AMD Ryzen G Quad-Core 3.5 GHz (Raven Ridge) PC build

Transcription

1 AMD Ryzen G Quad-Core 3.5 GHz (Raven Ridge) PC build Parts List: CPU: AMD Ryzen G Quad-Core 3.5GHz MB: Asrock A320M-HDV M-ATX RAM: 16GB Corsair LPX DDR (PC ) HDD 1: ADATA SX PCI 3x4 M.2 SSD HDD 2: WD Blue 2TB 5400RPM 3.5 HDD HDD 3: WD Black 3TB 7200RPM 3.5 HDD Case Fan: Noctua quiet 80mm PWM case fan Case: Hec M-ATX steel case/w 300W PS HDD Rack: istarusa T-7-SA 5.25 to 3.5 SATA I bought the CPU in the middle of January 2018 to replace my home office computer that was running an old Athlon dual core CPU. I mostly ran MS Office for word processing and some spread sheets on it and some music and audio books for entertainment. But it had some problems. So I needed an upgrade. The 2200G seemed interesting with an integrated GPU on the CPU. It was about $99US. And I already had an unused HEC small case. I had used this same case twice before. It is very compact, about 14 1/2 (37cm) wide, 4 (10cm) high and 15 (38cm) deep. I had bought an extra one of the cases, so I had a spare. They were very hard to find at the time. I needed a small Micro ATX motherboard to fit the case. I shopped mostly by MB size and selected an Asrock A320M-HDV MB. It was on special for about $30US. The RAM I already had, 2 dual channel sticks of 8GB Corsair LPX RAM. A bit of overkill, but they were left over from my main PC, the Ryzen in my Computer Details. It would not run at its rated speed in that MB so I replaced it with a more compatible LPX RAM. The WD 2TB HDD was a refurb, about $40US. It is a 5400RPM drive, but OK for my uses. The second HDD is new. The ADATA M.2 was about $60US. The Noctua Fan, about $15US. More than I usually pay, but it was PWM (4 pin Pulse Width Modulated) and I had a PWM system fan header on the MB. PWM fans are easier to control for speed and noise. The HEC case was about $30US, if I recall correctly. Before I assemble a new PC, I study the MB instructions, along with any instructions for the other parts. You can download most of them before purchase or while waiting for delivery. This is one the best ways to avoid mistakes during assembly of the PC.

2 01 The parts used. The box under the StarTech e-sata PCI slot adapter is a istarusa T-7-SA removable drive rack for the second HDD, about $14US on sale. I won t be using an optical drive for this PC. I do have a USB 3.0 optical drive available if I need it. The rack allows me to remove my data drive for secure storage. It also is the backup for the OS. Also shown is my trusty magnetic screwdriver with a #2 Phillips bit, the only tool you usually need. Without it you can drop screws and possibly short out your MB if you don t find them. Not shown is a very small Phillips screwdriver for mounting the M.2 module. 02 The HEC case with the front cover, the main cover and the backplane plate removed. I need the front cover off to install the first HDD and replace the case fan.

3 03 The original 80mm case fan and the Noctua fan. It comes with adapters and extension cables and screws. I did have to remove the brown silicon anti-vibration pieces at the corners as they made too tight of a fit in the fan bay. It is a high quality fan. The original fan was a sleeve bearing model with a three pin connector. Good fans are important for cooling and extending the life of the system.

4 04 Case parts. It has two stands for vertical mounting that I will use for the PC. Also there, a line cord, screw packet for MB and HDD mounting, and instruction manual for the case. I ve already removed the pop out panel covering the 5.25 bay.

5 05 Case wires pulled out of the way. I set the MB on an antistatic pad and check to see which MB standoffs I will use. This case has permanent raised standoffs, so nothing to screw in. If you use screwed in standoffs, they don t need to be that tight. I just use my fingers. I ve already installed the new MB backplane plate. Push it into place carefully by the edges and don t bend the metal fingers for connector shielding. This is also a good time to discuss proper anti-static procedures with motherboards and PC parts. Around here it s quite easy to get a static spark to any metal surface. That can instantly destroy a MB or many active electronic parts. Use a anti-static strap if you have one. Alternatively, take off your shoes and socks as that s what usually generates the static charge. Bare feet don t. Not a good idea in a lab, but fine for home use. I also touch a grounded object before touching any sensitive electronic part. And keep the MB on the supplied anti-static pad until you install it. Keep other components in their anti-static bags. And, yes, I have destroyed PC parts with static discharge long ago. $$

6 06 MB parts to install. First will be the CPU. This one has very many tiny pins, so be careful. The CPU socket is a zero force type, so the CPU just drops in. The CPU and the socket have alignment marks. The metal arm raises to about 90 degrees to open the pin holders. Some Intel CPUs use pads instead of pins. Either way, read the instructions that come with the MB, the cooler and the CPU before assembly. CPUs are expensive. If you slightly bend a pin, you may be able to carefully straighten it. If you break it off, throw the CPU in the trash and never do that again. You can see the MB is on its anti-static pad. Also there is the CPU, the M.2 module, the RAM modules and the CPU cooler. It has a cover over the preapplied thermal paste. Don t remove that until you are ready to place the cooler. Also notice the hold downs for the cooler mounted on the MB. This cooler doesn t use them, so I will remove them. This cooler screws into their mount holes. Keeping it on the anti-static pad also keeps the backplate in place under the MB when the original cooler mounts are removed.

7 07 The Ryzen CPU set into the ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) socket has the retention arm raised. I usually put one finger on the CPU to hold it in place as I lower the arm and lock it. I will clean the top of the CPU with a pad lightly saturated with 90% isopropyl alcohol right before attaching the cooler. Always a good idea as any dust or oil can cause cooling problems. On the lower right corner of the CPU, the holder and the MB, you can see the alignment marks for the CPU installation. The RAM slots are to the left on this photo.

8 08 The cooler attached after the original mounts are removed. I like this system as it s easy to correctly align the cooler with the mounts without smearing the thermal paste on the bottom of the cooler. These mounts just use a Phillips screwdriver to attach. Screw all four mounts to align them, then tighten per the CPU cooler installation instructions. Notice the clearance to the RAM holders. The AMD logo on the left side of the cooler has to face this way for clearance. I also tie a loose knot in the fan lead to keep it from flopping around before I plug it into the fan MB fan connector. You can see the removed original cooler hold downs to the right. Also notice the spacing on the RAM module pins. They only insert one way into the RAM sockets.

9 09 The M.2 and the RAM modules in place, ready to install the MB in the case. You can also see the SATA connectors on the lower right on the MB. Two are vertical and two horizontal. The multiple pins on the lower left, from left to right are the front panel audio connections, the serial port, the printer port (I have no idea why this is here. I guess some parts of the world still use really old printers) Next is the three pin fan connector, the speaker and chassis intrusion connector, and the front panel switch connectors. Directly above these connectors is the M.2 socket. Don t lose the tiny screw for the M.2 module that s included in the MB box. Also shown are the two PCI ports. To the left of them is the TPM (Trusted Platform Module) connector. This is if you plan to use Bitlocker encryption with this MB. It s very hard to find these Asrock modules. And Bitlocker only works with some OS s. W10 Pro is one. Just to the left below the battery is the four pin PWM connector that I will use for the front case fan. One thing missing on this MB is a digital audio out connector, S/PDIF. The MB has 7 channel surround sound, but uses individual connectors for the speaker amps. S/PDIF is what you normally use for coaxial digital audio to a surround sound amplifier. This setup would not be much good for a HTPC home theater setup. Odd it s missing. But

10 you can get a digital audio PCI card for about $25US if you need it. I just need stereo from the rear port for this PC, so no problem. 10 The MB installed in the case. Take care on positioning the MB rear connections into the backplane plate. Don t bend up the shielding tabs. When you insert the MB mounting screws, don t over tighten. Just two fingers on the screwdriver is sufficient. The wiring is installed but not cleaned up yet. I ran the front panel wiring under the MB to keep it out of the way. The yellow wires at the top is the CPU power. The case fan seems an odd color, but you can t see it from outside the case. I did have to remove the silicon anti-vibration ears on the fan as it s a very tight fit otherwise. No drives except the M.2 are attached. The power supply to the upper left is a 300W HEC supply, very quiet and decent quality. More than enough power for this PC that uses a 65W CPU. I should mention that before I power up any new PC, I turn it upside down and shake it to dislodge any loose screws that might have fallen into the case. If you miss one, it can short out the MB and destroy the PC.

11 11 The Windows 10 Pro 64bit OS I planned to be using. I have a new product key for the Ryzen PC. Notice the build date, 07/29/15. It will need a lot of updates.

12 12 Problems. The M.2 module doesn t show in BIOS. Windows OS couldn t find it either. I decided it must be a faulty M.2 module, so I will RMA it. Now a weeks delay for a refund. I ordered a different M.2 module. Didn t work either. Another four days delay. I then decided it must be a bad MB. RMA d that. Another five days delay. Worst, the RMA shipping was $47 UPS, $17US more than I paid for the MB. Probably a bad decision. But I d already filled out the RMA papers and it was

13 approved. 13 Since I was now installing a new MB, I needed to reinstall the CPU and all the rest. I had used the original thermal compound with the first MB, so I needed to clean it off and install new compound. I removed the old compound with a cosmetic pad lightly saturated with 90% isopropyl alcohol. Since the brand of thermal compound I normally used is fairly thick, I put the tubes in warm tap water to soften it. This compound is Gelid GC- Extreme, about $13US. Very good quality, better than Arctic brands, IMO, but hard to apply, and you don t want to get it on your skin.

14 14 Bad news, the new MB didn t see the M.2 either. So I installed W10 on the HDD that I was going to use for data. I temporarily put a DVD drive back in for the install. M.2 still didn t show in BIOS or W10 PRO. And I was running the latest Asrock BIOS. I sent a message to Asrock. Three weeks later, still no reply. Then I happened to return to the Asrock site and a new BIOS had showed up the day before. DL d it to a USB stick, installed it, and NOW the M.2 shows. And two other minor problems were corrected. First my RAM was showing as single channel, while I knew it was dual channel. Now it shows as dual channel. Second, the fans, both CPU and case, were running at full speed and fairly noisy. BIOS fan settings made no difference. With the new BIOS, I had complete control over fan speed. I think Asrock messed up big this time. This MB has been around for a while. I ve used their MBs before with no problems. For this MB my M.2s and RAM were all listed on their site as working correctly.

15 15 Since I already had the W10 Pro OS installed on my HDD, along with a few other files, I decided to just clone it to the now working M.2 drive. I used a free version of Macrium Reflect from ADATA. No problem. I was able to clone the OS data on the HDD to the M.2. Then I got this when I tried to activate. The problem was that I had changed MBs and drives. Not MS s fault. And I did have a valid product key, but not for the version of W10 that I had used. So I went to the MS site and downloaded the latest version of W10, then used Linux Ubuntu Live and deleted the W10 version I had on my M.2 drive. I put the latest version of W10 on a USB drive and my MB could boot from that. Installed W10 with no problems. I installed Start 10 and the other programs that were installed on the HDD. I also wiped the 2TB WD Blue HDD. I should have used the newer W10 from the beginning.

16 16 Then I went to the OS System page. ACTIVATED!

17 17 The completed PC with W10 Pro running and the wiring cleaned up. Notice the minimal clearance between the CPU cooler and the now installed HDD rack. It also has about a 1/4 (6mm) clearance above the RAM. But not a problem as with the case running in the vertical position, it should be plenty cool.

18 18 A closer shot of the wiring. The red SATA cables are to a PCI plate adapter with two PCI esata connectors. I can use these for external drives. Audio out will be over the green audio output jack on the back. I may use a OontZ speaker I already have. I would also kind of like two more USB3.0 outputs on the PCI plate as the rear panel has only four at present, but the half height PCI plate adapters are about $15US. Maybe later if I need it. The MB has an open USB3.0 expansion socket, so easy to set up. The two USB sockets on the front of the case are USB2.0, and won t run at USB3.0 settings because of the wiring. USB3.0 uses more wires.

19 19 The PC in its normal position, also a mini radio keyboard. The radio mouse isn t shown. The receiver is plugged into one of the front USB sockets. The KB stows conveniently on the top of the case. Also shown is my non-contact infrared thermometer. Very handy to check temps in the PC and around the house.

20 18 Another angle of the case. Not much room left over.

21 19 If the MB had been much longer, the HDD rack probably wouldn t have fit.

22 20 The rear panel. The MB can output on DVI-D, VGA and HDMI all at the same time. It would have made a good HTPC if it had a digital audio out. The GPU is fairly powerful. I don t game on this PC, but it has possibilities. It also has a dual PS2 port, so not too hard to run Windows 7. Asrock also has a beta W7 USB patcher on their site.

23 21 First page of the BIOS. Dual channel RAM is working now.

24 22 Not much in the way of overclocking the CPU available here. You can adjust the RAM settings, but that s not much help with no real OC for the CPU. But it s an economy MB.

25 23 All three drives detected in BIOS. The MB can also use SATA M.2 modules.

26 24 The CPU temp is a bit high, but this was when the PC was horizontal. It works better vertical. And I hadn t done any fan tuning yet, but it is very quiet from a foot way. (UPDATE: I just checked it while running vertical and the CPU temp at idle is 31.5Cand the MB is 34C. The ADATA M.2 is 27C. The HDD in the rack is 38C, probably because I disconnected the 40mm fan there. It was noisy, but I may replace it with a quieter one. The second HDD is at 30C. So no real cooling problems at idle. Since the PC isn t doing much of any CPU intensive operations, I m happy with the temps.)

27 25 The home screen with W10 and Start 10 running. The background is a animated video loop from Stardock.

28 26 This was going to be my last resort if the MB wouldn t run the M.2 module. The board plugs into a PCI-E slot and can use a PCI type M.2 module. About $15US, so something to consider if you have a newer PC and an empty PCI-E slot. It also comes with a half-height adapter. Older PCs, maybe, depending on available drivers.

29 References: Sorry this was such a long post. redwudz