So far, this is the third AMD 785G board we reviewed at OCWORKBENCH. All 3 board comes in slightly different configuration as in the size, DDR2 or DDR3 type combination. Although they all perform similarly, they differ in features and also in overclockability.

Features wise, this board has what most AMD 785G board provides.  The integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200 (DirectX 10.1, Shader Model 4.1 support) with iGPU running at a default 500MHz and sideport memory at 667 MHz (DDR3-1333) on this mainboard provides a fast solution for users who needs a powerful enough machine to watch HD movies and play games. Output can be via HDMI, D-SUB, DVI-D. Sideport memory can be adjusted to DDR3-1700 too. Insert a PCIe x16 card for better performance graphics card or pair up with a compatible card for Hybrid CrossFire.

The board has the standard 5 SATAII + 1 eSATA (non Powered eSATA), GbE. The unique feature of this board would be  ASRock Instant Boot, Instant Flash, ASRock OC Tuner, Intelligent Energy Saver and EuP for a greener environment (standby wattage < 1W).

In terms of overclocking, the BIOS has lots of options for you to play with. A bump in the NB voltage allows us to run the board steadily with GPU at 900MHz without any issues. It is a pity that that is so far the most stable GPUCLK for this board. Anything higher renders it unstable. The sideport memory can also be run at different speeds. We tested it at the default DDR3-1333 and at DDR3-1580 and didn't notice much difference in performance.

Although the iGPU isn't that overclockable on this board, the CPU o/c test turns out to be otherwise. In OC test, we set the CPUCLK to 260MHz for a 40% CPU performance boost at BIOS menu screen. The with cool n quiet set to off. Multiplier is set to 13x and the cpu voltage is set to 1.4v. After entering Windows vista, we activate ASRock OC Tuner and is able to overclock the processor Phenom II X3 710 to 3.64GHz. That is higher than 3.45GHz on the Gigabyte DDR2 board and 3.3GHz we get on the ASUS DDR3 board. Take note that when we overclock, the 4th core is still enabled. At 280MHz CPUCLK, the DDR3 module is running at DDR3-1500 at C7-7-7-20-1T.

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Pros

• OC Tuner
• Side port memory
• eSATA

Cons

• No Power eSATA
• No Power on/off, Clear CMOS push buttons
• No 1394

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10.