ASRock AB350 Pro4: A Decent, Linux-Friendly Ryzen Motherboard For As Low As $69 USD

[phoronix]

Phoronix: ASRock AB350 Pro4: A Decent, Linux-Friendly Ryzen Motherboard For As Low As $69 USD

Two weeks back I picked up the ASRock AB350 Pro4 for a low-end AMD Ryzen motherboard for use with some of the Ryzen 3 CPUs and it's been working out well for those wanting a Ryzen Linux system and not looking to spend much money. With it working out well for my purposes and currently being on sale, I figured I'd pass along this quick recommendation for those wanting to assemble a budget Ryzen Linux system.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=25079

[thebear]

Does ECC work out of the box on this MB under linux?
An answer to that question on superuser suggests that the support is "partial":

https://superuser.com/questions/1208761/how-to-test-whether-ecc-is-working-properly

(the answer references this article: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...deep-dive.html)

Does anybody know what the status is on ECC on Ryzen (3)? (I'm thinking about using it as a NAS server with btrfs/zfs)

[jamesgor13579]

The state of ECC support on Ryzen motherboards is annoyingly hard to figure out. This board looks great, but ECC is a must have feature.

[cj.wijtmans]

Does WOL work? (if ALX then no)

[c2h5oh]

AFAIK all Ryzen CPUs support ECC, but it's not validated on that platform.
There was some kind of an issue with kernels < 4.11.3: https://forum.level1techs.com/t/ryze...h-ecc/114654/7

The article at HardwareCanucks has some false information - Linux doesn't halt by default on uncorrectable error - see https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documenta...ot-options.txt

[K8p6RxyM]

I'm also considering the ASRock AB350 Pro4 + Ryzen 3 for a ZFS backup server.

I'm using a Ryzen 1700 on an ASRock AB350M Pro4 micro ATX board with 2 x 8 GiB Crucial CT8G4WFS824A. ECC appears to work, but I haven't seen any uncorrected/corrected errors yet. The amd64_edac module of the 4.9 kernel has no Ryzen support, but the 4.11 kernel has:

root@natrium:~# uname -a
Linux natrium 4.11.0-0.bpo.1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.11.6-1~bpo9+1 (2017-07-09) x86_64 GNU/Linux

kernel log:
[   26.090813] EDAC MC: Ver: 3.0.0
[   26.092366] MCE: In-kernel MCE decoding enabled.
[   26.093996] EDAC amd64: Node 0: DRAM ECC enabled.
[   26.093997] EDAC amd64: F17h detected (node 0).
[   26.094043] EDAC MC: UMC0 chip selects:
[   26.094044] EDAC amd64: MC: 0:     0MB 1:     0MB
[   26.094045] EDAC amd64: MC: 2:  8192MB 3:     0MB
[   26.094045] EDAC amd64: MC: 4:     0MB 5:     0MB
[   26.094046] EDAC amd64: MC: 6:     0MB 7:     0MB
[   26.094048] EDAC MC: UMC1 chip selects:
[   26.094048] EDAC amd64: MC: 0:     0MB 1:     0MB
[   26.094049] EDAC amd64: MC: 2:  8192MB 3:     0MB
[   26.094049] EDAC amd64: MC: 4:     0MB 5:     0MB
[   26.094050] EDAC amd64: MC: 6:     0MB 7:     0MB
[   26.094050] EDAC amd64: using x8 syndromes.
[   26.094050] EDAC amd64: MCT channel count: 2
[   26.094378] EDAC MC0: Giving out device to module amd64_edac controller F17h: DEV 0000:00:18.3 (INTERRUPT)
[   26.094415] EDAC PCI0: Giving out device to module amd64_edac controller EDAC PCI controller: DEV 0000:00:18.0 (POLLED)
[   26.094416] AMD64 EDAC driver v3.5.0

root@natrium:~# edac-util -v
mc0: 0 Uncorrected Errors with no DIMM info
mc0: 0 Corrected Errors with no DIMM info
mc0: csrow2: 0 Uncorrected Errors
mc0: csrow2: mc#0csrow#2channel#0: 0 Corrected Errors
mc0: csrow2: mc#0csrow#2channel#1: 0 Corrected Errors
edac-util: No errors to report.

root@natrium:~# dmidecode -t memory
# dmidecode 3.0
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 3.0 present.

Handle 0x000C, DMI type 16, 23 bytes
Physical Memory Array
        Location: System Board Or Motherboard
        Use: System Memory
        Error Correction Type: Multi-bit ECC
        Maximum Capacity: 64 GB
        Error Information Handle: 0x000B
        Number Of Devices: 4

Handle 0x0013, DMI type 17, 40 bytes
Memory Device
        ....

Handle 0x0015, DMI type 17, 40 bytes
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x000C
        Error Information Handle: 0x0014
        Total Width: 128 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 8192 MB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: DIMM 1
        Bank Locator: CHANNEL A
        Type: DDR4
        Type Detail: Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered)
        Speed: 2400 MHz
        Manufacturer: Micron Technology
        Serial Number: 14C9F7A5
        Asset Tag: Not Specified
        Part Number: 9ASF1G72AZ-2G3B1    
        Rank: 1
        Configured Clock Speed: 1200 MHz
        Minimum Voltage: 1.2 V
        Maximum Voltage: 1.2 V
        Configured Voltage: 1.2 V

Handle 0x0018, DMI type 17, 40 bytes
Memory Device
        ....

Handle 0x001A, DMI type 17, 40 bytes
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x000C
        Error Information Handle: 0x0019
        Total Width: 128 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 8192 MB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: DIMM 1
        Bank Locator: CHANNEL B
        Type: DDR4
        Type Detail: Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered)
        Speed: 2400 MHz
        Manufacturer: Micron Technology
        Serial Number: 14C9F799
        Asset Tag: Not Specified
        Part Number: 9ASF1G72AZ-2G3B1    
        Rank: 1
        Configured Clock Speed: 1200 MHz
        Minimum Voltage: 1.2 V
        Maximum Voltage: 1.2 V
        Configured Voltage: 1.2 V

[oooverclocker]

Does ECC work out of the box on this MB under linux?

It does work out of the box but make sure that you have the newest bios because with one version at the beginning it was broken for me.
I'm running this board with a [email protected] and 32GiB DDR4 ECC VLP by Crucial@3200MHz CL20.

MCE: In-kernel MCE decoding enabled.
[    3.472129] EDAC amd64: Node 0: DRAM ECC enabled.
[    3.472130] EDAC amd64: F17h detected (node 0).
[    3.472166] EDAC MC: UMC0 chip selects:
[    3.472166] EDAC amd64: MC: 0:     0MB 1:     0MB
[    3.472167] EDAC amd64: MC: 2: 16383MB 3: 16383MB
[    3.472167] EDAC amd64: MC: 4:     0MB 5:     0MB
[    3.472168] EDAC amd64: MC: 6:     0MB 7:     0MB
[    3.472170] EDAC MC: UMC1 chip selects:
[    3.472170] EDAC amd64: MC: 0:     0MB 1:     0MB
[    3.472171] EDAC amd64: MC: 2: 16383MB 3: 16383MB
[    3.472171] EDAC amd64: MC: 4:     0MB 5:     0MB
[    3.472172] EDAC amd64: MC: 6:     0MB 7:     0MB
[    3.472172] EDAC amd64: using x8 syndromes.
[    3.472173] EDAC amd64: MCT channel count: 2
[    3.472273] EDAC MC0: Giving out device to module amd64_edac controller F17h: DEV 0000:00:18.3 (INTERRUPT)
[    3.472281] EDAC PCI0: Giving out device to module amd64_edac controller EDAC PCI controller: DEV 0000:00:18.0 (POLLED)
[    3.472282] AMD64 EDAC driver v3.5.0

I can recommend this board to anyone who needs a reliable board for Linux with ECC support and doesn't exceed decent overclocking. When you like to use watercooling or LN2 you should definitely spend more money because the MOSFETs are not made for such high load.
(Edit: Assuming you think you had enough headroom with the CPU temperature and get cocky when your CPU cooler is too effective. And there would be lack of airflow around the CPU area.)

[OneBitUser]

I use an AB350M Pro4 (the mATX variant of this board), with a Ryzen 5 1600X running along happily at 4,1GHz.
I have had no issues with it under linux, and in the mATX size it is actually one of the better boards to buy, since as of yet there are no high-end AM4 mATX boards available.

The feature set is great for the mATX variant too:

• 4 DDR4 slots
• cooled voltage regulation circuitry
• one PCIe x4 m.2 slot and another SATA3 m.2
• first expansion card slot is an x1 PCIe slot, so cooler clearance is excellent
• adequate number of SATA and USB ports for most people
• no LEDs, but a header is included for them
• VERY decent price (around 70-80$/€ around here)

[dwagner]

While speaking of motherboard sensors: Does anybody know why the months-old changes to the IT87 sensor kernel driver, which are required to read the motherboard sensors on some ASUS boards (such as the X370 PRO), are still only available in https://github.com/groeck/it87/commits/master - but do not seem to make it into even linux-next?

[starshipeleven]

While speaking of motherboard sensors: Does anybody know why the months-old changes to the IT87 sensor kernel driver, which are required to read the motherboard sensors on some ASUS boards (such as the X370 PRO), are still only available in https://github.com/groeck/it87/commits/master - but do not seem to make it into even linux-next?

AFAIK last info about the issue was here, around 20 days ago https://github.com/groeck/lm-sensors...ment-319867502

EDIT: tl;dr
1. documentation is lacking so something is still flaky, bridgeman said he would try to get the documentation published or at least to allow an NDA with an exemption about open source drivers for that
2. none had time to upstream that driver yet as it seems to require quite a bit of work