[SOLVED] Can AsRock AB350M support Ryzen 5 5600?

[dudewizard]

Hi all, I'm planning on upgrading my current rig:

AsRock AB350M mobo (not Pro4 or HDV)

Ryzen 3 1200 CPU

AMD RX 6700 GPU

EVGA 750 BP PSU

16 GB RAM

2 samsung SSDs - total 1.5 TB storage

I'm ordering a Ryzen 5 5600 to replace it but my BIOS is only version P 1.20 (stock version from 2017). Never done BIOS updates before - wanted to ask, is it possible to update to the 5600? Here is the BIOS page:

https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/AB350M/index.asp#BIOS

The official supported CPUs list does not list this CPU but I think it may be out of date. However the BIOS notes lead me to believe it should be supported.

If it should work, how should I do it? Do I need to update with my 1200 all the way up to 7.2 then swap out? Do I go from my current version to 7.0 then 7.2 or do I need an intermediate version? Anything to be careful about? Thanks in advance.

 

[drea.drechsler]

...

MSI for the most part didn't bother cheaping out on components and used a larger bios chip from the start, which is why MSI for the most part was good for moving from Zen to Zen+ or Zen2 etc on the 350 chipsets, but other vendors like Asus said nope, that's a negative Ghost Rider.

Actually, MSI cheaped out...at least on the B350 and even B450 boards I've experience with. In moving to a Matisse-capable BIOS revision not only are earlier CPU's (Bristol Ridge, noteably) dropped but they move to a simplified text-mode user interface. It also lacks many of the features we take for granted now, such as an ability to save multiple settings profiles. They also wouldn't revert to the graphical BIOS but I successfully forced the reversion with AUEFI utility from AMI and it worked.

If you remember, MSI is the company that pitched an absolute fit...or maybe just the biggest one....when AMD said they'd not release Vermeer CPU's for B450 boards. In large part that's because they'd just re-released their most popular B450 models with up-sized ROM to fit the new BIOS just for the new CPU: their MAX lineup. So you can see why it would set them off.

And don't forget that although AMI and Award make the core BIOS, the mfr. tunes (or can tune) a great many parameters that we never get access to. They also have total control over the content of update releases and the coding of the BIOS update scripts in their update utilities to properly use the way the updates are delivered. I also think they'll have to incorporate appropriate initialization instructions for on-board hardware, e.g., audio, USB, and especially LAN hardware, unique to each model, perhaps similarly to how they incorporate AGESA for the CPU.

And lastly: Gigabyte and Asus (at least) have shown they can include other code that's distinctly not very BIOS-y. Noteably: a back-door that either downloads or prompts Windows to download a service that "phones home" for their own purposes.