Mistakes are the best way to learn?

[Michael McChesney]

I've been trying to build myself a HTPC for my bedroom for a couple of months now.  I built a system with a Ryzen 3200G and a Gigabyte DS3H Wifi MicroAtx board, but it wouldn't post. I decided to order a second DS3H Wifi board ($89 for a B450 w/integrated WiFi seemed like a really good deal), an Athlon processor, and additional memory.  Because of the way shipping was delayed, by the time I identified the first board was the issue it was too late to return it so I had to send it to Gigabyte for warranty service.  In the meantime, I built the system with the second board and it worked fine.  I built it in a Deepcool Matrexx 30 case (with a tempered glass side panel and only $35 on Amazon) I even threw in a bluray drive I had sitting on a shelf because I have lots of DVDs and blurays acquired when they were a thing. But then my sister bought a house and I decided to build her a PC as a housewarming present.  But I decided not to wait for the 1st board to be returned and took the board out of the PC I had just built.  Her PC came out really nice.  I thought about buying another board but pricing and availability been crazy lately.  But then I saw Micro Center  had an Asrock B550m Pro4 MATX board for $114.  I picked it up yesterday and today I rebuilt my PC with it.  Oh and I had put the 3200G in the PC for my sister and I upgraded to a 3400G.  I had left the power cables in place for cable management.  The weird thing was I had to remove them because the new board, also Micro ATX, was wider and covered more of the cable management openings.  But I plugged in all the cables.  I had removed the screws holding the optical drive in place so I could move it forward to make it easier to fit the board in the case.  But when I went to push it back into place I discovered it blocked by the 24 pin connector.  Shows what I know.  The DS3H is 9.6" X 8.5" but Micro ATX can be as large as 9.6" X 9.6".  So I guess my choices are to forget the optical drive, buy a larger case, or replace the B550 with the B450 if and when I ever get it back.  Or I suppose I can just have the drive stick out 1.1"...  

 

If mistakes are the best way to learn I will soon be an expert.  Thanks for listening guys.  I just felt like venting.

[Mateyyy]

I mean hey, at least your sister's PC turned out nicely.

 

Unfortunately I'll have to say that you made one more mistake (or I just didn't notice if you mentioned it), but B550 doesn't support the 3200G and 3400G, since these chips are actually Zen+ and not Zen 2, despite being part of the Ryzen 3000 line. I know, stupid/confusing naming.

[xg32]

every build i've done there's been a minor or major mistake somewhere (like my entire phenom ii build that bsod at stock) As long as it's stable, u good.

[Michael McChesney]

23 hours ago, Mateyyy said:

I mean hey, at least your sister's PC turned out nicely.

 

Unfortunately I'll have to say that you made one more mistake (or I just didn't notice if you mentioned it), but B550 doesn't support the 3200G and 3400G, since these chips are actually Zen+ and not Zen 2, despite being part of the Ryzen 3000 line. I know, stupid/confusing naming.

I didn't try it with the 3200G, but this B550 board works with my 3400G.  I know AMD started backtracking on ending backwards compatibility, but I think they would have worked together regardless.  The 3200G and 3400G are the highest end AMD CPUs with integrated graphics.  I would think ASROCK would want their boards to be compatible, otherwise why would they put HDMI, Display Port, and D-Sub in their rear IO?

Edited June 30, 2020 by Michael McChesney
I had written "discrete" when I meant "integrated."

[Mateyyy]

13 hours ago, Michael McChesney said:

I would think ASROCK would want their boards to be compatible, otherwise why would they put HDMI, Display Port, and D-Sub in their rear IO?

Upcoming Zen 2 APUs (Ryzen 4000), which will allegedly include an 8-core 4700G, which will be quite an interesting chip if you ask me.

If your B550 board works with the 3400G then that's great to know. I also thought that not supporting current-gen APUs, at least initially, was quite an odd decision on AMD's part.

[Haro]

14 hours ago, Michael McChesney said:

didn't try it with the 3200G, but this B550 board works with my 3400G

Wait really ?! 

That's interesting lol.

[glennhl]

Forget about the internal Optical Drive and get an external one.  This is the one I got and it works great:

 

https://www.amazon.com/External-Haiway-Portable-Rewriter-Superdrive/dp/B07DW88R9R/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=KMA466A38DJZ&dchild=1&keywords=haiway+external+cd+drive&qid=1593534401&sprefix=haiway+%2Caps%2C206&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFJUkFUVk0zRVE0SFUmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA1ODk3MDEzSFlOM1dVUUdVSlNLJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA5OTg2OTYyV0c4WVc5RElJMTBCJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

[Michael McChesney]

5 hours ago, glennhl said:

Forget about the internal Optical Drive and get an external one.  This is the one I got and it works great:

 

https://www.amazon.com/External-Haiway-Portable-Rewriter-Superdrive/dp/B07DW88R9R/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=KMA466A38DJZ&dchild=1&keywords=haiway+external+cd+drive&qid=1593534401&sprefix=haiway+%2Caps%2C206&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFJUkFUVk0zRVE0SFUmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA1ODk3MDEzSFlOM1dVUUdVSlNLJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA5OTg2OTYyV0c4WVc5RElJMTBCJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

Speaking of mistakes.  On my first PC build, I thought it would be nice if it could play 4K Blurays, so I bought a 4K internal drive.  Then I discovered in order to play a 4K disk I would need Cyberlink Power DVD software that cost more than the drive did.  Since I am the only one with access to my PC, I wanted it to boot without asking for a password.  But the 4K DRM wouldn't allow me to play a 4K movie unless I had a higher level of security enabled.  So I decided that occasionally playing a 4K movie was not worth the daily inconvenience.  I ended up hardly using it.  Fast forward a year and I started folding at home and found my 9900K would run way too hot unless I disabled most of the cores.  I decided to upgrade from a Hyper 212 to a 360mm AIO.  That's when I realized it wouldn't fit with an optical drive installed.  Which is how that drive ended up on a shelf.  

 

I actually have a an external DVD burner sitting in a box.  I got it about 15 years ago and it is quite bulky by modern standards.  I also have a kit that will let me connect an internal SATA hard drive via USB 3.  I imagine it would work with my bluray drive, though I wouldn't be shocked to discover there is a reason it wouldn't work.  But at the moment the drive is connected internally but sticking out of the case.  I think I'll leave it like that until I come across a larger case I like that isn't too expensive.  If/when I get that board back from Gigabyte I'll build something with it and that something will probably need a case.

Edited June 30, 2020 by Michael McChesney
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