, 3 min read

ASRock DeskMini A300M with AMD Ryzen 3400G

Below are some photographs during assembly of the Asrock A300M with an AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 3400G processor.

The Asrock website detailing the specs of the A300M: DeskMini A300 Series.

Three noticable reviews on the A300M:

  1. Anandtech has a very readable review of the A300M: Home> Systems The ASRock DeskMini A300 Review: An Affordable DIY AMD Ryzen mini-PC
  2. A short review from Techspot: Asrock DeskMini A300 Review.
  3. A German review with many photos during assembly: ASRock DeskMini A300 mit AMD Ryzen 5 2400G im Test.

1. CPU. Three photos from the AMD 3400G CPU:

Photo

Photo

Photo

2. Power. The power supply of the A300M will provide at most 19V x 6.32A = 120W. Photo Photo

3. Dimensions. The case has volume of at most two liters, exemplified by the two milk cartons. Photo Photo Photo

Photo

Photo

Photo

4. Mounting. CPU mounted on motherboard. Photo

5. Temperature. I installed a Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 cooler. Running the AMD at full speed with full load shows the following temperature using command sensors:

amdgpu-pci-0300
Adapter: PCI adapter
vddgfx:           N/A
vddnb:            N/A
edge:         +85.0°C  (crit = +80.0°C, hyst =  +0.0°C)

k10temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
Vcore:         1.23 V
Vsoc:          1.07 V
Tctl:         +85.2°C
Tdie:         +85.2°C
Icore:       100.00 A
Isoc:          9.00 A

nvme-pci-0100
Adapter: PCI adapter
Composite:    +57.9°C  (low  =  -0.1°C, high = +74.8°C)
                       (crit = +79.8°C)

nct6793-isa-0290
Adapter: ISA adapter
in0:                   656.00 mV (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +1.74 V)
in1:                     1.86 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in2:                     3.41 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in3:                     3.39 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in4:                   328.00 mV (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in5:                   216.00 mV (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in6:                   448.00 mV (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in7:                     3.39 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in8:                     3.30 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in9:                     1.84 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in10:                  256.00 mV (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in11:                  216.00 mV (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in12:                    1.86 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in13:                    1.71 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in14:                  272.00 mV (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
fan1:                     0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan2:                  2626 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan3:                     0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan4:                     0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan5:                     0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
SYSTIN:                 +97.0°C  (high =  +0.0°C, hyst =  +0.0°C)  sensor = thermistor
CPUTIN:                 +87.5°C  (high = +80.0°C, hyst = +75.0°C)  ALARM  sensor = thermistor
AUXTIN0:                +62.0°C  (high =  +0.0°C, hyst =  +0.0°C)  ALARM  sensor = thermistor
AUXTIN1:                +94.0°C    sensor = thermistor
AUXTIN2:                +90.0°C    sensor = thermistor
AUXTIN3:                +86.0°C    sensor = thermistor
SMBUSMASTER 0:          +85.0°C
PCH_CHIP_CPU_MAX_TEMP:   +0.0°C
PCH_CHIP_TEMP:           +0.0°C
PCH_CPU_TEMP:            +0.0°C
intrusion0:            OK
intrusion1:            ALARM
beep_enable:           disabled

Fully loaded:

  1  [||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||                            52.9%]   Tasks: 120, 405 thr; 5 running
  2  [||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||99.4%]   Load average: 7.28 6.82 6.02
  3  [||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||99.4%]   Uptime: 8 days, 07:27:51
  4  [||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||94.1%]
  5  [|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||100.0%]
  6  [||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||  88.2%]
  7  [|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||                                   44.2%]
  8  [|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||                             50.6%]
  Mem[|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||       28.7G/60.8G]
  Swp[                                                                    0K/0K]

6. Cost breakdown. I bought case and CPU from Mindfactory, fan and SSD from Alternate, RAM from Amazon. At that time during the CoVID pandemic hardware was not easily available.

Part # Single/€ Sum/€
ASRock DeskMini A300 Ryzen HDMI/DP/D-Sub 1 138.80 138.80
Noctua NH-L9a CPU fan 1 39.99 39.99
AMD Ryzen 5 3400G 4x 3.70GHz So.AM4 Tray 1 159.90 159.90
32GB Crucial CT32G4SFD8266 DDR4, 2666 MT/s, SODIMM, 260-Pin, 1.2V, CL19 2 161.26 322.52
SSD 2TB 3.0/3.1G Viper VPN100 M.2 PAT 1 329.00 329.00
990.21

Added, 22-Aug-2020: I noticed that the A300M motherboard has a very significant clock lag. So you are requried to run ntpdate or timesyncd.