Help me to find a ATX Main board with ECC that is not for gaming + tower case

[Zucca]

Hi,

I burned my fingers with the ASUS Pro WS X570-ACE. I don`t like it, and I returned it (I make the story short).

This is what I am after:

CPU: AMD 5900X
Cooler : Noctua NH-D15S
RAM: 2x32GB 32GB ECC UDIMM DDR4-3200 PC4-25600 Memory for QNAP TS-h1886XU-RP-D1622-32G!<-- very important for me it. ECC must work.
PCIe 4.0
Support for two Nmve M2 SSD
GPU: Geforce GTX 3090
Dual LAN: Nice to have... not critical
WIFI: Not required
Fan for chipset: not required, I would like no fan in the Motherboard if possible.
No overclocking!
COM Port: oh yes! very nice to have

It must be a motherboard more workstation oriented and less gaming as possible.
Main goal is stability. I do not like RGB led at all.

And since we are here please suggest me a good tower case.

I would also try to not buy ASUS.

PS: why it is so hard to build a PC that is not for gaming today?

[Zucca]

If you don't like gaming LEDs, just turn them off or desolder them.

Perfectly doable, but what about the ECC support? Looks like AMD X570 is supporting ECC out of the box... but I don't like to buy something hoping it will work...
Anyway in other words, what is the most reliable motherboard you would suggest?

[Zucca]

Interesting reading

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/lh3m42/demystifying_ryzen_ecc_support/

[mariush]

As far as I know, Gigabyte boards support ECC well.

I have Gigabyte B550M Aorus Pro-P : https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550M-AORUS-PRO-P-rev-10#kf

No over the board RGB, just some orange highlights, only downside is that is has only 4 sata ports and maybe pci-e layout could have been better (I mean have a pci-e x1 slot above the video card slot)

Only one ethernet card, but you can add one in the bottom slot, if it's not blocked by video card.

2nd m.2 is provided by chipset, so it has pci-e 3.0 lanes.

But look at the ATX Gigabyte B550 boards , b550 Aorus Pro and up. Elite is OK but they cheaped out on IO shield features (has dvi and few usb connectors)

All boards or pretty much all boards have COM headers, so you can just buy a bracket with the serial ports separately, it's like 1-2$. Don't look for serial ports on IO shield, look for onboard headers.

[mapleLC]

I burned my fingers with the ASUS Pro WS X570-ACE. I don`t like it, and I returned it (I make the story short).

Kindly share the long form version?  I'm due for a laugh.

[wraper]

X570 is a waste of money for 99% of use cases and only gives you more power consumption and additional noise from chipset cooler. ECC support has nothing to do with a type of chipset, more expensive chipset does not give you more chances of motherboard supporting ECC. No reason to go above B550 in the vast majority of cases. AFAIK most of motherboards which support ECC are from ASUS and Gigabyte. IIRC MSI had none when I researched this. I personally use Gigabyte B550M AORUS PRO-P with ECC. There are workstation motherboards with no LEDs but they are much more expensive, so it's more wise to just disable them in BIOS settings.

[wraper]

Also frankly "gaming" in the name or description has nothing to do with gaming. It even does not mean there will me more LEDs than on other motherboards. Pure marketing wank. I just checked a few B550 Motherboards on Gigabyte website and all of them support ECC. Gigabyte is very clear about this. Last time I checked ASUS it wasn't that clear about this but I just checked their website and it's very obvious in RAM specifications.

[Zucca]

Kindly share the long form version?  I'm due for a laugh.

Let me do some tests tonight and then we will laugh even harder...

[SiliconWizard]

I don't think you can use ECC RAM with CPUs that don't support it. I know Intel stuff better than current AMD stuff, but I doubt you can use ECC RAM with "consumer" AMD CPUs. That's not just a matter of the motherboard itself.
So I would expect to need at least a EPYC CPU or maybe? Threadripper Pro.
Let me know if I'm wrong. I'm curious.

[mariush]

The regular Ryzen processors support ECC, it's just not "official",  depends on motherboard if it's working or not 

The Ryzen Pro processors (which are OEM parts in desktops made by companies like Lenovo) officially support ECC and I think AMD enforces the rule that systems with Pro processors must have motherboards that also support and have ECC tested/validated.  Besides ECC, Pro versions also have some management features ... and that's pretty much all.

I wouldn't expect a Ryzen to have working ECC on a motherboard with a A320 or A520 chipset (which are "budget" chipsets), but the standard B550 motherboards should support ECC, no reason they shouldn't, unless they can't be bothered with the bios.

You say intel is better... maybe is more clear which processors support ECC and which don't... but Intel is worse in the sense that even though their controllers supports ECC, Intel artificially locks it away only to some processors, so you're forced to pay more.
For example i5 6500  vs xeon e3-1220 v5  ... pretty much same die, just 6MB vs 8MB cache and ECC support enabled ... $200 each at launch.

[wraper]

I don't think you can use ECC RAM with CPUs that don't support it. I know Intel stuff better than current AMD stuff, but I doubt you can use ECC RAM with "consumer" AMD CPUs. That's not just a matter of the motherboard itself.
So I would expect to need at least a EPYC CPU or maybe? Threadripper Pro.
Let me know if I'm wrong. I'm curious.

Yes you are wrong. Did you read my post? I run Ryzen 3700X with ECC, and previously did the same with 1700X. ECC works and I can see WHEA corrected memory errors in event viewer if overclock it too much. Every Ryzen CPU supports ECC except APU type. Both intel and AMD use the same silicon for consumer and server market. Intel disables ECC on consumer CPUs (except some very low end ones), AMD doesn't.

[wraper]

I wouldn't expect a Ryzen to have working ECC on a motherboard with a A320 or A520 chipset (which are "budget" chipsets), but the standard B550 motherboards should support ECC, no reason they shouldn't, unless they can't be bothered with the bios.

It has nothing to do with chipset but if manufacturer bothered to implement additional PCB traces to memory slots. Gigabyte, ASUS and Asrock do bother, MSI does not. Here is Gigabyte A520 board which supports ECC https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/A520M-DS3H-V2-rev-10/sp#sp

[wraper]

Just in case someone still thinks ECC does not exist on consumer CPU/Motherboards.

[Zucca]

No reason to go above B550 in the vast majority of cases. AFAIK most of motherboards which support ECC are from ASUS and Gigabyte. IIRC MSI had none when I researched this. I personally use Gigabyte B550M AORUS PRO-P with ECC.

Gigabyte B550M AORUS PRO-P looks good. Thanks
X570 vs B550: do you think a PCIe3.0 is a issue vs PCIe4.0 in a M2 NVME SSD?

[Zucca]

Kindly share the long form version?  I'm due for a laugh.

I am done with ASUS.

Bought the first ASUS Pro WS X570-ACE, put CPU 5900x and RAM and a graphics card.
No boot/POST VGA Led stuck on.
Tested 3 different graphics cards even in different PCIe slots, still no joy. Same problem.
Oh well MoBo is a lemon. Bought a second ASUS Pro WS X570-ACE.
Same effing problem. No boot/POST VGA Led stuck on.
Returning the second MoBo now.
Now I am trying a new CPU, since I read here the CPU can give a false warning on the VGA LED.

If with the new CPU it will work good, if not I will buy a Gigabyte or MSI. ASUS does not exists anymore on my planet.

See also here 

BTW the term Workstation on the ASUS Pro WS X570-ACE is pure marketing... yes it does have a dual Lan which can manage the PC from remote, but if you look how they did it, it's just a bunch of clowns offering features that nobody needs. The manual is awful, not technical at all. Good for teenager.... Very disappointed by myASsUS. Never again.

[wraper]

No reason to go above B550 in the vast majority of cases. AFAIK most of motherboards which support ECC are from ASUS and Gigabyte. IIRC MSI had none when I researched this. I personally use Gigabyte B550M AORUS PRO-P with ECC.

Gigabyte B550M AORUS PRO-P looks good. Thanks
X570 vs B550: do you think a PCIe3.0 is a issue vs PCIe4.0 in a M2 NVME SSD?

B550 motherboards support PCI-E 4.0 for GPU and one NVMe slot. IMHO do not bother about SSD, especially if you do not have top of the end one. Even then it makes some improvement only for some very specific tasks, not overall. Cheaper SSD even though often have PCI-E 4.0, it's barely justified for practical reasons if at all.

[wraper]

Kindly share the long form version?  I'm due for a laugh.

I am done with ASUS.

Bought the first ASUS Pro WS X570-ACE, put CPU 5900x and RAM and a graphics card.
No boot/POST VGA Led stuck on.
Tested 3 different graphics cards even in different PCIe slots, still no joy. Same problem.
Oh well MoBo is a lemon. Bought a second ASUS Pro WS X570-ACE.
Same effing problem. No boot/POST VGA Led stuck on.
Returning the second MoBo now.

Maybe you got some with very old bios? You could try updating bios. What I found on internet about Asus Pro WS X570-Ace:

I had the same motherboard. It does not have the BIOS flashback feature. However, you can update BIOS via its Realtek management interface.

You will need a Windows machine in the same subnet and install ASUS Control Center Express (ACCE) Setup. You can checkout ACCE manual Section 4.10 for more details.

I used this way to recover from a bad flash (my machine froze during BIOS update and became completely dead after reset), and can confirm it works. The only problem was that ACCE wasn't straightforward to use, so you probably need some time to figure out how to use it. But I am 100% certain it works, and it does not require a license.

[wraper]

Also I would try different RAM as it's what most often causes issues IME.

[Zucca]

Maybe you got some with very old bios? You could try updating bios. What I found on internet about Asus Pro WS X570-Ace:

Possible but unlikely since It was reproducible in two motherboards.
Also upgrading BIOS through a ETH port it's asking for problems, especially if we know that this board was designed by certified Muppets.

I swap the CPU, and this is my last card to play. CPU could have something to do with VGA not booting because there are CPU with GPU integrated, so a shitty BIOS could not manage well a no GPU included CPU like my 5900x.
I bought a brand new 5950x, again with no integrated GPU, for testing purposes. My current 5900x was a used Ebay thing, so there is a chance I got a lemon as well.

RAM? Everything is possible at this point. Honestly if the new CPU does not fix the problem I do not want that board, I wasted too much time already on that POS myASsUS.

[bw2341]

I think it might be the BIOS too.

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/workstation/pro-ws-x570-ace/helpdesk_cpu/?model2Name=Pro-WS-X570-ACE

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/workstation/pro-ws-x570-ace/helpdesk_bios/?model2Name=Pro-WS-X570-ACE

It looks like 5900X and 5950X needs BIOS Version 2311 from 2020/10/20. The oldest BIOS available is Version 0702 from 2019/07/05.

This predates Ryzen 5000 Zen 3 completely.

I was super paranoid when I bought my Ryzen 5500 and motherboard. The 5500 was the cheapest Zen 3 locally, but it was also one of the newest. I made sure to get a motherboard that could flash from a USB key with no processor installed. I also bought the CPU, MB and RAM from the same local store so that I had someone to complain to if they weren't compatible.

[David Hess]

I built a system not long ago with similar requirements.  I used an Asus PRIME X570-PRO because it was the least expensive motherboard I could find which supported at least three x16 PCIe slots, albeit with x4 and dual x8 electrical, for GPU, HBA, and networking.  In the past such motherboards were more common for support of Crossfire and SLI.  I did not want the chipset fan, but it runs at low speed so do not expect any problems.

I installed 64G of ECC memory and as far as I can tell from testing, it seems to be supported and working correctly.

I wanted the Fractal Design Define XL R2 case for 8 3.5" internal and 4 external 5.25" bays, but could not find one available so went with the larger Define 7 XL.  Two years later and the Define XL R2 is still not available.  These cases are roomy making assembly easier and have filters to keep dust out.

[Zucca]

Beating the dead horse 

Tomorrow I will try to update the BIOS over the ACCE ETH.

Holy water from Lourdes is already prepared.

[olkipukki]

Hi,

I burned my fingers with the ASUS Pro WS X570-ACE. I don`t like it, and I returned it (I make the story short).

I'm using this MB quite a while (approx 2.5 years), no issues, but still 3rd Ryzen generation - planning to 5950X upgrade once a price drops a bit more

I would agree, ASUS don't take carry at all...
Does board (that cost ~$400 now) supports Windows 11 or any Linux?! Nope, according ASUS - just Windows 10 

You can try to find some ASRock Rack MBs on AM4 (or upcoming new AM5), be ready to pay a premium.

https://www.asrockrack.com/general/products.asp#Server
 

[wraper]

Hi,

I burned my fingers with the ASUS Pro WS X570-ACE. I don`t like it, and I returned it (I make the story short).

I'm using this MB quite a while (approx 2.5 years), no issues, but still 3rd Ryzen generation - planning to 5950X upgrade once a price drops a bit more

I would agree, ASUS don't take carry at all...
Does board (that cost ~$400 now) supports Windows 11 or any Linux?! Nope, according ASUS - just Windows 10 

You can try to find some ASRock Rack MBs on AM4 (or upcoming new AM5), be ready to pay a premium.

https://www.asrockrack.com/general/products.asp#Server

Their website literally says it's win 11 ready. Not to say OS support barely depends on mobo manufacturer, unless you're after "official support".

[coppice]

I don't know what happens with DDR5, but with DDR4 consumer grade ECC is a bit of a PITA. Most ECC memory sticks are registered, but most consumer motherboards that will accept ECC memory sticks will only accept non-registered ones. I found some non-registered ECC memory sticks that I tried with my Asus Prime X399-A Threadripper board. The machine kinda half recognised them, but wouldn't actually use them. I swapped them for non-ECC memory and the machine works fine. As far as I know those ECC memory sticks worked in someone else's machine, so they were not faulty. Just a bit quirky about compatibility.