I don't know if AMD restricts RDIMM in some way at the Processor level (After all, AMD use the same die across consumer Ryzen, HEDT ThreadRipper and enterprise EPYC, so all Zeppelin dies must supports it), but RDIMM itself needs some special wiring on the Motherboard since on a RDIMM all the Control Bus signals are supposed to talk to the Buffer chip instead of directly to the DRAM chips. If someone bothered to create a hybrid UDIMM/RDIMM layout for ThreadRipper (Like those used by Xeons E5, which worked with either RAM types) and figured out it works, it would be interesing.
And so it begins... First AMD Ryzen AM4 server motherboard.
- Thread starter McKajVah
- Start date
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back in stock at Newegg if anyones looking for one 
Asrock Rack X470D4U AM4 PGA 1331 DDR4 Server Motherboard - Newegg.com
Asrock Rack X470D4U AM4 PGA 1331 DDR4 Server Motherboard - Newegg.com
One more question: I noticed that all fan connectors are 4-pins. My case has a number of 3-pin fans. Will the X470D4U control the fans with DC if I connect 3-pin fans or will I have to replace the fans with 4-pin versions?
I don't have any 3-pin fans to test with, but the PWM connector was meant to be designed with backwards compatibility in mind - but without PWM I don't think there's any way for the BIOS to control the fan speed is there?
In a 3-pin fan setup, the first two pins provide the power and ground and the third provides the tach; 4-pin just provides an extra pin with PWM for the duty cycle. Fan controllers in days gone by had to use voltage manipulation for 3-pin fans, it's only with PWM that you get the granular control without having to use extra hardware, and I'm not sure I've ever used a motherboard that featured voltage control for 3-pin fans. But then I don't think I've used 3-pin fans for getting on for a decade.
In a 3-pin fan setup, the first two pins provide the power and ground and the third provides the tach; 4-pin just provides an extra pin with PWM for the duty cycle. Fan controllers in days gone by had to use voltage manipulation for 3-pin fans, it's only with PWM that you get the granular control without having to use extra hardware, and I'm not sure I've ever used a motherboard that featured voltage control for 3-pin fans. But then I don't think I've used 3-pin fans for getting on for a decade.
Also available on Amazon - in stock August 3rd for $30 less. https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-Rack-X470D4U-Asrock-Motherboard/dp/B07PNFTPGBback in stock at Newegg if anyones looking for one
Asrock Rack X470D4U AM4 PGA 1331 DDR4 Server Motherboard - Newegg.com
For an in-depth description of 3 vs 4 pin fans see: Case Fans- 4pin, 3pin, molex . 3-pin fans often work correctly on 4-pin connectors, hence my question on support on this motherboard.
According to ASRock X470D4U first impressions. AM4 server motherboard : Amd 3-pin fans just work fine.
Now if I could find out if there will be a way in the future to add a controller that supports 2 or even better 4 U.2 disks.... Bifurcation is supported, but I cannot find of a PCIE to a set of Oculink or SFF connectors card exists that support U.2 disks....
I am still on the brink between the X470D4U2 and the X399D8A-2T. The X470 is a bit limited when it comes to future extensions. Has anybody seen any pricing for the X399 board? I have only found https://www.prowesscomputing.com/products?sku=X399D8A-2T that has a pre-order price of $615. Another quote I found was over $800!
A 2920X can be had for the same price as a 3700X, but such a price difference for the board would put the X399 out of my reach...
I've been watching/researching about these motherboards as well. I saw PROVANTAGE is offering these, at about $363 and $493 respectively:
PROVANTAGE: ASRock Inc X470D4U2-2T ASRock MB X470D4U2-2T AMD AM4 PGA1331 X470 MAX64GB DDR4 PCIE3.0 Micro-ATX RTL
PROVANTAGE: ASRock Inc X399D8A-2T ASRock MB X399D8A-2T AMD TR4 4094P X399 DDR4 Max.128GB PCIE SATA ATX Retail
Good luck on your search.
Hi guys,
Since I'd like to switch to Zen 2 for future builds I also started circling around the X470D4U since as you know the feature set is unique for the AM4 platform at this point.
I had been burned in the past regarding firmware issues so I searched online for what "might be wrong" at this point in time with the ASRock Rack X470D4U.
I hope I'm not breaking any forum rules by mentioning another forum, but there seems to be a quite lively thread in the forum of Level1 Techs (also a YouTube channel with interesting niche content) where a few users found various bugs:
- CPU fan speed control is broken in latest public BIOS 3.04 (locked at BIOS default RPM, no matter how hot the CPU actually gets), fixed in 3.09, currently 3.11 seems to be the latest unreleased BIOS version that breaks something regarding DIMM sensors.
- For some unkown reason the X470D4U seems to not like Seasonic PSUs, activating "CPU_PROCHOT", locking the CPU at 550 MHz even if CPU temperature is in the range of 30-40°C. Even with a factory-new "flagship" SSR-850TR PSU.
Source:
ASRock Rack has created the first AM4 socket server board
Do the ones of you that already deployed the board have had similar experiences?
Could ServeTheHome maybe cooperate with Level1 Techs to investigate?
Since I'd like to switch to Zen 2 for future builds I also started circling around the X470D4U since as you know the feature set is unique for the AM4 platform at this point.
I had been burned in the past regarding firmware issues so I searched online for what "might be wrong" at this point in time with the ASRock Rack X470D4U.
I hope I'm not breaking any forum rules by mentioning another forum, but there seems to be a quite lively thread in the forum of Level1 Techs (also a YouTube channel with interesting niche content) where a few users found various bugs:
- CPU fan speed control is broken in latest public BIOS 3.04 (locked at BIOS default RPM, no matter how hot the CPU actually gets), fixed in 3.09, currently 3.11 seems to be the latest unreleased BIOS version that breaks something regarding DIMM sensors.
- For some unkown reason the X470D4U seems to not like Seasonic PSUs, activating "CPU_PROCHOT", locking the CPU at 550 MHz even if CPU temperature is in the range of 30-40°C. Even with a factory-new "flagship" SSR-850TR PSU.
Source:
ASRock Rack has created the first AM4 socket server board
Do the ones of you that already deployed the board have had similar experiences?
Could ServeTheHome maybe cooperate with Level1 Techs to investigate?
If you look at my posts a few pages back you can see my setup; I've observed the bug with the CPU fan not ramping up when the processor is under load, from my experiences most of the sensors aren't working properly in 3.04.
I'm running with a seasonic PSU (albeit the FlexATX SS350-M1U) and I've not had any issues with PROCHOT being asserted, but from the thread the assert only happens when windows boots so it might be OS related, but it's not easy to call without more detailed info. At a guess I'd say it's a weird interaction between a quick of that particular PSU and an immature BIOS.
I'm running with a seasonic PSU (albeit the FlexATX SS350-M1U) and I've not had any issues with PROCHOT being asserted, but from the thread the assert only happens when windows boots so it might be OS related, but it's not easy to call without more detailed info. At a guess I'd say it's a weird interaction between a quick of that particular PSU and an immature BIOS.
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Thanks for replying so quickly!
At least ESXi seems to also be vulnerable to CPU_PROCHOT so Windows doesn't seem to be the culprit here.
Hope that ASRock Rack is getting their sh** together and that there is no Intel mole in their BIOS software engineering team
At least ESXi seems to also be vulnerable to CPU_PROCHOT so Windows doesn't seem to be the culprit here.
Hope that ASRock Rack is getting their sh** together and that there is no Intel mole in their BIOS software engineering team
I'm sure to be met with howls of derision from people who've had the opposite experience, but IMHO I've found ASRock to make the most reliable BIOSes as far as their consumer kit goes, and their support are very linux-friendly.
Their X470D4U is a rather niche product that's doing a lot of stuff that never been done before (most pertinently mating a standard X470 setup with a BMC) so I was expecting there'd be issues in reports of the hardware sensors. Throw in a brand new CPU range and things get even more complicated. I've every faith they'll get the serious bugs sorted soon enough.
From reading through the thread you linked, there's a couple of beta BIOSes doing the rounds, v3.09 to fix most of the sensors issues and v3.11 to not-quite-fix the PROCHOT assert with certain PSUs so it sounds like a new production BIOS will be dropping shortly.
Their X470D4U is a rather niche product that's doing a lot of stuff that never been done before (most pertinently mating a standard X470 setup with a BMC) so I was expecting there'd be issues in reports of the hardware sensors. Throw in a brand new CPU range and things get even more complicated. I've every faith they'll get the serious bugs sorted soon enough.
From reading through the thread you linked, there's a couple of beta BIOSes doing the rounds, v3.09 to fix most of the sensors issues and v3.11 to not-quite-fix the PROCHOT assert with certain PSUs so it sounds like a new production BIOS will be dropping shortly.
ASRock (non-Rack) is also one of my preferred manufacturers for desktop builds right now.
Ryzen 3000 does not seem to be the cause of CPU_PROCHOT, if I read that Level1 Forum thread correctly initially it started with a 2700X, then a 2600X (with pre-Zen 2 BIOS 1.50) and finally continues on with 3700Xs.
I'm a bit flabbergasted how an issue like CPU fan speed not reacting to rising CPU temperatures could pass ASRock Rack's BIOS QA procedures (BIOS 3.04 that is still public).
Ryzen 3000 does not seem to be the cause of CPU_PROCHOT, if I read that Level1 Forum thread correctly initially it started with a 2700X, then a 2600X (with pre-Zen 2 BIOS 1.50) and finally continues on with 3700Xs.
I'm a bit flabbergasted how an issue like CPU fan speed not reacting to rising CPU temperatures could pass ASRock Rack's BIOS QA procedures (BIOS 3.04 that is still public).
I'm pretty sure the objective was to get out a BIOS that supported Ryzen 3000 as soon as possible and then to fix the ancillary issues later. Hopefully v3.20 or whatever it ends up being called will be production ready. A note on the page pegging 3.04 as beta status would have saved a lot of the aggro in this regard I think.
PROCHOT issues have been around for ages for all sorts of different reasons; in the case of the ryzen CPUs I've seen multiple reports of it limiting performance on certain boards, sometimes legitimately, other times not. But I've never run in to the issues myself so I've never really dug in to the technicalities, but certainly having chip sensors that seemingly aren't working/reporting correctly to the MB isn't going to help.
PROCHOT issues have been around for ages for all sorts of different reasons; in the case of the ryzen CPUs I've seen multiple reports of it limiting performance on certain boards, sometimes legitimately, other times not. But I've never run in to the issues myself so I've never really dug in to the technicalities, but certainly having chip sensors that seemingly aren't working/reporting correctly to the MB isn't going to help.
ok, I got my X470D4U2-2T last week, today I start to build it with 3700x. I update Bios to 3.02 using IPMI, but system do not post at all with only CPU and Ram, even the dr.debug led is not lighting, I don't know how to debug it, any suggestion on how to debug it/
@EffrafaxOfWug， is your debug LED lighting up when you connect the power(no need to power on), my seller said the debug should be lighting up when PSU is connected to the power, it shoud be the PSU issue if debug LED not lighting up
I'm not sure what you mean by debug LED; when the power is connected, even if there's no CPU and memory installed, the following should happen:
SB_PWR1 (right underneath the 24-pin ATX connector) should light up solid green
BMC_LED1 (right next to the ASPEED 2500 chip) should blink green to indicate the BMC has booted and is functioning correctly
The seven-segment display doesn't actually light up until you power the board on as it's only there to show POST codes.
SB_PWR1 (right underneath the 24-pin ATX connector) should light up solid green
BMC_LED1 (right next to the ASPEED 2500 chip) should blink green to indicate the BMC has booted and is functioning correctly
The seven-segment display doesn't actually light up until you power the board on as it's only there to show POST codes.
BIOS 3.10 and BMC 1.60 just landed on the website... I'll get them updated, have a fiddle and report back on any differences.
@EffrafaxOfWug, after I clear the CMOS, I can get my system post now; asrock support also give me 3.11 bios of my 2T version, sensors in IPMI seems working now, but my 3700x idle at 51c with vCPU at 1.47v, it seems too high for me, how about yours? any setting you have changed in Bios?