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

rubicoin

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jan 12, 2020
164
104
Hej guys got my A300 some time ago and im still happy with it. Nevertheless now I am thinking about an upgrade. For 1080p Video editing and occasional gaming (mostly older ones). Problem also is that iGPU reservates a lot of RAM for internal graphics. I read about reducing this in BIOS is this worth it? I often have firefox and chrome opene with a lot of taps and reach the RAM limit.
Obiviously I am thinking about a RAM upgrade but maybe also CPU. Have you got any hints for me? Is it worth updating for 3400g? ´How much more Power graphicwise would i get in combination with faster Ram like the one above?

Crucial Ballistix TM 16GB Kit DDR4-3200 CL16 was recommend, its around 65 Euros
Does it work fullSpeed with Ryzen 2200g? What would be maximum Speed if it is not.
Thanks for your help, I appreciate it.



Current system :

Ryzen 3 2200g with stock CPU wraith stealth cooler
2x Samsung M471A5244CB0-CTD Arbeitsspeicher, 4 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz CL 20
ADATA SSD 512GB XPG SX8200 Pro PCIe M.2 2280

good kit but be aware that my 2200g was unable to run g.skill 3000 mhz kit without occasional errors, worked stable only at 2933 mhz. 4650g runs it on 3200 mhz just perfectly. memory controller in the cpu matters so much. you could still buy this kit and run it on lower speeds though, and raise ram frequencies later when upgrading cpu.

you can get around 20-30% more igpu performance going from 2200g to 3400g with upgraded ram speeds. 3400g is roughly equal to 4650g, so see my own time spy results here (2200g/3000mhz vs 4650g/3200mhz vs 4650g/3200mhz+5500xt):


i included egpu results only because i wanted to show how much more gpu performance can be added to a300 this way. when i upgraded 2200g to 4650g i thought it would be much better @ 1080p gaming (was also considering buying 4750g instead for better gameplay). but i quickly realized that the hard limits of igpu performance would not fit my needs. and i'm talking about highres 1080p gaming on 5-6 year old titles like witcher 3, fallout 4 and dos2 here, nothing too demanding. so you can have 3400g with faster rams and have good time playing 1080p games occasionally but only with compromises either in fps or detail.
 
Last edited:

akisu

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Jan 15, 2019
103
53
good kit but be aware that my 2200g was unable to run g.skill 3000 mhz kit without occasional errors, worked stable only at 2933 mhz. 4650g runs it on 3200 mhz just perfectly. memory controller in the cpu matters so much. you could still buy this kit and run it on lower speeds though, and raise ram frequencies later when upgrading cpu.
I think its depends a bit on luck what CPU you get. I built a A300 for a family member with a Raven Ridge APU and g.skill 2133MHz kit and it runs with 3000MHz CL18 very stable. It failed to boot up with 3200MHz no matter what settings I used. But I think it was a bug in BIOS 3.40 or 3.50. I didn't tried better timings as it's not for gaming.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rubicoin

yuusou

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Mar 16, 2019
115
70
This is getting confusing. Some people say the 4750G can run 3200 on the A300, some say it can't. Can we please stop with the misinformation. If you've got a 4750G on an A300 or X300, please post screenshots of CPU-Z showing your CPU, motherboard and RAM and tell us which BIOS version you're running. We know the 4650G is fine, but we need clear information as to what works and what doesn't.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gustav and rubicoin

rubicoin

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jan 12, 2020
164
104
I think its depends a bit on luck what CPU you get. I built a A300 for a family member with a Raven Ridge APU and g.skill 2133MHz kit and it runs with 3000MHz CL18 very stable. It failed to boot up with 3200MHz no matter what settings I used. But I think it was a bug in BIOS 3.40 or 3.50. I didn't tried better timings as it's not for gaming.

i can only tell my experiences, but booting to os successfully not necesseraly means that all is ok. i've just realized weeks after assembling my a300 that my random ingame reboots were caused by ram errors. so memtest is a must if we want to share solid info regarding ram oc and compatibility. and let us share btw, at least for 4750g.
 
Last edited:

Ohmster

Chassis Packer
Nov 23, 2020
16
3
good kit but be aware that my 2200g was unable to run g.skill 3000 mhz kit without occasional errors, worked stable only at 2933 mhz. 4650g runs it on 3200 mhz just perfectly. memory controller in the cpu matters so much. you could still buy this kit and run it on lower speeds though, and raise ram frequencies later when upgrading cpu.

you can get around 20-30% more igpu performance going from 2200g to 3400g with upgraded ram speeds. 3400g is roughly equal to 4650g, so see my own time spy results here (2200g/3000mhz vs 4650g/3200mhz vs 4650g/3200mhz+5500xt):


i included egpu results only because i wanted to show how much more gpu performance can be added to a300 this way. when i upgraded 2200g to 4650g i thought it would be much better @ 1080p gaming (was also considering buying 4750g instead for better gameplay). but i quickly realized that the hard limits of igpu performance would not fit my needs. and i'm talking about highres 1080p gaming on 5-6 year old titles like witcher 3, fallout 4 and dos2 here, nothing too demanding. so you can have 3400g with faster rams and have good time playing 1080p games occasionally but only with compromises either in fps or detail.


Thanks for your reply and detailed information rubicoin, thats what I thought about the ram not fully supporting the upgrade of the Ram. I think I will buy the ramkit and later on buy a used 3400g, but egpu is also nice.

I read about using egpu on sata with adapter( I suppose that was your thread got it bookmarked somewhere:). I have limited space on my desk. Thought about buying the recommended adapter with a compact one fan Gtx 1650 Super, because of the limited space. What do you think, combined with a Gtx 1650 Super is the 3400g or 4650g more reasonable for gaming (1080p e.g. Witcher 3) and video editing (e.g. Davinci Resolve(1080p)) on the a300?
 

akisu

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Jan 15, 2019
103
53
i can only tell my experiences, but booting to os successfully not necesseraly means that all is ok. i've just realized weeks after assembling my a300 that my random ingame reboots were caused by ram errors. so memtest is a must if we want to share solid info regarding ram oc and compatibility. and let us share btw, at least for 4750g.
I know booting means nothing. I tested everthing for a couple of hours. First Memtest, then Prime95 and after Aida64. Once that worked I played some games for a while. CL16 was not stable btw. But was ok as I just bought the cheapest modules I could find.

The system is now 10000km away from me and in daily use since one year. So I cannot help fixing wrong BIOS settings. But I am happy that the tiny box is doing so well. In 1 or 2 years I can do upgrades. Until then you have to figure it what runs stable ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: rubicoin

gustav

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jun 18, 2020
193
90
@rubicoin I'd like to add to your tests:

You have ~1000P in TimeSpy with Ryzen 2200G.
So in terms of iGPU, the Ryzen 4650G (~1300P) > 2400G by kinda "3fps" :) -- for CPU, the 4650G is twice as good, but we know this :).
My result is based on Ryzen 2400G, 16GB DDR4-3200, CL16-18-18-41-61, 1T, BIOS 3.60R, SOC VID=1.13V (to maintain stability in voltage drop)




Greetings
 

rubicoin

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jan 12, 2020
164
104
Thanks for your reply and detailed information rubicoin, thats what I thought about the ram not fully supporting the upgrade of the Ram. I think I will buy the ramkit and later on buy a used 3400g, but egpu is also nice.

I read about using egpu on sata with adapter( I suppose that was your thread got it bookmarked somewhere:). I have limited space on my desk. Thought about buying the recommended adapter with a compact one fan Gtx 1650 Super, because of the limited space. What do you think, combined with a Gtx 1650 Super is the 3400g or 4650g more reasonable for gaming (1080p e.g. Witcher 3) and video editing (e.g. Davinci Resolve(1080p)) on the a300?

not sata, but m.2 nvme :p

i guess 4650g is a worthy upgrade for video editing (almost twice the multithread performance resulting in much shorter render times) but not necesseraly needed in games for a 1650 super. i'd definitely go for 4650g though, because of the better zen2 architecture and memory controller. also the +2 core/4 threads config means better futureproofing, it could serve you well after a gpu upgrade later as well. witcher 3 is a relatively demanding game either on the cpu side or on the gpu side, so it'd make sense maxing out a300 with 4650g now. but only if you can get one and the price is reasonable. 3400g can be very cheap nowdays.
 

TomHC81

Trash Compacter
May 21, 2020
44
19
www.sitepoint.sk
Hi all, any idea why ACPI S3 sleep is not supported on Renoirs? I really miss this feature...

Zubehörliste:
Auslieferung mit L1.4x BIOS !
inkl. Qualitätsprüfung !
Der S3-Mode wird bei einer Renoir APU nicht unterstützt!
 

gustav

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jun 18, 2020
193
90
No, should not be the case, but the mainboard has to support it, right :) I'm about to repeatedly blame AsRock XD
They release an outdated 3.70, etc... I think the missing S3 mode for 4000G series is due to the lack of mainboard/BIOS support.
Have to look other mainboards up and compare.

Yeah... the assumption should be correct - blame AsRock.
MSI has had also troubles:
1. https://www.pcgameshardware.de/CPU-...4000-Neues-UEFI-Neuerung-Renoir-APUs-1357563/
2. https://www.computerbase.de/2020-09/amd-agesa-v2-1-0-8-1-msi-x570-b550-a520/
but they fixed it, 2 months ago. While AsRock gave us the outdated 3.70 based on AGESA v1, bravo @ASRock System
AGESA-Version Combo PI V2 1.0.8.1 Update:

The most important changes due to the new UEFI update from MSI:
* Better memory compatibility
* Better memory overclocking ability
* Containment of the problem when waking up from S3 hibernation
* RAID problem of the B550 platform fixed
* Now supports the UMA setting for Ryzen ™ 4000 G series ( Renoir) processors

Never. Again.

This is my subjective opinion.
A300 and X300 seems to be the same machine. One day it may be fixed on X300, it is newer to receive any kind of support.
One day you may try out the patched X300 BIOS on A300. It may work, or not.

And even worse: by the time of 2 month and the availability of Combo PI V2 1.0.8.1 Update - they still did not manage to update X300 BIOS.
At this point I just do not know what to expect anymore. Think of the price of the system, maybe there is just no room for proper full support.

Edit 2: I did not found where to read the AGESA changelogs - they may be available for manufacturers only.
But then, looking at MSI: https://www.msi.com/blog/amd-combo-pi-v2-1100-bios -- rolling out V2 1.1.0.0 Update last month.
This is how support should be :) Next time I know whom I'll give my money
 
Last edited:

rubicoin

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jan 12, 2020
164
104
@rubicoin I'd like to add to your tests:

You have ~1000P in TimeSpy with Ryzen 2200G.
So in terms of iGPU, the Ryzen 4650G (~1300P) > 2400G by kinda "3fps" :) -- for CPU, the 4650G is twice as good, but we know this :).
My result is based on Ryzen 2400G, 16GB DDR4-3200, CL16-18-18-41-61, 1T, BIOS 3.60R, SOC VID=1.13V (to maintain stability in voltage drop)

i'd only add that for igpu performance graphics score is better to compare:
2200g: 901
2400g: 1142
3400g: ~1200
4650g: 1198

so i guess 3400g should be just around 4650g as said, but all 4 igpus provide framerates far from palyable on high 1080p in witcher 3 for example.

(note: i'm not sure why is the cpu score so different in my two 4650g runs above - 6201 vs 7336. maybe 1st run had ram @ 3000 mhz and 2nd @ 3200 mhz, or the dgpu interferes. but anyways, 3400g has a cpu score somewhere around 4000, just an info for Ohmster)
 

Ohmster

Chassis Packer
Nov 23, 2020
16
3
Thanks for all of your information. Couldnt figure that out alone. I only will just do upgrade of RAM for now. When 4650g is cheaper I might exchange it later. If I find a 2400g used for a cheap price I might go for it, and sell 2200g. Gustav your 2400g works with "16GB DDR4-3200, CL16-18-18-41-61, 1T, BIOS 3.60R, SOC VID=1.13V (to maintain stability in voltage drop)." What do I have to do to reach that which 2400g?
I have Bios P 3.60 do I need to change for 3.60R in order to reach 3200 RAM Speed with 2400g? Unfortunately I dont know what SOC VID=1.13V means.
Which RAM did you use? The same I suggested above? Cheers
 

gustav

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jun 18, 2020
193
90
Hej guys got my A300 some time ago and im still happy with it. Nevertheless now I am thinking about an upgrade. For 1080p Video editing and occasional gaming (mostly older ones). Problem also is that iGPU reservates a lot of RAM for internal graphics. I read about reducing this in BIOS is this worth it? I often have firefox and chrome opene with a lot of taps and reach the RAM limit.
Obiviously I am thinking about a RAM upgrade but maybe also CPU. Have you got any hints for me? Is it worth updating for 3400g? ´How much more Power graphicwise would i get in combination with faster Ram like the one above?

Crucial Ballistix TM 16GB Kit DDR4-3200 CL16 was recommend, its around 65 Euros
Does it work fullSpeed with Ryzen 2200g? What would be maximum Speed if it is not.
Thanks for your help, I appreciate it.



Current system :

Ryzen 3 2200g with stock CPU wraith stealth cooler
2x Samsung M471A5244CB0-CTD Arbeitsspeicher, 4 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz CL 20
ADATA SSD 512GB XPG SX8200 Pro PCIe M.2 2280

Hello, Ohmster.

I would like to help you, but I cann't recommend anything on this system. It may work or it may not work. So many mixed results.
My RAM has XMP profile for 3200, so I'm not overclocking the RAM. Read up the thread - there is enough XP being shared :)
I'm overclocking the Ryzen's Intergrated Memory Controller (IMC) which is rated up to 2933MHz for 2000G series - which I know of.
Your milage may vary.

I see no real ability to o/c your Samsung modules. But also my G.Skill - some people report, that even the 3000MHz,CL16 XMP sticks are
not running properly. I have 3200MHz,CL18 G.Skills. I do not recommend anything.

If you want to o/c your Ryzen, you may need to adjust voltages. A300 is very limited.
Here you can see where the SOC VID setting is. Caution! Too high Voltage may degrade/destroy your CPU.
I do not recommend going above 1.2V, but again, when reading up the thread, you'll see members successfully
pushing above 1.2V - so, here we go. Kinda a lottery on its own.



I hope I could help :)
Sincerely,
gustav
 

A300

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Jul 13, 2019
96
14
Thanks for all of your information. Couldnt figure that out alone. I only will just do upgrade of RAM for now. When 4650g is cheaper I might exchange it later. If I find a 2400g used for a cheap price I might go for it, and sell 2200g. Gustav your 2400g works with "16GB DDR4-3200, CL16-18-18-41-61, 1T, BIOS 3.60R, SOC VID=1.13V (to maintain stability in voltage drop)." What do I have to do to reach that which 2400g?
I have Bios P 3.60 do I need to change for 3.60R in order to reach 3200 RAM Speed with 2400g? Unfortunately I dont know what SOC VID=1.13V means.
Which RAM did you use? The same I suggested above? Cheers
If you just need 2400g and only 16GB RAM, you could use Corsair 2x8GB dual channel with serial #
CMSX16GX4M2A2666C18.

This is my setup with BIOS 3.4. OC it to 3200MHz, no problem at all.
 

gustav

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jun 18, 2020
193
90
@A300 just curious, what are your timings @3200 MHz? The modules are CL18-19-19-39 rated at 2666MHz.
Mine are working also fine, but based on feedback I do not want advice someone to buy something,
and then because of my hint the actual outcome may vary.
 

A300

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Jul 13, 2019
96
14
@A300 just curious, what are your timings @3200 MHz? The modules are CL18-19-19-39 rated at 2666MHz.
Mine are working also fine, but based on feedback I do not want advice someone to buy something,
and then because of my hint the actual outcome may vary.
I didn't change anything except for frequency.

Keep in mind though, I test RAM only with CB 15 & CrsytallDisk point to a RAM disk.
Both test passed & on daily used, never had crashed. Tried to tighten the timing was a failure.

It can't be guaranteed that even the same RAM will have same chip. According to Asrock, this Corsair have Corsair chip, but in my case it has micron chip.

Also, RAM that listed in their supported RAM can't be guaranteed will work too with Ryzen/A300.

I had Team's 16GB single channel that is listed, but it couldn't even enter a BIOS.
When I complained about this to Asrock, they sent me a photo that the 'almost same' RAM work with A300.

Both RAM have the same serial #, but the sticker color were different. Their blue. mine black.
How could I knew if only the blue one that worked with A300?
 
  • Like
Reactions: rubicoin

gustav

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jun 18, 2020
193
90
Indeed, very interesting report, thanks, @A300

One thing I find confusing:
Corsair does not produce it's own DRAM chips. There are basically only Samsung, Micron and Hynix. They may be listed as JEDEC partners. Somewhere is also Infenion (and WINBOND in earlier days). But corsair, g.skill, etc are retailers - they buy the chips from those mainly 3 stated before, assemble and sell. :)

They (assemblers) may re-label the chip to hide its roots but yeah. Don't know how common that is.
 
Last edited:

duha21

Chassis Packer
May 27, 2020
18
19
where I can buy the X300 in Europe
 
  • Like
Reactions: ikuzmanov