ASRock Rack B565D4-V1L AM4 ODM/OEM Hetzner Server mobo

Platypussy · July 8, 2026, 6:49pm

I’ve found a bunch of ASRock Rack B565D4-V1L AM4 Server/Workstation mobos on eBay - i’ve got mine for 50 €, shipped in Germany. Those are ODM/OEM mobos without a support page on the ASRock Rack website. What you will find on the website is their contact form - just ask nicely, and they’ll send you a PDF manual and a BIOS ZIP.

You know what; since i don’t see any confidentiality agreements in my correspondence with ASRock Rack, i’ll just post the PDF manual here: B565D4-V1L_25_20210520-3.pdf (3.1 MB)

The Gen4 x16 PCIe Slot6 supports 4x4 bifurcation, and works well with an ASRock RB4M2 quad-M.2 carrier card (mine is the PCB only variant, w/o the 2-slot fan bracket - a zip-tie wörks just fine - 10 € in DE). All the shorter slots are x4 and open-ended, black slots are Gen4 via CPU, and the blue ones are Gen3 via Chipset.

It’s currently running a Ryzen 3 3100 (Zen2, 4c8t, PCIe Gen4 x20+4) - pretty good multi-core perf boost, compared to my previous i5-7500.

The ASPEED 2510 IS NOT an IPMI BMC, it’s for VGA only.

Here’s the block diagram from the manual:

lspci -tv reports

           +-00.2  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse IOMMU
           +-01.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
           +-01.2-[02-2b]--+-00.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 43ef
           |               +-00.1  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] 500 Series Chipset SATA Controller
           |               \-00.2-[20-2b]--+-04.0-[25-28]----00.0-[26-28]--+-03.0-[27]----00.0  Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I226-V
           |                               |                               \-07.0-[28]----00.0  Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I226-V
           |                               +-08.0-[29]----00.0  Intel Corporation I210 Gigabit Network Connection
           |                               \-09.0-[2a-2b]----00.0-[2b]----00.0  ASPEED Technology, Inc. ASPEED Graphics Family
           +-02.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
           +-03.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
           +-03.1-[2c]----00.0  Transcend Information, Inc. NVMe PCIe SSD 240S/MTE710T
           +-03.2-[2d]----00.0  Silicon Motion, Inc. SM2262/SM2262EN SSD Controller
           +-03.3-[2e]----00.0  Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983
           +-03.4-[2f]----00.0  Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983
           +-04.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
           +-05.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
           +-07.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
           +-07.1-[30]----00.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Function
           +-08.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
           +-08.1-[31]--+-00.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Reserved SPP
           |            +-00.1  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Cryptographic Coprocessor PSPCPP
           |            +-00.3  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse USB 3.0 Host Controller
           |            \-00.4  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio Controller
           +-14.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller
           +-14.3  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge
           +-18.0  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 0
           +-18.1  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 1
           +-18.2  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 2
           +-18.3  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 3
           +-18.4  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 4
           +-18.5  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 5
           +-18.6  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 6
           \-18.7  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 7

lsiommu reports

Group 0 00:01.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]
Group 0 00:01.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge [1022:1483]
Group 0 02:00.0 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:43ef]
Group 0 02:00.1 SATA controller [0106]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] 500 Series Chipset SATA Controller [1022:43eb]
Group 0 02:00.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] 500 Series Chipset Switch Upstream Port [1022:43e9]
Group 0 20:04.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:43ea]
Group 0 20:08.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:43ea]
Group 0 20:09.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:43ea]
Group 0 25:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1182e 2-Port PCIe x1 Gen2 Packet Switch [1b21:1182]
Group 0 26:03.0 PCI bridge [0604]: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1182e 2-Port PCIe x1 Gen2 Packet Switch [1b21:1182]
Group 0 26:07.0 PCI bridge [0604]: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1182e 2-Port PCIe x1 Gen2 Packet Switch [1b21:1182]
Group 0 27:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I226-V [8086:125c] (rev 04)
Group 0 28:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I226-V [8086:125c] (rev 04)
Group 0 29:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation I210 Gigabit Network Connection [8086:1533] (rev 03)
Group 0 2a:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: ASPEED Technology, Inc. AST1150 PCI-to-PCI Bridge [1a03:1150] (rev 04)
Group 0 2b:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ASPEED Technology, Inc. ASPEED Graphics Family [1a03:2000] (rev 41)
Group 10 00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 0 [1022:1440]
Group 10 00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 1 [1022:1441]
Group 10 00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 2 [1022:1442]
Group 10 00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 3 [1022:1443]
Group 10 00:18.4 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 4 [1022:1444]
Group 10 00:18.5 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 5 [1022:1445]
Group 10 00:18.6 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 6 [1022:1446]
Group 10 00:18.7 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 7 [1022:1447]
Group 11 30:00.0 Non-Essential Instrumentation [1300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Function [1022:148a]
Group 12 31:00.0 Non-Essential Instrumentation [1300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Reserved SPP [1022:1485]
Group 13 31:00.1 Encryption controller [1080]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Cryptographic Coprocessor PSPCPP [1022:1486]
Group 14 31:00.3 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse USB 3.0 Host Controller [1022:149c]
Group 15 31:00.4 Audio device [0403]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio Controller [1022:1487]
Group 1 00:02.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]
Group 2 00:03.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]
Group 2 00:03.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge [1022:1483]
Group 2 00:03.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge [1022:1483]
Group 2 00:03.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge [1022:1483]
Group 2 00:03.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge [1022:1483]
Group 2 2c:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller [0108]: Transcend Information, Inc. NVMe PCIe SSD 240S/MTE710T [1d79:2267] (rev 03)
Group 2 2d:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller [0108]: Silicon Motion, Inc. SM2262/SM2262EN SSD Controller [126f:2262] (rev 03)
Group 2 2e:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller [0108]: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983 [144d:a808]
Group 2 2f:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller [0108]: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983 [144d:a808]
Group 3 00:04.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]
Group 4 00:05.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]
Group 5 00:07.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]
Group 6 00:07.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to bus[E:B] [1022:1484]
Group 7 00:08.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]
Group 8 00:08.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to bus[E:B] [1022:1484]
Group 9 00:14.0 SMBus [0c05]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller [1022:790b] (rev 61)
Group 9 00:14.3 ISA bridge [0601]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge [1022:790e] (rev 51)

What else would you like to know?

edit: that ASMedia ASM1182e controller handles the dual I226-V Ethernet - it’s a component ON the Networking CARD itself - that’s not on the mobo

starshipeleven · July 8, 2026, 8:11pm

When I saw them on ebay I did some research and it seems they were used by Hetzner, a german hosting provider. See these old hardware probes on linux hardware.

Subvendor Hetzner

Platypussy · July 8, 2026, 8:13pm

I’ve taken a few photos of the BIOS, if that helps anyone

manually extracted text/plain, since copilot/incognito has a login-wall now, and Spectacle ain’t hot enough, yet (the screenshot / screen recording tool of KDE/Plasma, using Tesseract OCR on Manjaro v20260707)

UEFI Version: B565D4-V1l L0.34
EC Version: 0.11.00
Microcode Update/Ucode Patch Version: 870F10/8701034
AGESA Version: ComboAM4v2PI 1.2.0.Cc
PSP Bootloader/SecureOS Version: 0.14.0.3E
ABL Version: 1A112041
APCB Version: 0030
APOB Version: 0017
SMU FW Version: 0.46.73.0
DXIO FW Version: 46.612
XHCI FW Version: 0.0.0.1
KVM Version: 0.0.0
Chipset FW Version: 231225900181

Platypussy · July 8, 2026, 8:21pm

Excellent!

This tells me, that those are actual server (not mere workstation) mobos, designed with a server use case in mind.

Well, i’m using one of ‘em now, in a HomeServer role, as a more capable replacement for my previous HP EliteDesk 800 G3 SFF (i5-7500).

The amazing AM4 upgrade path is what i’m after - an R3 3100, for now, due to budget constraints - i’d bet this mobo can run Zen3 / Ryzen 5000 series CPUs.

edit: removed the r in He(r)tzner from the quote - thx for correcting the title

Platypussy · July 8, 2026, 8:52pm

Also, on my 1st boot, the Dr. Debug, 7-segment boot code display got stuck on 27. The PDF manual doesn’t describe this code, but it must be something RAM-related.

I’ve fixed it unscientifically, by altering multiple variables at once:

i’ve pulled the BIOS/CMOS battery, in order to verify proper state of charge - 3.someodd volts is perfectly adequate - as a side-effect, i’ve at least reset the RTC to 2024, perhaps other BIOS settings as well
I’ve pulled all the RAM, and populated only 1 DIMM of non-ECC DDR4-2400
that made the POST progress beyond 0x27 (pronounced “hex two seven“, btw), enabling me to enter the BIOS Setup - this is the point in time, when i shot those photos
I’ve made lots of changes - never triggered the “load default settings“ routine
one of the changes was - i don’t quite recall the exact phrasing - “something FIX RAM something“ - i’ve enabled that one, seemed reasonable / within scope

The box has an uptime of 28 hours, since - stably purring along, with all 4 8GB DDR4-2400 nonECC DIMMs installed.

starshipeleven · July 8, 2026, 9:01pm

It’s very clearly a version of the server board B550D4-4L, (you can see the unpopulated ports match this board 100%) with a bunch of cost cutting (VGA graphics only instead of full BMC, 2 less sata ports, normal PC fan headers instead of server fan headers, no hdmi out) and the very deliberate choice to expose all the PCIe lanes in pcie slots, sacrificing the m.2 slot and a bunch of intel gigabit ports
https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=B550D4-4L#Specifications

Yes it seems it can. In the hardware probe I linked above, it was running a 5950x. There are other probes with other 5000 and 3000 series cpus.
SYS amd-25-33-2-ryzen-9-5950x-16-core-processor [**»**] AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-Core Processor cpu - [works]

at bios version L0.34, which is the same as yours in the screenshots
SYS american-megatrends-l0-34-08-29-2024 American Megatrends International, LLC. BIOS L0.34 08/29/2024 bios -

Platypussy · July 8, 2026, 9:30pm

aye, i’ve noticed that one, while trying to find the B565D4-V1L support page.

That variant has an extra 2-port ASMedia SATA controller, using 1 lane, and 3 more lanes wasted on worthless gigabit Ethernet.

I’m only into my B565D4-V1L for barely a day, but i’m quite chuffed with the price-performance:

once i’ve re-sold my old box, i’ll’ve spent the perfect amount (and a few cents) of Currency - 42.

Platypussy · July 8, 2026, 10:29pm

Here are a few caveats, if you intend to upgrade your home server from a HP EliteDesk 800 G3 SFF: (i’ll use G3+, by which i mean G3/Q270, and newer ..G4, up to G5-ish, up to 9th gen Intel, Q370 Chipset)

the HP EliteDesk 800 G3+ SFF is very rigidly built, with proper thicc-enough steel, and it requires special rubber-mount HDD screws - afaik, 5 bucks for a set of 4 (in DE) - those will shut the HDDs right up, in my XP
also, the HP EliteDesk 800 G3+ SFF might only have a 185 Watts PSU, but it’s amazing - very quiet, and 80 Plus Platinum rated
AFAIK, any G3, G4, G5 proprietary SFF form factor mobo, will fit in the original G3 SFF chassis - my old G3 seems to be upgradable, by swapping-in newer mobos.
Those EliteDesk mobos have 3 SATA ports, and the chassis has mounting options for 2x 3.5inch HDDs
The G5 has 2x M.2 sockets, while maintaining the usual G3 slot layout
my 2 18 TB Toshiba MG09 HDD operated MUCH more quietly - almost inaudibly - in the HP chassis
now, in the cheap old Inter-Tech Starter 4 chassis, i had laying around, the HDDs are rotated 90° (the case only fits in my shelf, rotated by 90°), they’re mounted with metal-to-metal screws - THE WHOLE FRIGGEN CASE IS MADE OF SUPER THIN STEEL - i can hear every single HDD IO, now, really rather quite loudly.
I’ll have to spend another, idk, 50-80 bucks, on a noise-dampened chassis, that weighs more than 3.66 kg, empty! (I’m already eyeing a be quiet! Pure Base 600, and a Fractal Design Pop Silent Black Solid)
the HP EliteDesk 800s DO NOT have 4x4 bifurcation, nor do they have the amazing AM4 upgrade path

Happy upgrading, y’all!

daemond · July 8, 2026, 11:42pm

This is quite interesting indeed. Seems like it would be perfect for a pure storage device. Like you could put a bunch of hba in there and an nvme carrier card in the top slot.

Platypussy · July 9, 2026, 6:02am

aye, i’ve got my flimsy thin-steel case in a positive pressure config - both(rear + side) 120 fans (LC-Power AiRazor LC-CF-120-PRO, not amazing, but adequate) are serving intake duties, in order to flow enough air across my precious HDDs. Those 18 TB HDDs are the most expensive components, still within warranty, which need to operate within a certain range of temperatures. I’ve mounted them, with 1 unit space between them, in front of an exhaust mesh - i can feel lots of warm air-flow, out the front …it’s fine-enough.

to make things clear, I DO NOT recommend the Inter-Tech Starter 4; If you can, AVOID it, at great cost! This is actually THEE WORST case i’ve ever built a PC in - i mean, technically, stuff fits, but it’s SO THIN - it’s just what i had on hand.

The Starter 4 has SUCH thin steel, even attempting to fasten the side panels WILL strip the thread!

Platypussy · July 9, 2026, 6:30am

a BUNCH of HBA (more than 2, in the best case) might not achieve the result, you’re imagining!

The Chipset IC has a PCIe (Gen3?) x4 link to the CPU - that’s the path ALL the blue slots need to pass, in order to make (non-DMA) transfers happen.

In MY USE CASE, yes!
It’s a perfect storage server - my 2 SATA HDDs use the integrated Chipset - my fast NVMe caches are now proper Gen4 x4 (instead of Gen3 x1, previously) - ZedFS, btw! The best FS, imho.

In ZFS, the Z(ed) stand for the last letter in the alphabet - the last FS you’ll ever need - that’s the lore, afaik. Quite bold, but also quite adequate. ZFS saved my bacon at least twice - snapshots! (also; if you want to run Nextcloud - make it a proper thick VM [read the manual, none of those Docker containers], use a thin/sparse ZVOL - shut it down before updating, snapshot the zvol, save your hiney! )

Platypussy · July 11, 2026, 7:49pm

My “rack” power consumption increased quite a bit, since the upgrade.

My smart plug graph looks like this, via Home Assistant (that flat-line bit there, that’s downtime, due to upgrading - no data, because the HA VM runs on that box)

This graph is a result of my default balanced setting

user@asrock ~ $ powerprofilesctl 
  performance:
    CpuDriver:	amd_pstate
    Degraded:   no

* balanced:
    CpuDriver:	amd_pstate
    PlatformDriver:	placeholder

  power-saver:
    CpuDriver:	amd_pstate
    PlatformDriver:	placeholder

Next, i’ll evaluate performance under a low-power regime: powerprofilesctl set power-saver.

I’ve not noticed any AMD cTDP options in the BIOS settings, btw. (I’m not sure, whether those aren’t enabled for Zen2, or not available in this firmware. It’ll take at least a few months/quarters, to find a hole in my budget to upgrade to Zen3)

Any power saving / tuning recommendations?
The box runs Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS, in a NAS and libvirt / virt-manager (via SSH, or virsh) hypervisor role.

I’ll enrich this thread with updated power consumption stats, in a few hours, or days, when i’m sober …antici-….

starshipeleven · July 11, 2026, 8:37pm

afaik on AM4 you need to set sata controller to aggressive power savings in bios to make the ASPM settings (also in bios) work.

Even then on my gigabyte AM4 server board idle power wasn’t amazing, this is one of the aspects Intel has always had a big edge over AMD. The Intel CPU (in systems with ASPM enabled and working and all devices also supporting it) can reach DEEP sleep states and the whole system can go down to single digit watts in idle if you don’t have a power hog HBA or networking card. On AMD I’ve never been able to go below 20-25 watts even in real idle (i.e. nothing running at all, no vms no nothing) without anything else connected besides the boot drive.

Although baseline 70 watts on idle sounds a tad high

wUFr · July 11, 2026, 8:42pm

a bit dissapointed the AsRock Rack boards on DE eBay have no M.2 slots soldered on.

Hetzner (if they are really from them) probably used PCI-E riser cards as they are probably faster to install / change if user ordered different configuration.

on a side note, i noticed Hetzner doesnt really allow you to configure their budget dedic servers anymore, even the cheapest AX server you could add storage or ram, but now its just 64GB ram and 2x 512G NVme and no change allowed

starshipeleven · July 11, 2026, 8:53pm

why, this is one of the few features that makes these boards different and more “useful” for a homelab. So you can use the (non-chipset) x4 pcie slot for a 10gbit network card and put pcie storage on the main x16 running in x4x4x4x4 mode. Instead of doing shenanigans with an ADT m.2 to pcie adapter from aliexpress and an itx board in a matx case.

Every other consumer AM4 board has an m2 slot (or more) and a lot of them support ECC, and can be bought new with full warranty for only slightly more than this board is at.

I would expect most providers to have similar rationing in place, it’s either that or start charging a lot more money

wUFr · July 11, 2026, 8:59pm

idk, id rather prefer the board to still have M.2 slots soldered, cuz it would give me an option to either utilize the lanes for add-in pci-e card or M.2 stuff.

One of the boards i found even had traces for 2x M.2 slots beside the cpu, but they were not soldered on, which forces you to use the pci-e slot.

starshipeleven · July 11, 2026, 9:33pm

I hate m.2 slots on the board with a passion, it’s a pain in the ass to change a drive without tearing down half the system and it must be done with extreme care to not yeet the tiny screw around the case. If I can go with a pcie slot instead I’m paying the 10 euros for a single m.2 carrier board all day every day, just for the convenience alone of working on the m.2 slot while out of the case and on a desk.
Also usually better cooling with a carrier board

If you mean the other asrock rack B450D4U-V1L also hetzner-customized matx board sold for cheap on ebay, the m.2 slots on that board kinda suck anyway.

The “default” one on asrock rack website shows in the block diagram that both m.2 are on the chipset, one is pcie 3.0 and the other pcie 2.0.
https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=B450D4U-V1L#Specifications

Btw just a fyi that board (the cheap customized one) has a horrible bios that needs some trickery or flashing a custom bios for basic stuff like enabling ECC among other things, see the thread on servethehome and make sure you know what you are getting into

Platypussy · July 11, 2026, 9:37pm

That’s what these must be for - the x16 slot supports x4x4x4x4 (“4x4“) bifurcation:

ASRock RB4M2, quad M.2, bifurcation carrier card - 3 variants, my personal nomenclature - solo, bracket, and fan bracket

in my box the “solo“ variant seemed cheap and sufficient - a zip-tie costs “nothing” - good enough for Gen3 x4 NVMe - chassis air-flow seems adequate.

wUFr · July 11, 2026, 9:37pm

hmmm, that sucks then. I was only looking out of curriosity tho. Currently have old TR1900X with plenty of PCI-E lanes as a home server

wUFr · July 11, 2026, 9:39pm

ye i noticed the seller on eBay have these as well.

Id buy one for my TR rig but the shipping even just DE → CZ makes the price 2x, so its cheaper for me to buy these (or other 4x4) cards locally

edit:

Locally i can have this asus 4x4 card for under 400CZK shipped (16,5EUR) for example

edit2: ok its an auction, so the price may go up a bit, but probably still cheaper than the DE eBay sadly