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

[ShamedGod]

I've had my A300 running 24/7 for months now with:

- 16GB ram overclocked to DDR-3400
- 3400G
- Noctua cooler
- Intel 660p 1TB
- 2 HDDs in the bays as for file storage
- currently 3.60 BIOS

Running BOINC while idol at 70% of full capacity it's barley noticable. If I go above 70% the A300 will eventually get to warm and reboot itself. After all my testing and tinkering it's been a Tank. Same with a friend of mine who built his shortly after seeing mine.

I'm not sure if manufacturing quality has gone down but I'm not seeing any of the issues I've read on the last few pages of this thread. Early on I bought some fujipoly thermal pads to replace the one on the VRM and it made no difference in temperature.

The one tweak I've considered is making a fan shrowd so the cooler could only breath in from the top vent, maybe that would be a solid plan for the 4000 series APU upgrade, but for now it's fast enough, strong enough, and gosh darn it... People like it.

 

[ShamedGod]

[post: 183189, member: 10035]

If anyone can help with a few questions.

1. Differences between A300 and A300W?
Is it just the inclusion of Intel AC-3168 Wi-Fi Kit? Why is it needed?

Yes, it's just the wireless connectivity. If you don't need it then it's not needed.

2. For office use, word/excel/browsing/multitasking... 3200G vs 3400G? Is there noticeable real world difference for productivity?

Depends on your multitasking and spreadsheet sizes. I worked with accountants that crushed their machines with massive Excel spreadsheets with complected macros... It was impressive to see an office product humble an i7. I'm sure that's not normal though.

3. Any noticeable real world difference in ram speed? For example 2666 vs 3000?

YES - that's been covered multiple times. All Ryzen chips like faster Ram, until it doesn't your going to notice improvements up until DDR4-3200 with good timings. I wouldn't overclock an office machine and I believe that's still the fastest ram available for the platform.

 

[ConsolidatedResults]

I've had my A300 running 24/7 for months now [...] but I'm not seeing any of the issues I've read on the last few pages of this thread.

Well, if you are running 24/7 you would obviously not see any issues that manifest themselves only when off or in sleep mode. A300 coil whine is real, but maybe not for every unit, see e.g. this post and the responses on reddit just a couple hrs ago:


Anecdotal report, the second A300 that I got (very little standby/off whine) was manufactured beginning of August 2019.

If I go above 70% the A300 will eventually get to warm and reboot itself [...] it's been a Tank

Irony?

 

[Quango]

The first two A300s I tried were made in November. One was DOA, so no coil whine , the other I was busy testing for video flaws and got no sleep time. The third was from October and as it occasionally went int sleep, the whine was there.

 

[ShamedGod]

Well, if you are running 24/7 you would obviously not see any issues that manifest themselves only when off or in sleep mode. A300 coil whine is real, but maybe not for every unit, see e.g. this post and the responses on reddit just a couple hrs ago:


Anecdotal report, the second A300 that I got (very little standby/off whine) was manufactured beginning of August 2019.



Irony?

I built mine a year ago. Around the time this article came out actually. When the A300W was released it was constantly out of stock. I received a Newegg alert one afternoon, bought it that second, and it was out of stock again in the evening.

It shipped with BIOS 1.20 and originally built with the 2400G.

I tested, tinkered, and played with the little thing for fun over a period of months. Never noticed any coil whine. I did notice with the ram voltage set to 1.35 and the machine running stress tests that the VRM may get a little "warm" and was concerned with the device being near it's power limit with the 120W power brick. Was why I tried replacing the stock thermal pads with a Fujipoly one... Zero change in temps though.

I know it's a sample size of two but niether I or my friend have had any issues with our A300W machines.

As far as BOINC only able to run at 70%, a lot of that is the onboard graphics. It may have something to do with the power draw as well but I didn't want to spend the money on a UPS to find out. This issue was non-existent with the 2400G and the performance gain was maybe 4%-5% when "upgrading" to the 3400G. (Would have to look at my notes)

I'm hopeful that upgrading to the 4400G when it's released will give a decent performance boost and maybe run a little cooler then the 3400G.

If the coil whine is an issue with newer models then maybe I was lucky to be an early adopter. I am honestly surprised with some of the troubles I read people where having on the last few pages of posts. Almost everything I read online, and my own personal experience with the product, has been extremely positive.

 

[fadsarmy]

Hi guys, did you use the graphics/chipset drivers from the Asrock site or from windows update. I'm trying to diagnose why chrome keeps crashing whilst playing videos so not sure which drivers are better?

 

[fadsarmy]

I don't really have the energy/tools to locate the exact component that makes the whine, and then put glue on it. It will probably end up in a disaster. But thanks for the suggestion, though.

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.

Why can't you rma the unit/psu? I'm sure it's coming fro the psu. When I replaced the psu, the whine was gone.

 

[ShamedGod]

Hi guys, did you use the graphics/chipset drivers from the Asrock site or from windows update. I'm trying to diagnose why chrome keeps crashing whilst playing videos so not sure which drivers are better?

I have windows fully updated and I use the AMD drivers.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/previous-drivers/apu/amd-ryzen-processors/amd-ryzen-5-desktop-processors-radeon-vega-graphics/amd-ryzen-5-3400g

 

[ShamedGod]

Why can't you rma the unit/psu? I'm sure it's coming fro the psu. When I replaced the psu, the whine was gone.

What PSU did you replace your stock power brick with?

 

[Curiosity]

There was. Thought that was in this thread?

I posted about that, it might have been in the 12 v thread tho.

@Jello did you have questions about it?

 

[fadsarmy]

What PSU did you replace your stock power brick with?

I had a Toshiba laptop one lying around.

For 35W CPU you can use: 19V 90W 4.74A
For 65W CPU you can use: 19V 120W 6.32A

Make sure the barrel size is 5.5mm X 2.5mm.

 

[fadsarmy]

I have windows fully updated and I use the AMD drivers.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/previous-drivers/apu/amd-ryzen-processors/amd-ryzen-5-desktop-processors-radeon-vega-graphics/amd-ryzen-5-3400g

What about the SMBus driver?

 

[m4758406]

What about the SMBus driver?

translate this

 

[ShamedGod]

What about the SMBus driver?

Most of the ASRock drivers are out dated. I have them downloaded and used all of them to start with, so windows would recognize all the devices properly (even the app store -don't use that one) but now I believe all the drivers have been updated through windows update. Only one I touch are the APU ones.

 

[fadsarmy]

Most of the ASRock drivers are out dated. I have them downloaded and used all of them to start with, so windows would recognize all the devices properly (even the app store -don't use that one) but now I believe all the drivers have been updated through windows update. Only one I touch are the APU ones.

There was no option to download A300 drivers on the AMD site so I downloaded the A320 ones as I've been told they're the same.

 

[samfisher5986]

Has anyone had any issues with the video output only working sometimes, or sometimes it does work but only at 640x480?

It has started happening for me recently and I'm trying to figure out whats wrong with it, I tried updating the BIOS but the issue is the same.

 

[Quango]

Has anyone had any issues with the video output only working sometimes, or sometimes it does work but only at 640x480?

It has started happening for me recently and I'm trying to figure out whats wrong with it, I tried updating the BIOS but the issue is the same.

Do you have an adequate HDMI cable for HDMI 2.0?

 

[rubicoin]

got a little progress to report about switching the brown noctua nf-a9x14 hs-pwm (stock fan on nh-l9a-am4) to a black noctua nf-a9 pwn chromax. i was thinking about doing it in my previous post here and finally decided to give it a try.

my initial experiences with the 14 mm to 25 mm swap:

- the 25 mm fan fits perfectly into the case (no room for the longer, top mounting screws & silicone pads though), but the small metal clamps on the upper rear side of the case prevent sliding the motherboard tray in with the fan attached to the cooler. you have to remove the two screws on the rear sides of the case in order to lift the top panel a bit:

- this way the tray can be pushed inside with the 25 mm fan attached:

- after fitting all back in, push the lid down and you are ok. the only problem is that you have only 1.5 - 2 cm clearance to put the two screws back & secure the lid to the side panels, as the rear side of the fan hits the clamps from the inside when the tray is pulled back. not impossible but patience/small tools & fingers needed to get those screws back in.

- for this initial test i skipped this complicated part and used transparent duct tape to secure the lid (pushing it down on the rear side). lazy me

- this is how it looks when done. there is literally no more room above the fan, the case touches the plastic just perfectly. no stress needed, no tension at all! so this way the short mounting screws do not have to fix the fan to the heatsink vertically, they just keep the fan in place horizontally. so basically the fan only sits on the heatsink and could be lifted up a bit - see the original, shorter screws being too long in the 3rd picture - but the lid pushes down the fan just perfectly. no moving, no unwanted noises at all:

about the temps after the swap (with silverstone SST-FF123B dust filter applied, 2200g stock settings, so no real info here, waiting for renoir with testing):

15 min cpu-z stress @ fullspeed fan bios setting

the same @ silent fan bios setting

(in idle:
880 rpm @ silent setting = 30 °C
1990 rpm @ fullspeed setting = 28 °C)


my initial conclusion:
going from 14 mm to 25 mm (and brown color scheme to black) can be easily done, no irreversible modding of any hardware or additional accessories needed, just get a new fan kit and devote 30 minutes of your spare time. not sure about the exact increase in cooling performance after the swap, but based on noctua spec page on the same noise level ~50% increased airflow could be expected

 

[ShamedGod]

Has anyone had any issues with the video output only working sometimes, or sometimes it does work but only at 640x480?

It has started happening for me recently and I'm trying to figure out whats wrong with it, I tried updating the BIOS but the issue is the same.

Yes, when the screen shuts off sometimes I have to unplug the cable from the back and plug it back in. I've opted to use a display cable as that's what I had lying around at the time.

I don't think it's an issue with the video out though. I believe it's an issue with the USB port. Seems to go away if I use a wired mouse and keyboard.

What you've described sounds like a bad cable, port, or drivers. I would start simple and download the latest AMD drivers for your APU:

https://www.amd.com/en/support

Next, I would swap cables or use a different video out port. I like to start with VGA first to diagnose video issues if possible but a lot of people don't have VGA or Display cables any more. If you only have HDMI try another HDMI cable if you have one. Then you can eliminate the monitor by seeing if the issue is persistent with another monitor or TV. If all else fails, try doing a clean install of windows or a clean install if your driver's.

You can try to repair windows:

How to use DISM command tool to repair Windows 10 image

When there's a missing or corrupted file on Windows 10, you can fix the problem using the DISM and SFC command tools, and here's how.

www.windowscentral.com

 

[ShamedGod]

got a little progress to report about switching the brown noctua nf-a9x14 hs-pwm (stock fan on nh-l9a-am4) to a black noctua nf-a9 pwn chromax. i was thinking about doing it in my previous post here and finally decided to give it a try.

my initial experiences with the 14 mm to 25 mm swap:

- the 25 mm fan fits perfectly into the case (no room for the longer, top mounting screws & silicone pads though), but the small metal clamps on the upper rear side of the case prevent sliding the motherboard tray in with the fan attached to the cooler. you have to remove the two screws on the rear sides of the case in order to lift the top panel a bit:

- this way the tray can be pushed inside with the 25 mm fan attached:

- after fitting all back in, push the lid down and you are ok. the only problem is that you have only 1.5 - 2 cm clearance to put the two screws back & secure the side panels, as the rear side of the fan hits the clamps from the inside when the tray is pulled back. not impossible but patience/small tools & fingers needed to get those screws back in.

- for this initial test i skipped this complicated part and used transparent duct tape to secure the lid (pushing it down on the rear side). lazy me

- this is how it looks when done. there is literally no more room above the fan, the case touches the plastic just perfectly. no stress needed, no tension at all! so this way the short mounting screws do not have to fix the fan to the heatsink vertically, they just keep the fan in place horizontally. so basically the fan only sits on the heatsink and could be lifted up a bit - see the original, shorter screws being too long in the 3rd picture - but the lid pushes down the fan just perfectly. no moving, no unwanted noises at all:

about the temps after the swap (with silverstone SST-FF123B dust filter applied, 2200g stock settings, so no real info here, waiting for renoir with testing):

15 min cpu-z stress @ fullspeed fan bios setting

the same @ silent fan bios setting

(in idle:
880 rpm @ silent setting = 30 °C
1990 rpm @ fullspeed setting = 28 °C)


my initial conclusion:
going from 14 mm to 25 mm (and brown color scheme to black) can be easily done, no irreversible modding of any hardware or additional accessories needed, just get a new fan kit and devote 30 minutes of your spare time. not sure about the exact increase in cooling performance after the swap, but based on noctua spec page on the same noise level ~50% increased airflow could be expected

I may do that when I swap out the APU on the next product cycle. Nice job.