
2 expert reviews - 0 user reviews
Follow
0
0
Want it
0
Have it
0
Had it
0
We have collected 2 reviews of the ASRock 880GMH/USB3. Experts rate ASRock 880GMH/USB3 8/10. Reviewsor.com helps you find reviews, best prices, user reviews of the ASRock 880GMH/USB3 and ASRock Motherboards.
Fact: When it comes to CPUs, AMD makes cheapo chips. Would it prefer to sock it to Intel at the more profitable end of the market? You're damn tootin', it would. But until its all-new Bulldozer processor rocks up next year, AMD is stuck peddling a geriatric CPU architecture that dates back to 2003. In our minds, then, PCs based on AMD technology are all about maximum performance in return for the minimum outlay. That means paying as little as possible for a motherboard. By that rationale, Asrock's 880GMH USB3 should be our default winner. It's the cheapest board on test. The only slight snag is that it's not the cheapest by all that much. MSI's impressive 880GMA-E45 is based on the same 880G northbridge chip and is yours for just £17 more while the graphicsless MSI 870A-G54 is even closer in the price lists. At the very least, Asrock's effort needs to be nearly as good as those boards. For starters, you get the AMD 880G northbridge chip complete with AMD's latest DX10.1 graphics, 128MB of Sideport graphics memory and all the Blu-ray accelerating 2D goodness you can eat. There's also Gigabit Ethernet, VGA, DVI and HDMI video connectivity, not to mention USB 3.0 support.
The Asrock 880GMH/USB3 is the only MicroATX board in this three-way round up and the only to utilize the AMD 880G chipset. In addition, this is also the only motherboard that doesn't sport the feature-rich SB850 south bridge and instead uses the older SB710. At $85, the 880GMH/USB3 is the cheapest of the three products in our comparison. Opting for the older SB710 south bridge chip has its disadvantages, naturally. Apart from the fact that it is based on a 130nm process and requires more power, it's also not quite as feature packed as the newer SB850. In a nutshell, the SB710 supports six SATA 3Gb/s ports with AHCI 1.1 and RAID 0,1,10 along with twelve USB 2.0 ports. By comparison, the SB850 features six SATA 6Gb/s ports with AHCI 1.2 and RAID 0,1,5,10 alongside fourteen available USB 2.0 ports. For the most part, these missing features will not impact the Asrock 880GMH/USB3 too severely, as SATA 6Gb/s devices are scarce at best while a dozen USB 2.0 ports will have most users well covered. The 880GMH/USB3 supports a pair of USB 3.0 ports using the Fresco FL1000G two-port controller. We haven't had any experience with this chip before.