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Birth of my first am4 system

Order

6feb23: after no replies on 2dehands.be, decided to take the plunge and ordered this mobo:

=> https://pg.asrock.com/MB/AMD/B550M%20PG%20Riptide/index.us.asp#CPU

deciding factors:

https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/480437/asrock-u2-kit-m2-to-u2/specificaties/

Not sure if that will be usefull. If so, should acquire it while it still exists.

Yikes, it went from 40 to 100euro according to Tweakers.nl

" The U.2 Kit ASRock allows the user to use U.2 drives on motherboards without appropriate interface. However, what is needed is a M.2 port at which the small adapter card is installed. It works as a kind of amplifier to maintain signal strength at the same level. This peculiarity of the adapter reaches 32 Gbit / s is an equal velocity as the Pattern 2 slots. Theoretically, two of these cards can be operated in RAID in combination with a Z170 mainboard, which enables a maximum capacity of 64 Gbit / s could be achieved."

" U.2 compared with M.2

U.2 allows hot-swap,[8] whereas M.2 does not.[9]

U.2 can use 3.3 V or 12 V for power,[8] while M.2 only supports 3.3 V."

"While the U.2 standard does not imply a form factor of the device that uses it, in practice U.2 is used only on 2.5" SSDs. 2.5" drives are typically physically larger than M.2 drives and thus typically have larger capacities."

All I can tell is that u.2 (listed as 2.5inch on tweakers.nl, somewhat confusingly) are more expensive than m.2 drives. Also seems to be 3x as expensive as sata ssd drives (also listed as 2,5inch...).

Also comes with "front panel usb headers" so that silly usb2.0 3.5inch hub can finally go :-)

2xpciE x16, 1x pcie x1 slot. 1 m2 socket for wifi? something extra I need to buy: 2230 wifi/bt pci2 module. It would be cool if the bios and grub could be controlled with a bt keyboard; otherwise this seems rather optional. I guess this will cost me 1 of the 2 m2 slots? I Wonder if I can recuperate this from the dead chromebook... I have a perfectly fine wifi adapter on usb3 though; not sure I'd bother. Maybe an alternative to a wifi6 access point for the Quest2? Hmm, alfa has these things for wifi6:

https://www.alfa.com.tw/collections/wifi-6-6e-module

But, no BT out of the box. Will need to research well.

might work: https://www.alfa.com.tw/products/ax200ngw?variant=39287305535560

Added the Ryzen 5 4500 cpu (not 4500U), easily best value available now. The only ones coming close were 3600 awof and 5500. I can always upgrade to a much faster 5700x, r7 5800x or r9 5950x but their current bang for the buck is very low.

no "G" cpu for me; I bought it to pair it with a capable GPU (the GTX 1660super I have now). I might upgrade it later with a nice high end Radeon gpu, just to have something different this time than nvidia (should suit linux better too) but will have to investigate possible complicatons more. Especially streaming to moonlight and oculusquest2.

Got 2x16 gb of ram, should be enough for now, will watch prices for a second (larger) pair.

Corsair Vengeance LPX - GeheugenDDR4 - 32 GB: 2 x 16 GB - 288-PIN - 3600 MHz / PC4 aka CMK32GX4M2D3600C18 are not on the website of the motherboard, oops. First minor error.

only azerty.nl seemed to have the mobo I was looking for; not many am4 boards have m2 and usb3.2 gen 2. Hopefully their return policy will be solid if I need to return the ram. Amazon had a 4week waiting time on the motherboard...

downloaded manual, windows drivers and bios updates. Watched a video on how to install it, does not seem so complicated: open the lever, match the corner with the triangle, let the cpu drop in, close lever. My 4500 should come with a stock cooler, but I'm ready to install the Cooler Master evo 212 instead (recuperate it from the clarkdale).

probably will install mobo firmware update asap to ensure compatibility with the cpu & memory.

7feb23: waiting for the arrival...

Bench install outside the case.

I will mount the stock cooler after inserting the cpu, and then add the dimms. I will have to bring over the gpu, and power connections from the clarkdale, if possible without installing the mobo immediately; I should check all ports are working before putting in the work.

OSes: The mobo should come with some extra sata cables, good. I can use the 1tb drive I recuperated from the MSI laptop as a bootdrive, or maybe the puny 160gb I have lying around; If the win10 install works, I will try to recuperate the windows10 eval install from the clarkdale, but hopes are not high. It was going to expire in about a month anyway. Linux install can be recuperated (Kali install from 2021).

in the case

I can no longer find the manual for my nzxt vulcan case... I will have to check the headers the cables are connected to now, and put them in their respective places on the new mobo.

new headers:

9 Front Panel Type C USB 3.2 Gen1 Header (F_USB3_TC_1): connect to usb-c as it says, amazon has a cable for that

10 USB 3.2 Gen1 Header (F_USB3_1_2): 19pin header, for usb3 frontpanel I presume. It looks like that "joystick port" connector.

These could connect with this:

https://www.amazon.nl/GRAUGEAR-frontpaneel-Type-C%C2%AE-PC-frontpaneel-G-MP01/dp/B09QXF1TDS/ref=sr_1_5?__mk_nl_NL=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&keywords=usb+c+frontpanel&sr=8-5

m2slots are next to pci ports, 1 "long" and 1 "short"

see manual for supported m2.ssd types, biggest is SKC1000/960GB NVME (bios upgrade may add more types)

Vermeer, Matisse) or Gen3x4 (32 Gb/s) mode (with Cezanne, Renoir and Picasso). NVME I guess?? or M.2_SSD (NGFF) Module

the asrock appshot (windows) has a "3tb+ unlocker" so support bigger hdds... weird.

4 case fan headers, like the old mobo I think.

rgb led1/2 & addr_led1/2: likely not usable in my case...

usb2 headers: should match the case

18 USB 2.0 Header (USB_3_4)

19 USB 2.0 Header (USB_5_6)

another new one: TPM

SPI_TPM_J1

POsT leds on mobo

Post Status Checker (PSC) diagnoses the computer when users power on the

machine. It emits a red light to indicate whether the CPU, memory, VGA or storage is dysfunctional. The lights go off if the four mentioned above are functioning

normally.