Are Asrock Mini ITX Motherboards as Bad as I Have Heard?

[DullardDuck]

Hello there. I am in the process of speccing out my lil workstation box that will host my Autodesk, Adobe, and Pixologic perpetually licensed software. If you have watched any of Louis Rossman or Missingpartsclub's clubs videos then you know how much that is a total lie and there is no intent of keeping the licensing servers online or providing a work around solution after the fact. Adobe is a little bit more gracious than Autodesk but I am not holding my breath.

Inspired by one of Louis's videos, I intend to create an air-gapped W10 Mini ITX PC to replace my laptop (whose sale will help fund this thing) and to create multiple redundant copies of the O.S. after I have all of my software installed, licensed, and configured. I will be reusing a few parts I have lying around, like a 32GB DDR4 kit, which means I will be going with last gen but I still want front panel USB 3 Gen 2 for transferring massive files in a haste.

For this reason, the only motherboards that I can generally find new that meets my requirements and have not jumped comically in price (CAD) are Asrock but I keep hearing anecdotes of buggy BIOS's and sudden hardware failures. Since longevity and stability are paramount, are these issues really that bad or just overblown?

If they really are that bad then what B550 or X570 Mini ITX motherboard would you recommend I buy used? I am trying to stay under 300$ CAD if at all possible.

Thank you for any help.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Hello buddy/guy/friend

Considering you want something to work with and do lots of productivity software, I made a build for you, with parts that you will find in the Canadian market:

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/wtmCCd

- Ryzen 7800X3D is a great all-rounder CPU that will both play and work hard
- Noctua cooling
- AM5 DDR5 motherboard that is upgradable (no point investing on niche AM4 systems right now)
- DDR5 kit that's known to be greatly compatible so you won't have any headache
- GeForce card because it's much better on productivity
- Decent power supply

Cons: could be a little cheaper but all of these parts are high quality, look great and perform nice, too

If you can afford something like this build, i'd 100% go for it. If you can't, defining a budget will help figure everything out. Happy holidays and merry Christmas

 

[ty_ger]

Are their certain Asrock boards which have buggy BIOSes or sudden hardware failures? Or just all of them supposedly in general? Where have you heard this?

The Asrock board I have now has been the best board I have had. No bugs. No random failures. It works correctly. It sleeps and wakes correctly. The memory is always all there. It does the same thing every time. All the onboard stuff works without dropping out. I can't think of another board I have owned that didn't suffer in one of those ways. How long have I had it? I don't even know. 5 years? 10 years?

 

[67Elco]

In my experiences over the years with ASRock I have had no problems or failures...and this is from a past serial abuser of equipment due to extreme low temperature overclocking lol. The bios's on the lesser models often don't have the same bells and whistles of their counterparts.

Would a AMD 7900 with the 65W TDP work for this application? Less thermals to deal with with little downside. https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-9-7900/p/N82E16819113785

If dead set to stick with your DDR4, would this cpu be enough for the task(s)? https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-7-5700g-ryzen-7-5000-g-series/p/N82E16819113682

 

[Post Nut Clairvoyance]

perhaps you're thinking of the notoriously bad AsRock Intel HDV motherboards, which often throttles with 125w+ CPUs for productivity applications.
at least on that front, Ryzens draw way less power. AFAIK (but best check for yourself via available AM4 VRM spreadsheets) most AsRock ITX boards use few powerstages, which should work.

Not sure on BIOS bugs. Had an A320 board that was just fine. Best to google up your board choice + "problem/issues/bugs"

you best post extra information such as:
parts to be reused
asrock boards or cheap alternatives you are looking at
your country (or state where relevant for pricing)

also, against those companies that treats customers like ****, piracy is moral, justified and even obligated for those capable

 

[A Computer Guy]

Asrock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITXax is a solid board all around, good vrm, works with ECC ram, allows for 2NVMe, and I would recommend it as I use it for my gaming machine.

The VRM's aren't the best for the following two but you shouldn't have a problem with an 8 core chip at stock.

• Fatal1ty X470 Gaming-ITXac has a bit of a buggy bios but if your not overclocking then I wouldn't worry about it.
• Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITXac is seemingly less rare to find than x470.

 

[DullardDuck]

Woah, I was not expecting this much engagement.

Hello buddy/guy/friend

Considering you want something to work with and do lots of productivity software, I made a build for you, with parts that you will find in the Canadian market:

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/wtmCCd

Oh, that is actually a very nice build, even has the same case I was looking at. I tend to really overthink my builds and the price spirals out of control. For GPUs I am going for something obviously less powerful but far more stable. A used RTX 5000 since it can be had for around the same price, has a USB C port for my Wacom Cintiq, the professional drivers are far more stable (in Maya 2016) than studio drivers, and it still has 16GB of VRAM for Substance Painter. I only last night discovered that this card has USB C and so I do not need to worry about the motherboard having it which was one of the main prices sinks that had me cornered.

Thank you.

Are their certain Asrock boards which have buggy BIOSes or sudden hardware failures? Or just all of them supposedly in general? Where have you heard this?

The Asrock board I have now has been the best board I have had. No bugs. No random failures. It works correctly. It sleeps and wakes correctly. The memory is always all there. It does the same thing every time. All the onboard stuff works without dropping out. I can't think of another board I have owned that didn't suffer in one of those ways. How long have I had it? I don't even know. 5 years? 10 years?

That is good to hear. I had seen a whole bunch of negative reviews on PC Parts Picker and Ebay surrounding B550 and X570 Asrock motherboards, especially the TB3 Phantom, around the time of their release and was unsure as to if this was early adopter growing pains or something endemic to the brand.

In my experiences over the years with ASRock I have had no problems or failures...and this is from a past serial abuser of equipment due to extreme low temperature overclocking lol. The bios's on the lesser models often don't have the same bells and whistles of their counterparts.

Would a AMD 7900 with the 65W TDP work for this application? Less thermals to deal with with little downside. https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-9-7900/p/N82E16819113785

If dead set to stick with your DDR4, would this cpu be enough for the task(s)? https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-7-5700g-ryzen-7-5000-g-series/p/N82E16819113682

Yeah, I was looking at that CPU but my name is not ironic. I simply cannot see the forest for the trees and overthink every one of my builds to the point that I lose the plot completely. The first poster showed me a really good build at almost the same time I realised that I can ignore a motherboard with thunderbolt due to the pro card I am looking at having built in USB C (since I have heard that even with the right DP cable, Wacom Cintiqs sometimes still revert to QHD instead of UHD) that also carries the data signal.

also, against those companies that treats customers like ****, piracy is moral, justified and even obligated for those capable

Seems like most people here have had generally good experiences with Asrock boards. As for piracy, I am of the mindset that if you already have a license or can no longer legally get it and if you are not taking anything from anyone else then where is the freaking harm?

Asrock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITXax is a solid board all around, good vrm, works with ECC ram, allows for 2NVMe, and I would recommend it as I use it for my gaming machine.

The VRM's aren't the best for the following two but you shouldn't have a problem with an 8 core chip at stock.

• Fatal1ty X470 Gaming-ITXac has a bit of a buggy bios but if your not overclocking then I wouldn't worry about it.
• Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITXac is seemingly less rare to find than x470.

Thanks for the tips.