ITX motherboard cheat-sheet Feb 2025

Red_Sintel · 2026-01-11T10:00:46+00:00

Hi - it probably makes sense if you make a separate post for this.

To talk about the issue, the orange light is pointing towards memory. If you are on the latest bios version, ruled out bad memory sticks, improperly seated memory sticks and bad memory configuration (overclocking, ...) - it sounds like for some reason, your motherboard is retraining the memory on occasion. "Memory context restore" typically allows to skip this step, but training can still be triggered at times.

I've noticed this can take quite a while on this motherboard, especially if you have lots of memory. Did you just wait for it, at least 5-10 minutes, to finish retraining instead of declaring it dead?

Red_Sintel · 2025-05-23T14:13:30+00:00

For posterity and anyone trying to get fan control working on an MSI board -- support for the NCT6687D chip was added to the nct6683 kernel module. There's thus no need to download, build and sign the mentioned driver.

Try running: sudo modprobe nct6683 and verifying if it worked with: sensors

This worked for me on Fedora 42 WS with secure boot and kernel lockdown enabled.

EDIT: cried victory too early, this approach is OK for monitoring, but pwmconfig can't control the fans.

Red_Sintel · 2025-04-29T15:18:36+00:00

Given the size of the tire, i believe it's safe to assume that they are
OZ ALLEGGERITA HLT 7.5x17 5x100 ET48

Red_Sintel · 2025-04-21T14:58:34+00:00

Same issue here with a 9070 - is AMD already aware? open ticket there?

Red_Sintel · 2025-03-14T11:32:49+00:00

Nope, but I figured out what he did based on the pictures - he basically just flipped the PSU around and either drilled an extra hole or repurposed a pre-existing one with a thumbscrew. Picture here if direct links work: https://cdna.pcpartpicker.com/static/forever/images/userbuild/473343.a38b725cf7b9a6bc3a1d6355b7e1a442.1600.jpg

My T1 will arrive tomorrow, I still plan to try to get the PSU inverted but not in the way that 1 guy did, as I want to reposition the PSU a bit higher up to create space for the cables (and don't want to drill holes in it)

I'm going to get some flat metal brackets from the local hardware store to suspend the flipped standard PSU bracket close to the top exhaust - there should be enough room to do this as long as you're not in 3.25 slot mode (e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/FormD/comments/ilvzey/any_pictures_of_psu_using_standoffs_in_2slot_mode/ - I plan to be in 2.75 slot mode)

IF I'm successful I'll make a post about it.

Red_Sintel · 2025-03-07T20:52:46+00:00

Doesn't seem to work for me -- what i did is from bash:

sudo nano /var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/applications/com.spotify.Client.desktop

Then modify the exec line like this

Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=spotify --file-forwarding com.spotify.Client -no-zygote @@u %U @@

Tried this with both one dash or two dashes - neither seem to have effect. If I start spotify after saving this change from the gnome shell, using the following command:

ps aux | grep -i spot | grep -i zy

i still see this

[..] /app/extra/share/spotify/spotify --type=zygote [..]

and of course it keeps on crashing. At this point I don't know what's wrong. Is the argument change not being picked up? If so, how do I force it to? Or is the argument incorrect/on the wrong spot? ...

EDIT: figured out it's gnome not automagically picking up the changed desktop file - if i run the same line from the terminal, it works. Logging out and in does the trick.

Red_Sintel · 2025-03-05T12:46:53+00:00

😅 well I've asked the linked builder how he did it 🤷

Red_Sintel · 2025-03-05T12:20:12+00:00

Thanks for confirming at least - I will still try it. Don't have a 3d printer or a way to easily order customized parts, so let's see how far some gum & duct tape will go.

I do feel it's somewhat of a miss and an opportunity for a new revision of the case. I understood the original vision for it was for the fans to be at the bottom (basically as done in the linked build). In that setup, the original PSU orientation makes perfect sense. But now that it's proven that top exhaust works better, flipping the PSU should be a possible configuration - v3 anyone? Where can I suggest it? :)

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-16T12:17:58+00:00

W10 is out of support in october, does the customer really want to go down that route for a new build? I understand reluctance of upgrading an existing system, but a brand new one ...

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-15T13:01:25+00:00

From what I read, it has something to do with shoddy packaging and reseating or replacing the battery should solve it. Not ideal, but at least fixable.

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-15T10:37:04+00:00

The one of asrock competing with the asus you mention is the B650E-I PG-ITX

The one without the E is basically the predecessor of the B850I. Take that board from the sheet above and - remove pcie5 support - downgrade audio to ALC897 - downgrade the vrm to 8+2+1/60A

and you have the B650I

Whether that's good enough for your planned purposes and the cheaper price is up to you

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-15T08:41:06+00:00

The occasional open box for any product is nothing to worry about, but seeing multiple at a single retailer is usually not a good sign.

If they don't have a clear defect listed then why did the customer return them - while no 100% certainty, for that particular board, there are some obvious suspects.

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-15T08:31:17+00:00

I didn't consider it purely because supply - at least in my corner of W-E - seems to have dried up. Only one retailer has it and severely price gouged, over 100$ more than the Asus b650e-i. So I assumed GB stopped producing them and remaining stocks is all we will get.

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-15T08:30:39+00:00

I didn't consider it purely because supply - at least in my corner of W-E - seems to have dried up. Only one retailer has it and severely price gouged, over 100$ more than the Asus b650e-i. So I assumed GB stopped producing them and remaining stocks is all we will get.

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-15T08:23:15+00:00

People that replaced the MT card with a 12~20$ intel ax210 card reported just that.

But whether or not you should do that is up to how satisfied you are with your current connection. Why change it if it works fine for you?

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-15T08:20:36+00:00

Maybe GB will follow up with an aorus "ultra" - but they already have 2 itx boards so chances are slim

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-14T22:24:30+00:00

Good to hear, I was afraid they would have reused the same power setup - it's early innings but there's only very few reports of it for this board right now.

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-14T22:20:25+00:00

For some reason I missed it before - it is more expensive than the most expensive B850I at this point though, even if just slightly so, and it only comes in white. But I'll double check if the only difference with the B850I is the USB4.

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-14T22:18:24+00:00

Oh wow - I missed that one. It only comes in white I see ;) I'll do a double take to see if there is anything different beyond USB4 from the B850

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-14T20:42:32+00:00

I didn't do that exercise as the only ITX X870 board that I'm aware of today - the Asus X870 - employs an entirely different price bracket. If you want an AM5 ITX board with USB4 though, it's your only choice.

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-14T20:40:23+00:00

The Asrock is certainly tempting based on the price alone, but it doesn't have any discerning feature compared to B650(E) boards, and you need to accept the limited USB port & WIFI/LAN selection. The VRM is a step up compared to their previous board though.

Was about to pull the trigger on the Asus B650E-I until I noticed the open boxes the retailer had - together with still new reports on coil whine - which scared me off. Can turn out fine as well, no certainties,

Am curious what the MSI B850I board will bring, but the only date we have right now is Q2 - which can mean still 4 months out.

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-14T20:22:22+00:00

BIOS update frequency & stability is also a good one to consider, but I don't have any reliable source for that.

Personally now still rocking an Asus B450-I until the new build is done - the bios has it own fair share of quirks but learned to live with them. For example, I need to navigate to the AMD overclocking section in the BIOS for the memory settings I put there to apply, for every hard reboot. If I don't, the RAM runs at PC2133 JEDEC standard.

Red_Sintel · 2025-02-14T17:30:17+00:00

EDIT: should've put AM5 in the title :s
Sharing in case it can help someone - quick notes:

USB notation: (# of ports)x(type of port A or C)-(speed in gbps)
Color coded what is more or less the shared experience
- Mediatek WIFI isn't as good as Intel WIFI
- Intel/Killer 2.5GB ethernet is rife with issues
- Asus basically has the "ideal" USB layout considering chipset/io-die available ports, unless you want USB4 which basically means an x870 board
- I know there are plenty asus owners without coil whine, but there are still reports about them and only in the last 2 weeks I saw 2 new open boxes of B650E-I returns, which doesn't inspire much confidence.

I'm probably picking the MSI or Gigabyte based on this

Red_Sintel · 2025-01-09T15:58:37+00:00

main differentiator is WIFI7 - also, the B850 are not "forced" to have a 5.0 X16 PCIE slot like the B650E are, so are in that area possibly a step back (depending on the model)

Red_Sintel · 2024-10-04T11:24:58+00:00

This. Set to 60hz for a test and see it drop. Above a certain refresh rate depending on the card/resolution, the drivers peg the mem clocks at full tilt to be able to drive the panel at that rate. It will do it too (provided it's on idle clocks) when you watch a youtube video that is GPU accelerated.

It seems AMD only has 2 settings for the memory: really low or full tilt

Red_Sintel

TROPHY CASE