Also, I got HyperX HX432S20IBK2/32 Impact SODIMM from an Amazon warehouse deal. At 3200 MHz it has officially CL20 latency, at the 2666 MHz of the Athlon 3000G it has CL17 stated in JEDEC (no XMP defined for 2666 MHz).
But the A300 had to restart four times to actually boot with that RAM and it settled with CL18. Manually setting CL17 doesnt work, it restarts twice to settle with CL18 again.
Now the question is: does the warehouse RAM or the A300 suck here?
Not neccesarily either, that all sounds normal to me. From what I just read the actual die in a 3000G could be either full Raven2 or partially disabled Raven Ridge. Either way, Raven should default to 2666MTs with RAM with a 3200 JEDEC Profile, both my 2200G and 2400G at least did. Also starting from 2666, it should operate in Geardown mode (GDM). Basically that allows address signals only on one flank of the clock but data signals still on both, which helps with stability at higher speeds. One effect of GDM is that it allows only even values for CL, so that is where the CL18 comes from. This can be turned off in the timings screen quite at the bottom but is generally recommended to be left on, as it makes it much easier to reach stability at higher speeds.
If you want to go beyond 2666 and test whether your RAM is indeed bad, you will either have to load the XMP Profile in BIOS or, if that doesn't work, manually set speed (and potentially timings). Start by increasing the speed only, leaving all timings on auto, then do the timings. 3200 at the rated timings and DIMM voltage of your module looks achieveable to me unless the memory controller in your 3000G is horrible. Two caveats, your modules are dual rank which typically do not like to go as high in speed or low in timings as single rank. Secondly, since you should be on a 3.XX BIOS, up to the JEDEC speed of your DIMMs the SOC Voltage setting in OC Tweaker will have no effect. If your RAM does not work at 3200 or is unstable, try setting 3266, which should automatically apply 1.1V SOC and now also allows you to manually set SOC Voltage. This make magically make it stable.
If it doesn't go beyond 2666 at all or even if it is unstable at below 3000 I would probably try to return it, because generally A300 can do 3200+ and Raven can do 3200 and from browsing some reviews the 3000G specifically can do 3200.
There is a quite annoying high frequency coil whine pulsating in sync with the blue power LED in sleep mode.
In hibernation mode there is a less audible constant whine.
[...] when I turn off the A300, there is a high pitch noise coming from the top of the motherboard (when the case is standing vertically). I suspect it's close to where the AC-DC adapter plugs into the motherboard. So basically it stands where doing a quite audible high pitch whine when turned off. Highly annoying.
I was more hoping for other solutions like changing a setting the BIOS (that perhaps changes the "idle" power draw, that might reduce the coil whine), or switch the ac-dc adapter to another one. Another solution would perhaps be to cut the power to the ac-dc adapter when I turn off the A300. But that is annoying as well.
All of this very noticeable on the first A300 I had. Whine when turned off or in hibernate. Pulsing whine in sync with LED when in sleep. I had to RMA the unit for a different reason, and subjectively the replacement unit (same mainboard revision - 1.02) has less whine but instead noticeable chirping from the VRMs under load
It should be an effect of 5V standby power and there is definitely power supplied to the USB ports even when shut down. You might try to enable the "Deep Sleep" setting from Advanced -> North Bridge Configuration and ensure Onboard LAN Power On and RTC Alarm Power On are disabled in Advanced -> ACPI Configuration. See
https://www.asrock.com/support/faq.asp?id=444
Not sure how the Deep Sleep setting behaves with Windows Hybrid Sleep, Windows Fast Start and Windows Hibernation, so may want to try to turn Hibernation off to ensure you only get "Suspend to RAM" and "Off" but none of those shenanigans:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...ble-hibernation-on-a-computer-that-is-running
