Prebuilt [SFFn] ASRock's DeskMini A300 - Finally!
- Thread starter confusis
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Unfortunately for DeskMini A300 owners, I think ASRock doesn't want to update AMD AGESA anymore, because each time they implement a new version of AGESA it would take them a long time to remove the microcode parts CPUs allowing APUs newer than the "Picasso" generation (aka Ryzen 3xxxG) because if we look at the last BIOS finalized for DeskMini A300, it is the "P3.70" version and they have voluntarily left it in AGESA "v1.0.0.1", the only exception BIOS is the beta "P3.60K" which is under AGESA "v1.0.0.4 Patch B" but from which they removed the microcode CPU entries allowing the operation of the "Renoir" APUs (aka Ryzen 4xxxG), then there are the leaked Beta BIOS which authorized the use of "Renoir" APUs: versions P3.60L, P3.60N, P3.60O, P3.60R and P3.60S, who used an AGESA yet a little older than that of the bios P3.60K that is to say the AGESA "v1.0.0.2". I think ASRock intentionally leaves the A300s in old versions of AGESA so that the latter do not encroach on the sales of their DeskMini X300s.
Besides, on this subject, I would have a small consolation prize for those who would still use the DeskMini A300, which is no longer my case, I sold mine and switched to the X300, but I had the opportunity today to recover the latest leaked BIOS which is compatible "Renoir" aka Ryzen 4xxxG, many people think it is the "P3.60S" but in fact a latest version "P3.60U" which had been compiled just a day after the "P3.60S" bios, I had already tried to recover it when I still had my Deskmini A300 in my possession but unfortunately all the sharing links I had been able to find were all dead, but today by luck and chance I came across the post of a clever little Chinese who had reuploaded it via their "Baidu" upload system and via a "Baidu" link debrider I finally managed to recover the original ZIP file containing the leaked beta bios "P3.60U" and I reuploaded it on another free file upload service, c concerning the changes made compared to the leaked beta bios "P3.60S", I unfortunately have no precise information but I know that at the time when I was looking for this version, those who used it said that this beta bios corrected the problem of vSOC voltage being too low creating general instability when using a Ryzen 7 4700G or its PRO version the 4750G and DDR4 RAM kits with an operating frequency greater than 2666MHz, so with the beta bios" P3.60U" this problem is normally solved, but having no more DeskMini A300 at my disposal I cannot verify it, nor test this bios in general, here I told you everything I knew about this beta bios "P3.60U", I also sent a copy of this bios to the administrator of ASRock's unofficial Reddit who normally published it today in his "beta bios" section under "Deskmini" so if you want you can download it to his Reddit, but if not you You can also download it from this link:
https://uptobox.com/uuxyrfe2pquj
Sincerely,
HydrAxx
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Jean R built on Bit-Tech has a posted a build log for the most amazing and creative X300 STX case I've seen, Piñasphere
Better still he has a YT video showing the incredible 3D printed design.
A NOT Build log - no point in posting pics, as everyone knows what a standard A300 looks like!
Let me start off by saying that I did not set out to buy a Deskmini A300, no siree, not me. I seem to have been led astray from what I should have been doing...
When I swapped my H110TN board for an H170i Plus D3 a couple of years ago, I was left with a single 4GB 2133 SODIMM and an i5 7500T, which sat there unused.
I decided that the best thing to do was to put them into a Deskmini H110, but have not found a barebones one at a sensible price since. I did spot an Asus H110 S1 mini STX motherboard on ebay.de, which was tempting, but wasn't sure what PSU to get nor what the import costs would be now that the UK has left the EU.
Then, I discovered that the Deskmini A300 was equipped with dual NVMe M.2 slots. I thought that only the X300 had 2. That coupled with the fact that Ryzen APUs have the best IGPUs of any interchangeable CPU* seemed to make more sense than chasing H110.
* If I was wanting a really portable outfit with the best IGPU, I would have undoubtedly gone for a Hades Canyon NUC equipped with those tasty 20/24 Vega cores.
I have now had my Deskmini A300 V0.9 running for a couple of weeks now, and it's a lot of fun to tinker with.
PC funds are tight at the moment, so I built the cheapest and lowest spec A300 I could
.
I bought a used A300 on eBay, complete with optional USB 2.0 sockets and VESA adaptor which I added a 250GB Samsung 960EVO M.2 drive and that blazing fast 4GB 2133 SODIMM that were both unused in 'the drawer'.
I then had the good fortune to do a deal with @Goatee for a super powered Athlon 200GE, which he bought used to flash his X300 to take an R5 6500G.
Rather than sending it back to CEX for credit, I bought it, giving him a better return.
So, it's not exactly setting the world alight, but i was impressed how well it ran Halo 3 Online (the unofficial port that IMHO is better and more playable than the MCC version) on its measly 3 Vega cores and slow single channel RAM.
Fiddling in the 'BIOS' has allowed me to OC the single SODIMM to 2666, which is the fastest the 200GE will run.
Keeping with the cheapskate budgeting, I have found 2x 4GB 2666 SODIMMS (with black finish to match the board) for under 15 GBP, and just bought a Wraith Spire for 12 GBP.
A Wraith Spire? I hear you say, how is that going to help?
Weeeeeeeeeeeell, I happen to have a B450M board running another super powered Ryzen CPU, the R3 1200 which happens to have a Wraith Stealth on it.
The Stealth will be going in the A300, possibly with a Noctua transplant, if what I have on the shelf fits, and the Spire will help the R3 1200 run a bit cooler on the cheap.
So, beware of older components in the drawer looking for kit to build up a rig, you could end up making something else and spending more than you thought!
More news when the cooler is here and dual channel RAM has been installed
Better still he has a YT video showing the incredible 3D printed design.
A NOT Build log - no point in posting pics, as everyone knows what a standard A300 looks like!
Let me start off by saying that I did not set out to buy a Deskmini A300, no siree, not me. I seem to have been led astray from what I should have been doing...
When I swapped my H110TN board for an H170i Plus D3 a couple of years ago, I was left with a single 4GB 2133 SODIMM and an i5 7500T, which sat there unused.
I decided that the best thing to do was to put them into a Deskmini H110, but have not found a barebones one at a sensible price since. I did spot an Asus H110 S1 mini STX motherboard on ebay.de, which was tempting, but wasn't sure what PSU to get nor what the import costs would be now that the UK has left the EU.
Then, I discovered that the Deskmini A300 was equipped with dual NVMe M.2 slots. I thought that only the X300 had 2. That coupled with the fact that Ryzen APUs have the best IGPUs of any interchangeable CPU* seemed to make more sense than chasing H110.
* If I was wanting a really portable outfit with the best IGPU, I would have undoubtedly gone for a Hades Canyon NUC equipped with those tasty 20/24 Vega cores.
I have now had my Deskmini A300 V0.9 running for a couple of weeks now, and it's a lot of fun to tinker with.
PC funds are tight at the moment, so I built the cheapest and lowest spec A300 I could
.I bought a used A300 on eBay, complete with optional USB 2.0 sockets and VESA adaptor which I added a 250GB Samsung 960EVO M.2 drive and that blazing fast 4GB 2133 SODIMM that were both unused in 'the drawer'.
I then had the good fortune to do a deal with @Goatee for a super powered Athlon 200GE, which he bought used to flash his X300 to take an R5 6500G.
Rather than sending it back to CEX for credit, I bought it, giving him a better return.
So, it's not exactly setting the world alight, but i was impressed how well it ran Halo 3 Online (the unofficial port that IMHO is better and more playable than the MCC version) on its measly 3 Vega cores and slow single channel RAM.
Fiddling in the 'BIOS' has allowed me to OC the single SODIMM to 2666, which is the fastest the 200GE will run.
Keeping with the cheapskate budgeting, I have found 2x 4GB 2666 SODIMMS (with black finish to match the board) for under 15 GBP, and just bought a Wraith Spire for 12 GBP.
A Wraith Spire? I hear you say, how is that going to help?
Weeeeeeeeeeeell, I happen to have a B450M board running another super powered Ryzen CPU, the R3 1200 which happens to have a Wraith Stealth on it.
The Stealth will be going in the A300, possibly with a Noctua transplant, if what I have on the shelf fits, and the Spire will help the R3 1200 run a bit cooler on the cheap.
So, beware of older components in the drawer looking for kit to build up a rig, you could end up making something else and spending more than you thought!
More news when the cooler is here and dual channel RAM has been installed
I'm surprised more people hasn't tried this BIOS 3.60U. I've since found another download location. They're the same file, really..... https://botflakes.de/asrockwiki/docs/bios/deskmini/
Edit: Can someone check the AGESA version for BIOS 3.70B?
At the same time it's normal, it was me who sent him the same day I managed to get this famous Beta BIOS "P3.60U", so same source ;-)
If we can literally get EVERYONE in this thread who owns an A300 to submit a ticket requesting the update for support for Newer APU's and Windows 11 usage it MIGHT help.
Might help....
Still, im going to try at least.
I used to have so many but business's wanted them replaced due to the use of the BETA bios for newer AGESA which resolved stuttering/crashing issues they had with ALL of the release BIOS's in the "official" release's.
Might help....
Still, im going to try at least.
I used to have so many but business's wanted them replaced due to the use of the BETA bios for newer AGESA which resolved stuttering/crashing issues they had with ALL of the release BIOS's in the "official" release's.
That's a mega-bummer, that means the only real hope for A300-owners is a hacky BIOS modification over from the X300.
My X300 will be arriving soon so I'll see if I can pull something/anything from the BIOS chip(s) that could be useful for such purposes.
I've had luck modifying and flashing modern GOP versions onto older graphics cards (i.e. Radeon HDxxxx) to work with UEFI, I wonder if this could work in a similar way.
::EDIT:: Would anyone be interested in sending their A300 & CPU as a test mule for BIOS modifications? Caveats, of course, being:
1) I'm in Melbourne, Australia so shipping might be a PITA
2) I can't guarantee successful modification
3) I can't even guarantee it won't cause irreparable damage to the A300 board (but will obv. do everything possible to avoid this!)
I can't even find one to purchase here in Aus, eBay has a couple but they're international and pricy (i.e. would cost me the same as what I paid for my X300/5600G/RAM but for only the A300 barebones kit!)
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Good luck to all of you, sincerely, if you manage to make them bend on this subject, well it would be a great victory for all DeskMini A300 owners.
Can you elaborate on what we need to do? Where do we send the petition/email? Who do we write to? What do we write? Etc.....
Thanks.
ASRock > Support Request Form
For those of you who have crashing/stutters/etc its best to be fully transparent with your issues, try to record the issue and submit video.
For the rest, the fact that AMD says its for the FULL 300 series of boards and has several improvements/fix's including USB3.0Connectivity/+Audio issues, PROPER Windows 11 support, fTPM stuttering issues and so many more that they (AMD) refuse to disclose, who knows what bugfix's/improvements/securityfix's are included
You can also include the same thing my customers have stated to me, EX: They HATE running a BETA or ALPHA BIOS to get proper function out of the system, Considering the official BIOS is only at 1.0.0.1, I myself had no end of buggy crash's for games, for myself and customers weird crashing with office programs, considering I had them purchase these, and the solution we have is being on the "Alpha" 3.60S BIOS with AGESA ComboAM4v2 1.0.0.2 that wasn't even released on the main site... Needless to say 2 of the business's I had buy them have already replaced them with non ASRock products.
There is plenty more, but those are some brief points, I said very early on in this thread, as long as they kept updating the BIOS to fix bugs and update AGESA I would buy into X300, needless to say, statement is still valid, I have no updates for my A300, so I have no X300.
I have also stopped recommending ASRock products (completely) to anyone, business or not.
Its super dumb that I cannot drop in a 4xxxG or 5xxxG processor because ASRock is being stupid, Product stack is already segmented, X300 = Overclocking, we get it, doesn't mean you have to totally ABANDON the A300 folks...
EDIT: Does it mean ASRock will take it seriously, probably not, but it will be on record and companys hate having a large flood of requests for something. As a simple example, the "Official" v3.70 release with this bugfix: "2. Follow AMD guide to support shared memory adjustment when Hyper-V is enabled" Myself and many others reported this and I also had to complain to AMD as well, and neither AMD nor ASRock wanted to do anything, I didn't even get a reply to my ticket that it was confirmed and then resolved
Finally updated my Deskmini A300 from a 3400g to a 4700g, I've had the 4700g for over a year from a open box hp desktop I picked up for $200 back then. Also put in a 32gb 3200mhz ram kit from the 2400mhz kit I had.
MOD BREAK: Please post in English only !
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Since an older AM4 processor was too cheap for flashing the appropriate BIOS3.60S (for the A300+3 4300GE), I tried it (as well as successfully implemented with some China boards) with the well-known USB ch341a, but the component is recognized it can not be flashed, so I first asked the question, is there anything positive to report about flashing via bracket? I would be grateful for help, otherwise I now have a paperweight available.
Auto-translate:
Since an older AM4 processor was too cheap for flashing the appropriate BIOS3.60S (for the A300+3 4300GE), I tried it (as well as successfully implemented with some China boards) with the well-known USB ch341a, but the component is recognized it can not be flashed, so I first asked the question, is there anything positive to report about flashing via bracket? I would be grateful for help, otherwise I now have a paperweight available.
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So, alternate chargers. Came across the fact that there's usb-pd to 5.5mm barrel adapter connector cables out there, so its possible to use a tiny USB-C GAN wall adaptor (like phone charger small) to power the Deskmini, however it tops out at 100 watts, so have to watch the power limit. That's the cheap and small solution.
There's also a pretty new 150w GAN brick with usb-pd and barrel output (20v 7.5a) out there, and its only slightly bigger than a phone wall charger. I haven't tried it but it looks promising.
shop.slimq.life
There's also a pretty new 150w GAN brick with usb-pd and barrel output (20v 7.5a) out there, and its only slightly bigger than a phone wall charger. I haven't tried it but it looks promising.
150W DC+USB C GaN Charger
SlimQ 150W AC Adapter & USB C GaN Fast Charger PD 3.0 Multiport Charging Station Laptop Compatible with Lenovo 135W HP Omen Pavilion Dell XPS 15 Charger (no Good as 200W 230W Charger) About this item The AC adapter is mainly for laptops that require 120W/135W/150W power adapters. It is not a...
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That’s a very nice bit of kit, wonder how reliable it is. I’ve had a few USB-PD chargers just fail completely after about 6 months so you’d want to know it’s built to last!So, alternate chargers. Came across the fact that there's usb-pd to 5.5mm barrel adapter connector cables out there, so its possible to use a tiny USB-C GAN wall adaptor (like phone charger small) to power the Deskmini, however it tops out at 100 watts, so have to watch the power limit. That's the cheap and small solution.
There's also a pretty new 150w GAN brick with usb-pd and barrel output (20v 7.5a) out there, and its only slightly bigger than a phone wall charger. I haven't tried it but it looks promising.
150W DC+USB C GaN Charger
SlimQ 150W AC Adapter & USB C GaN Fast Charger PD 3.0 Multiport Charging Station Laptop Compatible with Lenovo 135W HP Omen Pavilion Dell XPS 15 Charger (no Good as 200W 230W Charger) About this item The AC adapter is mainly for laptops that require 120W/135W/150W power adapters. It is not a...
They also make a 240w which looks promising for eGpu ect.
shop.slimq.life
Kinda like the new HDplex, but external and with more utility due to USB-C pd.
Yeah but agreed total ? on the reliability
240W DC/USB C Charger
SlimQ 240W Gaming Laptop Adapter AC Port Power Adapter Type C Ports GaN Super Fast Charger Laptop Charging Travel Power Portable Compatible Dell HP MSI Razer Lenovo Asus Sony Acer Toshiba and More About this item Nice Style: The patented design of USB C 240W GaN charger offers a unique style and...
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Kinda like the new HDplex, but external and with more utility due to USB-C pd.
Yeah but agreed total ? on the reliability
What’s that? You’re going to try it out and report back? Good plan!They also make a 240w which looks promising for eGpu ect.
240W DC/USB C Charger
SlimQ 240W Gaming Laptop Adapter AC Port Power Adapter Type C Ports GaN Super Fast Charger Laptop Charging Travel Power Portable Compatible Dell HP MSI Razer Lenovo Asus Sony Acer Toshiba and More About this item Nice Style: The patented design of USB C 240W GaN charger offers a unique style and...
Kinda like the new HDplex, but external and with more utility due to USB-C pd.
Yeah but agreed total ? on the reliability
::EDIT:: what are they filling it with in the gif? Mineral oil? Resin??
Curiosity
Too busy figuring out if I can to think if I shoul
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I will say I've run a 2400g based a300 off of a 20V 45w PSU before. I couldn't do anything graphically intensive (ex, cad, games) but I was able to web browser sucessfully
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