ASRock's E350M1: AMD's Brazos Platform Hits The Desktop First

[micksh]

Test setup states hyper-threading was enabled on Atom 330.
All charts show 2C/2T for Atom 330.
What is to be believed?
Surely newer Atom would have been more relevant.

 

[PudgyChicken]

Can you please compare this with new Oak Trail mobos? I'd like to see performance comparisons between same generation products.

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]micksh[/nom]Test setup states hyper-threading was enabled on Atom 330.All charts show 2C/2T for Atom 330.What is to be believed?Surely newer Atom would have been more relevant.[/citation]

Good catch--Hyper-Threading was enabled. Charts will be edited. Newer Atom would not have changed the performance story in any significant manner.

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]PudgyChicken[/nom]Can you please compare this with new Oak Trail mobos? I'd like to see performance comparisons between same generation products.[/citation]

As soon as they become available!

 

[gmarsack]

Excellently written article, Chris! I really appreciated the focus and background done to cover the many facets of the processor, its competition as well as any claims to be had about features. I wish you wrote every article on this site. Nice job, Chris.

 

[eddieroolz]

I think AMD may have a winner in their hands with this one. Performing better than the Atom in every aspect while costing 40% less. That sounds like something I want in a netbook.

 

[nebun]

[citation][nom]reprotected[/nom]Ironic of how Nvidia quality is worse than AMD.[/citation]
really now.....isn't ATI gone?...wait AMD purchased a dying company....nvidia is still standing on their own two feet. if the quality of nvida was worse how come ATI is no more?

 

[agnickolov]

What warped math did that AMD exec use to come up with 33 years being more than 40? 8086 (the first x86 CPU) is introduced in 1978. Now it's 2011.

 

[falchard]

Yawn, boring article. HEY EVERYONE AMD MAKES A BETTER GPU THEN INTEL. Its not like its anything surprising except the power consumption. On the other hand the writer misread the slide at the end. Brazos is not competing with Celeron 2, its competing with pentium based systems. So thats Celeron 1.

 

[buzznut]

Well, I like the new tech and its making me reconsider my HTPC plans. Which I didn't have much of currently because of the cost to join in the fun. If I can get a platform for $100, then the overall cost of the PC would be pretty reasonable-in the 300-400 dollar range. Me likey.

 

[amdfangirl]

Does this motherboard support ECC RAM?

If not, is that a limitation of the board, or of the Fusion platform?

If ECC is supported, this could be a big deal for low-cost firewalls and NAS devices.

Nope.

Did you expect a $100 APU+motherboard to include server functions?

 

[gmarsack]

I own 4 Atom-based servers and this looks very attractive.

 

[experimentxx]

I want netbooks with the Fusion chips now

Was expecting a bit more in the CPU side, but it will not be replacing my desktop so it's fine. Also once internet browsers support hardware acceleration, these Fusion chips should be damn great in mobile computers!

 

[cmi86]

Nice !! Great bang for the buck,AMD as usual. Hopefully this pressures Intel to price their products more competitively.

 

[amdfangirl]

Good catch--Hyper-Threading was enabled. Charts will be edited. Newer Atom would not have changed the performance story in any significant manner.

Indeed. The archieteture of the Atom hasn't changed. The only change was improving the integrated graphics by moving it on-die and using a slightly modified version of the GMA 3100 chip.

The only speed boost CPU-wise would be the higher binned Atoms, running at 1.8Ghz.

I'm amazed how well this review was written.

 

[Nintendork]

And you have all flavor with this chip. Mini-ITX, mATX, with fan, fanless. Trully awesome.

Personally I'll wait for Llano a perfect replacement to any medium level gaming machine. HD5570 like performance + improved Phenom II quad performance, all in one chip, drool.

 

[cangelini]

Greetings all!

I had the chance to address some of your requests over the weekend and made changes to page one and eight. In short, there is no Zacate overclocking, unfortunately, and upgrading graphics to a discrete card probably is not worthwhile--at least if you're looking at a Radeon HD 5770 or better. Even with a lower-end card, however, the potential for better frame rates is limited.

All the best!
Chris

 

[haplo602]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]Greetings all!I had the chance to address some of your requests over the weekend and made changes to page one and eight. In short, there is no Zacate overclocking, unfortunately, and upgrading graphics to a discrete card probably is not worthwhile--at least if you're looking at a Radeon HD 5770 or better. Even with a lower-end card, however, the potential for better frame rates is limited.All the best!Chris[/citation]

thanks for the update Chris, but a card that requires external power does not make sense in this setup ... anyway it seems the x4 PCIe is quite a bottleneck ...

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]haplo602[/nom]thanks for the update Chris, but a card that requires external power does not make sense in this setup ... anyway it seems the x4 PCIe is quite a bottleneck ...[/citation]

Picked it for a couple of reasons: 1) almost every PSU gives you a single 6-pin PCIe connector 2) wanted to go overkill on GPU power to test the platform's max capabilities. Something in between 6310 and 5750 is probably more apropos, but there's clearly limited potential based on the Juniper card's results. Not worth the upgrade IMO.

 

[haplo602]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]Picked it for a couple of reasons: 1) almost every PSU gives you a single 6-pin PCIe connector 2) wanted to go overkill on GPU power to test the platform's max capabilities. Something in between 6310 and 5750 is probably more apropos, but there's clearly limited potential based on the Juniper card's results. Not worth the upgrade IMO.[/citation]

the only proper upgrade will be a full UVD3 card to enable 3D movies ... btw would Hybrid CF work in this one ? I am long out of touch with this technology, since it never made sense, but here it maybe could be used.

 

[Nintendork]

The Gigabyte mobo allows OC, at least that what they advertise on their Zacate Mini-ITX product:

3DMark2006 1280x1024 --> 2400+ 3dmark

Stock Zacate platform --> 2100~ 3Dmark

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]haplo602[/nom]the only proper upgrade will be a full UVD3 card to enable 3D movies ... btw would Hybrid CF work in this one ? I am long out of touch with this technology, since it never made sense, but here it maybe could be used.[/citation]

So that'd be a Radeon HD 6870 at least--unfortunately not a practical upgrade. You'd be better off with a GT 210 or something from Nvidia, without question.

Hybrid CF never appeared as an option in the driver, so I assume it isn't supported this time around.

 

[Dougie Fresh]

Excellent article. I don't think people realize what a game-changer this is in the nettop world. This will be the first time nettops are both cheap and decent. Current nettops do a lot of things well: surfing the 'net, checking email, writing a blog or a document and those basic functions. What they don't do well is the other now basic tasks like playing back H.264 720p of the baby from your Flip HD, making a DVD out of your pictures and videos or watching HD videos from ABC.com. These are everyday tasks too but you still needed that tower on the floor to do them. Now we can build little boxes that can sit on the desk and use a 60W power supply with no fans anywhere. And, once Llano comes out I can't imagine building a full-sized tower computer ever again.

Awesome.

 

[cyrusfox]

Really appreciated the article with some good benches and comparisons, but I wanted to bring attention to the one error I found.

Brazos is manufactured on a 40nm process, on the Test Setups And Software page you have it listed as 45nm.

 

[voltagetoe]

It's perfect. gotta now build a new totally silent mini pc with a passively cooled asus motherboard... then a new led projector from vivitek. this initial APU model really does good for home teather computers.