26 Comments

Back to Article

• Marlin1975 - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link

  Great review, thanks.
  
  Cheaper and seems better overall, ASRock for the win.

• goatfajitas - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link

  Isnt ASRock just the lower end brandname from Asus? Same basic parts.

• LiquidSilverZ - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link

  No, they are a separate brand.

• Korguz - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link

  desperate brand.. that was a spin off of Asus to compete in the OEM market in 2002, and has since expanded into the non oem market :-)

• goatfajitas - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link

  Separate brand, yes. Same company though. Like Honda/Acura or Toyota/Lexus.

• jeremyshaw - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link

  Nah, ASUS gave up ownership years ago.

• goatfajitas - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link

  Did they? I wasn't aware. Still likely use alot of the same parts from the same sources. For example, the similar parts above.

• eva02langley - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link

  Same company pal...

• Korguz - Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - link

  asus and asrock are seperate companies, owned by different owners, ASrock, is owned by pegatron.
  

• FSWKU - Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - link

  Who Asus still farms their warranty repairs out to (along with Atan Gtech)

• JlHADJOE - Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - link

  Separate companies, but essentially the same owners. Look at the directors of Pegatron and it's full of people who hold similar positions at ASUS.
  
  Pegatron's president and CEO, https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/p...">Syh-Jang Liao for example also sits on the board of ASUSPower Corporate and ASUSPower Investment.
  
  Pegatron's Chairman and Group CEO, https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/p...">T.H. Tung likewise chairs ASUS Investment and ASUSTek investment.
  
  You can do this with all of the officers and board members in https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/...">Pegatron and you'll be hard pressed to find anyone who isn't also at ASUS. Basically Pegatron and ASRock were "spun off" so that their friends could put money in it, but the original ASUS people are all still there running the show.

• JlHADJOE - Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - link

  Comments section didn't like BBcode so clean links here:
  
  Syh-Jang Liao: https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/p...
  
  T.H. Tung: https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/p...
  
  Pegatron: https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/...

• stuhad - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link

  Full bandwidth on the Thunderbolt connection?

• u.of.ipod - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link

  looks like the 'final words' section is missing

• secretanchitman - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link

  I have the Asrock board and it's been damn solid - fully recommend it!

• romrunning - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link

  The main feature chart for the ASRock shows the Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port next to "USB 3.1 (10 Gbps)"; however, that seems to be doing it a disservice as TB3 can go up to 40GBps, not just 10.
  
  Does this mean that the TB3 port is limited to 10Gbps somehow? Or is it only meant to say that the TB3 port can fall back to USB 3.1G2 mode?
  
  Or is it just stuffing data into a cell when another row should/could have been added?

• eva02langley - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link

  Really expensive for a mini-itx board. I got mine for 130$, but it is a B450, but the features are similar.

• crotach - Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - link

  I got a Yugo for a much lower price than a Ferrari, but the features are similar.

• Nutty667 - Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - link

  I'm amazed there's upto 5fps difference at 4K in ROTTR with the same gpu/cpu combo. Surely that should be purely GPU workload there. Can anyone explain the difference ?

• zodiacfml - Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - link

  Impressive but Intel is lagging for at least several months. i'd be looking at AMD systems until Intel gets their thing in 1st half of 2020.

• IKonev - Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - link

  Re: TB3 comments, it evidently runs up to a max of half of the rate bandwidth (so, 20GB/s) using only 2 PCIe 3.0 lanes as opposed to the regular 4 lanes - here's what Tweaktown had to say:
  
  "Thunderbolt 3 is from the Intel JHL6240 Thunderbolt 3 controller; it's a low power 1.2W single port part that connects to the chipset through two PCI-E 3.0 lanes."
  
  And yes, TB3 ports can effectively be used as USB ports, but the transfer speeds will max out at that of the cable & device plugged into the port.

• romrunning - Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - link

  Thanks for the helpful info! Maybe this review can be updated with that info.

• Dug - Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - link

  I can't wait for motherboard reviews that go into what the motherboard actually does besides gaming benchmarks.
  I do like the power and boot times included, but really things like thunderbolt, usb, wifi, sound, memory, and storage (both sata and m.2) should all be tested. This is what makes or breaks a motherboard.

• timecop1818 - Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - link

  Also interesting to know what chipset handles HDMI2 conversion. Intel CPUs only support DisplayPort...

• hanselltc - Thursday, February 14, 2019 - link

  asrock all day. that plastic shroud is soooooooooo ugly, and asrock has hratsinks instead.

• niemi - Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - link

  Gavin, which program do you use to measure DPC latency?
  
  Is it idle or load numbers, and for how long do you run the test?
  
  Any chance of a ‘highest measured’ or a curve over time as a supplement to the median? That would help when comparing for spikes.