amd6502
Senior member
- Apr 21, 2017
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I'm doing an unintentional dozer build due to an hp AM4 board (hp "Basso" used in elitedesk 705 g3 microtowers) having unexpectedly bad CPU support. Apparently HP Basso AM4 boards do not support any Ryzen processors (despite having a B350 chipset), and rather have support for only a range of excavator APUs:
For those expecting a cheap AM4 Zen build from these extreme budget 2nd market boards, the best one can hope for is a "poor man's 2200g" build via an A12, [eg A12-8870 which should likely outperform the 2200g graphics wise, with its 8CU high DP capable GCN 1.2 iGPU].
I had a very similar experience to this account, upon trying to post my 1600 Ryzen on this Basso board. It turned on all by itself, but within a few seconds the discrete graphics card turned off. Black screen nothing but a cpu fan that eventually ramped up to max; had to unplug the AC power. I had to completely revise expectations on this build after HP cockblocking me, with the excavator-only compatibility of this AM4/B350 board.
In the past I had a nice experience turning an hp "Batgirl" elitedesk fm2+ board into practical bare basics email/www pc. All of these hp matx (elitedesk) boards are somewhat proprietary in that they require a few nonstandard parts. Mainly the HP style power supply, which is actually quite nice as it simplifies cable management; and are very commonly available and cheap on the 2nd hand markets (ebay). The batgirl fm2 build required a proprietary hp cooler. The AM4 Basso board had a 75mm square mounting pattern, so just about any LGA 1155 or similar cooler would do, as long as it came with a backplate.
In any case, the 2nd hand pricing and current availability of the A12 8870 makes this extreme budget board option worthwhile imho for anyone wanting to put together a cheap windows machine. Since these are off lease Windows office machines, these boards come with a Win10 registration already. As long as you know the limited upgrade path and that these require HP style PSU's and a new cooler, this can be really nice as an extra computer in the household.
For those expecting a cheap AM4 Zen build from these extreme budget 2nd market boards, the best one can hope for is a "poor man's 2200g" build via an A12, [eg A12-8870 which should likely outperform the 2200g graphics wise, with its 8CU high DP capable GCN 1.2 iGPU].
I had a very similar experience to this account, upon trying to post my 1600 Ryzen on this Basso board. It turned on all by itself, but within a few seconds the discrete graphics card turned off. Black screen nothing but a cpu fan that eventually ramped up to max; had to unplug the AC power. I had to completely revise expectations on this build after HP cockblocking me, with the excavator-only compatibility of this AM4/B350 board.
In the past I had a nice experience turning an hp "Batgirl" elitedesk fm2+ board into practical bare basics email/www pc. All of these hp matx (elitedesk) boards are somewhat proprietary in that they require a few nonstandard parts. Mainly the HP style power supply, which is actually quite nice as it simplifies cable management; and are very commonly available and cheap on the 2nd hand markets (ebay). The batgirl fm2 build required a proprietary hp cooler. The AM4 Basso board had a 75mm square mounting pattern, so just about any LGA 1155 or similar cooler would do, as long as it came with a backplate.
In any case, the 2nd hand pricing and current availability of the A12 8870 makes this extreme budget board option worthwhile imho for anyone wanting to put together a cheap windows machine. Since these are off lease Windows office machines, these boards come with a Win10 registration already. As long as you know the limited upgrade path and that these require HP style PSU's and a new cooler, this can be really nice as an extra computer in the household.
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