Motherboard ASRock X370 Gaming-ITX/ac and AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac

[AV-Gurus]

I just want to say that i found what was wrong and because of that boot time was very long.
It was because of one settings in BIOS - AM4 Advance boot training - it should be set to DISABLE
If it is on ENABLE boot/POST time is veeeery looooong, from turning the power to the show ASROCK logo was about 10sec and then 20sec more to the logon screen.

 

[ECHO]

Hey

Has anyone tried the LP53 cooler with these board? Keen to try it with the B350 as it seems the benchmark cooler (for the S4M-C anyway).
My concern is AM4 compatibility...

 

[greyhamism]

Seems to be a new bios update available for the B350 (and im assuming the X370), but the 'changelog' is pretty scant of any real info.

https://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming-ITXac/index.asp#BIOS

 

[ChinStrap]

(Reference #252)

ASRock X370 Gaming-ITX/ac and AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac

Over the thanksgiving Holiday I was talking with my wife’s cousin. He was talking about the fact that he should have purchased the 1700 instead of the 1600. I let him know I was in the exact opposite situation. So, tl:dr – we are swapping CPUs. I’m looking forward to this swap and will update my post with new numbers in a couple weeks.

 

[Midiamp]

Does Asrock RGB header function supports Corsair LL120? I just moved my main chassis to Cougar QBX. Although I appreciate the overall aesthetic, it's kind of boring. The glow from my GTX card is good enough to spice things up a bit, but wondering if an RGB fan on the side case will make things more lively.

 

[greyhamism]

I just want to say that i found what was wrong and because of that boot time was very long.
It was because of one settings in BIOS - AM4 Advance boot training - it should be set to DISABLE
If it is on ENABLE boot/POST time is veeeery looooong, from turning the power to the show ASROCK logo was about 10sec and then 20sec more to the logon screen.

My boots weren't as slow as you reported but i disabled Boot Training like you suggested and shaved about 25% of my boot times so thanks for the tip

Does Asrock RGB header function supports Corsair LL120? I just moved my main chassis to Cougar QBX. Although I appreciate the overall aesthetic, it's kind of boring. The glow from my GTX card is good enough to spice things up a bit, but wondering if an RGB fan on the side case will make things more lively.

I'm pretty sure that those corsair fans require there own individual controllers that hooks up to a usb header on your motherboard

 

[Midiamp]

I'm pretty sure that those corsair fans require there own individual controllers that hooks up to a usb header on your motherboard

Thanks, I bought the LL120 to test it myself, still waiting for delivery. My friend bought 2 of the LL120 three pack and only use 4 fans, I could just buy the rest from him

 

[ChinStrap]

I just want to say that i found what was wrong and because of that boot time was very long.
It was because of one settings in BIOS - AM4 Advance boot training - it should be set to DISABLE
If it is on ENABLE boot/POST time is veeeery looooong, from turning the power to the show ASROCK logo was about 10sec and then 20sec more to the logon screen.

Thank you for this post. I'm running BIOS 3.00, the 2 settings are "auto" and "disabled". I have disabled this selection, it did help. I don't have solid numbers, but it is noticeably faster.

 

[sorbet]

Anyone know if the PWM chassis fan control on these boards can actually go as low as minimum fan RPM?

Trying to confirm that the boards can reduce the Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14 to 300 RPM.

Thanks!

 

[theGryphon]

Anyone know if the PWM chassis fan control on these boards can actually go as low as minimum fan RPM?

Trying to confirm that the boards can reduce the Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14 to 300 RPM.

Thanks!

I have the AB350 (and the USV 14, for that matter) and I can confirm that the board can control the pwm fan(s) at the full spectrum that the fans can support. The UEFI fan control reports erratic lowest fan duty cycle, sometimes as low as 20% sometimes as high as 65% but regardless of that you can set the fan to 20% and it in fact spins at that duty cycle, which is about 300RPM for the USV 14.

Seems to be a new bios update available for the B350 (and im assuming the X370), but the 'changelog' is pretty scant of any real info.

https://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming-ITXac/index.asp#BIOS

The only change is really what it says there: "Gray out Instant Flash when fTPM is enabled." So, it's a very minor change and no need to update to it at all.

By the way, if anyone is overclocking their memory, they should think twice about disabling "AMD Advance Boot Training". With it disabled, the PC will not boot from cold when the memory is overclocked. At least in my case, that's the case...

 

[sorbet]

I have the AB350 (and the USV 14, for that matter) and I can confirm that the board can control the pwm fan(s) at the full spectrum that the fans can support. The UEFI fan control reports erratic lowest fan duty cycle, sometimes as low as 20% sometimes as high as 65% but regardless of that you can set the fan to 20% and it in fact spins at that duty cycle, which is about 300RPM for the USV 14.

Exactly what I wanted to know, thank you. A quick google suggested the fan control reported strange values; good to hear that it's not a problem.

 

[ChinStrap]

...By the way, if anyone is overclocking their memory, they should think twice about disabling "AMD Advance Boot Training". With it disabled, the PC will not boot from cold when the memory is overclocked. At least in my case, that's the case...

I have this setting disabled and my memory running 3200C14, no issues.

 

[theGryphon]

I have this setting disabled and my memory running 3200C14, no issues.

If you're running the RAM at its native XMP profile, no problem. I'm talking about actually overclocking the RAM...

 

[ChinStrap]

That is correct, it was a poor example.

 

[theGryphon]

That is correct, it was a poor example.

Don't be too hard on yourself
It could very well be that your RAM is 2933 CAS14 and you got it to 3200 CAS14. Besides, motherboard manufacturers typically call anything beyond 2400 an OC, lol.

That cold boot issue, it seems like it's actually a bug, which I hope can be addressed in future AGESA updates...

 

[Midiamp]

Word of advice, don't update to Bios 4.20 on AB350 version. I updated and now my Ryzen 7 1700X clock at idle is spiking. Before, at zero utilization after cold boot, my clock ranges from 2195 MHz to 2500 MH. After update my idle clock fluctuates uyp to 3000 MHz. The impact is on my electrical consumption. Usually it idles around 70-75 watts, now it can peak at 90 watts.

Stay on old BIOS or wait until newer one came out. I don't know if this is common news, but AMD rewrote the microcode and there might be some bugs to be ironed out... Not too sure how to revert back to older BIOS, I use the online update through the BIOS menu.

 

[greyhamism]

Word of advice, don't update to Bios 4.20 on AB350 version. I updated and now my Ryzen 7 1700X clock at idle is spiking. Before, at zero utilization after cold boot, my clock ranges from 2195 MHz to 2500 MH. After update my idle clock fluctuates uyp to 3000 MHz. The impact is on my electrical consumption. Usually it idles around 70-75 watts, now it can peak at 90 watts.

Stay on old BIOS or wait until newer one came out. I don't know if this is common news, but AMD rewrote the microcode and there might be some bugs to be ironed out... Not too sure how to revert back to older BIOS, I use the online update through the BIOS menu.

I'm on 3.40 on the AB350 at the moment and ive got a similar issue. Even on the lower power plan my CPU (1700) idles at 3.0-3.15ghz where as previously it would drop down to 1.5~ish. It still disables all 8 threads on low pow mode like before but even with next to nothing running in the background, CPU still idles at 3ghz or above. Will attempt to flash the old bios (3.10) and report back.

 

[Phuncz]

Is it a firmware issue or a software isue though ? Just running an app in the background that sometimes maxes a single core for a fraction of a second might also show these symptoms.

 

[theGryphon]

If you have spiking CPU clocks at idle most likely the PC is not idle, and working on some background process.

There is however very good reason not to upgrade to UEFI 4.20 on AsRock boards. Memory and CPU overclocking is completely borked, in that any manual voltage changes are not applied. It might be fine for those not OCing at all, but I'd still wait, as the CPU microcode is completely newly written from scratch (with AGESA 1.0.7.2) and there's bound to be some bugs, mostly likely to be ironed out in the next release.

 

[Midiamp]

Is it a firmware issue or a software isue though ? Just running an app in the background that sometimes maxes a single core for a fraction of a second might also show these symptoms.

Perhaps. I'm closely monitoring my computer now, and I notice the spikes are lessening, but it's still there. Probably after the BIOS, there's an automatic Windows update (I'm a Windows Insider) and it throws my settings out.