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

W4RR10R

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jan 29, 2019
211
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5x00G is not supported on A300, only X300. Don't think it works with the X300 BIOS but I don't think anyone tried. Very little reward in it.
My build uses a dgpu, I started this thread in attempt to use non supported cpus as to not be bottlenecked by the at the time 2/3400g, there is a decent amount of reward in it, and I'd rather a zen3 apu that I currently can find for $30-50 usd less than the corresponding zen2 apu
 
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yuusou

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Mar 16, 2019
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When I say very little reward, I mean the risk is greater than the reward. You can potentially brick your A300 attempting to put an X300 bios on it. Even if you do manage, there's a chance the 5x00G APU still won't work.

It's why you're asking, right? You, understandably, don't want to risk your hardware [and wallet] and that's why your asking here, because the risk is too high versus the reward. I get it, I'm in the same boat, I'm stuck with an A300 with a 2400G. I'd love to put in a 5700G or better yet a 5600X. It's why I'm subscribed to this thread as well.
 

W4RR10R

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jan 29, 2019
211
211
When I say very little reward, I mean the risk is greater than the reward. You can potentially brick your A300 attempting to put an X300 bios on it. Even if you do manage, there's a chance the 5x00G APU still won't work.

It's why you're asking, right? You, understandably, don't want to risk your hardware [and wallet] and that's why your asking here, because the risk is too high versus the reward. I get it, I'm in the same boat, I'm stuck with an A300 with a 2400G. I'd love to put in a 5700G or better yet a 5600X. It's why I'm subscribed to this thread as well.
Risking my hardware has always been on the table, I've flashed bioses on with a flashcat I could no doubt recover it that way too. And if I brick it in the process I could justify the purchase of an x300. Some of my workloads have begun to utilize multicore much better and games also have too with the consoles having powerful 8 core cpus aswell.
 

gustav

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jun 18, 2020
193
90
The x300 and A300 are too similar to brick. Never the less, it can happen. Some members managed to falsch x300's BIOS on a a300. The experience is here

If you brick BIOS, you're kinda always able to reflash the EPPROM ;)
 

Curiosity

Too busy figuring out if I can to think if I shoul
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There never has been a pcie gen 4 Update for the A/X300, has there?
I don't think there was, but considering some ITX board sgot updated from gen 3 to 4 when 4 came out, and it would be so convenient if our STX baby got it.
 

W4RR10R

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jan 29, 2019
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It
There never has been a pcie gen 4 Update for the A/X300, has there?
I don't think there was, but considering some ITX board sgot updated from gen 3 to 4 when 4 came out, and it would be so convenient if our STX baby got it.
Would be nice, I honestly think we're gonna have to wait for am5 before and new support on the amd side, as iirc 5000g don't have gen4 pcie anyway.
 

Curiosity

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Would be nice, I honestly think we're gonna have to wait for am5 before and new support on the amd side, as iirc 5000g don't have gen4 pcie anyway.
Honestly I forgot to consider if any APUs even supported 4.0, and even the 5700G is only 3.0, so I guess we won't be getting it.
Here's hoping we get an AM5 A300 and it does 4.0!
 

W4RR10R

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jan 29, 2019
211
211
Honestly I forgot to consider if any APUs even supported 4.0, and even the 5700G is only 3.0, so I guess we won't be getting it.
Here's hoping we get an AM5 A300 and it does 4.0!
Honestly am5 apus could be amazing, the possibility of an 8 core zen 3D or zen4 cpu with some decent sized rdna 2+ igpu would be a beast. Effortless AAA 1080p high/ultra 60+fps, roughly current gen consoles in a single package, maybe even non competitive 1440p or 4k gaming.
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
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Honestly am5 apus could be amazing, the possibility of an 8 core zen 3D or zen4 cpu with some decent sized rdna 2+ igpu would be a beast. Effortless AAA 1080p high/ultra 60+fps, roughly current gen consoles in a single package, maybe even non competitive 1440p or 4k gaming.
Yeah, really looking forward to those. The main benefit would be from DDR5 though - today's speeds are nothing to write home about, but once we start seeing reasonably priced kits above 6000MT/s, and especially when we start getting into the 8000MT/s range, then we're suddenly looking at low-end dGPU memory bandwidth. A bunch of decently clocked RDNA2 CUs alongside that and we'd be looking at a real performer.
 

W4RR10R

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jan 29, 2019
211
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Yeah, really looking forward to those. The main benefit would be from DDR5 though - today's speeds are nothing to write home about, but once we start seeing reasonably priced kits above 6000MT/s, and especially when we start getting into the 8000MT/s range, then we're suddenly looking at low-end dGPU memory bandwidth. A bunch of decently clocked RDNA2 CUs alongside that and we'd be looking at a real performer.
We may not need to wait that long, with AMDs 3D stacking tech, they could put massive amounts of cache on die, to kinda bandaid the lower bandwidth of ddr5 to gddr6, infinity cache on the rx6000 cards does a pretty good job with a smaller memory bus compared to the larger busses on the equivalent segment nvidia cards.
 
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Danlopez1222

Average Stuffer
Apr 5, 2019
63
101
When I say very little reward, I mean the risk is greater than the reward. You can potentially brick your A300 attempting to put an X300 bios on it. Even if you do manage, there's a chance the 5x00G APU still won't work.

It's why you're asking, right? You, understandably, don't want to risk your hardware [and wallet] and that's why your asking here, because the risk is too high versus the reward. I get it, I'm in the same boat, I'm stuck with an A300 with a 2400G. I'd love to put in a 5700G or better yet a 5600X. It's why I'm subscribed to this thread as well.
Heads up, I hardware flashed P1.60 for the X300 onto my A300 and I'm able to run a 5700G. However, it looks like it breaks ram overclocking.
 
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GLSRacer

Average Stuffer
May 31, 2019
80
58
Nice, I might need to do this soon. I had intended to upgrade my 2400G to a 5700G but then ASRock decided to limit support to the X300 only. I ended up building a 5950X system instead but still like the SFF idea and was hoping someone would try forcing an X300 BIOS to work.
 

rook

Average Stuffer
Jul 9, 2018
74
78
Nice, I might need to do this soon. I had intended to upgrade my 2400G to a 5700G but then ASRock decided to limit support to the X300 only. I ended up building a 5950X system instead but still like the SFF idea and was hoping someone would try forcing an X300 BIOS to work.
Zero risk of bricking hardware with the clip on bios flash programmer. Cost is less than $10. The time consuming part is getting the clip on there properly and finding the right software for your flash chip.
 
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rook

Average Stuffer
Jul 9, 2018
74
78
There's zero risk of bricking hardware with the clip on bios flash programmer. Cost is less than $10. The time consuming part is getting the clip seated properly and finding the right software for your flash chip, but it's not hard.
 

Danlopez1222

Average Stuffer
Apr 5, 2019
63
101
@Danlopez1222 @rook do you happen to have a link to the clip you used and the software?
A clip isn't necessary- there is a small 2x10 pin header under the ram that goes straight to the bios pinouts. I don't remember off of the top of my head which pin goes where.

I own and use a flashcatUSB pro, but I've previously used the flashcatUSB classic. Both can be found here- https://www.embeddedcomputers.net/

I've tried one of the cheap ebay SPI Flash programmers, but I had issues with parts missing when being read or written- It may have been a one off, but I don't trust them for production work.
 
Last edited:

GLSRacer

Average Stuffer
May 31, 2019
80
58
@Danlopez1222 I was wondering if those pins near the ram were actually connected. Thanks, for the heads up. And that's the site that came up when I did a search. I'll probably grab the pro as well.

Regarding the software for flashing, which do you prefer?