ASRock X58 Extreme3: An Enthusiast X58 Motherboard at a Budget Price?

I'm not certain the board really is enthousiast-proof. Most of us want more than an i7 920 clocked at 4.1GHz.

The tight default timings may put off people who want to overclock, but are not sure with what all the settings mean, and as a result cannot push the board and processor to where they want. If you know what you're doing, it isn't a problem with the ASRock, but they are slightly limiting their overclock market in this regard. The PCIe lane count could also put off gamers wishing to run an SLI + PhysX setup with three cards. If the third card is a double slot, will block USB, Firewire, and a fan header - even the Power/Reset buttons, depending on the card. Overall, the board is rock stable at our overclock settings. If we had the choice between the Extreme3 and the EX58-UD3R, We'd be happy to part with an extra dollar for SATA 6Gb/s and USB3 support, even if it means having slightly worse 3D performance, and a BIOS which can be frustrating to use at times. We feel ASRock would be wise to spend some time refining their BIOS up to the standard of what we find on similarly priced ASUS and Gigabyte boards. If they can do that, the X58 Extreme3 will go from being a strong contender to a no-brainer purchase at the $190 mark.