I made a decision. I’ll upgrade my old computer. It still works fine, without any issues, however 8 years is a long time in the IT universe. For a few months I was thinking of doing something with my computer. The question was: should I change my old computer or not?
I was searching for what I actualy need to change in terms of performance versus price. I only had two requirements: the motherboard should have at least 8 SATA slots and be able to support AMD products.
The result was that I was going to change the motherboard, memory and processor. I choose this configuration: AMD Ryzen 7 2700 with AM4 socket which was suitable for ASUS Prime X370 Pro and HyperX 8x2GB DDR4 clocking at 3000MHz. Then I bought it.
The hardware istallation to my Cooler Master Cosmos S Case was an easy thing. However, something wasn’t all right. The computer seemed dead and my face surprised, but after short troubleshooting I found I had forgoten to connect ATX power button. After this slide setback, another issue occured. A very confusing experience which I never expected. When I finally started the computer, the LEDs came on, fans started spinning, harddrives made the familiar sounds of startup, but nothing else happend! Nothing! The computer didn’t make it’s initial check sounds and the monitor was still black.
I tried refitting almost everything, doublechecking the placement of the CPU, RAM and graphic card, but it seemed that the problem had to be with BIOS. I found many posts on the internet describing the same problem, and some of them pointed to a problem with the BIOS version. According to the ASUS site I needed BIOS version at least 3803 (recent version was 3401). It was very confusing for me. I had never expected that motherboard with a specific socket (in my case AM4) and with the suitable CPU (AMD Ryzen 7 2700) for the socket is dependend on a different version of BIOS. This lacking version of BIOS caused a total misfunction of the whole system. Generally, updating the BIOS is best practice, but not crucial. When I found this post on the official AMD Site, I knew I needed to update my BIOS.
So, I had decided to buy another CPU which supported my new motherboard’s BIOS version (3401). The cheapest CPU was AMD A6-9500 for only €38 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 for €70. I preferred the economical alternative but the A6 wasn’t available on that day. So I ordered the Ryzen 3.
The Prime X370 with the Ryzen 3 worked fine. I was finally able to start my computer and updated it to the newest available BIOS version. It was 4602, which was more than I needed. After that I replaced the Ryzen 3 with the Ryzen 7 and finally started to install an operating system.
I don’t understand why sellers of motherboards sell it unpatched, because without a secondary CPU or intervention of official service, it is not possible to fix this situation. I was disappointed, but finally happy with my new desktop which I wanted.