Rumor Possibility of AMD on STX form factor

There are so many frieds discussed about AMD solution on STX form factor.
I told Crew ASRock had one AMD FM2+ 5x5 board....
Let me show off one board I found on my boss's table.

We did a very very quick research during CNY.
AMD 2200G box fan is so high that can't be installed into our chassis.
BUT... how about install CPU fan and heatsink separately? HAHAHA...

Only for fun

 

[W4RR10R]

What this means (hypothetically) for M.2 GPUs is that on AMD platform you should be able to have a clear and dedicated x4 connection to the CPU for a GPU

So, (hypothetically) The cpu will treat the m.2 pcie lanes as if they where just regular pcie lanes (it doesn't care what is plugged in to them as long as it is a pcie device and you provide the 75 W power by other means). So it should detect the gpu on the initial boot allowing me to connect my monitor to the gpu. If not I'm in trouble, I dont have an AMD apu to put in a trouble shoot the gpu.

 

[peak_mu]

I think most people are probably looking to use an additional power supply to supply 12V to a discrete GPU, but I wanted to get 12V from the motherboard for my use case. The SATA ports only have 5V, so the only other easily accessible 12V I could think of are the fan headers. I'm sure I could find some place to solder to, but I'd rather not at this point.

Asrock tech support says that the fan headers can supply 1A each, so there's a max of 24W available minus whatever the CPU fan needs. This works out well for me, as the SFP+ card I am looking to add only uses ~6W max. Well within the capacity of the spare header.

Unfortunately, the M.2 to PCI-E 4x adapters I ordered don't have an open-ended slot even though they were advertised as such, so I can't test the actual card. I did have an Intel quad 1gb nic that was 4x, and I can confirm that it works and gets recognized when powered off the fan header.

 

[gazpl]

I did have an Intel quad 1gb nic that was 4x, and I can confirm that it works and gets recognized when powered off the fan header.

Great to read. Does the nic fit inside the asrock case? Maybe in the bottom instead of 2.5 ssd. And do you need to power it from the fan out or is it possible to run it from m.2 alone?

 

[peak_mu]

Does the nic fit inside the asrock case? Maybe in the bottom instead of 2.5 ssd.

The nic I tested (PRO/1000 VT) is fairly old/large and definitely won't fit. The length is longer than both the height and depth of the case. The ssd area is probably the only place an external card might be able to fit. I'll have to take a closer look at it this evening with a different card.

And do you need to power it from the fan out or is it possible to run it from m.2 alone?

From what I know so far, M.2 can only provide 3.3V, and a regular PCI-E slot provides both 12V and 3.3V. This particular card requires 12V in addition to 3.3V, so it will not run from the M.2 slot alone. I would guess that the majority of cards that are designed for a regular PCI-E slot will need 12V, but there are probably some out there that can run only on 3.3V.

 

[W4RR10R]

The nic I tested (PRO/1000 VT) is fairly old/large and definitely won't fit. The length is longer than both the height and depth of the case. The ssd area is probably the only place an external card might be able to fit. I'll have to take a closer look at it this evening with a different card.



From what I know so far, M.2 can only provide 3.3V, and a regular PCI-E slot provides both 12V and 3.3V. This particular card requires 12V in addition to 3.3V, so it will not run from the M.2 slot alone. I would guess that the majority of cards that are designed for a regular PCI-E slot will need 12V, but there are probably some out there that can run only on 3.3V.

You do need to provide power when using an m.2 adapter, as a normal pcie gen 3 slot provides up to 75W on its own. For my project Im going to be using the Dynamo 360. Its a DC DC power supply with a DC pass through.

AC Adapter (330W Dell Charger in my case) --> Dynamo 360 --> DC IN jack on the Deskmini board
From the 360 I'm powering the slot and the 2 8 pin power for my vega 56.

As for using a fan header that probably won't be enough, even if you only needed 12v, 12v @ 1A = 12W way less than 75W if your card drew much more than that 12W you risk damaging the motherboard.

 

[peak_mu]

For sure the fan header won't be enough to power something like a GPU. My comments to gazpl were assuming he was talking about something similar to the Intel nic I tested.

Also, it looks like a single M.2 port is rated for 2.5A from the 3.3V.

 

[gazpl]

I want to build a router, so a quad port nic (e.g. i340) is what i want to use. There are dual port m.2 i210 nics but i need 1x WAN 3x LAN.
If you only need more displays innodisk announced a m.2 graphic card in december

 

[Zackmd1]

You do need to provide power when using an m.2 adapter, as a normal pcie gen 3 slot provides up to 75W on its own. For my project Im going to be using the Dynamo 360. Its a DC DC power supply with a DC pass through.

AC Adapter (330W Dell Charger in my case) --> Dynamo 360 --> DC IN jack on the Deskmini board
From the 360 I'm powering the slot and the 2 8 pin power for my vega 56.

As for using a fan header that probably won't be enough, even if you only needed 12v, 12v @ 1A = 12W way less than 75W if your card drew much more than that 12W you risk damaging the motherboard.

How do you plan on syncing the Dynamo 360 with the STX power on? Basically if you do not sync the power on function then the GPU would receive a constant 12v even when the PC is off.

 

[Windfall]

How do you plan on syncing the Dynamo 360 with the STX power on? Basically if you do not sync the power on function then the GPU would receive a constant 12v even when the PC is off.

@Kmpkt had some explanation. The dynamo 360 is designed to do that

 

[W4RR10R]

@Kmpkt had some explanation. The dynamo 360 is designed to do that

What he said. Also I may end up making a needlessly complicated power button circuit for no reason other than I stubborn, and that may also be able to work as the sync for the dynamo 360.

 

[Zackmd1]

Interesting, very interested to know what that is! That is my last real sticking point to doing an STX build.

 

[Zackmd1]

Ok, doing a quick search and found that the Dynamo 360 needs a 5v signal into the sync pin which then powers up the GPU. 5v would likely have to come from the SATA connector on the a300 unless the sync pin can also accept 12v which would mean the fan header could be used (or a 12v step-down module could be used).

 

[W4RR10R]

@Zackmd1 Well my whole build is going to end up in a gamecube shell. I would like to retain the original power and reset buttons, but the power button is a latching push button which won't work to turn a pc on. So I may end up making some sort of edge triggered mono-stable circuit to turn the latching into a pulse when the switch changes states and the pulse will trigger a small relay or optocoupler to short the pins on the motherboard. It could control the dynamo as well because I'm guessing it wants a latching switch as is.

....or just suck it up and replace the latching switch with a momentary switch and be ok with it not functioning exactly like a GC on the outside.

 

[peak_mu]

I want to build a router, so a quad port nic (e.g. i340) is what i want to use. There are dual port m.2 i210 nics but i need 1x WAN 3x LAN.

Just curious, why do you need 3x LAN ports? Why not use VLANs? The i340 may fit, or at least the length is less than the A300's depth.

Ok, doing a quick search and found that the Dynamo 360 needs a 5v signal into the sync pin which then powers up the GPU. 5v would likely have to come from the SATA connector on the a300 unless the sync pin can also accept 12v which would mean the fan header could be used (or a 12v step-down module could be used).

There's probably other places to grab 5V from, like the USB header for instance.

 

[Brian_Buckley]

@Zackmd1 Well my whole build is going to end up in a gamecube shell.

Exactly what I'm getting this board for. What are your cooling plans for it?

 

[Kmpkt]

5V from any motherboard header can be used. The sync cable function is simply a 5V monitoring line. There is also a good chance that you won't even need that as the Dynamo Mini/360 combo only needs the sync cable with a narrow selection of motherboards that don't do power states "properly". If it doesn't work on shutdown the only thing that should happen is your fans will stay spinning.

 

[Windfall]

5V from any motherboard header can be used. The sync cable function is simply a 5V monitoring line. There is also a good chance that you won't even need that as the Dynamo Mini/360 combo only needs the sync cable with a narrow selection of motherboards that don't do power states "properly". If it doesn't work on shutdown the only thing that should happen is your fans will stay spinning.

You are the MAN!

 

[Zackmd1]

5V from any motherboard header can be used. The sync cable function is simply a 5V monitoring line. There is also a good chance that you won't even need that as the Dynamo Mini/360 combo only needs the sync cable with a narrow selection of motherboards that don't do power states "properly". If it doesn't work on shutdown the only thing that should happen is your fans will stay spinning.

Any ETA on when 360s would be in stock?

 

[gazpl]

Just curious, why do you need 3x LAN ports? Why not use VLANs? The i340 may fit, or at least the length is less than the A300's depth.

Thats the number of ports currently in use in my home office and i would like to keep number of plugged devices low

What about hight in the ssd bottom area, is there enough to cut a slot into the case and screw a low profile card to the case? Is the area vented?

 

[Kmpkt]

Any ETA on when 360s would be in stock?

So I'm planning to put enough cash into KMPKT corp on the 15th to fund the order and should hopefully have stock within 4 weeks.