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Prebuilt [SFFn] ASRock's DeskMini A300 - Finally!
- Thread starter confusis
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Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum and I own an Asrock X300. I'm concerned because I suffer from sporadic USB disconnections, as well as ports that seem to have a bad connection, both front and rear. They connect and disconnect all the time. I have tried version 1.70 and L1.72 and it does not fix it. I have read that it is a recognized AMD problem, but is there a solution? Thanks.
I have the same problem, but after upgraded LAN driver from Asrock's web, problem solved.
I don't have such LAN problem. A300 solved the issue with installing the drivers from Asrock's website, I think I used the one from Realtek's unified Win 10 driver.
In terms of price, there are only 60 bucks between the 46xx and the 47xx in my country. The 4700G looks more interesting in terms of price.
But if I remember correctly, there are problems with the power supply of the 4700G and the A300, so that the Ram then only runs with 2666 Mhz.
But I think the problem couldn't be solved, even with a stronger power supply.
Otherwise, if it works without problems, I would prefer to take the 4700G, with this small extra cost.
ASRock website does not have the 5700G marked as compatible for the A300. Were you perhaps looking at the X300 page instead?
That sounds great. But what is P1.60? The normal 1.60 from the ASRock Page? If why not newest version? Is there any difficulty to flash it?
I realized what the weird name was- I had modified the bios to unlock some of the debug settings on 1.6 for the X300, and forgot I had set the debug name to P1.60- https://smallformfactor.net/forum/t...-asrock-a300m-deskmini-a300.10567/post-218728
I just flashed 1.7 through the BIOS and it still works fine, minus any overclocking support (including RAM overclocking).
I don't want to make a dedicated thread so I will post my build here.
I modded a stealth cooler with the wraith prism fan and LED array as the A300 ve no internal ARGB header.
So I took the coolermaster PCB which offers a quite nice USB interface for the color control. The internal USB header of the A300 is doubled with a 3$ USB switch.
I also fixed the fan to the silent curve and removed the dip switch.
The housing/cover for the LED ring is 3D printed and I tired to make it as slim as possible to get the cooler assembly inside the case. Would be nicer to ve it made out of clear/frosted PLA to get a better light distribution, but hey.
The PCB and cable management is put under the mainboard tray(with hotglue...).
I modded a stealth cooler with the wraith prism fan and LED array as the A300 ve no internal ARGB header.
So I took the coolermaster PCB which offers a quite nice USB interface for the color control. The internal USB header of the A300 is doubled with a 3$ USB switch.
I also fixed the fan to the silent curve and removed the dip switch.
The housing/cover for the LED ring is 3D printed and I tired to make it as slim as possible to get the cooler assembly inside the case. Would be nicer to ve it made out of clear/frosted PLA to get a better light distribution, but hey.
The PCB and cable management is put under the mainboard tray(with hotglue...).
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Loving that prism stealth conversion, an inspired mod!
Having a choice of platforms really is great, full marks to Asrock for pushing this niche format.
I'm looking at getting a mini STX fix at the moment.
There's a used X300 on ebay UK finishing today, which would be the best and most expensive option, but it has dual M.2 slots.
Otherwise, there's Asus H110-S1 boards available on ebay Germany, which I have a cpu and ram for...
Deskmini/STX is definitely an itch that has wanted scratching for a while!
First of all, thanks for this post. It was my confirmation that this COULD be done before I attempted my own mod with the same end purpose.Here we go, pictures of the A300W with the 25mm fan and mods required for 10TB of storage. The mods may look difficult, but they weren't, nor were they time consuming to make. Enjoy.
The only visible modification is on the very bottom of the back of the motherboard tray, where a 1/4" section is removed. One can see the top side of the hard drives and the Velcro straps peeking out from the hollowed out section. The section removed is part of the base support, so only the center section is removed, while the edges remain in place for support. It's an ugly hack, but it's hidden in the back. The rest of the mods are completely hidden inside.
Microsoft OneDrive
1drv.ms
This shot shows where the four flattened metal hoops were, they looked like cable management tie down loops. They were locating/lockdown receivers for the motherboard tray/case interface, but they were in the way.
Microsoft OneDrive
Here are the sections of the underside of the motherboard tray that needed to be modified. The drive standoffs were ground completely away, becoming horseshoe shaped openings.
Microsoft OneDrive
The left side bulkhead was removed entirely. The right side bulkhead only had enough material removed to allow the 15mm drives enough room to be mounted, hence the hollowed out ugly hack in the first picture of the set. The center bulkhead retains only the vertical component that is perpendicular to the motherboard tray, all components parallel to the motherboard tray are ground away leaving just a skinny wall between the drives.
Microsoft OneDrive
Here is the modified drive mounting
Microsoft OneDrive
Microsoft OneDrive
Compared to stock drive mounting
Microsoft OneDrive
And here is the complete assembly ready to insert into the case.
Microsoft OneDrive
*****A few notes to keep in mind. This is a very tight fit, but it does fit. Sliding the motherboard tray into the case goes pretty easily, but removing it was not easy. I actually had to flip the Velcro straps over at one point because the fuzzy side was binding and catching on the case. So, since the motherboard tray is sliding into the case on the Velcro straps, I recommend greasing those rails *BEFORE* you insert it because it is difficult to remove later.*****
I've found that I can achieve this fit while removing less material and retaining some of the anchor points for the drives. This might sound a bit whacky (no pun intended) but I used a hammer and some socket set extension bars (along with some wood for supporting at odd angles) and literally smashed the bulkheads flat.
Here are the tools I used. Keep in mind, I did not hammer against the wood. I hammered with the largest extension bar pictured against the large black adapter
I did remove the two right on the angle of the rear of the case/tray with a dremel and removed the angled tabs from the center divider the same way. Without a dremel one could use a hacksaw to achieve the same. I also sanded the edges after as they ended up quite sharp.
The receiving slots for the clips along the edge of the case also interfere with the tray loading once there's a 15mm drive in it, though the clips themselves should not. That said, without something to receive them, they become extraneous and may as well be removed.
Drive mount alignment after flattening
Just been testing out Ryzen 5700 in x300 over the last day and I am surprised at the instantaneous temp spikes.. There's a good chance it is just a poor installation by myself and i'll do it again to be sure. Spikes from 30c to 70c in 1 second are something I have never seen before. Even though AMD has said "running at 95C is no problem" (which may be true), there is something funky going on with the thermal resistance.
It seems like there is unusually bad thermal resistance somewhere between the cores and the heatsink. The heat isn't even getting the chance to saturate the heatsink tested on both the wraith stealth and noctua nh-l9a. I am not expecting perfection, but in an older rig from a few years back, I measured a result of 9C delta between the internal core temperature reading and an external temperature sensor placed on the exterior heatsink fins.
But on the x300, the delta between the heatsink and the core reading seems absolutely massive. Just a guess its at least 25C. Even after benchmarking to reach equilibrium, the heatsink does not feel hot like it should. It's just... warm.
I saw some posts about Ryzen heat spreaders not being perfectly flat and possibly concave, causing an issue when combined with a very flat heatsink. Or also, if they are flat but paired with a convex heatsink, the edges might have a bit too much clearance and not enough pressure (not a problem with previous chip designs with die in the center). So since I used the minimal amount of TIM, it would produce a poor result in both of these scenarios & I would be better off over applying it. One user reported he re-seated his cooler 10 times before noticing the uneven IHS edges, then sanded it flat.
The other thing I read is that the chiplet layout used by AMD puts these dense cores towards the side/edges of the chip where they are less likely to be directly beneath a row of centered heatpipes. This could explain the terrible resistance, as the heat cannot be instantly absorbed as it would with the properly located heatpipe, and the heat has to first creep into the center region of the chip before it can be soaked. I'm curious whether the same spikes happen on a water block, which can extend past the edge of the chip and provide low thermal resistance on the edge regions just as well where the air coolers cannot.
Anyway, going to re-do the cooling to see
It seems like there is unusually bad thermal resistance somewhere between the cores and the heatsink. The heat isn't even getting the chance to saturate the heatsink tested on both the wraith stealth and noctua nh-l9a. I am not expecting perfection, but in an older rig from a few years back, I measured a result of 9C delta between the internal core temperature reading and an external temperature sensor placed on the exterior heatsink fins.
But on the x300, the delta between the heatsink and the core reading seems absolutely massive. Just a guess its at least 25C. Even after benchmarking to reach equilibrium, the heatsink does not feel hot like it should. It's just... warm.
I saw some posts about Ryzen heat spreaders not being perfectly flat and possibly concave, causing an issue when combined with a very flat heatsink. Or also, if they are flat but paired with a convex heatsink, the edges might have a bit too much clearance and not enough pressure (not a problem with previous chip designs with die in the center). So since I used the minimal amount of TIM, it would produce a poor result in both of these scenarios & I would be better off over applying it. One user reported he re-seated his cooler 10 times before noticing the uneven IHS edges, then sanded it flat.
The other thing I read is that the chiplet layout used by AMD puts these dense cores towards the side/edges of the chip where they are less likely to be directly beneath a row of centered heatpipes. This could explain the terrible resistance, as the heat cannot be instantly absorbed as it would with the properly located heatpipe, and the heat has to first creep into the center region of the chip before it can be soaked. I'm curious whether the same spikes happen on a water block, which can extend past the edge of the chip and provide low thermal resistance on the edge regions just as well where the air coolers cannot.
Anyway, going to re-do the cooling to see
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