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Renoir support on B450 (Gigabyte) boards is already here

fitbrit

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Hmm might be worth registering as a system integrator with AMD then? No idea how it works of course, but I would imagine that should enable you to order chips directly from them.
It's hard to get concrete information from them (or MS as well) about what are minimum quantities required. But I expect to sell 50-100 units only in 2021, including some Intel based systems. I would love to be able to get a volume discount.
Gigabyte requires 1000 minimum, and we're not there yet. We make highly specialised systems that sell for $3K to $20K each,
 

Bond007

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Yes. I own a company that makes high end audio computers. These particular motherboards have a certain feature that seems to be being phased out, but is essential for some of my products.
Interesting. What is the feature, if you don't mind saying. I am curious.
 

moocow

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Are you getting the Ryzen 5 4650 Pro? I'm just looking at price.com.hk (not the best) and I'm only seeing this one in stock at Jumbo (limited stock). Interestingly, it also list Ryzen 5 5600X as having a lot of stock. Too bad I'm not going to HK anytime soon because the price isn't that much more than USD after conversion.
 

fitbrit

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I don't think Renoir has long to live as Lucienne (Renoir refresh) and Cezzane are on the horizon already.
So far only mobile chips being talked about, I believe. The problem is that after the B450 boards, the audio feature I need is getting rarer and rarer. There is some hope for the next generation boards (B550 from ASUS, but I need to do some R&D to establish this). So I bought up a lot of B450 boards once I saw that Renoir was going to be compatible eventually. That day has now come.
I doubt that the B450 will be made compatible with any future APUs after Renoir, but I can hope.
 

fitbrit

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Interesting. What is the feature, if you don't mind saying. I am curious.
We absolutely need two things:
A decent audio chipset, and an internal SPDIF header on the motherboard. The latter is being replaced by RGB headers for real estate. Motherboards do have SPDIF out, but these are generally garbage optical ports, and no good in high end systems. We take the SPDIF header's output and use a proprietary daughterboard to electrically isolate the digital signal, boost its voltage, and decrease the rise time to produce a stunning digital stereo source (multiple annual awards from The Absolute Sound, Stereophile and other publications). This is then output as a 110 OHM AES/EBU signal, or a 75 Ohm coaxial BNC SPDIF.
The 1220 chip is very nice after the signal has been cleaned up and denoised by our daughterboard. The older 892 chip is even lovelier, especially for those who prefer a warmer "analog" sound. Going forward, it seems the 887 chip is the one that continues to offer a SPDIF header, and so far it's playing nice with our daughterboard, and may end up as our best sounding base system. My company is called Baetis Audio; it was based in Montana, and I worked for them remotely, but I took over the company and brought it to Montreal 3 years ago.
 

JD

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I would bet you'd have to order them in lots of 1000 though...
I don't see how that Extreme PC is selling 1000+ machines a year, but perhaps they are bigger than it appears. I personally had never heard of them until they were listed on the AMD site as a seller.
 

fitbrit

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Are you getting the Ryzen 5 4650 Pro? I'm just looking at price.com.hk (not the best) and I'm only seeing this one in stock at Jumbo (limited stock). Interestingly, it also list Ryzen 5 5600X as having a lot of stock. Too bad I'm not going to HK anytime soon because the price isn't that much more than USD after conversion.
I have one of those 4650G Pros - I only wanted to invest in one to use as a testbed. What I really want is the 4750G Pro, or the non-Pro equivalent. Once the BIOS is stable and out of Beta, I will look into buying 4-5 4750G Pro/4700G APUs for some early 2021 model refreshes. The systems I make produce amazing audio quality, but with these APUs handling 4K HDR really well, they can be the perfect solution for high end home theatres with an audio bias too.
 

fitbrit

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Oct 8, 2015
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I don't see how that Extreme PC is selling 1000+ machines a year, but perhaps they are bigger than it appears. I personally had never heard of them until they were listed on the AMD site as a seller.
I went and tried to sign up as an AMD partner. Will report back here if successful. Hopefully I can get better than retail pricing, maybe?
 

moocow

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God damn RGB ruins everything. Another question for you. If you are taking SPDIF signal directly from the board, then why isn't a TOSLINK output on some of the board be good enough? Is it a technical issue or a pricing issue?
 

Bond007

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We absolutely need two things:
A decent audio chipset, and an internal SPDIF header on the motherboard. The latter is being replaced by RGB headers for real estate. Motherboards do have SPDIF out, but these are generally garbage optical ports, and no good in high end systems. We take the SPDIF header's output and use a proprietary daughterboard to electrically isolate the digital signal, boost its voltage, and decrease the rise time to produce a stunning digital stereo source (multiple annual awards from The Absolute Sound, Stereophile and other publications). This is then output as a 110 OHM AES/EBU signal, or a 75 Ohm coaxial BNC SPDIF.
The 1220 chip is very nice after the signal has been cleaned up and denoised by our daughterboard. The older 892 chip is even lovelier, especially for those who prefer a warmer "analog" sound. Going forward, it seems the 887 chip is the one that continues to offer a SPDIF header, and so far it's playing nice with our daughterboard, and may end up as our best sounding base system. My company is called Baetis Audio; it was based in Montana, and I worked for them remotely, but I took over the company and brought it to Montreal 3 years ago.
Thanks for amplifying (play on words intended). I hope the business has been and continues to be successful for you!

I am curious how these APUs work out for you, so keep us posted. Hopefully they are available in retail soon.
 

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