Three AMD AM1 Motherboards For The Kabini APU, Reviewed

[Crashman]

And it should fit any Mini ITX board...
How abot 3DMark's Cloud Gate ?
How about Cinebench R15 ?

How about an HTPC roundup where different platforms come into play ?
A Core i3 would dictate the maximum budget, and then a Celeron, a Pentium, an AM1 Kabini and a FM2+ Kaveri.
No VGAs allowed, system builders going crazy with SSDs, cases, optical drives.
But using the fastest RAM each platform supports.
How about that ?

It would go almost like a SBM, but with HTPCs.

Real HTPCs have graphics cards and allow owners to rid themselves of game consoles.

 

[Onus]

I'm a little torn, but mostly biting my tongue because this is a motherboard comparison, and that's what was compared. My only relevant gripe then is that Asrock isn't included. Maybe they didn't send a board, but their models have two potentially overwhelming benefits for some uses: 1) an add-on controller giving two more SATA ports (good for server or NAS use), and 2) a low-voltage DC-in option, making the board usable with a 19V laptop adapter (think also car-computer).
Can you put a mSATA SSD on the MSI board? That would be nice: mSATA boot, 1xSATA data, and 1xSATA optical for movies.
Otherwise, I'd really like to see an article such as the one that PCPER did where they put a GTX750Ti on one and did gaming tests; it appeared to do pretty well. I think much more data could be provided there (such as the GPU scaling done recently), but that's another article, and I'll accept that it isn't part of a mobo review.

 

[Crashman]

I'm a little torn, but mostly My only relevant gripe then is that Asrock isn't included. Maybe they didn't send a board, but their models have two potentially overwhelming benefits for some uses: 1) an add-on controller giving two more SATA ports (good for server or NAS use), and 2) a low-voltage DC-in option, making the board usable with a 19V laptop adapter (think also car-computer).

Can you put a mSATA SSD on the MSI board? That would be nice: mSATA boot, 1xSATA data, and 1xSATA optical for movies.

I liked those ASRock features, I'm not sure why they sent one to Don but didn't participate in the roundup.

The MSI board is mini PCIe only, not mSATA. It's outlined in the article. I think they were trying to avoid the shared-port tech support issue without adding a controller.

 

[jdwii]

This is a nice build for cheap

 

[cap_awesome9870]

i would have loved to see a comparison to a low cost Intel system.

 

[Crashman]

i would have loved to see a comparison to a low cost Intel system.

Like a low-energy Celeron? We do have a CPU review:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/athlon-5350-am1-platform-review,3801.html

 

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

"Semi-modern games"

*benchmarks a triple-A game that's not even 2 years old*

I think we have differing definitions of "semi-modern"...

 

[gallovfc]

And it should fit any Mini ITX board...
How abot 3DMark's Cloud Gate ?
How about Cinebench R15 ?

How about an HTPC roundup where different platforms come into play ?
A Core i3 would dictate the maximum budget, and then a Celeron, a Pentium, an AM1 Kabini and a FM2+ Kaveri.
No VGAs allowed, system builders going crazy with SSDs, cases, optical drives.
But using the fastest RAM each platform supports.
How about that ?

It would go almost like a SBM, but with HTPCs.

Real HTPCs have graphics cards and allow owners to rid themselves of game consoles.

And it should fit any Mini ITX board...
How abot 3DMark's Cloud Gate ?
How about Cinebench R15 ?

How about an HTPC roundup where different platforms come into play ?
A Core i3 would dictate the maximum budget, and then a Celeron, a Pentium, an AM1 Kabini and a FM2+ Kaveri.
No VGAs allowed, system builders going crazy with SSDs, cases, optical drives.
But using the fastest RAM each platform supports.
How about that ?

It would go almost like a SBM, but with HTPCs.

Real HTPCs have graphics cards and allow owners to rid themselves of game consoles.

Consoles don't have separate GPUs anymore, so beyond 4k videos andall that HTPC stuff, it would test where exactly we are on SOCs, against this new console generation.
And I bet those entry Radeons R5 230 and Geforce GT610 (not to mention Geforce 210 that are still listed) are doomed and it makes me wonder who buys them ? People who don't know nothing about about APUs and SOCs.

 

[Onus]

People buy those cards to add another monitor to a business-class PC.

 

[silverblue]

To be honest, if you're wanting a "can Kabini do this/that and how does it fare against Bay Trail", you should be headed to the original review:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/athlon-5350-am1-platform-review,3801.html

This article is a motherboard comparison which serves to highlight that choice makes little to how Kabini performs, so you can concentrate on what other features are provided and whether they're worth the money. The BF4 results are interesting but only in that they didn't appear in the original review.

As a side note, the power consumption figures here, though not totally comparable between articles, are lower.

 

[TechnoD]

Pretty much what everyone else has said.
I bought one of these earlier. It's in a mini-itx setup hooked up to my TV. I use it to watch TV, and the occasional flash game. For its purpose, its great. Runs cool, more than capable of 1080p playback.

I do NOT use this thing to play BF4. If I wanted to play BF4 I would get on my gaming PC.

 

[Crashman]

Pretty much what everyone else has said.
I bought one of these earlier. It's in a mini-itx setup hooked up to my TV. I use it to watch TV, and the occasional flash game. For its purpose, its great. Runs cool, more than capable of 1080p playback.

I do NOT use this thing to play BF4. If I wanted to play BF4 I would get on my gaming PC.

You can scream "wrong game" all you like but it failed at every game, at settings that look worse than the ones I used on my last 3DFX card.

3DFX. Remember them?

This is a motherboard roundup that compared motherboards. Rather than make excuses for a sub-1999 visual experience, why not just ignore the data that doesn't apply to your application and skip directly to the overall performance charts?

 

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

You can scream "wrong game" all you like but it failed at every game, at settings that look worse than the ones I used on my last 3DFX card.

Except that, not only would Kabini have looked better in those (compatible) games that you were running on your 3DFX card, but that same 3DFX card wouldn't have even been able to run the games that you tested on Kabini.

 

[Crashman]

Except that, not only would Kabini have looked better in those (compatible) games that you were running on your 3DFX card, but that same 3DFX card wouldn't have even been able to run the games that you tested on Kabini.

Right, we could say that DirectX is a hog compared to Glide. Or, we could simply pick and choose the applications we like to see how the boards themselves compare.

My hope was overclocking, but that wasn't supported in firmware, in the available versions of AMD Overdrive, or in motherboard-provided software. There might be a third-party app that lets people play though.

 

[Wisecracker]

Really? Dude...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/am1-motherboard-soc...
No reference clock control in firmware or motherboard software. If you'd like to recommend a different application, feel free.

There are two links in my post ...

Asus AM1I-A Mini ITX ---> 25- to 30% OC's

It's the XS "AMD Athlon 5350 Kabini OC test" thread complete with screen shots and all kinds of *Big Fun* ...

Posted in Anand's Forums ...

Don't make me whip out the Official Seal of Epic Fail, Don :lol:

 

[Crashman]

Really? Dude...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/am1-motherboard-soc...
No reference clock control in firmware or motherboard software. If you'd like to recommend a different application, feel free.

There are two links in my post ...

Don't make me whip out the Official Seal of Epic Fail, Don :lol:

Saw those. Didn't see how they did it. Recommended to you that you would recommend to me how it was done, seeing that there weren't any controls in the firmware or included software.

 

[damric]

There are a lot of hoops to jump through to raise base clock when it's tied to PCI as on these APUs, things that you defintiely wouldn't be doing when normally using your PC, like running HDD in IDE mode, no USB ports, ect. Pretty much not worth it unless going for some HWBOT cups.

 

[Figus77]

TL;DR

Why not throw a mid-ranged discreet GPU in there and see what happens? It's all we really want to know. Otherwise this platform is for strictly 2D flash games.

I think Tom's tried some too high level games, i got a 5150 for media player and i can play in 1920 with very acceptable frame rate many games, i'm now playing Resident Evil Revelation HD and Mirror's Edge, not last year games, but still fun, i think many other steam summer sale games will play well... and sure.. no one will buy that hardware for games... and even put a budget vga in them will not be a wise idea.. you buy that hw for low power solution, put in a vga that draw more energy than all the system is not a wise choice...

 

[gallovfc]

And it should fit any Mini ITX board...
How abot 3DMark's Cloud Gate ?
How about Cinebench R15 ?

How about an HTPC roundup where different platforms come into play ?
A Core i3 would dictate the maximum budget, and then a Celeron, a Pentium, an AM1 Kabini and a FM2+ Kaveri.
No VGAs allowed, system builders going crazy with SSDs, cases, optical drives.
But using the fastest RAM each platform supports.
How about that ?

It would go almost like a SBM, but with HTPCs.

Real HTPCs have graphics cards and allow owners to rid themselves of game consoles.

I still think that a roundup with integrated GPUs would allow much smaller cases and contribute to the overall principle of going ITX, that is to save space and look nice below my TV set, fitting my shelf.

 

[Mark RM]

Sorry you're getting bashed for the content here but it DOES look like a laptop article or something. I am looking to buy one to load the media library at the cottage onto it and leave it there, I know it can't game, how's the output look, how does the music sound? Any problems with XMBC? How does it run or can it run emulated antique OS's? If I install 32 bit windows versions to retain 16 bit compatibility does it still work fine? You allude to it's potential niches all over the place in the article but don't check them out in testing. ARE the legacy ports actually functional AS legacy ports without any funky nonsense because I'm telling you depending on the supplier not every parallel port acts the same for those POS dongles. What's the max bit rate transfer of the supported serial port and who supplied that? Pretty important question to replace some PLC's with. What's the performance like compared to a dual core Prescott? The industrial/kiosk space is somewhere VIA in particular targets, how do things stand up there? I have no doubt you actually know what these AM1's are going to get used for and it sure as bleep isn't Metro 2033 running across eyefinity. Sometimes the one size fits all reviews of standardized PC hardware just do not fit. I think based on feedback here you have enough information and questions to write something interesting and fresh about these suckers and their competition.

 

[Crashman]

Sorry you're getting bashed for the content here but it DOES look like a laptop article or something. I am looking to buy one to load the media library at the cottage onto it and leave it there, I know it can't game, how's the output look, how does the music sound? Any problems with XMBC? How does it run or can it run emulated antique OS's? If I install 32 bit windows versions to retain 16 bit compatibility does it still work fine? You allude to it's potential niches all over the place in the article but don't check them out in testing. ARE the legacy ports actually functional AS legacy ports without any funky nonsense because I'm telling you depending on the supplier not every parallel port acts the same for those POS dongles. What's the max bit rate transfer of the supported serial port and who supplied that? Pretty important question to replace some PLC's with. What's the performance like compared to a dual core Prescott? The industrial/kiosk space is somewhere VIA in particular targets, how do things stand up there? I have no doubt you actually know what these AM1's are going to get used for and it sure as bleep isn't Metro 2033 running across eyefinity. Sometimes the one size fits all reviews of standardized PC hardware just do not fit. I think based on feedback here you have enough information and questions to write something interesting and fresh about these suckers and their competition.

Only in the legacy OS (firmware issues) and legacy port compatibility. Everything else you mentioned should have been addressed in the AM1 launch article.

 

[Wisecracker]

Hey, Don ...

The system clock in the Asus AM1I-A is not pinned in the BIOS to the UNB, which has its own multiplier, nor the RAMs speed which can be lowered by divider to keep the memory closer to spec. Folks are simply cranking the clock, and bumping the volts when they hit a wall.

It's standard AMD old school OC'ing without worry of the non-existent HT Link speed.

 

[94_xj]

So it's ultimately as capable as the $160 Celeron based NUC I picked up. Sure, it's faster but still worthless for anything more than office applications, web browsing and media playback. I'd like to see someone make a similar device with this APU, I'd love to get away from the Intel graphics software and have some overscan/underscan control.