Prebuilt [SFFn] ASRock's DeskMini A300 - Finally!

[Ziyan]

For power saving settings I shamelessly recommend you read my initial post if you're going with Linux, which I assume.

Non-headless 7.2W are easy—and I've exactly the same setup (excluding memory) you're describing. 6W and less can be achieved by removing and downclocking hardware. ~3.5W if you're adventurous, but that'll be a setup primarily for idling, monitoring, cron-jobs. Write to memory (disk cache), you'r back up to ~4.2W; involve the NIC and it's ~4.5W; no DMA because you've to decrypt, ~5.4W. (Tip: power off cores it that's your use case (torrents, wsus, cache of sorts, backup destination) printf 0 >/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/online).

A bigger heatsink is not necessarily the better heatsink. Parameters are capacity (Cu is king), spread/conductivity (silver, heatpipes), dissipation (surface and airflow / geometry). The cooler which comes with the 3200G is good enough, imho, for what you're describing.

I've tested the Cryorig Cu and found that'll allow your machine to run longer spiky loads without spinning up the fan—as expected, smoothing better. (I didn't test what most PC magazines go for, the top-end: Saturating it with heat.) But it's not worthwhile, given that the fan spins at its lowest RPM most of the time anyway, at least for me in server duty and office use, with the Wraith. (I've posted the fan-control settings here previously. Bump the lower temp from 55°C to 60°C, that's what I use now.)

I've toyed with a zero-rpm setup (page 25), but that too is not worthwhile. Once PBO is out (as it triggers the overvoltage bug;, but people don't seem to read my posts; I don't imagine PBO/PBC works anyway), the power saving settings and fan control settings are in (posts above), you cannot hear the thing like always. And when playing games, especially with a headset on, I don't care much about it.

(Running into fan spinups might be different with a 2400G or 3400G, which I didn't test. Whoever wanted mid-range or high performance should've saved the money and gone for a 3600–3800X imho. And whoever buys an Intel NUC these days either required by policy, loves the color, or is an illiterate bum who needs to subscribe to tech news in audio book format.)

The 12nm Zens are less picky when it comes to higher memory speed (3200 MT/s is 1600MHz btw.), and the higher the frequency the more W=€ are spent. On a homeserver, downclock for marginal gains. (And don't get distracted by the laymen measuring goodput of data access patterns mistaking it for memory bandwidth, which is MT/s× 8 byte× #channels for DDR4 of course.) It's a revealing comedy like those “bicycle tyre rolling resistance” sites that strap wheels or vehicles to a motorized drum and claim “look ma, can do 60kph!!!”, and who drive the wheel instead of using the wheel to drive the drum. Digressing.

Thanks! I finally set it up this weekend. Used the following components:
- Ryzen 3 3200G
- Noctua NH-L9a-AM4
- Intel 660p 2 TB (*sigh* the 665p just released today...)
- G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR4-3000MHz CL16-18-18 1.20V 2x16GB

I disabled PBO and CPU boost in BIOS, as 4x3.6 GHz is just ideal for me. It doesn't make sense to vastly increase power consumption and heat generation to gain a few percent extra performance. Installed Arch Linux, enabled NVMe power saving as per your guide, and I'm idling at 8 W. The CPU fan is set up to spin at 800 RPM until 55 °C (it idles below 40 °C), and it indeed can't be heard at all, unless I put my ears next to it. I also ordered some magnetic dust filters, but they didn't arrive yet.

Now, to complete my setup, I need a basic UPS to protect from power spikes (and data loss caused by it). Does anyone know/use a SFF UPS? I'd just want like 5 minutes of runtime (initiate a shutdown after 2 minutes if power isn't back), so I don't need a huge, 500 VA UPS, which is bigger than the A300 itself. Ideally (for the best efficiency), the UPS would provide 19 V for the A300, instead of 230 V and going through the power brick... but that might require some DIY solution (which I'm not afraid of :-)). Honestly, the power brick is the only component that I could see easily failing. It doesn't seem to be a high quality one.

 

[SFF EOL]

Thanks! I finally set it up this weekend. Used the following components:
- Ryzen 3 3200G
- Noctua NH-L9a-AM4
- Intel 660p 2 TB (*sigh* the 665p just released today...)
- G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR4-3000MHz CL16-18-18 1.20V 2x16GB

I disabled PBO and CPU boost in BIOS, as 4x3.6 GHz is just ideal for me. It doesn't make sense to vastly increase power consumption and heat generation to gain a few percent extra performance. Installed Arch Linux, enabled NVMe power saving as per your guide, and I'm idling at 8 W. The CPU fan is set up to spin at 800 RPM until 55 °C (it idles below 40 °C), and it indeed can't be heard at all, unless I put my ears next to it. I also ordered some magnetic dust filters, but they didn't arrive yet.

Now, to complete my setup, I need a basic UPS to protect from power spikes (and data loss caused by it). Does anyone know/use a SFF UPS? I'd just want like 5 minutes of runtime (initiate a shutdown after 2 minutes if power isn't back), so I don't need a huge, 500 VA UPS, which is bigger than the A300 itself. Ideally (for the best efficiency), the UPS would provide 19 V for the A300, instead of 230 V and going through the power brick... but that might require some DIY solution (which I'm not afraid of :-)). Honestly, the power brick is the only component that I could see easily failing. It doesn't seem to be a high quality one.

No help, I use a second hand HP UPS with new batteries, like you say bigger than the A300. But painless, it needs no drivers and W10 just manages the shutdown, Cost me about £80 which I thought OK given the weight for shipping. You can get smaller UPS, with less up time, they are much smaller and look like chunky extention leads.
They look a bit like this but chunky as the batteries are on the back, but they don’t last long at all, probably 5 minutes. Mine will last about 15 max and will power 3 devices (which hits up-time). But all I want is a nice shut down and also no spikes. The prices weren’t great on these extension lead ones either considering they weren’t a known brand and so on. The HP at least is well known. It shuts down my main PC and the NAS (two) and based on testing it worked. Mine looks like this (I think I bought it from eBuyer).

https://www.ebuyer.com/159619-cyber...ble-power-supply-1320w-2200va-value-2200eilcd



Quite big but hidden away under a desk.

 

[greengooseman]

I just received my A300W today. *Still waiting on 3400G CPU and Noctua LP fan. (Im deployed so the parts take a while to arrive.)

2 (1Tb) Sabrent M.2 SSDs
2 (2TB) Seagate Firecuda SSHD
16 GB Hyper Impact 2666 CL15

The only real issue I had was the HDD screws that came with the case, they were too long. I folded up 2 pieces of paper to shim it from rattling.

What is the proper sized screw I could order to make these HDs fit perfectly?

I did find an orange peice of tape over the screw holes for the wifi card and the read SSD. FLustered me for a bit till i figured it out.

 

[fadsarmy]

Hi @fadsarmy: Plugging in a headset with microphone (four rings on the jack) when the machine has booted both get detected. Leaving it plugged in and powering on, the mic is not detected; it's audio-out only.

Edit: bottom/left socket. The middle/top one seems to be audio-out only and doesn't detect the mic at all.

Many thanks for the reply. When you plug a microphone into the mic jack, do you get a pop up confirming you have connected a microphone?

 

[fadsarmy]

I just received my A300W today. *Still waiting on 3400G CPU and Noctua LP fan. (Im deployed so the parts take a while to arrive.)

2 (1Tb) Sabrent M.2 SSDs
2 (2TB) Seagate Firecuda SSHD
16 GB Hyper Impact 2666 CL15

The only real issue I had was the HDD screws that came with the case, they were too long. I folded up 2 pieces of paper to shim it from rattling.

What is the proper sized screw I could order to make these HDs fit perfectly?

I did find an orange peice of tape over the screw holes for the wifi card and the read SSD. FLustered me for a bit till i figured it out.

m3 x 3mm

 

[Ziyan]

No help, I use a second hand HP UPS with new batteries, like you say bigger than the A300. But painless, it needs no drivers and W10 just manages the shutdown, Cost me about £80 which I thought OK given the weight for shipping. You can get smaller UPS, with less up time, they are much smaller and look like chunky extention leads.
They look a bit like this but chunky as the batteries are on the back, but they don’t last long at all, probably 5 minutes. Mine will last about 15 max and will power 3 devices (which hits up-time). But all I want is a nice shut down and also no spikes. The prices weren’t great on these extension lead ones either considering they weren’t a known brand and so on. The HP at least is well known. It shuts down my main PC and the NAS (two) and based on testing it worked. Mine looks like this (I think I bought it from eBuyer).

https://www.ebuyer.com/159619-cyber...ble-power-supply-1320w-2200va-value-2200eilcd



Quite big but hidden away under a desk.

It seems that the only SFF UPS is the OpenUPS 1 and 2 (2.5" form factor). They cost $110 w/o batteries and case, so they're not exactly cheap... it seems that I'd be better off buying a normal UPS, which could then also protect my main PC and monitor.

Regarding alternative power supplies, TR9CZ4730L9PCIMR6LPS (this is the 90 W version, but they have a 120 W version as well) is a very high quality replacement. While it costs ~$45, it has an MTBF of 1 million hours (114 years) at full load, and is medical operations certificated.

 

[rook]

Has anyone plugged 2 nvme ssds into this board and checked the speeds? I'm curious if the pcie lanes get divided like what happens on pcie slots, or how that works here.

 

[aberrant]

Hi all, first post here. Looking to get the A300 with a 3400G. I noticed, though, that while ASRock's site shows that the A300 supports 64GB memory, none of the sites that actually sell the A300 do (they all say "up to 32GB"). I am planning on buying 2x32GB Crucial CT32G4SFD8266 (they're on ASRock's compatibility list) and also using a Sabrent 1TB Rocket nvme (not listed, but the specs suggest it should work) running headless linux. I'm also planning on using the Noctua NH-L9a for the fan, but I'm hoping this stays quiet most of the time.

Is anyone running 64GB in this thing? Any recommendations / warnings regarding this setup? Advice appreciated.

 

[W4RR10R]

Has anyone plugged 2 nvme ssds into this board and checked the speeds? I'm curious if the pcie lanes get divided like what happens on pcie slots, or how that works here.

I dont have two nvme drives but, I do have 1 nvme drive and a vega 56 on an m.2 riser. They both run at full pcie 3.0 x4 speed, no lane splitting at all.

 

[SFF EOL]

Well I have this on order supposedly coming next week, for £160. Looking at the As-Rock website it has suppliers in the UK as well although I don’t see any stock, probably would have to ask to order. Mine came from On.Buy.Com who I hadn’t heard of before. If I get a 1060 with it I’ll be very happy, especially as I have ordered a i5 9400F for the CPU a it was £150, about £50 cheaper than a KF (and I doubt I will be able to overclock anyway) or anything with graphics. It’s not a Ryzen, and it is an i5, but it would give me a STX that I and others have wanted- 6 cores with some genuine 1080p graphics. If I have to buy the 1060, presuming I can get something in that benchmark, it is going to hurt. The 1070s are £400. I think I’d struggle to sell it for a profit and to do so I’d have to go good quality on everything thus hurting the profit further. If it does come with the 1060 then I think I’ll probably end up keeping it, maybe test it on eBAY and see. Memory doesn’t have to be super fast and I might grab some Monday bargains on Nvme, That said I just spent %00 on a 2700X, 32GB DDR and two 4TB HDD- the week before a 1TB Nvme, it’s all rushing towards a rand, Time to get building and selling.



If only AMD could bring out the 6 core APU.

 

[SFF EOL]

Has anyone plugged 2 nvme ssds into this board and checked the speeds? I'm curious if the pcie lanes get divided like what happens on pcie slots, or how that works here.

If you fit an Athlon then you don’t have enough PCIe lanes so one M.2 drops to PCIe Gen3 x2 IiRC.

 

[A300]

Hi all, first post here. Looking to get the A300 with a 3400G. I noticed, though, that while ASRock's site shows that the A300 supports 64GB memory, none of the sites that actually sell the A300 do (they all say "up to 32GB"). I am planning on buying 2x32GB Crucial CT32G4SFD8266 (they're on ASRock's compatibility list) and also using a Sabrent 1TB Rocket nvme (not listed, but the specs suggest it should work) running headless linux. I'm also planning on using the Noctua NH-L9a for the fan, but I'm hoping this stays quiet most of the time.

Is anyone running 64GB in this thing? Any recommendations / warnings regarding this setup? Advice appreciated.

Careful with RAM. I have 1x16GB Team RAM that are on ASRock's compatibility list, but when installed it, it didn't work. Changed RAM twice with same brand, still not worked.

Changed it to Corsair 2x8GB that are not on ASRock's compatibility list, it worked without problems.

 

[SFF EOL]

EDIT, reply to wrong topic.

 

[greengooseman]

Has anyone plugged 2 nvme ssds into this board and checked the speeds? I'm curious if the pcie lanes get divided like what happens on pcie slots, or how that works here.

I have (2) installed on mine. *Wainting on my replacement CPU. My 3200G box was crushed during shipment to my deployed location. CPU fan fins got bent. Good news is that I have a 3400G in route. Ill let you know soon. Hoping today it arrives.

 

[greengooseman]

Got my CPU and noctua fan today. Picked up the USB 2 port interface in the UK for $12.50. Install was easy. The USB interface cable kinda hung on the fan as I pushed it in. Cable running across fan but doesnt touch the fins.

My Sabrent m.2 SSD can not RAID. No matter because both of them test at 3400 Read and 3200 Write. The 2TB HDD both test at about 150mbs each.

Im having trouble setting up my RAID on the HDDs. Honestly Im just wining it. I did make a volume that is showing 3.8 Tb but it doesnt show up in windows. Im sure there is another step im missing.

*** I want to OC the Ram. My question isnt so much about HOW, but rather, what does the PC do when you select something unusable? DOes it go back to what worked or do you need to CMOS reset (Not sure how on this MB, just speaking from experience from other systems.)

 

[ConsolidatedResults]

Got my CPU and noctua fan today. Picked up the USB 2 port interface in the UK for $12.50. Install was easy. The USB interface cable kinda hung on the fan as I pushed it in. Cable running across fan but doesnt touch the fins.

My Sabrent m.2 SSD can not RAID. No matter because both of them test at 3400 Read and 3200 Write. The 2TB HDD both test at about 150mbs each.

Im having trouble setting up my RAID on the HDDs. Honestly Im just wining it. I did make a volume that is showing 3.8 Tb but it doesnt show up in windows. Im sure there is another step im missing.

*** I want to OC the Ram. My question isnt so much about HOW, but rather, what does the PC do when you select something unusable? DOes it go back to what worked or do you need to CMOS reset (Not sure how on this MB, just speaking from experience from other systems.)

Re. RAID, have you installed the AMD RAID drivers? https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-socket-am4/a320 - Either RAID installer or just the driver.
Alternatively to controller RAID use Storage Spaces in Windows 10.

Re. what happens at unusable overclocks:
1. The system starts but then crashes or doesn't boot properly / runs into BSOD. Typically you can then still get into BIOS and revert settings.
2. The system tries 3 times (default) to train the memory (fan spins up, then down), then reverts to default clocks. In BIOS you will see your selected settings and the actual settings the system is running with
3. The system just does not start at all, fan will typically be spinning and the system will sit there. Turn off, unplug power brick, hit the switch to discharge caps and bridge the clear CMOS jumper for about 3 seconds. Location of jumper is in manual and labelled on the mainboard.

3. can happen a lot. I would not bother putting the tray back into the case unless you are sure you have dialed good settings. Alternatively, route some jump wires out of the case for easier bridging. Careful with those though, larger Dupont connectors on jump wire will collide with the power button / LED assembly when sliding the board tray back in and may bend the clear-CMOS pins on the mainboard.

 

[SFF EOL]

posted wrong thread again!

 

[greengooseman]

Update: Gave up on the hardware raid and went with software for my 2 (2tb) Seagate 2.5" HDDs. (Another story for another time)
Update: Got the hardware RAID 0 up and running. I just needed to delete the volume on each of the drives.
3400G with Noctua fan idles @ 40-45c and 75-78c when ran @ 100% for 5+mins.
My stock ram speed is 2666 CL15, bumped it to 2933 CL16. Gained 7 fps (71 to 78), in CInabench15 and cpu went from 854 to 867. *Need to read more about ram timings to get more out of it.
Update: Running 3200, my FPS is 82. 945 on CB15.
NVME drives (sabrent 1TB x2) both run @ 3400 read and 3150 write. (2 of these is overkill, ill most likely remove one later)

 

[GLSRacer]

I currently run 1 Sabrent 1TB NVMe drive and so far it has been great. I still have the 2400G since my A300W functions as a headless server and I haven't really spun up any high utilization VMs. It would be really nice if AMD released a 6 or 8 core APU, I would probably upgrade for that.

 

[Artmov]

I'm getting my parts together for the A300 build.

I noticed a good number of people are using the Sabrent NVMe, is there any particular reason for that specific model?
Will the WD Black SN750 or Samsung 970 EVO Plus work with this build and which one would be better?
Is a NVMe with a heatsink preferable?

A bit off topic but for productivity use, browsing/word/excel/multitasking, is there a noticeable difference between 3200G and 3400G?