PosAlt As MalPC Upgrade

To facilitate the desire to play more complex and demanding games, the PosAlt computer has been upgraded from strictly hand-me-down parts which were freely available in the parts bin to a full-fledged PC. This was initially meant to be a minor in-place upgrade for the computer to increase its capability at a very low cost.

The system was based off of its existing Corsair CX-M 80Plus Bronze 450W PSU and a very old Samsung 840Evo SSD. I opted for an AMD solution, as AMD has consistently offered much more value per dollar than Intel. As a sidebar, I do run a few Intel computers and, as computers only, they are definitely good machines. However, Intel has never been a good choice in terms of money spent, which is always a high consideration in the work I do. This build, then, started based off the newly released Ryzen 3 3200G platform, which promised decent integrated graphics at a reasonable cost.

PSU: Corsair CX-M 80Plus Bronze 450W
MB: ASRock B450M PRO4
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB DDR4 3200
HDD: Samsung 840EVO 120GB SSD

If I were new to AMD's product offerings and this computer were my first introduction to the ecosystem, I would have run straight back to Intel. Although I don't think this is necessarily AMD's fault, it is worth noting that this build has been anything but smooth. The computer has been plagued by random BSOD issues which have me pulling out my hair.

At first, looking at the BSOD error codes, everything seemed too random to be related to anything in particular. Therefore, I presumed the PSU must be at fault. Taking into consideration the stability of our file server CPU, I decided the best inexpensive option I could get would be a Thermaltake supply. Some of the issues did seem related to the installation of the AMD chipset drivers, which was a bit odd, so a part of me suspected there might be some sort of conflict with running the integrated video. Uncharacteristically, I decided to attack both potential issues at the same time by replacing the PSU and the GPU simultaneously. The computer was revised for no small cost (effectively doubling its expense) as follows:

PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 80Plus Gold 750W
MB: ASRock B450M PRO4
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB DDR4 3200
HDD: Samsung 840EVO 120GB SSD
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER

Alas, the problems did not abate. Obviously, there had been no problem with the initial power supply and, if there were problems with the video output it went deeper than simply the fact that the GPU was integrated into the CPU. The computer seemed especially prone to restarts while attempting to install drivers and programs, which now led me to believe that perhaps the hard drive itself was suspect. Additionally, I had noticed some oddities with the USB bus, namely the computer ran better when the wireless mouse was not connected. This latter diagnosis seemed purely coincidental, though, so I moved forward with a change to the main drive. The Samsung SSD was already well past its warranty and expected life cycle, so it was not unreasonable to think it might not be able to sustain continued use. This led to the next revision as:

PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 80Plus Gold 750W
MB: ASRock B450M PRO4
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB DDR4 3200
HDD: Samsung 970EVO Plus 250GB M.2 SSD
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER

Alas, even with all new components, the computer is incapable of remaining stable and is still plagued by frequent BSOD and unexplainable instability.

This discouragement led to many futile attempts to attain stability in the system.
- Reinstalling Windows 10 without taking certain suspect updates (unsuccessful)
- Updating ASRock motherboard BIOS to several different revisions (unsuccessful)
- Avoiding AMD chipset drivers (unsuccessful)

At this point, I have come to believe the motherboard itself is the problem. This is a bit of a difficult situation because I am not certain whether I should be placing the blame on ASRock or the B450 chipset. I would like to take both out of the equation and see what comes of it, however I am finding that MicroATX motherboards seem to be in short supply these days. What motherboards I can find are all based on the B450 chipset, which I may be inclined to avoid.

I have build another Ryzen 3rd generation computer which was based on the X570 chipset and that system has run flawlessly since its inception. This, to me, encourages thinking in terms of acquiring a motherboard based on that chipset instead. However, I cannot seem to find one with the correct dimensions. Also... how discouraging would it be if in this search I merely found the computer to remain just as unstable as ever with no real improvement? What could I possibly believe the problem to be at this point?