They aren't made by Asus... they would be called "Asus" boards if they were, eh? And while the model names are strikingly similar, the models are not. They have lots of the same features, but they look a lot different. Besides, most motherboards have the same features, anyway.
I checked Tom's Hardware and the extent of the information they had on Asrock is this:
Quote:
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They can be had for as little as $33 (€30) under the Asrock--not to be confused with Asus--ECS or Soyo labels. However, the most these brands offer is a robust chip at best. Performance is limited, but these boards work.
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Yeah, and that's the impression I got from the Asrock websites... they don't look top of the line, but they'll probably get the job done. It just depends on how much of a machine you're looking for.
As for what I would get... I have an Asus board in my machine, and it's fantastic, and I've had Gigabyte boards before, also very good and reliable. Tom's seems to like MSI and Shuttle as well, but I have no first hand experience with them, so I can't really say. Asus and Gigabyte are the two brands I recommend when people ask me, and the two that most of my friends prefer (a higher precentage choose Asus).
And that's all she wrote.
Edit: That Tom's article was also fairly old ($30 is now more like 25 Euros
), but it probably still holds true. Just so you know.