overclocked @ 3705MHz.

Test Setup:

• Memory: 2x2GB Apacer DDR3-1333
• Hard disk: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
• video card: ATI RADEON HD4850, 512 MB GDDR3
• Power supply: AcBel ATX-550CA-AB8FB
• Operating system: Windows Vista x64

Benchmarks:

7-Zip 4.65 x64, WinRAR 3.80, XviD 1.2.1, x264 r1129 x64, FarCry 2, Crysis, Devil May Cry 4, World in Conlict, RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.2.3, power consumption.

Compared to:

ECS A890GXM-A

Conclusion:

ASRock has implemented the latest features like SATA3 and USB3 to this mainboard. The UCC chip is able to unlock cores on an Athlon/Phenom II X2 or X3. Next to that this mobo has three PCIe x16 slots for CrossfireX and the overall performance is very good.

Overclocking:

A Phenom II X4 810 was overclocked to 3.2GHz from the 2.6GHz stock speed.

Benchmarks:

3D Mark Vantage, CPUbench, PC mark vantage, Sisoft Sandra, Specview 10, SYSmark 2007, wPrime, x264 HD, Crysis, Left 4 Dead, UT 3, FRAPS. In the gaming benchmarks the ATI RADEON HD 4290 IGP was tested.

Test Setup:

• Memory: 2GB Kingston DDR3-1600MHz
• HDD: 2x74GB WD Raptor in RAID 0
• Air cooler: Thermaltake CPU
• Optical: ASUS 16X DVD-ROM
• OS: Windows 7 x64

Compared to:

ASRock M3A790GXH128, ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3, BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD, ECS 890GXM-A Black Edition, ECS A785GM-AD3, Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5, Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H, Gigabyte MA-790FXT-UD5P, MSI 785GM-E65, MSI 790GX-G65, MSI 890GXM-G65.