ASRock 880GXH/USB3 Motherboard

Conclusions

ASRock 880GXH/USB3 has some advantages and some disadvantages over competing products. As advantages we have the ATX form factor (which some users prefer over the microATX form factor), core unlocking feature, automatic overclocking feature, the presence of an ATA-133 port, a floppy disk drive port and one USB 3.0 port.

As main disadvantages we have the use of SB710 south bridge chip instead of SB850 (translation: no SATA-600 ports) and the presence of one USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0 port painted with the same color (blue), making it hard for the average user to know which one is the USB 3.0 port (which in our opinion is an inexcusable flaw).

However, at USD 100 we think it is too expensive for what it offers. The microATX version of this motherboard, called 880GMH/USB3 costs USD 85 and has the exact same specifications (the only difference between the two, besides the size, is the number of PCI Express x1 and standard PCI slots).

Therefore if you want a more affordable motherboard based on AMD 880G the smaller version of this motherboard is a better option.

If, however, you prefer SATA-600 ports over USB 3.0 ports, then a better option is Foxconn A88GM Deluxe. It is important to point out that models from ASRock have core unlocking and automatic overclocking, features not present on this model from Foxconn.

If you want to go cheap you can try ASRock 880GM-LE at USD 75, but we can’t recommend this other model because of the presence of only two memory sockets and the six-channel audio with shared jacks.

However, if you really want to save, you can buy a AMD 785G-based motherboard for USD 35 less – in fact we don’t think this huge price gap justifies the performance difference between AMD 785G- and AMD 880G-based motherboards. But in this case you won’t get a USB 3.0 port.

All options provided, the final decision is yours.

By the way, one constructive criticism to ASRock is to hire someone with a better knowledge of the English language to revise the text on their product box. Two examples of phrases written in “Engrish” are “World’s First AMD 880G Chipset Motherboard Supports Unlock CPU Core” (the correct form would be “World’s first motherboard based on AMD 880G chipset to support CPU core unlocking”) and “An user-friendly and united tool which allows you to overclock your hardware devices to get the best system performance” (the correct form would be “A user-friendly tool that allows you to overclock your hardware devices to get the best system performance”). Unfortunately this kind of problem happens a lot with several manufacturers.