Am I "saddled" with a "slowly croaking" motherboard??  

Dear TenForums:

DaveC here once more - I've only opened up the Enermax box for the Revolution DF power supply; and the Biostar B550GTA mobo-boxes "just enough" to get their paper manuals out (they're spring-clipped together) - so, while I was waiting for the Toshiba HDD to arrive (it's the new data storage volume for the upgraded PC) I figured that the dependable old Dell Dimension 9200 with the "sick Seagate" in it, that was able to "do a CHKDSK" run with its Windows 7 installation that "got it readable" again, might also be the best platform to format the new Toshiba HDD as a traditional MBR-style drive in the now-normal NTFS file system, and load what I saved from the "sick Seagate" onto the Kingston thumb drive, directly onto the Toshiba for it to be ready-to-go after I start that upgrade this coming weekend.

As the "drop-shipment" of the new HP/Nvidia Quadro P1000 4 GB video card is still likely to take some time before it arrives, I'll HAVE to continue the use of the 2015-vintage Nvidia Quadro K620, 2 GB vidcard, in the new B550GTA's "mid-board" PCI-E v.3 PCI-e x16 card slot...aside from that, the doubled-to-32 GB RAM, the Ryzen 7 3700X octo-core CPU, and the up-to 850 watt capacity of the new Revolution DF power supply, SHOULD start things off well for the needed upgrade.

So, "this coming weekend" starts off the upgrade gruntwork...

Thanks so far, and Yours Sincerely,
DaveC

Dear TenForums:

Dave C here again - partly as a temporary replacement for that "dud Biostar" mobo in my planned upgrade for my desktop PC, I managed to get the funds together for a new Asus Zenbook Ryzen-5 CPU'ed laptop PC, the first one I've ever obtained.

It was purchased with a few accessibility peripherals (4-in-1 USB-C to regular USB-3 expander, HDMI-to-DVI monitor adaptor cable, etc) for just a hair over $650 at a local BestBuy last Saturday, and is working well with both my Kensington trackball and small-format Dell keyboard, as well as my Iiyama CAD widescreen monitor.

I'll have to admit that Ghot had the right idea in recommending Asus mobos...if, at the time when I'm "all moved into" a suitable seniors' condo.apartment in the coming months, the hopefully decent experience I'm already starting to have with this new Asus laptop PC will compel me to obtain a better mobo OF that brand name, than that useless Biostar Ryzen mobo.

To keep it short, the AMD Ryzen's CPU chip fan ran just fine (and made a nice lightshow, even though I have NO use for a "windowed PC case" to show off something like THAT with), but no hint of ANY video showed up on my monitor, from the Nvidia Quadro K620 video card (a PCI-e V.2 vidcard) I'd inserted into the Biostar mobo's PCI-e V.3 slot, after reading that it's best to avoid using ANY video card in a PCI-e V.4 slot...even the Nvidia QUadro P1000 I'd gotten for the upgrade is a V.3 video card, not a V.4 one.

As my moveout concerns will now take precedence for the coming months - at least through the summer - I'll have a working PC to use with the Asus Zenbook, which works decently with my Dell KB, Kensington trackball and Iiyama monitor as external peripherals...it WILL be quite some time (4-6 months, I'd suppose) before I can get back to ameliorating the goofups that the dud Biostar mobo brought on with my desktop PC's hardware upgrade, but at least I still HAVE a PC with the Asus laptop, for basic Internet and document needs.

Thanks so far, and Yours Sincerely,
DaveC

Dear TenForums:

DaveC here once again - as I've been on my Asus Zenbook (as my ONLY operable PC) laptop for some seven months now (hint here, even on 8 GB of RAM memory, it works GREAT for what it's got) and have just moved into a seniors' condo in my home town (under their housing authority) I've also been eyeballing Asus mobos as a preferred choice to replace the "dud Biostar" that crippled my desktop upgrade; way back last April...

...and as most of the things I use a PC at home for - especially a desktop I've built myself - primarily involve using CAD software, and (hopefully!) 3D solid modeling (thinkin' Solidworks here), as well as a good degree of radio-control model aircraft flightsimming (I'm returning to my favorite hobby from the 1970s, which I last did for real in 2003 - using one of Ikarus' "Aerofly RCx" flightsim titles from Germany to practice) I was quite pleased to see that Asus HAS dedicated "workstation PC" motherboards available for AMD Ryzen CPUs on the market.

So far, the AMD Ryzen-compatible Asus workstation mobo I've got my eyes on - for an early springtime purchase (sale of my late mother's home IS required, for the profit from it to be usable for an upgrade, as well as a new-to-me set of wheels) of the intended Asus mobo, which is the one linked here...is the Asus Pro WS X570 ACE unit.

The still-NIB Nvidia Quadro P1000 workstation 4 GB-memory video card I obtained for the original upgrade attempt may be the older PCIe v3.0 spec, but should still be usable on one of the trio of PCIe v4.0 slots that mobo offers.

I was planning on using a "slightly better" AMD Ryzen chip & CPU fan than what I attempted to use last time, and sticking to Crucial-brand memory of the type that Asus mobo would need..."everything else" would be the same, and I'd check around (as well as ANY welcome help in finding someone to get everything "burned in" together [as with mobo, CPU w/fan & memory "as a unit"] to ensure success, as with just about all earlier desktop upgrades I've ever done) for possible help from the "Geek Squad" type of PC experts-for-hire, as with all the things that the latest mobos have room for (M.2 SSDs, etc.) that I've DEFINITELY never faced before with a "desktop upgrade", that help from a firm like "Geek Squad" COULD be an important thing going towards a success for the whole deal.

But, it's just that I HAVE started to examine new mobos, well in advance of getting one...it's still most likely going to be at least the March through May 2022 timeframe; before I'd get the Asus workstation mobo, AMD Ryzen 7/9 CPU w/fan and Crucial-brand memory, all together for a burn-in checkout from a vendor before I'd attempt the upgrade again.

So...what does that specified Asus mobo I've been looking at look like, for a serious "mostly work" mobo-based desktop PC "upgrade revival", of last spring's attempt?

Thanks in advance, Happy T-giving and Yours Sincerely,
DaveC