Features - AMD spills details on mainstream Richland APUs

[HEXUS]

Good enough to power your next laptop?

Read more.

[Biscuit]

I was hoping to wait out for Kaveri for my media centre (as there are rumours of it using a newer FM3 socket), but the 880G board within my current one has just died (i think) so i might have to go for Richland. Isnt so bad i guess as Kaveri is supposed to support FM2 aswell but it would have been nice to go the whole hog!

[nacasatu]

It's all worthless if they are still intent on shipping their APU's with the most dreadful of standard heatsink/coolers - they're so bad, you'd be lucky to ever hit turbo mode in anything without the APU being throttled back because it's temperature started evaporating all the moisture in the air within a 5 miles radius.
"our APU can hit 50Ghz in turbo mode" - who cares, 99% will be lucky to get it above 1ghz before the heat generated meant it had to be throttled back to 1995 speeds.

Take any AMD APU and budget in another 50 Euro on top of the cost for a third party heatsink cooler - standard practice.

[Biscuit]

The standard one is bad, but it doesn't take 50Eu to tame it

[grayg1]

The main things for me are AMD getting more people to stock their laptops and at a better price. i3 laptops cost the same as A6 laptops and when you compare the desktop variants a desktop i3 is about twice the price of a desktop A6.
Or is Intels pricing just far too aggressive for AMD to do anything about?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The standard one is bad, but it doesn't take 50Eu to tame it

The standard one is not always bad in all conditions,but its when they are in more cramped cases,where an APU makes the most sense,that the AMD aluminium cooler of fail strikes!!

However,since AMD keeps their cooler compatability consistent,the AM3+ stock cooler for their 125W TDP CPUs probably should work.

[Biscuit]

The main things for me are AMD getting more people to stock their laptops and at a better price. i3 laptops cost the same as A6 laptops and when you compare the desktop variants a desktop i3 is about twice the price of a desktop A6.
Or is Intels pricing just far too aggressive for AMD to do anything about?

There are rumours circling that it is as much to do with Intel being anti-competitive as it is anything else. Without hard evidence its difficult to prove but i dont think anyone would be surprised.

It would be nice to see more AMD lappies around though as its a much better platform for most usage scenarios.

The standard one is not always bad in all conditions,but its when they are in more cramped cases,where an APU makes the most sense,that the AMD aluminium cooler of fail strikes!!

However,since AMD keeps their cooler compatability consistent,the AM3+ stock cooler for their 125W TDP CPUs probably should work.

Maybe we should start a petition for AMD to sort it out, that's what everyone does nowerdays right?

[malfunction]

It's all worthless if they are still intent on shipping their APU's with the most dreadful of standard heatsink/coolers - they're so bad, you'd be lucky to ever hit turbo mode in anything without the APU being throttled back because it's temperature started evaporating all the moisture in the air within a 5 miles radius.
"our APU can hit 50Ghz in turbo mode" - who cares, 99% will be lucky to get it above 1ghz before the heat generated meant it had to be throttled back to 1995 speeds.

Take any AMD APU and budget in another 50 Euro on top of the cost for a third party heatsink cooler - standard practice.

The standard one is bad, but it doesn't take 50Eu to tame it

The standard one is not always bad in all conditions,but its when they are in more cramped cases,where an APU makes the most sense,that the AMD aluminium cooler of fail strikes!!

However,since AMD keeps their cooler compatability consistent,the AM3+ stock cooler for their 125W TDP CPUs probably should work.

To be fair the standard Intel coolers are crap too, it's just that since Sandy Bridge the chips themselves run nice and cool (at stock). My (Nehalem) i7 960 ran at 90c under load with the stock Intel cooler, but barely cracks half that with a decent cooler on it.

Also - €50? Not quite - get one of these (assuming your case is big enough):

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/therm...75-and-am2-am3

Job done!

[Biscuit]

You dont even need to go that far!

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/arcti...p-to-130-watts

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...m3plus-am3-am2

[malfunction]

I have one of those in another PC. Does a good job for the money (unlike most ~£15 heatsinks). The Thermalright is around 15 to 20 degrees better under load in my experience (both i7 9xx CPUs, but different cases and graphics cards, etc so not just the heatsink in play).

[Biscuit]

Indeed its not the best, that would be the lowest i would go. Point is there are numerous other coolers between 20-50Euro that would comfortably fit the bill!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The APUs don't even need a cooler that expensive. You are only looking at a 65W to 100W TDP CPU.

[Biscuit]

The APUs don't even need a cooler that expensive. You are only looking at a 65W to 100W TDP CPU.

Is there anything decent (im thinking sound levels aswell) thats cheaper?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Is there anything decent (im thinking sound levels aswell) thats cheaper?

Most £10 to £25 coolers will be fine with a 100W TDP CPU though,and AM2 CPU coolers should work fine on a FM2 motherboard AFAIK.

The whole system power draw of the A6-3670K is 80W in Scaryjim's review:

http://forums.hexus.net/members/scar...2889-power.png

Hexus measured 114W at the wall for an A10-5800K when running a game. Hexus measured 76W for the A10-5700.

This makes them probably easier to cooler than a Phenom II X4 955BE.

[Biscuit]

Understand that pretty much any cooler would be capable but usually when i look at coolers, i go to the category (on scan usually) and pick the lowest one that i know will be fairly quiet and capable. AC7 is the first one on that list in my head, unless there is something i don't know about?

Essentially, Im just asking what cooler that's under the price of an AC7 that you would recommend?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Understand that pretty much any cooler would be capable but usually when i look at coolers, i go to the category (on scan usually) and pick the lowest one that i know will be fairly quiet and capable. AC7 is the first one on that list in my head, unless there is something i don't know about?

Essentially, Im just asking what cooler that's under the price of an AC7 that you would recommend?

The AC7 costs £15,you answered your own question??

If you want a low profile cooler this one is OK:

http://www.shop.bt.com/products/xigm...R00&origin=pla

The MK1 version(which I use),in a aluminium SFF enclosure(basically my cut up Shuttle case) which is next to me on the desk can be heard under load,which has enough holes a Moose could climb through.

However,it is cooling a Xeon E3 1220 which consumes around 70W to 80W on its own.

This is opposed to most people using a full sized steel case,or a full sized HTPC case made of steel.

The MK2 version,has a much quieter fan and would be a good replacement in a more cramped case.

Moreover,plonk the heatpipe cooler from the 125W TDP Phenom II X4 and FX series CPUs on an A10-5700 or A10-5800K,and you will probably be fine anyway. They are designed for upto 140W TDP AMD CPUs anyway.

They cost under £10.