Screws were tightened in the correct order and CPU cooler is level. I’ll reseat it once more and otherwise I’ll send the motherboard back and get a new one.
The packaging wasn’t great when I got it maybe some traces got damaged. Even though I don’t think that because all PCIe slots aren’t working correctly.
I just went around it in a star pattern. Once it grabbed the threads, I just put a consistent number of turns on each screw until it got very hard to turn. Even if some of the screws are not correct, every screw also has a spring that should maintain a good compression. It probably really only matters if you have a very heavy heatsink.
One thing to remember is that the socket is so large, even under compressed you have a much larger surface area to conduct the heat out. Also since the socket is so large, it can cantilever a large heat sink much easier than a smaller socket.
You also have an extra screw on each side to take up the extra load. Or another way, you have a few spare screws. If one is too loose the adjacent screws can take the load.
I bought the kill a watt today so I should have numbers for you soon.
1.4nm sounds low, but since the leaver on the hex wrench I was using was about 30mm long, it is about 45kg of force on the end of the hex wrench. I had to use the long end to reach through the heat sink, so I had to twist the short end.
The problem was actually this card: Delock Products 90169 Delock PCI Express 4.0 x16 Card to 4 x internal U.2 NVMe SFF-8639 - Bifurcation (LxW: 288 x 122 mm)
I’ve switched around a lot of cards/devices during the build and I thought I had already checked without this one but… 
Looks like cards like these are known for PERR errors.
I’ve ordered two Supermicro MCIO-1240U2Y-E now for my Micron 7450 Pros. Those cables should be more trustworthy.
I’ve started a new thread about optimizing idle power consumption of Epyc 8224P on Gigabyte Me03-PE0 motherboard: AMD Epyc 8004 Energy efficiency settings (Proxmox)
My idle power consumption is much higher than 50W.
I’m looking forward to test your suggestions.
2 Likes
Did you find the ASPM option the the BIOS? It’s listed in the manual but not visible on the screenshot in the manual. 
I can’t find it, maybe I have to set another option first?
New member and lurker here. This is a fantastic forum community! Apologies - I don’t have anything to add to this thread.
I just wanted to say that I really appreciate the insight I’ve gathered from this thread, and I’ve been checking it several times daily for any news.
I’m ready to build my first lowish-power homelab proxmox server after years of research and learning…I’ve settled on the Epyc 8004 series.
I’m eagerly awaiting US availability of the ASRock mobos and/or the Gigabyte models discussed here.
Thank you to everyone for all of the fantastic data and info! Keep it up.
1 Like
hi all! Just joined because I’ve been trying to get my hands on an epyc 8004 boards as well.
Just noticed today that Newegg has the Asrock Rack sienad8-2l2t in stock. I can’t post a link for some reason but search for Sienad8 at Newegg and it’ll come up
BTW it does support SATA, but through an adapter + cable. The adapter is 1U2G-RB1U2SL-4G (which is an MCIO breakout adapter) and you can use it on the PCIE 3 and PCIE 7 slot.
3 Likes
Do you mean it is done using the 16xPCIe slots? That’s what PCIE3 and PCIE7 are?
Not via the two MCIO ports? The specifications doesn’t mention that you can use SATA on the MCIO ports, on their models this is clearly specified.
no, the onboard MCIO ports are PCIE only.
the MCIO adapter only functions in PCIE3 and PCIE7 via UEFI config, to breakout SATA.
Yeah, with the PCIe slots. you can choose in the BIOS whether you want them to function as SATA or PCIe.
Kind of a bummer honestly. That’s another +$100 or so in adapters and cables, neither of which are included with the board.
Sorry for the slight diversion but what would be the best gpu to pair with the Siena platform for Plex/jellyfin/emby/transcoding duties?
Siena looks really good as a low power homelab( especially with the relatively inexpensive 8 or 16 core CPU) with alot of RAM & PCIe slots but the last piece to the puzzle is a low power GPU, Intel Arc a310 or 380? Nvidia RTX 4060? A2000?
Or isit actually better to just get an additional n100/305, 8505/U300(e) mini pc dedicated to just transcoding because quicksync is so good/efficient? Or will the addition of the mini pc and it’s seperate power consumption be very similar to a gpu so it’s redundant.
Looking forward to your suggestions 
@autoturk @singlebeam
Did either of you end up purchasing a 8004 board / building a system?
I’d be interested in seeing your progress and thoughts.
Still waiting for SIENAD8UD-2L2Q! 
2 Likes
At the moment I’m waiting for anything other than an ME03-CE0 to be in stock here in the US. While that board has some nice features it’s missing too much for me to make it worth it – it would basically be adapter hell if I went with it.
I’m waiting for the sienad8-2l2t to come back in stock at Newegg, but I think it’ll be late April before it does given what I heard from other suppliers.
1 Like
What’s your understanding of how to access SATA on this board ? The manual references this card 1U2G-RB1U2SL-G4 but I can’t find any info on it.
I don’t have the board so take this with a grain of salt. I noticed that that adapter was also nowhere to be found, but I was going to just try something like this with some slimsas to SATA cables: https://www.amazon.com/Cablecc-Slimline-SFF-8654-Express-Adapter/dp/B09Y2VC98D/
The ASRock adapter (from what I can gather) seems to be manufactured for a complex situation with retimers to account for PCIe 4.0 devices, whereas the SlimSAS adapter above is really basic and designed for PCIE 3.0/4.0 (maybe).
I have a feeling it’ll work since it’s just a SATA signal being sent instead of more complex PCIe, and the ASRock adapter doesn’t seem to have any SATA specific functionality. Obviously I haven’t tried it since I don’t have the board but it’s worth a shot, I think.
EDIT: in fact, I’m pretty certain from looking at the manual that it’s not an MCIO connector but a slimsas sff-8654 connector, so in theory at least my idea should work. Here’s the screenshot: Imgur: The magic of the Internet
I reached out to ASRock and got this reply back :
SIENAD8-2L2T can support up to 16+16 SATA. The SATA support requires “1U2G-RB1U2SL-G4” server card (connected to MB’ PCIE3 or PCIE7) + Slimline-SATA cable + BIOS settings (PCIE7/PCIE3 = SATA)
The rest of the email was just bits they’d pulled from the motherboard’s manual.
It’s still unclear to me where the SATA chip is (motherboard or riser card). If it’s on the motherboard then I’m interested in using that to optimise power, but if it’s on the PCIe card then I might as well just stick with a known and tested SAS HBA.
The sata connections are provided directly by the CPU, as opposed to on motherboard chipset or riser card chipset. I wouldn’t be surprised if Asrock is using a weird cable pinout though that requires a special cable or riser+cable combo though.
The CPU PHYs for P0 and G3 can “repurpose” PCIe lanes directly into sata lanes, all Sienna platforms that expose these two ports can do this unless explicitly disabled in BIOS which is extra work by the OEMs.
3 Likes