Motherboard Group Buy/Crowdfunded Modded BIOS for the Asrock A300m (Deskmini A300)

[Valantar]

I used the exact same one that ETAprime used in his eGPU setup. https://amzn.to/2TIXEFD. I may order another set but I'll check out your link if its priced well. The ones I bought were 2 for 9.99.

What gauge are the wires in that power cable? They should be labeled with "xxAWG". And could you cut one of them and take a picture of the cross-section? I recently came across an "18AWG" cable that had around 1/3 the cross-sectional area of an actual 18AWG cable, so I wouldn't necessarily trust cheapo cables to be able to deliver the power they need to.

 

[nostyle]

Those risers are branded explomos and you’re surprised they went up in flames?

 

[Primerib]

Those risers are branded explomos and you’re surprised they went up in flames?

ETAPrime was able to get away with it so I had some faith but no, I'm not exactly surprised.

That's terrifying, I don't where you got your riser, but I got mine from here http://www.adtrp.com. I really like the quality and they shipped very quickly.

Those are amazing. I was on my happy way to purchase one when I got hit with the $30 international shipping cost and my heart sank that R43SG model is astounding. The ability to power the adapter with full 6 pin molex is incredible. Makes non powered cards like the 1050ti possible.

 

[W4RR10R]

ETAPrime was able to get away with it so I had some faith but no, I'm not exactly surprised.



Those are amazing. I was on my happy way to purchase one when I got hit with the $30 international shipping cost and my heart sank that R43SG model is astounding. The ability to power the adapter with full 6 pin molex is incredible. Makes non powered cards like the 1050ti possible.

Yeah, the shipping is kinda nuts, but if it makes a differences it like really fast I got mine in like 5 days from overseas, maybe try to contact them and see if you can ship it slower for less cost, if your not in a hurry.

 

[Valantar]

ETAPrime was able to get away with it so I had some faith but no, I'm not exactly surprised.



Those are amazing. I was on my happy way to purchase one when I got hit with the $30 international shipping cost and my heart sank that R43SG model is astounding. The ability to power the adapter with full 6 pin molex is incredible. Makes non powered cards like the 1050ti possible.

Yeah, the shipping is kinda nuts, but if it makes a differences it like really fast I got mine in like 5 days from overseas, maybe try to contact them and see if you can ship it slower for less cost, if your not in a hurry.

There are plenty of ADT-link products for sale on AliExpress, often with free international shipping. Might be a challenge to find the exact version though, as they rarely have the model number searchable in my experience.

 

[W4RR10R]

There are plenty of ADT-link products for sale on AliExpress, often with free international shipping. Might be a challenge to find the exact version though, as they rarely have the model number searchable in my experience.

The ones on AliExpress are marked up, they want $50-60 with free to $5 shipping and on ADT-Link's site they want $20-25 with $30 shipping, I picked up 2 from them because they didnt increase shipping cost until the 4th item, so 20+20+30 is cheaper than 50+50.

 

[W4RR10R]

@Kmpkt Any news on the 1usmus front?

@Danlopez1222 Any progress?
I've been doing some thinking (all I can do as I don't know how to mess with the BIOS myself). Could the issue be that this board does, not want to boot headless?
So the APUs only have 16 PCIe lanes coming directly from it as compared to the 24 from other Ryzen CPUs.

CPU - 16 lanes for GPU or 1st slot + 4 lanes for NVME boot drive + 4 lanes for the chipset = 24 total lanes
APU - 8 lanes for iGPU (never leaves the socket) + 8 lanes for dGPU or 1st slot + 4 lanes for NVME boot drive + 4 lanes for the chipset = 16 total lanes + 8 on die lanes.

So could the issue be that POST is looking for the display adapter in the 8 internal lanes and not seeing it thus failing POST. Is the POST process a module in the AGESA that could be swapped or modified?

 

[Kmpkt]

@Kmpkt Any news on the 1usmus front?

No response for over a week, seems disinterested. Will try touching base again tonight.

 

[Danlopez1222]

@Kmpkt Any news on the 1usmus front?

@Danlopez1222 Any progress?
I've been doing some thinking (all I can do as I don't know how to mess with the BIOS myself). Could the issue be that this board does, not want to boot headless?
So the APUs only have 16 PCIe lanes coming directly from it as compared to the 24 from other Ryzen CPUs.

CPU - 16 lanes for GPU or 1st slot + 4 lanes for NVME boot drive + 4 lanes for the chipset = 24 total lanes
APU - 8 lanes for iGPU (never leaves the socket) + 8 lanes for dGPU or 1st slot + 4 lanes for NVME boot drive + 4 lanes for the chipset = 16 total lanes + 8 on die lanes.

So could the issue be that POST is looking for the display adapter in the 8 internal lanes and not seeing it thus failing POST. Is the POST process a module in the AGESA that could be swapped or modified?

Not exactly sure. I bought an RX 470 and a m.2 to 4X PCIe for an e-GPU setup. I'll mess with fully disabling the Vega integrated to see what happens there.

Next 2 weeks are finals, so I've taken a couple steps back from this project. I don't expect to do too much testing and modification until then.

 

[W4RR10R]

Not exactly sure. I bought an RX 470 and a m.2 to 4X PCIe for an e-GPU setup. I'll mess with fully disabling the Vega integrated to see what happens there.

Next 2 weeks are finals, so I've taken a couple steps back from this project. I do expect to do too much testing and modification until then.

Yeah, I've got finals coming up here soon too, I was just checking in, I just hate sitting on the side line.

 

[Debris84]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/antony...rk-with-300-series-motherboards/#5357e7a45764

Maybe no Zen2 on A300.

 

[Kmpkt]

Hopefully they release an A500 variant?

 

[Danlopez1222]

Hopefully they release an A500 variant?

I honestly dont know how the can change an A300 to an A500 other than slapping a new sticker over the label. PCI-e is routed right to the m.2 slots, SATA is handled internally. The biggest upgrade would be either USB-C 3.2 gen 2 on the front IO for portable USB-C monitors, or a stronger VRM (which isnt all that weak currently. It just has to battle stupid-high factory voltage).

On another note, does anyone have a spare low-end ryzen 1000 series CPU that they'd be willing to part with temporarily? I'd like to get the non-APU boot thing sorted out after I figure the voltage/overclock thing out.

 

[Kmpkt]

Maybe B5XX or something? I just want a full-featured version of this thing.

 

[TwinHaelix]

I would love a modded BIOS that allowed iGPU overclocking! It would also be nice not to always be blasting my 2200g with such a high voltage!

 

[peak_mu]

On another note, does anyone have a spare low-end ryzen 1000 series CPU that they'd be willing to part with temporarily? I'd like to get the non-APU boot thing sorted out after I figure the voltage/overclock thing out.

I've got a 1600 I can send your way. You are also welcome to the Asrock AB350M Pro4 it is currently sitting in if that would be helpful.

Any chance of prioritizing the non-APU boot over the voltage/overclocking? I'm personally much more interested in that so we can use the more powerful processors. I'd be willing to bet there's a sizeable amount of people that feel the same...

Either way, thank you for your work!

 

[ermac318]

Any chance of prioritizing the non-APU boot over the voltage/overclocking? I'm personally much more interested in that so we can use the more powerful processors. I'd be willing to bet there's a sizeable amount of people that feel the same...

I wouldn't be so sure about that. I think folks with a 2400g in an unmodified case is a larger user population than people interested in hardware mods with external GPUs and so forth... Not saying your use case isn't important just I think there's a bigger subset of people that just want to overclock.

 

[TheG8One]

Count me in for this as well!

Interested to see how this will all play out.

 

[packratxxxnasty]

I'm down too! I literally signed up here just for this. I ordered the a300w last night, and would love to be able to oc it.

Any idea what the total cost would be? Per person will obviously vary by number of people...

 

[Danlopez1222]

I've got a 1600 I can send your way. You are also welcome to the Asrock AB350M Pro4 it is currently sitting in if that would be helpful.

Any chance of prioritizing the non-APU boot over the voltage/overclocking? I'm personally much more interested in that so we can use the more powerful processors. I'd be willing to bet there's a sizeable amount of people that feel the same...

Either way, thank you for your work!

My main concern with non-APU support is that I don't actually have any clue as to why it's not supported as of this point. The a300 seems to have all the necessary components in the bios to support a Zeppelin-based CPU. It could be something as easy as a setting we need to change to make the board happy without integrated graphics, or something as in-depth as missing initialization code deep within the bios. It may take longer to enable support since I have no leads as of yet

The 1600 would be nice to work with, I'll send a pm in a few weeks when I know it just wont sit on my desk collecting dust.

In other news, I got my shitty eGPU setup working with a sapphire RX 470-

Spoiler

Good news for further non-APU support experimentation.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a 19v to 12v internal adapter that I could use to power a m.2 riser and the PCIe 8-pin? Also, a higher-wattage 19v power brick? Preferably external.