I was very skeptical about this motherboard, the last time I had purchased an ASRock motherboard was over 5yrs ago & it only lasted one year. I was very surprised when I received the package, and opened the box, it was literally so beautiful, I seriously paused for a moment to just appreciate the beauty. The motherboard is put together very well, I couldn't believe it's an 8-layer PCB, has a metal back plate, and all of the PCIe lanes correctly setup for the lower price that it is verses the competition. I do understand that there have been issues with previous versions of the bios mostly with PBO settings. My motherboard came with bios 3.20, and I promptly updated to 3.25, now there is another bios version available, however I believe this is for upcoming new CPUs & I haven't yet updated my bios to the latest. I also do not use PBO, I set a multiplier & set the CPU core voltage & SoC voltage & it's been stable. I am using a 9800 X3D, set all 8 cores to 5.4 GHz, set CPU core voltage to 1.24v (it actually goes lower on its own), & SoC voltage to 1.24v (it also goes lower on its own). While I don't dismiss there could be an issue with this motherboard & it killing CPUs, I do think it is mostly due to users just plugging in the CPU and just allowing it to run at system defaults, which has shown will do in the CPU based on how good the cooling it has. The only issue I had with the motherboard is that it has to have a thumb drive formatted as Fat32, which means you need a smaller size drive to get this done. Once I got found a smaller size drive, it updated quickly and all is well. The only other downside for me is that the bios looks likes & feels like something from early 2000s, so this is also why that you are stuck to using a Fat32 formatted drive, so if ASRock wants to truly fix something, this would be a huge plus if they could fix their bios & be able to use larger size drives for updates. One last issue I had is the memory list, I have 3 different memory kits & only one is on it, however, its rock solid on the EXPO I profile, so I just mention this as a warning to make sure to look at the qualified memory list, & also this is the first time I've seen a M.2 drive support list, again make sure to go over this list to make sure you don't have compatibility issues later. Overall, I would recommend this motherboard & has been completely stable since the start & I will come back and change the review should something happen. Speaking seriously, I am about to give up on AMD due to mostly memory compatibility issues, I still have Intel systems working today & are older systems & they were stable from day one & didn't have to jump through all these hoops to just get it working, I truly hope AMD can get this sorted out soon, because at this moment I have no hope, because we are like 3yrs or more into the platform & memory issues still exist. ASRock needs to seriously work on their own software for their products. The software they have made to control the system fans, while works, it doesn't work well & also their software for the lighting control works, it's just very clumsy & strange to use. It would be great if they could get their software put together better.
My Computer build:
Windows 11 Pro
CORSAIR 7000D AIRFLOW Full-Tower ATX PC White Case
ASRock X870E NOVA WIFI AMD X870E ATX Motherboard bios v3.25
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D overclocked to 5.4ghz all cores 1.24 volts
G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo RGB Series 64GB (2 x 32GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR5 6000MT/s Model F5-6000J3040G32GX2-TZ5NR
Samsung 980 Pro M.2 2280 1TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe (boot drive)
Crucial P3 Plus M.2 2280 4TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe (game drive)
Western Digital SN850X 1TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe (backup drive)
be quiet! Silent Loop 3 420mm CPU AIO Liquid Cooler with 6 Phanteks D30-140mm fans setup in a push/pull in front of case
3 Phanteks D30 140mm set as exhaust on top of case
1 Phanteks D30 140mm reverse blade fan as rear intake fan
ASRock Phantom Gaming PG-1600G 1600W 80 PLUS GOLD & Cybenetics PLATINUM Full Modular Power Supply ATX3.1 & PCIe5.1
ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition Gaming Graphics Card
Logitech Z906 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System THX certified
CORSAIR K70 RGB PRO Wired Mechanical Gaming Keyboard-Cherry MX RGB Red Linear Switches
Corsair Dark Core RGB Pro SE Qi Wireless Charging Certified
ASUS ROG Scabbard II Extended Gaming Mouse Pad
Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus 32-bit 384 kHz PCI-e Interface Sound Card
Samsung S90C 55” QD-OLED TV 4k UHD HDR 144hz Free sync Premium Pro (main monitor)
LG OLED42C2PUA 4K evo OLED TV (2022) – (second monitor)
JohnL · 2025-07-05 · via amazon
★★★★★Great Features, Performance, and Value
Good onboard WiFi 7 and bluetooth support (unfortunately using a standard screw-on coaxial antenna connection instead of easy click on/off solutions).
PCIe - keep in mind the bottom PCIe slot is x16 wide but ONLY operates up to x2 mode. So if you need a x4 card, like many PCIe capture cards then choose another board!
USB ports are plentiful and support the latest and greatest in USB 4.
Good RGB and fan support with well placed ARGB and PWM/DC fan headers. The RGB does not look too tacky and is adjustable with OpenRGB (the Asrock software is a bit buggy).
Good RAM compatability, but I recommend checking the memory QVL before purchasing a RAM kit (works with KLEVV CRAS V RGB DDR5 6000 MHz - good value RAM as well)
Well built and hefty. The convenience features are also awesome:
- Integrated IO shield means no fiddling with one and less alignment issues
- Each NVMe slot has a little rotating plastic bit where the screw typically goes, so installing and SSD is just a matter of moving the small plastic bit with a finger instead of needing a screwdriver.
- The graphics card slot pull tab is much easier to press than the regular tabs and helps taking out the GPU to access NVMe slots or swapping cards.
One of the few(er) boards that will allow populating all NVMe slots without decreasing the bandwidth of the graphics card. Does not matter for a lot of applications, but if graphics memory bandwidth is important it is nice to know that it will support it.
CC · 2025-07-24 · via amazon
★★★★★Worked great, until it fried my CPU
For the 7+ months it worked, it worked fine. No problems, everything worked as it should have, even the RAM worked at the right speed. Easy to set up and connect everything, plenty of USB ports.
Then a few days ago it decided to fry my CPU. Nothing changed in the system, nothing new added, wasn't even running anything, it was just idling while I was doing something else, and decided to fry my 9800x3D. Now I have to deal with AMD customer support (surprisingly easy) and ASRock customer support (not surprisingly easy). I honestly don't even want a new board, I just want my money back.
