DeskMini X600 random crashes

PBO can be hard to find! You have to enable Advanced AMD Overclocking from "Decline" to "Accept". (In my case I even had to first decline, then accept!) After that you see the submenue on the left side with "Precision Boost Overdrive". In my case this was vital to get a stable system.

Hi Mr.Magnetix.

The Jupiter x600 is a small form factor system with very limited cooling capacity
owing to it's size. With systems like this the question isn't really "will it work?"
it's more a case of "what will work best?". Looking at the CPU support list for
your x600 it's quite clear ASRock only lists CPUs that will operate within acceptable
thermal envelopes. Even though the 9600x/9700x models are listed, indicating that
the system's supported CPU list was updated along with the release of the 9000
series, there are no 9000 series Ryzen 9 CPUs listed. This tells me that thermals
are a major concern in such a small enclosure, not to mention the board design
which will undoubtedly be focused on compactness at the cost of TDP (Thermal
Design Power). The Jupiter 600x Mini is an impressive SFF system (small form factor)
and one of the best out there in terms of versatility vs size but that small size
will always come at a cost.

With that hopefully clear, why do you want to upgrade the CPU? From everything
I know about that setup the 8700g is probably the absolute king when it comes
to performance in an x600 mini setup, if gaming is important to you. While there
are certainly more powerful 65w CPUs out there, none of them come close to the
iGPU performance of the 8700g. Without the ability to use a dedicated GPU that
is a huge deal. The Ryzen 9 Pro 9945 you mentioned for example has more cores
higher clocks and much more processing grunt, however, it's iGPU has only 2 GPU
cores vs the 12 featured on the 8700g and worse still those 2 GPU cores operate
at just half the speed (400mhz vs 800mhz) of those found in the 8700g. In
gaming we are talking playable FPS with the 8700g vs slideshow with the 9945
(all non 8000 CPUs will be poor in this regard).

and that is resolving the sudden crashes?

I take this to mean you are experiencing crashing on your current setup?

If so, the likely cause is thermal spikes. The 8700g is probably the very best
CPU you can use in that system but it is pushing the limits of the cooling capacity
of your setup. Opening the system up and cleaning out any dust as well as removing,
cleaning and applying fresh thermal compound on your CPU cooler may help resolve
your issue. If that isn't enough you may want to look at setting the CPU to a 45w
limit in your BIOS to test if that resolves crashing. If it does you can then
look at some underclocking/volting guides and work on finding the perfect balance
of heat vs performance in your specific case. If my guess is correct you are likely
experiencing crashes when performing tasks like more demanding games (utilizing
both CPU and iGPU extensively). Given both the CPU and iGPU are contained in
the same package and share a cooling solution this results in much higher thermals
than you would normally see on the system.

If I have misunderstood your situation please feel free to correct me and I will
see if I can offer any better suited advice.

Edited by Xaltar - Yesterday at 2:27pm

I would strongly advise against higher end CPUs on the x600 board (it's the same
in the Jupiter and the Mini). These boards were designed with APUs in mind (8000
series "G"/"GE" models). The idea is to provide a solid all around performer in
a small package.

The x600 boards used in these small form factor barebones systems are not designed
with enough power delivery and VRM cooling for higher end CPUs, you run the risk
of overheating even at 65w power draw. These were never designed to be a replacement
for a full sized desktop. SFF systems are very niche, typically used for TV boxes,
small NAS servers and for portability when a laptop isn't ideal. From all I have
seen over the years ASRock makes some of the best SFF boards and chassis out there
but the form factor itself is always a compromise.

Personally, I would go with an 8600g, maybe an 8700g in the 1l chassis you have.
That is not to say that higher TDP CPUs won't work, they will just be a waste of
money. A higher TDP CPU will throttle down it's frequency and voltage the moment
it gets hot, the motherboard will likewise throttle the CPU the moment it's power
delivery circuitry gets too hot (VRM section).

Even if you were to put a 9850X3D in there and tune it, it would throttle down in
performance almost instantly and end up performing worse than an 8700g in raw
CPU performance regardless of the extra cores and potential there. I have seen
reviews on other SFF models (older x300 models) that show this exact trend. The
same will be true here, there is no way to avoid it with such a small motherboard.
They just are not designed to handle the power requirements of a higher end CPU.

The 8000 series APUs are actually very capable and perform surprisingly well.
Again, for peace of mind I would personally go with an 8600g. It runs cooler
and will not likely be throttled much, if at all by the system. The 8700g will
be a little faster but it's at the upper limit of the board's abilities and potentially
could run into thermal issues that require you to run it at 45w which would make
it run about on par with the 8600g anyway.