This build might be...interesting

[claydoh]

..and hopefully cheeep as, once I am done.



Yes, that is a mobile processor on an M-ATX board, lol! Not replaceable. And an “engineering sample”. It hasn't arrived yet, so I haven't actually seen it.

Then I just scored a decent enough open box case for cheap, too. (~$36 USD)
I was going to get the version with wood accents as it matches the living room decor lol, but saving is saving.

Now, I just need a cooler and a PSU. I have ram.

[Qqmike]

Huh, interesting, cool! Keep us posted

[notabug]

I looked up the processor. Looks promising.

[claydoh]

It ended up not being interesting, or not interesting in a good way.


I tested the mobo briefly before going to bed. The fans powered on and lit up, but no post. I suspected the RAM -- a set I purchased new (in late 2023/early 2023), but have been sitting in a parts bin for at least a year and a half.
These oddball boards can be sensitive to the type of RAM used, either, so I wasn't overly concerned as I still was waiting for new memory, knowing that the ones I had might be dead.

Two days, I do get the new ram, but the board is ded dead. No fans, nothing. All the power pins on the new PSU read the correct voltages.

So, Plan B:
Budget AMD setup:
Ryzen 5 5600GT 6 Core AM4 4.60GHz CPU
Asus Prime B550M-K ARGB AM4 mATX Motherboard

The mobo has a USB-C header, and my case has a USB-C port in addition to 2 USB-3 ports on its panel, which saves me getting an addon card (for now). ARGB, because why not?? No built in WiFi, but I don't need or want that.

I went with the GT instead of the non-GT processor as I need an APU, until I can get a proper GPU,
and I think I have some growing room for beefier processors down the line as they become cheaper on the used market. But I did lose half of the L3 cache.
I was very dumb and only got 16Gb of memory. Ooh my wallet
On the plus side, if my old memory is good, I have 16Gb of that plus 32-40Gbs of laptop sodimms I can sell on Ebay in addition to the new 16Gb I got. and offset the price of 32 lol. Or maybe a GPU.
Ram first, methinks.

Now, I think I may have shorted or scraped the Erying board on a standoff, maybe possibly. Not really sure but I have been a klutz, historically. No marks I can see.
I will attempt to RMA the board. I am still interested in how these things work, but I think I will try for a refund as opposed to replacement, but I will bet I will just have to just eat the $130 USD

Now, the normal hardware test booted just dandy.
I connected my two nvme drives (using my existing KDE neon install ) and of course everything Just Works.
This is my first AMD desktop since I had Duron and Athlon XP setups way back in the day.