139€95
Motherboard bought in September 2018, burnt out in October 2020.
I still don't know where it came from, a visual inspection revealed no warped/unsoldered/burnt components. There was no smell of burning. Nothing. It just died almost exactly two years after purchase.
Symptoms: A CPU fan that sizzles when the power is turned on and off but stays still the rest of the time, everything else seems to work normally (the graphics card fan behaves normally, for example), except that the CM doesn't respond to an 8-second press of the power button, and nothing connected to it seems to respond (keyboard (USB), mouse (USB), headphones (jack), display (HDMI)).
The physical environment around the box was as stable as could be (it was just me at my desk). The power supply was behind an on-line inverter. This is simply inexplicable.
Otherwise, the BIOS interface was slow, but still drinkable as long as you don't mess with the CPU configuration options (unorthodox option naming), or the advanced power options (incomprehensible interface). Negative point: no TPM extension possible. I've never used Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, so I can't comment on these options, but the supplied antennas are discreet and robust, so I re-used them instead of those supplied with the Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI (which I took as a replacement).
Other details, but not related to the CM itself:
* The temperature and fan speed sensors are not properly supported under Linux (Nuvoton chip already registered, but AsRock specific version?)
* Sound controller support under Linux is unacceptable. The outgoing sound is of poor quality, and the incoming sound simply crackles.
The motherboard itself is well laid out, the ports are where you'd expect them to be and according to the box, the latest series are "Ryzen 3000 Ready". All in all a CM with a good price point and an interesting proposition.
Except that the position of the VRMs and their shielding is an absolute disgrace (not to be vulgar).
I've built PCs, and it would never have occurred to me that the original AMD fume hood of the 3200G would touch the 2 VRMs on top, the same VRMs that have a piece of metal in the middle.
The result was that when I plugged the PC into the mains:
-short circuit with sparks (literally) at the VRMs, which burns them and makes the CM out of order (with a good burnt smell)
-burnt out power supply
-all the power in my flat blows out
The worst thing is that I followed the installation instructions. This has never happened to me (I was stunned by the scene, that's all), but surprisingly the CPU survived.
I subsequently bought the Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI, and I can tell you straight away that the position of the VRMs as well as their height seem much more coherent (I looked at some visuals of competing CMs and the observation is the same).
In short, unless you have made a mistake in the assembly, which I doubt very much (and even so! a minimum of shielding is the basis), avoid mounting the original Ryzen 3 3200G ventirad.
And in any case, make sure that the VRMs do not come into contact with your cooling system! This may save you a few bucks.
I'm terribly disappointed with Asrock, though this isn't my first CM with them.
I've never had to clear cmos, the card rebooted and reset the bios... Stable and relatively complete motherboard for itx at this price.... This is my second asrock itx after a b350...
B450 chipset with updated BIOS for 3rd generation Ryzen processors. Plenty of USB ports, including a Type-C port that can deliver 3A for quick phone charging. Audio 5.1 and optical for home cinema use. BIOS for overclocking the CPU and RAM. Multiple connections for RGB. Does what I expect it to do in office and gaming use very well.
Mounted with a Ryzen 3600 and 2*8GB of Ballistik RAM at 3.2Gh.
Bios updated by LDLC before delivery.
The card never booted the first time, it took between 5 and 10 reboots to get to the BIOS.
Impossible to save configuration changes in the BIOS.
Same behaviour after updating to the latest BIOS in September.
It failed me 6 months after the first startup (black screen, impossible to access BIOS + reboot in loop).
Replaced by a Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI which works much better!
Still waiting for the closure of the SAV file opened more than 3 weeks ago.
No complaints, this motherboard gives me full satisfaction.
Also 3 fan connections is a plus.
Mounted with a Ryzen 5 2600 and an Artic Cooling Freezer 13.
Attention, the Freezer 13 can only be put in one direction [fan blow direction] (towards the graphics card or 180°), but it cannot be turned 90° (towards memory slots or external sockets) like on my old CM (Asrock H170M-ITX/DL).
ClearCMOS slot under the graphics card not the most sensible.
Works very well under Kubuntu 19.10, all drivers are there (small problem of detection of T° CPU with the Thermal Monitor), I did not test the WiFi.
- The M.2 PCIe slot is located under the motherboard, which can be problematic for cooling.
- There is no non-Windows support, impossible to know which sensor corresponds to which device and to which physical measurement, and ASRock refuses to communicate this information. To access this information under Linux, reverse engineering will be required.
- The UEFI/BIOS must be updated to support Zen 2+, fortunately LDLC offers this service
- The doc is not a model of simplicity for the commissioning. Nothing difficult in itself, but absolutely not user oriented. The same goes for the online doc, there are two documents that more or less overlap, you have to dig to find the information.
- The BIOS interface is particularly stupid in some places (you only need to press one key to trigger a connected fan performance re-detection, which is uninterruptible and takes long minutes to run... The BIOS doesn't detect the right DDR4 frequency, you have to copy them by hand. A lot of parameters, and not easy to know which ones are correctly detected and which ones are crazy. Instead of having a Christmas tree interface, it would be more useful to provide a simple, but effective configuration system. The RAM configuration section is particularly unintelligible. Of course there are worse things... but that's no excuse.
In short, it's a cheap card with an AM4 slot because it's a bit outdated (B450, PCIe v3, WiFi5, BT4.2, ...) that supports, after upgrading, AMD 3xxx, so for a tight budget it's acceptable.
I bought this motherboard in a non-OS configuration to run Linux. The installation of Ubuntu 19.04 went like clockwork, without touching anything in the BIOS.
I didn't need to go fishing for drivers: the audio chipset, Ethernet and WiFi are recognized and functional as soon as I install it.
It is recommended for anyone who wants a compact, high-performance Linux workstation without the hassle.
To go with an R5 2600: it's top notch.
The layout is well done, with the SATA sockets accessible (and not hidden behind the Ram or a Pci-E port....), there are 3 PWM/DC sockets to regulate the ventilation with the F-Tuning software, the said fan sockets are accessible once the rad is installed (and it's good to plug/unplug the fan for example), the Uefi is rather clear and simple to use (I don't use the processor, pro use). The 433 mbps Wi fi AC is sufficient for many uses, but it may limit the fiber connections or VDSL....
But for the price, it's the best mini itx card which is only surpassed by the Asus Strix at 200 eur.
Go for it!
