ASRock A75 Extreme 6 and A55 Pro 3

[Skyguy]

We have our hands on two of the new ASRock A series motherboards, named the A75 Extreme 6 and A55 Pro 3. They're very similar in their features and capabilities, but do have some distinct differences that can appeal to a range of needs. Both come with fantastic prices so let’s see what they can do.



Click http://www.pureoverclock.com/article1374.html for the full review.

[Doctor_Death]

Good reviews Jim

[realneil]

Good review.

I have one of those AMD A8-3850 APU's and I like it a lot. My mainboard is the lower end ASRock A75M-HVS. I like it's performance, and have coupled the onboard graphics with an XFX Radeon 1GB HD6670 with good results. (Poor Man's Crossfire?)
Not King Of The Hill mind you, but a good gamer that didn't cost me much to build.
Best of all, it gave me the opportunity to lend a little support to AMD, whom I think is vital in keeping Intel's prices from going right up into the Stratosphere.

[Drdeath]

Good review.

I have one of those AMD A8-3850 APU's and I like it a lot. My mainboard is the lower end ASRock A75M-HVS. I like it's performance, and have coupled the onboard graphics with an XFX Radeon 1GB HD6670 with good results. (Poor Man's Crossfire?)
Not King Of The Hill mind you, but a good gamer that didn't cost me much to build.
Best of all, it gave me the opportunity to lend a little support to AMD, whom I think is vital in keeping Intel's prices from going right up into the Stratosphere.

BTW Neil.... I am Jim and you are correct. For $500 one can mKe a adequate gaming rig. Throw in a 6870 or even a 6970 and you have a gaming rig under $600 that will handle anything. I will say a 6670 crossfire with the on die 6550 works great. If someone is on a budget and does not give the platform a serious look, they are foolish imo.

[realneil]

I had a lot of the parts on the shelf already, so it just cost me for the APU, board and extraVideo card.
Not a bad investment either. I was going to build it, examine it, and then sell it off, but have decided to keep it now.
it's not anything like my i7-870 system, or my i7-2600K, but as you've already pointed out, it's a heck of a lot cheaper.

edit: after speaking to my wife just now,..... I'm toying with the idea of giving it to a local charity so that they can use it as a raffle and make some money for a battered woman's shelter. I have to come up with a decent screen and a Win-7 OS for it first.

[Steve]

Great idea Neil.

[Drdeath]

I had a lot of the parts on the shelf already, so it just cost me for the APU, board and extraVideo card.
Not a bad investment either. I was going to build it, examine it, and then sell it off, but have decided to keep it now.
it's not anything like my i7-870 system, or my i7-2600K, but as you've already pointed out, it's a heck of a lot cheaper.

edit: after speaking to my wife just now,..... I'm toying with the idea of giving it to a local charity so that they can use it as a raffle and make some money for a battered woman's shelter. I have to come up with a decent screen and a Win-7 OS for it first.

Neil, I have an over abundance of FM-1 motherboards. If you do not want to part with what you have and add the parts to build another. Let me know.

[realneil]

Neil, I have an over abundance of FM-1 motherboards. If you do not want to part with what you have and add the parts to build another. Let me know.

Sounds good to me.

[rrplay]

Good review and the platform is really great and affordable.
yep my buddy Neil has the mojo and karma

[4NG3LUS]

Hi! Has A55 Pro 3 the pci-e fix?
I've seen entry "apu/pci-e" in uefi bios, with range 100-136 mhz. if i set a value in this item, bios change the CPU FSB and the PCI-E frequency at the same time? it's very strange!

[Drdeath]

Hi! Has A55 Pro 3 the pci-e fix?
I've seen entry "apu/pci-e" in uefi bios, with range 100-136 mhz. if i set a value in this item, bios change the CPU FSB and the PCI-E frequency at the same time? it's very strange!

I think if your asking if a raise in the reference clock raises the on die GPU frequency, I believe you are correct. On other boards, I overclocked higher with a descete 6670 GPU. I may have missed something in testing this board. The other boards got 3.9GHz with the A8-3850

[4NG3LUS]

the entry on uefi is "APU/PCI-E frequency" and not "APU GPU/APU CPU Frequency".
When i've increase this value, the FSB of CPU has increased, but I would like to know if at the same time has changed the frequency of the pci-e too (not of APU's GPU). if true this means that this board haven't frequency fix between fsb and pci-e.

[aryan51]

nice review jim

[Drdeath]

the entry on uefi is "APU/PCI-E frequency" and not "APU GPU/APU CPU Frequency".
When i've increase this value, the FSB of CPU has increased, but I would like to know if at the same time has changed the frequency of the pci-e too (not of APU's GPU). if true this means that this board haven't frequency fix between fsb and pci-e.

On this board, I think it does increase both. On others, I had no problem