So far, this is the fourth AMD 785G board we reviewed at OCWORKBENCH. All 4 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 or CrossFire X.

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, mGPU voltage gives you amazing overclocks you never expected. Unlike the M3A785GMH/128M mainboard, the M3A785GXH/128M seems to be more stable when the GPU is overlooked to 980MHz. Although 1GHz is bootable, it is not too stable when running 3D benchmarks. In addition, the sideport memory can be adjusted upwards and we get it stable at DDR3-1580.

We were initially taken aback by the overclockability of the AM3 processor on the M3A785GMH/128M when it was able to do a CPUCLK to 260MHz for a 40% CPU performance boost at BIOS menu screen with ACC turned on (3 core becomes 4 core). On the ASRock M3A785GXH/128M, we can get into VISTA when we set the processor to run at 45% o/c from the bios menu. After entering Windows vista, we activate ASRock OC Tuner and is able to overclock the processor Phenom II X3 710 to 3.89GHz. We only managed to do 3.64GHz on the M3A785GMH/128M. Using the same processor, our highest overclock on the Gigabyte DDR2 board is only 3.45GHz and 3.3GHz on the ASUS DDR3 mainboard. This is totally insane. Do take note of the high voltages applied when a 45% o/c is applied from the BIOS screen selection menu. (CPU voltage 1.55v, DRAM 1.59v, mgpu 1.19v, sideport 1.6v, NB voltage 1.35v).

Discuss

Pros

• OC Tuner
• Side port memory
• eSATA

Cons

• No Power eSATA
• No Power on/off push button
• No Clear CMOS push buttons

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10.