So I don't have hardware in hand yet, but want to make sure my final parts list makes sense, and will allow me to hit the lower power c-states, before I buy everything. If anyone here has the ASRock Z690 Pro RS and is successfully hitting the lower power c-states, I'd love to hear from you on your specifics!

 

I'm planning to build an i5-13500 with ASRock Z690 Pro RS, where I want to max out the 8 SATA ports with 8 HDDs.

 

In reading the mobo manual, it has the following PCIE slots:

• PCIE1 (PCIe 3.0 x1 slot) is used for PCIe x1 lane width cards.

• PCIE2 (PCIe 5.0 x16 slot) is used for PCIe x16 lane width graphics cards.

• PCIE3 (PCIe 4.0 x16 slot) is used for PCIe x4 lane width graphics cards.

• PCIE4 (PCIe 3.0 x1 slot) is used for PCIe x1 lane width cards.

• PCIE5 (PCIe 3.0 x16 slot) is used for PCIe x4 lane width graphics cards.

 

And it has the following m.2 sockets:

• 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_1, Key M), supports type 2260/2280 PCIe Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) mode

• 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_2, Key M), supports type 2260/2280 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s & PCIe Gen3x4 (32 Gb/s) modes

• 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_3, Key M), supports type 2260/2280/22110 PCIe Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) mode

 

The manual also notes that:

"If M2_2 is occupied by a SATA-type M.2 device, SATA3_7 will be disabled."

 

I've read the first thing I'll need to do is use a Windows installation to enable the "Lower Power S0 Idle Capability" setting in the hidden BIOS menu, following these instructions:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ASRock/s/7I8iPhwYA4

 

Then after that, it looks like it would be good for me to update my Realtek driver, and make sure I don't have an NVME attached to a cpu connected slot, per this comment:

https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/s/11uEPLX54B

 

Some questions:

1. On the ASRock Z690 Pro RS, is that "CPU connected slot" comment referring to the M2_1 socket? Or is it referring to the PCIE2 (5.0 x16) slot? Or both? I want to make sure I know exactly which sockets and/or slots I need to keep unused.

 

2. I plan to connect M.2 NVME SSDs to the M2_2 and M2_3 sockets (which I assume are the chipset sockets). Doing that should allow me to still use all 8 SATA connections because they are NVME, right?

 

3. Any specific M.2 NVME brands/models you can recommend that 100% work with hitting the lower power c-states?

 

4. Typically I've used SSDs for my appdata drive and for a downloads/cache drive. If I stick with that setup here with my two planned NVMEs, which one should I put in the PCIe Gen 4 socket?

 

5. I'm also wanting to hook up an Intel P4510 NVME SSD to the PCIE5 (3.0 x16) slot, via a PCIE to u.2 adapter. The idea is this drive can be for 24/7 security camera recording and Plex transcoding, due to it's high endurance. Does anyone know if that specific drive will cause an issue with me reaching the lower power c-states?

 

6. If I decide in the future I need more HDDs, I would plan to add an ASM1166 to the PCIE3 (4.0 x16) slot. Is that the right slot for it?

 

7. I'm assuming that there is no such thing as a 10gbe network card that supports ASMP? And none of the newer LSI cards support ASMP, correct?

 

Appreciate any insight you can give!

Edited July 11, 20242 yr by Magic815

Bump, also interested in a setup like this. 
 

OP, any chance you took the leap already? 

Yea, I ended up moving forward with the build - without getting clear answers to my above questions. However, I realized that my use of a Home Assistant VM with Zigbee and Z-Wave USBs is causing my new machine to not reach the lower power c-states.

 

I need to first separate out my Home Assistant VM and relevant USB devices to its own box, before I can really dive into the lower power c-states more. I'll post back here if/when I reach that point, but it will likely be awhile.

I'm currently getting started with this mobo+cpu combo. After many days of trial and error I can't seem to get any better than C3. I've removed all the attached hardware except for one stick of ram and followed guides in this forum containing this mobo and others explaining powertop. Even removing the boot drive while running changed nothing. Power consumption drops to 19W but still, stuck in C3.

3 minutes ago, k-layzr said:

removing the boot drive while running

Very bad idea 

1 hour ago, trurl said:

Very bad idea 

I was under the impression that Unraid ran in RAM after booting. I can't figure out what else could be keeping my CPU from dropping below C3. If someone could take a look at my diagnostics and point out the problem, I'd be very thankful.

tower-diagnostics-20250320-0908.zip

2 hours ago, k-layzr said:

under the impression that Unraid ran in RAM after booting

It does, but it also needs to be able to update the boot flash when you shutdown, or make any changes. When you remove it, and put it back, it won't remount it. Also possible to cause corruption by hotplugging it since it could have pending writes.