No. The APUs are based on Zen+ and do not have an I/O die, so they are PCIe 3.0 only. As for 4.0 risers, high quality 3.0 risers should work as long as they are relatively short - PCIe 4.0 needs signal repeaters if trace/riser length gets too long.
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it isn't Zen 2, it is basically a Ryzen 2 so as Ryzen 2 don't support PCIe4 I can't see the 3200/3400G supportig it either. And there are PCIe restrictions on the Ryzen Gs anyway.
Yes, no help. One of the most active users refused to help unless I paid them and when I asked for a price I was told that it would be to expensive and that I should just buy another motherboard. Told them that it wasn't a choice for my use case and asked for a price again and never got a response.
Sounds like some folks don't like to get paid haha
I'm keeping this thread alive! A bit of background...I first saw the m-STX form factor on one of @Josh | NFC 's videos. It was a cool mb given the oversized nature of some GPUs & how similar in height the two components are (reference Zotac 1080ti mini & the latest MSI 5700XT mech OC). I then saw this thread and was glued to the idea of a new USFF pc. The A300 board with only a 4 lane m.2 slot & the timing of PCIe 4.0 by AMD seem like a magical convergence of things. Of course lack of CPU support by AsRock is a bummer...they could have solved our problems by adding a little compatibility but they aren't feeling it (I tried asking). And alas, efforts to get something working seem to have reached a dead end around here.
So I thought about my bank account...and treading completely unknown BIOS waters...and buying what I'd need to build a test setup. And well, here I am ...I have an A300, a menial A8-9600 processor & some decent sodimm ram (all for $228). I also got an deal I just couldn't pass up on the aforementioned AMD GPU which will go to good use one way or another. The only thing I'm holding out for is a low, low price on a Ryzen 5 3600.
A bit of research and I'm onto my first foray in BIOS modding. I'll share what I've discovered.
- Some very knowledgeable folks over on Win-Raid created the UBU (UEFI BIOS Updater) tool and a guide on how to use it. It only works with AMI BIOSes & lucky for me, AsRock is using an AMI Amiga V BIOS.
- The AsRock X570 Taichi supports Ryzen Zen 2 CPUs & PCIe 4.0.
Using this knowledge, I dropped A300 BIOS 3.60 into UBU tool and let it decode. I did the same with X570TC BIOS 2.50. Below are my results.
- Lines 7, 12 & 13 are where the two BIOSes differ, with yellow being from the X570TC.
- A little more (elusive) research and the CPUIDs are traced to their familiar names. I believe these to be accurate but can't explain why some CPUs are in the microcode (ie. Carrizo, Summit Ridge) and some supported APUs are not (ie. Brisol Ridge).
- Contrary to previous statements, the microcode for Zen 2 CPUs appears to be missing from the A300 BIOS.
- The next step will be to insert these microcode snippets into the A300 BIOS & see if it will still boot. I'll need to get a 3600 CPU to get further than that. Surely it won't be this easy? To be continued...
So I thought about my bank account...and treading completely unknown BIOS waters...and buying what I'd need to build a test setup. And well, here I am ...I have an A300, a menial A8-9600 processor & some decent sodimm ram (all for $228). I also got an deal I just couldn't pass up on the aforementioned AMD GPU which will go to good use one way or another. The only thing I'm holding out for is a low, low price on a Ryzen 5 3600.
A bit of research and I'm onto my first foray in BIOS modding. I'll share what I've discovered.
- Some very knowledgeable folks over on Win-Raid created the UBU (UEFI BIOS Updater) tool and a guide on how to use it. It only works with AMI BIOSes & lucky for me, AsRock is using an AMI Amiga V BIOS.
- The AsRock X570 Taichi supports Ryzen Zen 2 CPUs & PCIe 4.0.
Using this knowledge, I dropped A300 BIOS 3.60 into UBU tool and let it decode. I did the same with X570TC BIOS 2.50. Below are my results.
- Lines 7, 12 & 13 are where the two BIOSes differ, with yellow being from the X570TC.
- A little more (elusive) research and the CPUIDs are traced to their familiar names. I believe these to be accurate but can't explain why some CPUs are in the microcode (ie. Carrizo, Summit Ridge) and some supported APUs are not (ie. Brisol Ridge).
- Contrary to previous statements, the microcode for Zen 2 CPUs appears to be missing from the A300 BIOS.
- The next step will be to insert these microcode snippets into the A300 BIOS & see if it will still boot. I'll need to get a 3600 CPU to get further than that. Surely it won't be this easy? To be continued...
Line | CPUID | Type | Cores | Series | Stepping | Fabrication |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 00800F82 | CPU | Zen+ | Pinnacle Ridge | PiR-B2 | 12nm |
| 2 | 00800F12 | CPU | Zen | Summit Ridge | ZP-B2 | 14nm |
| 3 | 00800F11 | CPU | Zen | Summit Ridge | ZP-B1 | 14nm |
| 4 | 00800F10 | CPU | Zen | Summit Ridge | ZP-B0 | 14nm |
| 5 | 00800F00 | CPU | Zen | Summit Ridge | ZP-A0 | 14nm |
| 6 | 00810F10 | APU | Zen | Raven Ridge | RV-B0 | 14nm |
| 7 | 00820F00 | APU | Zen | Raven Ridge 2 | RV2-A0 | 14nm |
| 7 | 00820F01 | APU | Zen | Raven Ridge 2 | RV2-A1 | 14nm |
| 8 | 00810F00 | APU | Zen | Raven Ridge | RV-A0 | 14nm |
| 9 | 00810F80 | APU | Zen+ | Picasso | PCO-B0 | 12nm |
| 10 | 00810F81 | APU | Zen+ | Picasso | PCO-B1 | 12nm |
| 11 | 00810F11 | APU | Zen | Raven Ridge | RV-B1 | 14nm |
| 12 | 00660F00 | APU | Excavator | Carrizo | A0 | 28nm |
| 12 | 00870F10 | CPU | Zen2 | Matisse | MTS-B0 | 7nm + 14nm I/O Die |
| 13 | 00660F01 | APU | Excavator | Carrizo | A1 | 28nm |
| 13 | 00870F00 | CPU | Zen2 | Matisse | MTS-A0 | 7nm + 14nm I/O Die |
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Let me know if i'm understanding correctly. Attaching a graphics card with pcie gen 4 to the m2 should allow for 100% normal performance of the card? Then you could, with bios fixes, have a regular CPU? Then you could put it all together to create an ultra small performance powerhouse? If that's what you are saying, that's awesome!
With that said, Nvidia cards aren't pcie gen 4 and there are currently no mini itx sized AMD cards that use the new pcie gen4, unless i'm mistaken. You would also have to get power to the card.
I would love to see a mini-STX ryzen, itx GPU combo in something like a reduced size skyreach 4 mini case. Personally, i'd also like to see the power supply externalized as a power brick to reduce size even more. Then strap the machine to the back of your monitor and off you go.
@xredlinexx1 Essentially the bottleneck would be removed from the GPU to CPU interface. Without knowing too much about the board, the PCIe lanes may also not be sufficient to handle the load. What is more likely is that the total performance of the system will be limited by the board power output and VRM, which I bet are lacking given the 65W TDP maximum currently allowed. Still, we can push the system for all it has...higher CPU core count and clock speed help with performance.
I think I've heard about Bristol ridge being dropped before. As more CPUs have been released, older CPUs have been intentionally dropped from new bios versions on some motherboards. I think this made the rounds in tech news websites a year or so ago, supposedly it is because some motherboard venders use smaller bios chips that have now run out of space for all the CPUs supported by AM4.
Isn't that just for boards being updated to support 3000-series CPUs? Shouldn't be an issue given that the A300 supports something like 6 APUs total.
Exactly. He was talking about the AsRock X570 Taichi bios he was comparing the A300 to and he didn't know why some CPUs weren't in the Taichi's microcode.
Ah, I guess I got confused, I thought the BIOS in question was on the A300. That explains things
@GLSRacer , of all things, I ran into issues getting the CPU delivered. I'll have the CPU early next week and can begin testing BIOSes.
So, I highly recommend anyone actually with the A300 to reach out to ASRock support and be nice about it, but simply request that the AGESA be updated to 1.0.0.4B for this board, ASRock seems to have dedicated minimal manpower for BIOS updates, and don't put the A300 in their eyes as not enough voices making the request.
With that out of the way, and before the posts regarding "hold on, that AGESA was Zen 2 only", read below
First, 1.0.0.4B is the merging back into mainline AGESA for ALL generations
Second, While a vast majority of the fix's are for Zen 2, there are still SEVERAL fix's and performance improvements (boot time, RAID performance) that scale across the Ryzen 3000 lineup (of which the 3200G and 3400G are included in, DESPITE not actually being Zen 2 but being Zen +, it doesnt matter, they are part of the Ryzen 3000 series and are affected), in addition to the many OTHER performance improvements that ALSO reach back to the Ryzen 2000 lineup (again, including 2200G and 2400G despite being Zen and not Zen +).
IE Still important
www.hardwareluxx.de
With that out of the way, and before the posts regarding "hold on, that AGESA was Zen 2 only", read below
First, 1.0.0.4B is the merging back into mainline AGESA for ALL generations
Second, While a vast majority of the fix's are for Zen 2, there are still SEVERAL fix's and performance improvements (boot time, RAID performance) that scale across the Ryzen 3000 lineup (of which the 3200G and 3400G are included in, DESPITE not actually being Zen 2 but being Zen +, it doesnt matter, they are part of the Ryzen 3000 series and are affected), in addition to the many OTHER performance improvements that ALSO reach back to the Ryzen 2000 lineup (again, including 2200G and 2400G despite being Zen and not Zen +).
IE Still important
[Übersicht] - Ultimative AM4 UEFI/BIOS/AGESA Übersicht
Inhaltsverzeichnis: UEFI Collection | Hersteller Support Links | UEFI Mods | Weiterführende Links Keine weiteren Updates mehr geplant! AM5 UEFI/BIOS/AGESA Übersicht ASRock ASUS Biostar Gigabyte MSI EVGA NZXT B350 B450 B550 X370 X470 X570 B350 B450 B550 X370 X470 X570 B350 B450...
www.hardwareluxx.de
This is what I did about 3 weeks ago. I mailed and asked about Combo-AM4 1.0.0.4B (Beta) BIOS and got a fairly quick reply:
"Sorry, no beta BIOS available at this moment. Once the tests are done, it will be upload[ed] to [the] website. No ETA yet, but might take some time..."
Seeing that even the lowest tier A320 Mainboards from ASRock have gotten 1.0.0.4B now, the Deskmini really does not appear to be high on the list for them
I also asked about fine grained and higher DIMM voltage control. At the moment the A300M-STX only supports 1.2V or 1.35V which I think limits RAM OC capability. To which the answer was:
"The hardware design [does not support] such settings."
I find that a bit hard to believe, are there really DRAM power solutions that only offer discrete voltage levels? I've tried to google markings of ICs that may be related to DRAM power but turned up no results :/
So yeah, please email them and ask for some love for the device
Cypher ST
Cypher ST | Compact Mini STX case | Akasa Thermal Solution
Akasa branded products including cables, cases, card readers, coolers, external enclosures, fans in many colours, hubs, and power supplies |Cypher ST | Compact Mini STX case |
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