The original post: /r/buildapc by /u/Maxiride on 2025-02-23 14:37:36.

Original Title: Failed upgrade of the CPU of my homelab, totally forgot I had an APU before and now the MOBO doesn’t POST. Am I doomed to change MOBO and case to accommodate a GPU? Can’t proceed for a refund of the parts, sadly.

Long story short, back in 2018 I build a home NAS and during the years I made minor upgrades like new case fans, new HDDs an M2 SSD (part list as of today https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fgJsVF plus an unlisted PCI SATA adapter for the two extra SATA slots missing on the MOBO).

Flash forward to today, I needed an upgrade since from a bare bone NAS it became more like a server with a lot of self-hosted stuff initially for me only and then for family too and the Athlon was struggling a lot. So I researched a bit, made a budget and bought a AMD Ryzen 7 5700X and a Noctua NH-U12A CPU Cooler.

Today I proceed to the installation only to notice that the MOBO doesn’t POST and the VGA led was on. In like 2 nanoseconds, I realize the enormous oversight I just made 😥.

I was so used to the idea that the server was run headless that I completely forgot that the Athlon was an APU, so now I am in the situation that:

  • MOBO doesn’t POST
  • I just spent like 300 € of parts. I asked for a refund, but obviously the merchant said no since all the parts are “used”, boxes opened etc. Not his fault, of course. I could try to sell them online at a loss.
  • I have no room for a dedicated GPU, the MOBO has 1 PCI slot and is used by the SATA adapter which I really can’t take out unless loosing 2 HDDs (I don’t completely exclude this option, but I would anyway need to buy bigger HDDs to account for the lost storage, and they ain’t cheap too at that capacity)
  • In the event of going for a dedicated GPU (the cheapest one, since I actually run the server headless) I would need a new MOBO which would be bigger for sure and won’t fit the case, resulting in the purchase of a new case too.

I recognize I made a serious oversight, misled by having used the server as headless for years.

What are my options here? I can still afford to buy something, but I am unsure on how to proceed, and I would really love some feedback from the community on how to make this right in a sensible way.