ASUS PRIME Z370-A Running Great On Linux

[phoronix]

Phoronix: ASUS PRIME Z370-A Running Great On Linux

For those looking at assembling a new system around Intel's 8th Gen Core "Coffee Lake" CPUs, the motherboard I've been conducting most of my Linux tests from has been the ASUS PRIME Z370-A. A few weeks of use with this motherboard, I'm happy with this Intel Z370 motherboard.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=25396

[johanb]

> Supports HDMI 1.4b with max. resolution 4096 x 2160 @ 24 Hz / 2560 x 1600 @ 60 Hz
> Supports DisplayPort with max. resolution 4096 x 2304 @ 60 Hz

So no HDMI 2.0?

Is it a chipset limitation or a Coffee lake limitation?

[leipero]

Can't go wrong with ASUS, my next board, whatever platform will be ASUS.

[Jabberwocky]

Can't go wrong with ASUS, my next board, whatever platform will be ASUS.

I hope you have better luck than me. My PRIME X370-PRO advertises "DDR4 3200(O.C.)/2933(O.C.)/2666/2400/2133 MHz". I have 3200 MHz ram in the machine, but it won't POST if I set it to anything above 2133 MHz. I have the latest BIOS updates. My friend's "ASRock AMD Fatal1ty X370 Pro" runs the same chipset and ram at 3200 MHz. My windows PC uses Gigabyte (z77) not happy with that board either. Not sure if people should call me bad luck Brian or if I should just try ASRock in the future.

[schmidtbag]

I hope you have better luck than me. My PRIME X370-PRO advertises "DDR4 3200(O.C.)/2933(O.C.)/2666/2400/2133 MHz". I have 3200 MHz ram in the machine, but it won't POST if I set it to anything above 2133 MHz. I have the latest BIOS updates. My friend's "ASRock AMD Fatal1ty X370 Pro" runs the same chipset and ram at 3200 MHz. My windows PC uses Gigabyte (z77) not happy with that board either. Not sure if people should call me bad luck Brian or if I should just try ASRock in the future.

Asus has a tendency to use different default settings than their competitors, which don't always yield desirable results. Pay very close attention to all of the differences in settings, including things like GearDown or command rate, which can make all the difference. Even my Biostar X370 board managed to overclock my 3GHz RAM to 3.2GHz while keeping the original 14ns latency. On top of all of this, the module is marketed only for Intel use, and was released before Ryzen. However, I pretty much can't touch anything related to RAM other than command rate, voltage, and frequency. Anything else and the system is rendered unbootable, and CMOS eventually resets. I can even manually set all the timings to the same values specified in the XMP profile and my system won't boot. There isn't much flexibility.

My point is, your Asus board is probably fine, you just need to override some of the defaults.

[leipero]

Jabberwocky It's tricky thing to choose right motherboard for your needs, and you always need to pay attention to "officially supported RAM modules" list for motherboard you choose, it's really useful information people often miss. Yeah, if ASUS is too expensive 2nd option is ASRock, i had only one motherboard from ASRock and it was amazing, and every PC i worked on with ASRock motherboards worked really well (but same goes for ASUS in my experience).

So no, I'm not having good luck with motherboards either, but with little bit of research I can get acceptable board in specific price range. Try RAM from what is listed on ASUS website, I'm sure you will be happy with it, if not, them maybe RMA.

[starshipeleven]

the module is marketed only for Intel use, and was released before Ryzen.

No wait, is this still a thing?

I thought we left behind these kinds of RAM issues with DDR2.

[schmidtbag]

No wait, is this still a thing?

I thought we left behind these kinds of RAM issues with DDR2.

This is the product I got (though I got it a year ago, where it was over 50% cheaper):
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16820231873
Note how it's spececific to Intel X99, and at the bottom of the Overview tab it only shows Intel support.

To be fair, this was released before AMD had any DDR4 support. But also keep in mind many memory brands do the opposite, where they release sticks specifically for AMD. Obviously, nothing prevents you from using these modules elsewhere, which is why I bought this pack without any regrets - works great in my Ryzen build. In my eyes, it's just a gimmick. If the price is right, that's what I care about.

[starshipeleven]

In my eyes, it's just a gimmick.

Yeah thankfully it is. Back in DDR2 days it was an actual issue, I was getting scared the old days were back.

[Jabberwocky]

Jabberwocky It's tricky thing to choose right motherboard for your needs, and you always need to pay attention to "officially supported RAM modules" list for motherboard you choose, it's really useful information people often miss. Yeah, if ASUS is too expensive 2nd option is ASRock, i had only one motherboard from ASRock and it was amazing, and every PC i worked on with ASRock motherboards worked really well (but same goes for ASUS in my experience).

So no, I'm not having good luck with motherboards either, but with little bit of research I can get acceptable board in specific price range. Try RAM from what is listed on ASUS website, I'm sure you will be happy with it, if not, them maybe RMA.

Not trying to be stubborn, but the QVL does not have any 64 GB entries for 3200 MHz and I can't get most of the modules unless I import it. I currently have 4 x 16 GB 3200 G.SKILL and would like to try playing around with the automatic settings as schmidtbag suggested, but it's already running various services including firewall. I would still buy Asus above Gigabyte any day regardless of price.

PS: I'm busy porting my services to https://github.com/openstack/stackube it's going to take few months, doing it in my free time. After that I can take my system down to tweak it.