News - AMD set to release 45W Richland APUs?

[MustardCutter]

I just want a frikkin FM2 mini ITX board that actually frikkin works and is available to buy in the UK...

[HalloweenJack]

Heard of that on so many 'hardware' sites. Never seen it on my TV. I'm sure sure purists will bleat on about it, while they bleat on that any home theatre system that costs less than £5000 is rubbish. Personally, I'd rather live without the fan noise even if the graphics are inferior in some abstract lab scenario.

that's nice for you - its the reason I had to get a discrete card for my htpc - after 45 mins the frames was visibly out of sync with the audio on certain films. but you crack on , there surely cant be a problem because you haven't seen it

[HalloweenJack]

I forwarded that info to my friend (with the dropped frames) and his reply was "great, that gives me a 'reason' (wink, wink) to replace my 'defective' rig with something fixed (and newer)". Oh, and he asked to pass on his thanks.

He was also seeing some image corruption, so thinks he might have minor issue in the chip - not a driver issue because he's up to date.

tell him to go get an AMD A10-6800k with some uber nice 2133 ram

[wasabi]

that's nice for you - its the reason I had to get a discrete card for my htpc - after 45 mins the frames was visibly out of sync with the audio on certain films. but you crack on , there surely cant be a problem because you haven't seen it

Disabling UAC fixes it for most people to a point where it drops one frame every four minutes. You need to be actively looking for the issue very hard if that bothers you. Personally, I'm enjoying the movie.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Disabling UAC fixes it for most people to a point where it drops one frame every four minutes. You need to be actively looking for the issue very hard if that bothers you. Personally, I'm enjoying the movie.

Or alternatively just go with the AMD system which does not have the issues,is not any more expensive and at low load(video playback and web browsing) consumes a similar amount of power,and at idle consumes a bit less power??

Having used the A6 3670K and Core i3 2100,the latter IGP was not as good as the cheaper A6.

The A4-4000 is only £32.88 on Scan and you even get SimCity with it free.

For server usage,the A75 and A85X motherboards offer between 6 to 8 SATA ports for between £45 to £65.

In fact TBH I don't know any of my mates who are considering Intel CPUs for HTPC or even home server usage anymore,if using the IGP.

[shaithis]

Disabling UAC fixes it for most people to a point where it drops one frame every four minutes. You need to be actively looking for the issue very hard if that bothers you. Personally, I'm enjoying the movie.

A lot of people notice 1 frame drop though.....especially those that spend a lot of money on high-end kit.

Disabling UAC in the age of hackers, phishers and trojans can be quite nuts for a lot of users.

[cjs150]

Cat-the Fifth: As I am sure you know, the Intel road map already includes the launch of sub 20W TDP CPUs in both U and Y varieties for the i3, i5 and i7.

Maybe your definition of "old" games includes more recent games than me (almost certainly true) but the i3 is capable enough for me on old games, HTPC and normal work stuff.

For an HTPC my requirement would be that it has to be capable of being cooled fanlessly. In my HTPC I have an 17-3770T (overkill I know) and no matter what I throw at it even 100% load for 2 hours it maxes out in a fanless case at 92C (room at 23C) which is comfortably below thermal throttling point. That chip has a 35W TDP. AMD have been churning out chips with 65W or 100W TDP which is too high. Serious video encoding or watching HD video with every possibly MAD VR filter will give you serious load for a couple of hours.

I admit that my use is not for everyone

[HalloweenJack]

holy ****e - I would be worried above 60 degrees - 92 oO that's huge

[DanceswithUnix]

wow my kids play wow (1400x900 preset high with 2xaa) and bf3 (medium preset) on there A10-5800k ; works nicely actually - and also works damn well in CF with a 6670 .

The kids are bored of WoW now, but she did play for a while. She only has a 1280x1024 monitor, so it works really well.

They are mostly on Minecraft now with a bit of Portal 2. I wonder if there is something odd going on with the Nvidia drivers on Minecraft, as her draw distance on the 5800K seems way better than on my FX8350 with a 2GB 460GTX!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Cat-the Fifth: As I am sure you know, the Intel road map already includes the launch of sub 20W TDP CPUs in both U and Y varieties for the i3, i5 and i7.

For the desktop?? The only ones I see for the laptop CPUs,but even then as with anything it depends on what markets and price-points they are targeted at.
Even the Iris Pro CPUs are very highly priced and look very expensive to implement.

Even then AMD is releasing Kaveri with a more efficient GPU and on a half node shrink,so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Maybe your definition of "old" games includes more recent games than me (almost certainly true) but the i3 is capable enough for me on old games, HTPC and normal work stuff.

I have tested both the Core i3 2100 and the A6 3670K together:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-reader...ml#post2548937
http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-reader...ml#post2548989

The IB Core i3 CPUs,have an improved IGP,but the A8 5600K which is the comparable CPU to the A6 3670K,does slightly improve CPU performance overall,and has a much better IGP. The IGP of the A8 is probably around 30% to 40% faster than the A6 I have.

Side by side,I found that the A6 3670K did not feel any slower than a Core i3 2100.

If anything I would be more inclined to put the savings toward an SSD,even a cheap one.

For an HTPC my requirement would be that it has to be capable of being cooled fanlessly. In my HTPC I have an 17-3770T (overkill I know) and no matter what I throw at it even 100% load for 2 hours it maxes out in a fanless case at 92C (room at 23C) which is comfortably below thermal throttling point. That chip has a 35W TDP. AMD have been churning out chips with 65W or 100W TDP which is too high. Serious video encoding or watching HD video with every possibly MAD VR filter will give you serious load for a couple of hours.

I admit that my use is not for everyone

I have been using SFF PCs as my primary rigs since late 2005,ie,mini-ITX,Shuttle form factor and mATX motherboards. I know of a build even when a Core i7 920 was cooled passively which was impressive. The last ATX motherboard I bought was in 2004,and the last full sized cased(for testing purposes) in 2007.

I probably would not want my CPU running at that sort of load temperature for extended time!! Still sounds a nice rig. I have seen a number of passively cooled AMD APU rigs too on OcUK and the like - they are the ones with the heatpipes attached to the case. Personally in either case I would prefer a slow moving fan,as you won't be able to hear it.

[wasabi]

Personally in either case I would prefer a slow moving fan,as you won't be able to hear it.

Depends on your tolerance for annoying background sounds. Mine is very low, especially for my HTPC. If you can cope with an annoying fan noise while watching a movie, lucky you. To me - nah - needs to be fanless.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Depends on your tolerance for annoying background sounds. Mine is very low, especially for my HTPC. If you can cope with an annoying fan noise while watching a movie, lucky you. To me - nah - needs to be fanless.

Considering I use SFF rigs as my main rigs,I would say it seems more a case you are probably not choosing your fans and cases properly if it is for an HTPC rig,and I am sensitive to the different sound profiles of fans too.

I even modded a E3400 with an old Zotax 9300 ITX motherboard into a aluminium phone box with a 120MM slim fan in it,with the fan undervolted as a "what can I do" build. I can't hear it close to me and so do any of my mates. That fan is not even the quietest one I could have used since I went for something slimmer so it could fit inside the case.The whole shebang runs off a 60W pico-PSU. If I used that under a TV I would be more likely to hear the TV electronics I suspect.

Also as an HTPC tends to be under your TV,or with your hifi which unlike with my SFF rigs(which are on the desk next to me),which means you are away from the source of noise many metres away. Of course considering that if you are actually using an HTPC as one,you will be either be using headphones or have your speakers activated,so any noise will be drowned out. Moreover,you can get soundproofing too,which costs only a few quid which does help,although case choice is also important,ie,the amount of open holes,rigidity and the case material used.

You are more likely to hear your fridge,washing machine or home heating system,or even the high pitched noise some TVs make when switched on. Even the HDDs can be a bigger source of noise especially with alumiunium cases and if there is case reverberation.

[DanceswithUnix]

Depends on your tolerance for annoying background sounds. Mine is very low, especially for my HTPC. If you can cope with an annoying fan noise while watching a movie, lucky you. To me - nah - needs to be fanless.

I think most of us can cope with a PS3 playing a blu-ray and any half decent HTPC is going to be a lot quieter than that.

OTOH, these days I tend to use a cheap Android tablet playing Netflix on the TV through an HDMI cable. More powerful than my rather old dual core HTPC, which tends to stay powered off

[3dcandy]

I think most of us can cope with a PS3 playing a blu-ray and any half decent HTPC is going to be a lot quieter than that.

OTOH, these days I tend to use a cheap Android tablet playing Netflix on the TV through an HDMI cable. More powerful than my rather old dual core HTPC, which tends to stay powered off

Turn TV off - fanless and much more energy efficient...doh!

[cjs150]

holy ****e - I would be worried above 60 degrees - 92 oO that's huge

Yes but that is no fan and 100% load. Normal use, web browsing, HTPC use (without Mad VR filters - my eyesight not good enough to make it a big issue !) etc and it hovers between 45-50C. I could easily knock 5-10C by removing IHS getting rid of the substandard Intel thermal paste and replacing with something sensible. I am just not that bothered.

The only problem with going for fanless case designs is that every other system noise suddenly seems a lot louder!