MSI Reveals its First AMD AM1 Motherboard

[N.Broekhuijsen]

MSI has built its first motherboard based on the AMD AM1 platform.

MSI Reveals its First AMD AM1 Motherboard : Read more

 

[InvalidError]

In theory, the motherboards should be ~$20 cheaper than those supporting APUs with separate chipset since the SiS implementation eliminates the separate ~$20 IO controller, the space it takes, some of its voltage regulators, the high-speed interface to the APU, etc.

I was expecting the desktop SoC/SiS craze to start with Broadwell. Looks like it started a little early.

 

[CaedenV]

The beginning of a very strange change in the desktop market.With the northbridge moving to the CPU I wonder if we will finally see a slowdown on socket changes. AMD has always been pretty good about having long lifespans on their sockets... but intel could do to add another year or two to each iteration.

 

[jasonelmore]

Intel cpu's have had the northbridge on the CPU for years, hell some of intel's latest ULV chips even have the south bridge on die as well.

 

[knowom]

The sacrifices from Full ATX to Micro ATX feels generally painless, but the difference between Micro ATX and Mini ITX is harsh only having 1 expansion card slot blows.

 

[knowom]

Integrated graphics are going to have to get a whole lot better for me to feel comfortable buying a motherboard with only 1 expansion card slot like on par with Maxwell performance.

 

[Novuake]

The beginning of a very strange change in the desktop market.With the northbridge moving to the CPU I wonder if we will finally see a slowdown on socket changes. AMD has always been pretty good about having long lifespans on their sockets... but intel could do to add another year or two to each iteration.

1. Intel Socket 775 😛
2. I wish AMD would move on more often, their platform is HORRIBLY outdated and is holding them back. Its long overdue for AM4.

However I do agree with you that since Sandy, the socket change has been mostly pointless.

 

[InvalidError]

Intel cpu's have had the northbridge on the CPU for years, hell some of intel's latest ULV chips even have the south bridge on die as well.

AMD has had integrated northbridge since the Athlon64, 6+ years before Intel did the same with Core i5/7.

I'm guessing for southbridge integration you mean the new Atom-based Celerons/Pentiums. Not much of a choice to cut costs when competing in the SoC space against $20-40 ARM chips - there is just no budget to gouge an extra $30-50 for a separate chipset like Intel does for desktop and laptop chips.

 

[knowom]

The beginning of a very strange change in the desktop market.With the northbridge moving to the CPU I wonder if we will finally see a slowdown on socket changes. AMD has always been pretty good about having long lifespans on their sockets... but intel could do to add another year or two to each iteration.

1. Intel Socket 775 😛
2. I wish AMD would move on more often, their platform is HORRIBLY outdated and is holding them back. Its long overdue for AM4.

However I do agree with you that since Sandy, the socket change has been mostly pointless.

AMD should be bought out by Apple they have the same delusional annoying cult fan base really and what happened to VIA. *crickets*

 

[Novuake]

AMD should be bought out by Apple they have the same delusional annoying cult fan base really and what happened to VIA. *crickets*

I happen to lean towards AMD for my hardware. Just by the way.

 

[anathema_forever]

its fine we aren't homophobic here; I am sorry but I couldn't the jab, end troll.

 

[Wisecracker]

2. I wish AMD would move on more often, their platform is HORRIBLY outdated and is holding them back. Its long overdue for AM4.

AM3+ is just dandy -- nothing missing there. It's kinda nice to have support for 125+ CPUs 😀

The new AMD platforms are already here: Bolton D3/4
It can only get better with Excavator cores & DDR4.

L3 Cache has simply never been a big deal for AMD. All that die-space for a 5-10% performance boost, at best. More GCN cores under a 'point-to-point' DDR4 unified (fast!) memory and HSA is the way forward for AMD.

And, AM1. Yeah, AMD !!

I've got an A6-1450 'Temash' APU that flies with an SSD. Win8 boots in 7 sec

It scores higher in Cinebench OpenGL than HD4K graphics, and it's 8w.

HA!

 

[Haravikk]

The sacrifices from Full ATX to Micro ATX feels generally painless, but the difference between Micro ATX and Mini ITX is harsh only having 1 expansion card slot blows.

What exactly are you going to use more than one slot for in a Mini ITX sized case anyway? These days you only really need a good discrete GPU and that's it, and even then that's only if you're not happy with the performance of the APU's own graphics (depends on your needs really).While this motherboard might not, many other Mini ITX boards also have 5.1 surround sound out built in so it's not like you need a sound card either, and there are plenty of good external ones even if you did. I mean, people like to bemoan the loss of PCIe slots, but so many people never actually use more than one anyway, so why even have a machine with seven or more unless you're running a workstation?Regarding the specs though actually; are we sure it's stereo sound only? Looks like three mini-jack connectors there, and there was no mention of what the others might be (line-in?). Also, doesn't AM1 support PCIe 2.0, are we sure this slot is only PCIe 1.0?I'm very much looking forward to these extra affordable parts though, as I've never really needed to be on the cutting edge. I'm also very interested in the 4" x 4" motherboard from Saphire that was announced recently too.

 

[the1kingbob]

The beginning of a very strange change in the desktop market.With the northbridge moving to the CPU I wonder if we will finally see a slowdown on socket changes. AMD has always been pretty good about having long lifespans on their sockets... but intel could do to add another year or two to each iteration.

1. Intel Socket 775 😛2. I wish AMD would move on more often, their platform is HORRIBLY outdated and is holding them back. Its long overdue for AM4. However I do agree with you that since Sandy, the socket change has been mostly pointless.

I feel like you have never built a AMx machine. The 775 was the last intel socket that had a decent life span, but that was released in 2006.... the AMx and AMx+ sockets have never been without the latest features. Also many of the sockets have over lapping standards. Since I bought my AM2 platform I have never upgraded my CPU and Mobo at the same time.

 

[InvalidError]

While this motherboard might not, many other Mini ITX boards also have 5.1 surround sound out built in so it's not like you need a sound card either, and there are plenty of good external ones even if you did.

For HTPC uses, people can simply use HDMI sound... digital 7.1 built into all modern IGPs and GPUs.

 

[Novuake]

I feel like you have never built a AMx machine. The 775 was the last intel socket that had a decent life span, but that was released in 2006.... the AMx and AMx+ sockets have never been without the latest features. Also many of the sockets have over lapping standards. Since I bought my AM2 platform I have never upgraded my CPU and Mobo at the same time.

Have you ever tried getting 1866MHz+ 32GB of RAM running on an AM3+ board?

 

[Truckinupga]

"The motherboard is really nothing more than an I/O interface for the CPU". My favorite part of the article, very true though.This may be what I'm looking for to retire my old core2quad htpc setup. It'll use a lot less power and about all I'll need for the simple tasks my htpc does. Will have to look into it more.